Episodes Nearest to April 9, 1866: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. Passage of the Civil Rights Act
    date April 9, 1866map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Slavery

    The Civil Rights Act, which put forth in detail the rights of former slaves, was passed by the United States Congress on April 9, 1866. On January 5th, 1866 Senator Trumbull from Illinois had presented “A Bill to protect all persons in the United States in their civil rights, and furnish a means for their vindication.' In an effort to counteract the Black Codes passed in many southern states...

  2. The Ever-Present Threat of Cholera
    date January 1, 1866 to June 30, 1866map BALTIMORE, Marylandtags Health/Death

    The nineteenth century was an era in which people constantly feared the outbreak of epidemic diseases, especially cholera. An epidemic of cholera was already raging in Europe in the fall of 1865, and as had occurred in 1832 and 1849, it seemed inevitable that the disease would cross the Atlantic and ravage the United States. New York saw the arrival of the cholera on April 18th, 1866 on the steamship...

  3. The Circus Comes to Town
    date April 18, 1866 to April 21, 1866map JEFFERSON, Kentuckytags Arts/Leisure

    One of the main forms of entertainment for communities in the post-civil war South was the Circus. There were several different companies that would travel from city to city, stopping for a few days to do a few performances before moving on to their next venue. Mike Lipman's Colossal Combination or Circus Menagerie came to Louisville, Kentucky for four days in the middle of April 1866. According...

  4. Hard Times for Confederate Supporters After the War
    date March 26, 1866map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Economy, Migration/Transportation, Urban-Life/Boosterism, War

    On March 26, 1866, a member of the Digges family in New Orleans, Louisiana wrote a letter to N.A. Hanney of Rockport, Texas. The letter described the family's financial crisis as a result of the Civil War. The letter writer, whose name is obscured by damage to the document, blamed his financial problems on investment in Confederate bonds purchased in order to support the war effort. After the...

  5. Charter Passed for Covington and Ohio Railroad
    date April 26, 1866map HENRICO, Virginiatags Economy, Migration/Transportation

    On April 26, 1866, the Virginia legislature passed a joint resolution with the state of West Virginia to charter the Covington and Ohio Railroad Company. The much needed line would run from the termination of the Virginia Central, at Covington, to the mouth of the Big Shady river off the Ohio, where it would connect to another rail line from Kentucky. According to the May 4th edition of The Louisville...

  6. Stolen Bacon
    date April 30, 1866map FLUVANNA, Virginiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Government, Race-Relations

    In 1866 Virginia, grand larceny included stealing someone's bacon. In Fluvanna County, a black man named William Holly stole the bacon and other property belonging to a white woman named Beverly Haden. Haden pressed charges for the offense, and the accused stood trial for his crimes, and was found guilty. After emancipation, trials involving free blacks in the South were often conducted carefully...

  7. Memphis Race Riot of 1866
    date May 1, 1866 to May 2, 1866map SHELBY, Tennesseetags Crime/Violence, Race-Relations, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    On May 1-2, 1866, Memphis experienced the worst race riot in the city's history, with forty-six African-Americans and two whites dead, five African American women raped and hundreds of African American homes and churches burned to the ground. At the end of the war, four regiments of black Union soldiers were stationed just outside of Memphis at Fort Pickering. To the chagrin of the Irish in...

  8. Blacks Massacred In Memphis Riots
    date May 1, 1866 to May 3, 1866map SHELBY, Tennesseetags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Race-Relations, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    Deep-seated racial tensions exploded in Memphis on May 1, 1866. For three days, violence ruled the city as roaming mobs murdered, robbed, and burned throughout the Black Quarter. By the time Federal troops imposed martial law on May 3, ending the riots, Memphis' terrorized black community was in shambles. Roughly fifty blacks were murdered outright and scores more were wounded. Burned to...

  9. Sexual Violence and the Memphis Riot
    date May 1, 1866 to May 3, 1866map SHELBY, Tennesseetags Women, Memphis Riot, Sexual Violence

    From May 1, 1866 to May 3, 1866 violence reigned on the streets of Memphis, Tennessee. At the end of what is today known as the Memphis Riot, forty six African Americans and two White men lay dead. All four of the African American schools were burned as well as over one hundred private residences. Moreover, at least five women testified to having been raped. These women possessed the fortitude and...

  10. Passage of the Franchise Act in Tennessee
    date May 3, 1866map SHELBY, Tennesseetags African-Americans, Race-Relations

    Brownlow, believed that rapid emancipation of the slaves in Tennessee was a necessary step to the reconstruction of his state. On February 22nd 1865, the voters chose to abolish slavery and less than two weeks later, Brownlow was elected governor of the state of Tennessee. When speaking to the new assembly for the first time, Brownlow reminded them of the sacrifices of their fellow statesmen who...

  11. West Virginia Refuses Reunification
    date March, 1866map OHIO, Virginiatags Government, Politics

    West Virginia would not consider reunification in 1866. In 1866, Governor Boreman of West Virginia responded to Alexander H. H. Stuart's letter, which had asked Boreman for West Virginia's stance on reunification and the settlement of state debt. Boreman wrote that if the Virginia commissioners, whom Stuart numbered among, had presented themselves in front of the West Virginian legislature...

  12. Re-establishing White Power in Memphis Tennessee
    date May 1, 1866 to May 5, 1866map SHELBY, Tennesseetags African American, Race riot,, Crime, Black soldiers

    Black subordination was the motive that drove white Southerners to start the infamous Memphis Race Riot of 1866.  May 1, 1866, whites of Memphis, Tennessee, set out to destroy black power and to “…achieve this goal in Memphis only by destroying the most potent symbols of black power in the cities- the soldiers themselves.”

    After three long and excruciating days of violent hazing and...

  13. Cummings vs. Missouri Heard Before the Supreme Court
    date March 15, 1866map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Church/Religious-Activity

    In Mid-March of 1866, the case of Father Cummings, a parish priest from rural Missouri, versus the state of Missouri, was brought before the Supreme Court which ended returning a 5-4 decision in his favor. In 1865, when Missouri was forming their new constitution, a very popular state leader by the name of Drake passed what was called the Iron-Clad Oath. The Iron-Clad Oath was a “severe and...

  14. Success against Cholera: Washington D.C. Watches Science Advance
    date May, 1866 to 1866map Washington City, District of Columbiatags washington d.c., cholera

    In May of 1866, Washington D.C. was embroiled in political challenges.  Cholera was spreading throughout the country.  In addition, the recently ended Civil War left politicians divided over the issue of Southern representation and reconstruction.  The question of how to deal with Southern reconstruction was at an all-time high.  By the summer of 1866 the idea of Southern representation in Congress...

  15. Texas State Consitutional Convention Votes to Abolish Slavery
    date February 27, 1866map AUSTIN, Texastags African-Americans, Race-Relations, Slavery

    On February 27, 1866, the Texas Constitutional Convention decided to ban slavery in their new state Constitution. With a vote of 56 to 26, as reported in The Baltimore Sun, the constitution abolished involuntary servitude, except as a form of punishment for crimes, protecting people of African decent in their right to own property and to testify in court. After the peace at Appomattox Courthouse,...

  16. They Danced 'til Dawn
    date May 26, 1866map NELSON, Virginiatags Arts/Leisure, Education

    Entertainment was a little-known pursuit in the South in the years during and after the Civil War. However, for those white Southerners who did not lose everything, maintaining some of their old traditions was of the utmost importance. In May 1866, W.D. Cabell of Nelson County, Virginia, wrote to his wife Mary in Philadelphia of a large party which he had recently attended. He tells her that he...

  17. Andrew Johnsons Veto and the Freedmans Bureau Bill Conflict
    date February 20, 1866map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Government, Politics, Race-Relations, War

    Just as the issue of secession and the firing on Fort Sumter triggered the War Between the States, the issue of readmission (and arguably) the assassination of President Lincoln triggered an almost equally bitter conflict. This conflict, however, arose between the Executive and Legislative branches. It is quite possible that only a man of Lincoln's strength could have succeeded in handling the...

  18. Post-War Problems
    date February 19, 1866map PITTSYLVANIA, Virginiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Government, Law, Politics, Race-Relations, War

    After the Civil War ended the focus of politics shifted to reforming the South. Radical Republicans called for universal negro suffrage to be passed by Congress. General Grant stated that if universal negro suffrage was granted there would be a war of extermination in the South. He concluded the only way to enforce such a law would be to place a standing army in the South. In response to these proposals,...

  19. William Newell Defends Congressional Reconstruction
    date February 15, 1866map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Politics, Reconstruction

    When the Honorable William A. Newell of New Jersey spoke in February 1866, the slaves were freed thanks to Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and the great sacrifice the Union forces gave. It was time to decide the fate of the South and William Newell was less than hospitable towards the South, saying in his speech that, "[T]he enemies of this Union and this liberty are still insidiously...

  20. Indictment of Jefferson Davis on Treason Charges
    date June 13, 1866map HENRICO, Virginiatags Health/Death

    Losing the Civil War crushed the South, both physically and psychologically, but the worst blow was yet to come. On June 13, 1866 in Norfolk, Virginia, Jefferson Davis, the former president of the Confederate States of America was indicted for treason. The physician who attended the imprisoned Jefferson Davis, Dr. John J. Craven, told of Davis' time in Fortress Monroe in his book, The Prison...

  21. Homestead Act of 1866
    date June 21, 1866map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Agriculture, Migration/Transportation

    The Homestead Act of 1866 was passed on June 21st of that year and opened up public land to settlement and farming by African-Americans and white persons loyal to the Union. Representative George W. Julian a Republican from Indiana proposed the bill, which opened up forty-four million acres of public land in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi in 80 acre lots to freedmen who were...

  22. Washington's Rejection of Black Suffrage
    date January 20, 1866map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Government, Law, Politics, Race-Relations

    An unknown editor for the National Intelligencer in the District of Columbia complained in his article of the recent decision passed by the House of Representatives that allowed for black suffrage. He pointed out that, in a republican government, important legislation being passed and affecting the people should be reflective of the interests of at least majority of the people. He claimed, however,...

  23. Trial Finds a White Man Innocent of Shooting a Black Man
    date January 19, 1866map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Law, Race-Relations, Slavery

    After the death of John Anderson, a black man who had been shot by an unknown white man, a trial was being held with eye-witnesses. Of the three witnesses who testified, two of them were black and one of them was white. The first black witness, known as Henry Barret, testified that the assailant had been a white man who he believed may have been dressed in grey and wearing a hat. The following white...

  24. George Boutwell Fights for Black Rights in D.C.
    date January 18, 1866map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Politics, African-Americans, Law, Government

    With the conclusion of the Civil War, came the question of what to do about the rights of the freedmen who were now considered men instead of property. George Boutwell gave a speech to the House of Representatives, he rationalized why African...

  25. Separation of Church and Race
    date July 1, 1866map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Church/Religious-Activity, Race-Relations

    Throughout 1866, the First Baptist Church in Charleston, South Carolina was rapidly losing its membership. However, on July 1, 1866, something extraordinarily important happened: several black men applied for a blanket "letter of dismission" to cover every "colored member." Prior to this date, the church officers had been unconcerned because the only requests had been from white members, but black...