Episodes Nearest to August 1, 1866 to September 1, 1866: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. Equal Rights Association (ERA) Affiliates Itself with the Union League
    date August 1, 1866 to September 1, 1866map DOUGHERTY, Georgiatags African-Americans

    In 1865, shortly after the Civil War had ended, freedmen from Wilkes County, Georgia formed the Dougherty County Equal Rights Association (ERA). Members of the ERA felt that the Freedmen's Bureau, though helpful, could not meet all their needs, and therefore set out for themselves to secure political equality and education for blacks. Secrecy was an important part of the ERA's operation....

  2. Beating of a Young Girl in Chesterfield County
    date August 20, 1866map CHESTERFIELD, Virginiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Law, Race-Relations, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    A young girl aged fourteen named Martha Ann Cogbill was walking throught the woods one day near Belona Arsenal in Chesterfield county when she was brutally attacked by a black man named Caesar Willards. Willards stopped the young girl and began to beat her with a musket stock until it broke. Willards continued by choking her and committing more outrageous acts and then left her for the dead in the...

  3. Working Women
    date August 26, 1866map LOUISA, Virginiatags Agriculture, Economy, Women

    Anne Watson was part of a wealthy Virginia plantation family that flourished in the 19th century in Louisa County. She lived a life of luxury and refinement until tragedy struck and she lost several children and her husband, all by 1853. After her husband's death, she was forced into a dominant role in the running of the household, in both the domestic and business spheres.

    This new...

  4. Letter Detailing Jefferson Davis's Imprisonment at Fort Monroe Published in Georgia Paper
    date August 6, 1866map MACON, Georgiatags Crime/Violence

    Jefferson Davis was imprisoned without trial for nearly two years after the conclusion of the Civil War. This letter, published at a midpoint in his imprisonment details the habits of Davis at Fort Monroe, and describes the ways in which he was already fast becoming a martyr for ex-Confederate Southerners. Davis is portrayed in this letter as a pious and reflective man: Davis's “main...

  5. Freedmen and Republicans Murdered in New Orleans
    date July 30, 1866map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Politics, Race-Relations, African-Americans, Crime/Violence

    The New Orleans Riot occurred on July 30, 1866 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Whites instigated the riot and targeted freedmen. However, this riot was different from those of its time because it centered primarily on disagreements regarding Reconstruction policies. Radical Republicans were unhappy with former Confederates gaining power and influence under Governor Wells. Wells himself eventually noticed...

  6. Following the Westward Expansion through a Kansas Trip in 1866
    date September 5, 1866map Unorganized, Kansastags Westward Expansion, Railroad, Pacific Railway, Union Pacific, Agriculture

    D. F. Drinkwater advertised that “‘Kansas’ bottom lands are exceedingly rich, and bring large crops of corn, wheat, rye, oats, barley, sugar cane and vegetables, as well as hemp and cotton. The successful raising of the latter is no longer an experiment here.” But he added one more fact to make his call pertinent. It became easy and comfortable to come to Kansas by train. Who could claim...

  7. Mother Files Complaint with Freedman's Bureau about Apprentice Law
    date July 1, 1866 to July 31, 1866map YAZOO, Mississippitags African-Americans, Race-Relations

    When former slave Laura Taylor attempted to leave the plantation of her former owner, Mr. Allen, at Christmas in 1865 she was allowed to go, but her two children remained bound, legally, to Mr. Allen and his property. Mr. Allen was the children's legal guardian under Mississippi's apprentice law of November 22, 1865. This law operated under the illusion that it was protecting young black...

  8. Southern Opinion on the National Union Convention of 1866
    date July 11, 1866map MONTGOMERY, Alabamatags Government, Politics, War

    "The object of the convention is to sustain the President and reunite the country on his policy of Reconstruction." With this statement, the Wednesday, July 11, 1866 edition of the Montgomery Daily Advertiser outlined the purpose of the upcoming National Union Convention that was to take place on August 14, 1866. With the end of the war, the issue of reuniting the country was topic of both local...

  9. Ex-Confederates Move Way Down South
    date 1866map YOUNG TERRITORY, Texastags Civil War, The Confederate States of America, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    For some Confederates at the end of the war, defeat was too much to bear. By the 1870, the Census Bureau estimated that there was a net loss of more than 300,000 migrants in nine former Confederate states. The ones that left the United States altogether and went by way of Brazil and Mexico were known as "confederados" and built their homes in Santarem in the Amazon basin and Santa Barbara D'Oeste...

  10. Kind Words for Sunday School Children teaches children to live a Christian lifestyle.
    date 1866map FULTON, Georgiatags Church/Religious-Activity, Christianity, Baptists, sunday school

    Once a month, children all over Atlanta, Georgia would rush to the front yard to gather up the newspaper. With their Bibles in hand, they eagerly flipped to their favorite section labeled Kind Words for Sunday School Children. These “kind words” were stories written for the Christian children to read and to take away important lessons that the Bible teaches. These stories were stories from the...

  11. Cholera and boosterism in New York and Chicago
    date 1866map NEW YORK, New York, COOK, Illinoistags disease in the north, Chicago, New York City, cholera, rivalry

    Disease epidemics of the mid to late nineteenth century caused an immense amount of fear among everyone and further led to the rivalry and boosterism prevalent between New York City and Chicago during the 1866 cholera epidemic. On August 29, 1866, The Chicago Tribune reported that cholera deaths in New York were at a standstill, and reports extensively from an article from The New York...

  12. 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...

  13. 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...

  14. 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...

  15. 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...

  16. 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...

  17. 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...

  18. 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...

  19. 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...

  20. 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...

  21. 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...

  22. 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...

  23. 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...

  24. 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...

  25. South Carolina General Assembly Refuses to Ratify Fourteenth Amendment
    date December 1, 1866 to December 31, 1866map RICHLAND, South Carolinatags Law

    When South Carolina's legislature reconvened in December of 1866 the governing body was faced with the task of responding to two recent, significant national events: the radical Republicans domination of that year's Congressional election and the proposal of the Fourteenth Amendment. As South Carolinian leaders gathered in Columbia, they quickly tackled the Fourteenth Amendment decision....