Episodes Nearest to January 1, 1870 to May 20, 1871: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. Republican Party Splits at Republican Convention
    date September, 1870map JEFFERSON, Missouritags Government, Politics

    Just five years after the end of the Civil War, tension was already brewing within the majority Republican party of Missouri. Because of the newly drafted Missouri Constitution of 1865, the term for the governor was reduced to two years and thus Governor Joseph McClurg was faced with having to win reelection in 1870. A staunch protectionist and prohibitionist, Governor McClurg was strongly in...

  2. Martial Law Declared in North Carolina
    date June 8, 1870 to November 10, 1870map CASWELL, North Carolinatags Crime/Violence, Race-Relations, War

    The Ku Klux Klan began its attempts to undermine the formulating North Carolina state government in 1868. Their attempts to destroy Reconstruction efforts and institute white supremacy created a state of lawlessness and violence in the state of North Carolina. It was pattern that followed the Ku Klux Klan throughout the South. In this the heyday of the Klan, it found support even in the highest...

  3. Mrs. Robert E. Lee Recalls Her Husband's Last Days
    date September 28, 1870 to October 12, 1870map ROCKBRIDGE, Virginiatags Health/Death, Civil War

    On the morning of Wednesday, October 12, 1870, General Robert E. Lee passed away from pneumonia while surrounded by his family at home in Lexington, Virginia. General Lee gained celebrity from his service as a general in the Confederacy during the Civil War. The pneumonia followed a stroke that had occurred two weeks earlier. Despite death looming, Lee maintained composure that he accumulated over...

  4. Chinese Workers Arrive in Iberville Parish, Louisiana
    date October 26, 1870map IBERVILLE, Louisianatags African-Americans, Agriculture, Economy, Race-Relations

    The Chinese workers were wide-eyed with anticipation when they arrived at Edward Gay's St. Louis plantation in Iberville Parish, Louisiana on October 26, 1870. The welcome that the workers recruited from California received when they stepped foot on the rich white Gay family's land was far from hospitable. Moon-Ho Jung's Coolies and Cane frankly describes the scene: Gay's...

  5. QUIET AT THE PLAINS: Race Relations, Violence and the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama
    date July 11, 1870map CALHOUN, Alabamatags African-Americans, Church/Religious-Activity, Crime/Violence, Race-Relations

    The morning of July 11, 1870, was much like any other in Patona, Alabama: quiet. The city's two main roads were still, the farms and fields hot with the summer sun; the rural environment uninterrupted. The only sound for miles was that of a train barreling down the Rome and Dalton railroad.

    The events both inside and outside of the train did not reflect the peace and quiet that lent itself...

  6. A Bride Preaches Before Her Wedding
    date November, 1870map FRANKLIN, Tennesseetags Church/Religious-Activity, Education, Women

    The Williamson Journal of Franklin, Tennessee announced the local marriage of Mary A Stinebaugh and Rev. Henry J. Bradford in late 1870. The outspoken Mary Stinebaugh graduated from Oberlin College and became a Methodist preacher before her marriage. Right before her wedding ceremony she preached before the entire conference in session. Afterwards she promptly stepped down to the altar to get married....

  7. White Power and Black Wage Labor
    date 1870map GLYNN, Georgiatags African-Americans, Agriculture, Race-Relations

    Francis Leigh Butler ran her plantation on her own. As a white woman, she earned respect from her neighbors for her abilities to oversee the completion of day-to-day work done by her hired black laborers. Butler considered the hired hands to be loyal workers-almost a part of her family. To her dismay, she overheard that one of the men, Peter Track, who had been a favorite had tried to leave the...

  8. Welcome to West Virginia
    date 1870map WOOD, West Virginiatags Agriculture, Economy, Migration/Transportation

    Seven years after its creation, West Virginia continued to be less populated than its older, more widely settled eastern counterpart. According to the Encyclopedia of the South, at the end of the Civil War West Virginia was an undeveloped and rural state with a population of only about 400,000, or about one-third that of contemporary Virginia. In part to attempt to counteract this imbalance, as...

  9. In Faded Fabric: The Preservation of Immigrant Identity
    date 1870map COOK, Illinoistags Italy, Marriage, Immigration

    The Kingdom of Italy had secured its territorial integrity, seizing Venice from Austria 1866 and ending Rome’s Papal autonomy by conquering the Eternal City four years later. Nestled in the mountains of southern Italy laid the village of Montefalcone. In 1870, the town was awash with celebration—not from its kingdom’s recent conquests but from a single wedding. Fiorita Corso was betrothed...

  10. The Young Lady's Guide is a guide on how women should live and conduct their lives according to Gods will.
    date 1870map NEW YORK, New Yorktags Christianity, 19th century youth, family values

    The Young Lady’s Guide, written in 1870, is a book on how women should live and conduct their lives according to God's will. One of the guide’s goals is to get young women to look at the broader picture and to forget the distractions in their daily lives and instead focus on God.  The guide is split in several different sections with each section written by a different author who is experienced...

  11. Something from Nothing: How Kate Drumgoold Directed Her Own Future
    date 1870map CHESTERFIELD, Virginiatags Education, Slavery, Women, African-Americans

    Kate Drumgoold walked through the door of the school room, the fee for her education in one hand and a Bible in the other. The funds her church had raised to put her through school had been stolen from her, but her passion had not been taken along with it. Saving up her earnings to pay for her schooling had been difficult, but her dream of one day being able to teach fellow former slaves to read...

  12. United States Circuit Court, District of Missouri: William G. Clark vs. Franklin A. Dick
    date December, 1870map JEFFERSON, Missouritags Crime/Violence, Law, War

    In December 1870, the case of Clark vs. Dick came before the Missouri District of the United States Circuit Court. The case stated that in St. Louis, Missouri in January 1862, the defendant had trespassed on the property of the plaintiff while the defendant was a soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War. Though the plaintiff sought damages for the trespassing, the defendant claimed that he...

  13. Address to the Black People of North Carolina
    date December 19, 1870map WAKE, North Carolinatags African-Americans, Politics

    Beginning in the fall of 1867, the Military Reconstruction Acts allowed qualified residents of ex-Confederate states to elect delegates to new Constitutional conventions. The Republican Party exclusively supported the implementation of these Acts, consequently gaining full support from the black community. Furious over losing the war and slave property, ex-Confederate Democrats molested blacks at...

  14. Post-War Virginia
    date June 1, 1870map CAMPBELL, Virginiatags Agriculture, Economy, Slavery, War

    The aftermath of the Civil War was destructive to the morale of many Southerners as it imposed economic, agricultural, and social devastation. A Campbell County, Virginia resident, Sarah Miller Payne, wrote a series of letters to her Northern cousin, Mary, regarding the difficulties she faced after the war. Although these two relatives lived in regions with opposite political views, Sarah made it...

  15. Klan Murders Senator Stephens
    date May 24, 1870map CASWELL, North Carolinatags Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Race-Relations

    Three days passed before the news of Senator Stephens? assassination reached Maria Massey Barringer. On May 21, 1870, Republican Senator John W. Stephens was murdered at the Caswell County Courthouse by members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). On account of his political principles, Stephens was stabbed, choked, and left dying on a woodpile in a rear room of the courthouse. Prior to his murder Stephens...

  16. Louisiana Education During Reconstruction
    date December 29, 1870map JEFFERSON, Louisianatags African-Americans, Education, Race-Relations

    In 1870 the state of Louisiana's school Superintendent Thomas Conway found an outlet in which to place the blame for his suffering school system. Conway identified the Northern Peabody Education Fund as the root of many problems public Louisiana schools were facing; in particular, Conway cited the Fund as responsible for having created the growing trend of white parents taking their children...

  17. Professor Waterhouse Calls for Measures to Secure Immigration of Skilled
    date January 6, 1871map ST. LOUIS, Missouritags Economy, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    Professor Waterhouse, of Washington University in St. Louis, sent a letter to Governor B.

    Gratz Brown pushing for the passing of measures to ensure that Missouri could secure the

    immigration of skilled artisans from Europe. Since France and other European nations were

    demolished during the Franco-German War, many of the citizens of these countries began to

    leave their...

  18. Senate Asks To Investigate Southern Crimes by Band of Disguised People
    date January 10, 1871map BEAUFORT, North Carolinatags Senate, Ku Klux Klan

    On January 10, 1871, the Senate of the United States passed a decree that appointed five investigators to clarify the intents behind politically-driven outrages committed in the South. The investigators received a message on January 13, from President Ulysses S. Grant that contained reports of military officers, communications from Governors of States; and letters and petitions from private citizens....

  19. Condition of Public Schools in Virginia
    date January 13, 1871map HENRICO, Virginiatags African-Americans, Education, Race-Relations, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    Dr. William Ruffner, the Superintendent of Public Instruction for Virginia, published a report in Educational Journal of Virginia about the condition of the public school system in Virginia in 1871. Many problems plagued the public school system at the time, including necessary funding and the inclusion of African-Americans into the system. <br />The state did not have enough money to fund...

  20. Disease Ravages Pulaski County
    date April 22, 1870map PULASKI, Virginiatags Health/Death, Migration/Transportation, Women

    When Typhoid fever and other diseases hit Appalachia, they hit hard. In 1870, Ella Painter wrote her Aunt Lena many letters from Dublin, Virginia, with updates and inquiries about Lena's new husband and children. On her fourteenth birthday, Ella wrote her Aunt a lengthy letter which she felt was long overdue. Ella's love and admiration for her Aunt is clear as she nearly begs her to come...

  21. Importance of Religion in Old South
    date April 12, 1870 to April 27, 1870map HALIFAX, Virginiatags Church/Religious-Activity, Women

    On April 12, 1870, Frederick W. Page wrote to his daughter Annie Nelson Page to let her know how pleased he was she was being confirmed. He was recently informed that a priest was planning to visit Annie's town. He emphasized the importance of truly accepting god in her own heart and mind. Also, Frederick wanted his daughter to be confirmed for the right reasons. He stressed to Annie that she...

  22. Governor William H. Smith of Alabama Issues a Proclamation
    date April 13, 1870map MONTGOMERY, Alabamatags Crime/Violence, Race-Relations

    On April 13, 1870 Governor Smith of Alabama issued a Proclamation to be circulated to all citizens of Alabama. It stated, “if the lawlessness continues in these counties [Greene, Morgan, and Tuscaloosa] or shall manifest itself to the same extent in other counties' (Montgomery Advertiser April 13, 1870, 2), Governor Smith would ask the Congress to pass tax in order to raise a state militia....

  23. Missouri Rebels Regain Civil Liberties
    date April 12, 1870map ST. LOUIS, Missouritags African-Americans, Government, Law, Politics

    Late in the summer of 1870, Missouri's State Republican Committee addressed its members and suggested they reinstate all rights to those who rebelled against the Union. The Republicans of Missouri, taught by a sublime religion, remember that while to err is human, to forgive is divine. The Civil War had been over for over five years, but former rebels in Missouri still could not fully participate...

  24. Illness Creates Need for Help within Rambin Household
    date February 12, 1871map DE SOTO, Louisianatags African-Americans, Health/Death, Women

    Sally Young Rambin's letter to her sister opened with an apology for her long silence and an excuse: Rambin had been extremely sick and had only been able to get out of bed for two weeks before she attempted to write to her sister on February 12, 1871. Rambin's illness was made worse by the doctor's inability to provide her with the medicine she needed. Rambin told her sister that the...

  25. Woman Suffrage Summarily Disposed of in Missouri
    date February 17, 1871map JEFFERSON, Missouritags Law, Politics, Women

    During the Missouri Congressional session of 1871, women suffragists from across the

    state drafted a proposal which was given to the State Senate Committee. It asked the Missouri

    State Senate Committee to push the United States' Congress to present a Sixteenth Amendment,

    giving women the right to vote, to the states. The State Senate Committee's final reported stated,...