Month: September 2019
Mississippi Republicans Demand Racial Equality in 1869 Party Platform
When the Mississippi Republican Party met in July 1869 to consider its new platform, it was one of the first political party conventions in American…
Book Review: The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation by Brenda Wineapple
The Impeachers:The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation by Brenda Wineapple published by Random House (2019) 576 pp. Hardcover $32.00,…
An “African Carpet-Bagger” Was First Black Man Elected to Congress 1868
John Menard’s parents were People of Color from Louisiana who moved to Illinois, where John was born. He completed college in Illinois. In 1865 he…
Freedom Under the Confiscation Act 1862: What the “Emancipation Paper” Said and How It Threatened Slavery
The March 1862 Confiscation Act allowed the Union Army to free slaves who had been employed in the service of the Confederacy. In this article…
Kevin Levin Speaks at National Archives About the Black Confederate Myth
My review of Kevin Levin’s new book Searching for Black Confederates was my second most popular article over the last month. Yesterday, the historian spoke…
Podcast: Francis Lieber, German Immigrant, Develops Laws of War During Civil War & Reconstruction
Here is an interesting discussion about Francis Lieber, the German immigrant law professor who developed the laws of war during the Civil War and Reconstruction….
Confederate General Wade Hampton Wrote that Civil War Was Over Secession & Slavery
Wade Hampston was one of the wealthiest men in the South before the Civil War. He served the Confederacy as a top cavalry commander. After…
When Ulysses S. Grant Barred Governmental Discrimination Against Blacks in the Nation’s Capital March 1869
On March 18, 1869 the new President Ulysses S. Grant signed legislation eliminating the word “white” wherever it was used as a qualification for voting,…
Atlantic Magazine Reporter on His Three Month Journey Through the Post-War South 1865
The February 1866 Atlantic Magazine published this report of a three month trip by journalist Sidney Andrews through the post-war South. Andrews described the extent…
Georgia Supreme Court: Marriage Between People of Different Races “Is Always Productive of Deplorable Results” 1869
Anti-miscegenation laws sought to criminalize marriage and sexual relations between whites and African Americans. While white men had forced enslaved women to have sex with…
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