Author: Patrick Young
The Size of the Army During Reconstruction: 43,000 at the End of 1868
One of the most persistent myths of Reconstruction is that a massive Federal military presence overawed and oppressed the white Democrats of the South. In…
A KKK Death Threat to a Black Office Holder 1868
Gilder Lehman has a threat notice from the KKK issued against a Black officeholder in 1868. In addition to trying to suppress the Black vote…
Defending the Right of Whites to Fire Blacks Who Voted Republican to Prevent Mongrelism- South Carolina Nov. 1868
Supporters of white supremacy did not only use violence to influence the votes of African Americans. They also threatened to fire them if they voted…
General Meade Outlaws Ku Klux Propaganda April 1868
On April 7, 1868 New York Times reported on an effort by General George Gordon Meade to halt pro-Klan propaganda efforts . Meade had commanded…
Murder of Judge Inconveniences Young People Hoping to Marry-KKK Attack October 1868
The Pulaski Citizen was the first newspaper to express sympathy for the Ku Klux Klan. Its pages provided the original impulse for the expansion of…
NY Times Reviews ABE: Abraham Lincoln in His Times by David S. Reynolds
This has been a good month for Abraham Lincoln with two new BIG books out on our most fascinating president. ABE: Abraham Lincoln in His…
NY Times Reviews New Book John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and the Struggle for American Freedom by H. W. Brands
The New York Times Book Review reviews the new THE ZEALOT AND THE EMANCIPATOR John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and the Struggle for American Freedom by…
Freedmen’s Bureau Report for Virginia Sept. 30, 1868-The trials of whites for the murder of Negroes
By October, 1868, when this report on the work of the Freedmen’s Bureau in Virginia was published, the Bureau was just three months away from…
Cartoonist Thomas Nast, the Campaign of 1868, and the Image of Ulysses S. Grant
In May, 1868, German immigrant illustrator Thomas Nast designed the backdrop at the Republican National Convention. According to biographer Fiona Deans, “On an enormous…
NY Times: Kentucky Jeff Davis Statue Removed, Where to Put It?
Many Confederate statues are being moved out of city boulevards and village squares. The question is “What to Do With them?” While the natural answer…