Author: Patrick Young
Historians Greg Downs and Kate Masur on How the Current Crisis Reflects Our Reconstruction Past
This has been a busy three weeks for historians being asked by news organizations for comparisons between the current political situation and the Reconstruction Era….
Heather Cox Richardson on the Republican Party in the Civil War & Reconstruction Era
Heather Cox Richardson did a gajillion-part series on the history of the Republican Party on Facebook Live over the summer. The first five hours cover…
Election of 1872: The First Woman Presidential Candidate and Frederick Douglass
The Harvard Gazette has an interesting article on the Election of 1872 focusing on the first woman candidate for president. Victoria Woodhull was a free-thinking…
The Challenge for Frederick Douglass: Lee’s Death, Black Soldiers & the Memory of the Civil War
Frederick Douglass ECW I sometimes hear comedians joke that Black History Month, celebrated annually in February, is during the shortest month of the year. Rather…
Yale University Sets Up Working Group on the School’s Ties to Slavery and Racism
In October, Yale University established a working group of students, faculty, and people from the local community to investigate the school’s links to slavery and…
Is the Use of “White Supremacy” Anachronistic in Writing About the Confederacy and Reconstruction?
Note: 19th Century articles in this post include racist terms to insult African Americans and persons of mixed-race ancestry. I recently described President Andrew Johnson…
Effort by Trump Administration to Alter History Teaching Condemned by Actual Historians
The final effort by the Trump administration to alter the teaching of history was a report from the newly minted 1776 Commission released on Martin…
The Secret Inauguration of Rutherford B. Hayes That Ended the Disputed Election of 1876
Presidents originally served until March 4 of the year following the presidential election. On March 4, 1877 the term of President Ulysses S. Grant came…
Two Obscure Confederate Monuments in the Florida Panhandle
We saw a lot of media attention given to Confederate monuments over the summer. These monuments often occupy prominent spaces in Southern towns and cities….
Political Violence and the Suppression of the Black Vote in 1868
Over the last month I have been researching political violence during the lead-up to the Election of 1868. This is remembered today as the year…