“A dead Radical is very harmless” How to Win the Election of 1876
The Election of 1876 is most well-known for what happened after the polls were closed. Fraudulent and delayed vote counts, rival state tallies of votes,…
Ted Widmer on How Lincoln Survived the Worst Election Ever
Professor Ted Widmer, author of Lincoln on the Verge, has a piece in the New York Times today on Lincoln and the Election of 1860….
NY Times Reviews New Book “The Kidnapping Club” on NY Ring that Kidnapped Blacks Into Slavery
The New York Times has a review of The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery, and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War by Jonathan…
“Deconstructing Confederate Monuments” A Discussion About History and Monumentation
Kevin Levin, Dina Bailey and Ashleigh Lawrence-Sanders participated in a discussion on Confederate monuments and how we understand history. The Zoom discussion at Grant Valley…
Plantation Weddings Are Fun If You Can Forget the Slavery: NY Times on Plantation Popularity
The New York Times has an interesting article on the growing popularity of the “Plantation Wedding.” The houses are big and sometimes beautiful, but the…
When the White League Militia Took Over New Orleans in 1874 It Pledged to End the “Stupid Africanization” of Government
The White League was one of the largest and most dangerous of the Reconstruction Era militias. It embraced the worldview of the Ku Klux Klan,…
Washington Post on the Dangerous Life of a Black Politician in Reconstruction Georgia
The Washington Post has an interesting article on a Black politician who risked assassination to represent freedpeople in Georgia. Here are some excerpts from the…
In 1868 the Republican Campaign Song Promised That Grant Would “Make the Ku Klux Klan Shiver”
While modern political campaigns typically employ popular music at rallies as walk-on music for candidates, in the 19th Century most campaigns came armed with a…
Around the Web October 2020: Best of the Blogs on The Civil War and Reconstruction
This is a new feature here at the The Reconstruction Era Blog: Each month I will highlight a few new articles from other blogs that…
How Terror Succeeded in Louisiana: Racial Violence and the Election of 1868 in One State
One of the few bright spots for Democrats in the 1868 Presidential Election was the State of Louisiana. 71% of votes tallied were for the…