Did You Learn About the Role of Black Troops in Liberating the South?
No period in United States history echoes as truly today as the Reconstruction Era. While many see contemporary parallels in the Civil War, let’s face…
Irish World Cartoon: White League “Leave the Negro Alone” Deep Dive
The Irish World, the most popular Irish immigrant newspaper in late 19th Century America, took a firm stand against white supremacist violence during Reconstruction. I…
The Louisiana White League Formed July 1874
The White League was officially organized on July 1, 1874. It served as a combination radical white supremacist political organization and a militia successor to…
Opera Review: “Crossing”-Opera Based on Walt Whitman’s Civil War Writings
I reviewed this opera in 2017 and I reprint it here. I wonder when the next time will be that I can attend the opera…
The Irish World Condemns the Creation of the White League in Louisiana 1875
In 1875 The Irish World published an editorial condemning the organization of the White League in Louisiana. The White League pledged to do openly what…
Eric Foner on the Difficult Struggle for Economic Advancement of Freedpeople
Eric Foner was interviewed this weekend by The Hill on lessons from Reconstruction. Foner focuses on why economic advances have been so hard to come…
Historian Jon Meacham on The Dangers of The Lost Cause
Popular historian Jon Meacham has an essay in today’s New York Times on the development of The Lost Cause ideology by the defeated Confederates after…
War of Northern Aggression, Civil War, War Between the States…The Eternal Argument (or was it?)
One of the most tiresome aspects of writing about the Civil War and Reconstruction period is encountering people who insist that the “real name” of…
Confederate Veteran Says that End “of Slavery Is…Abolition of Labor” in July 1865
Alcibiade DeBlanc was an officer in the Confederate army during the Civil War. At the end of the conflict he became a leading spokesman for…
Columbia University Report by Eric Foner Detailed Links to Slavery
Columbia University in New York issued a report in 2017 on its connections to slavery. Read about it in the New York Times. The report…