From the Associated Press: The Alabama Legislature has passed a resolution honoring black lawmakers who served during the Reconstruction era following the Civil War. The resolution by Democratic Rep. Alvin Holmes of Montgomery says black Alabama residents played an integral part in the Legislature from 1868 to 1878. At the height of Reconstruction in 1874, [...]
Reconstruction
Brian Dirck just finished a series of posts on Abraham Lincoln’s greatest “flubs.” Perhaps it should come as no surprise that Brian singled out Lincoln’s choice of Andrew Johnson as his vice-presidential candidate as his greatest flub. Seems reasonable given what transpired following Lincoln’s assassination and Johnson’s opposition to the Radical Republican’s preferred vision of [...]
I’ve always struggled to understand what I’ve assumed to be a radical transformation that took place within the Republican Party between Reconstruction and the Gilded Age. As the story goes various pressures within the Republican Party caused them to abandon their Reconstruction agenda along with black civil rights, which allowed white ”Redeemers” to reestablish white supremacy. The [...]
I am doing quite a bit of reading over this holiday break. One of the books I am making my way through is Capitol Men by Philip Dray. The book tells the story of the principal black leaders in Congress during Reconstruction. It’s well written and does a thorough job of explaining both the backgrounds [...]
I’ve gotten quite a bit done over the past few weeks, including a very rough draft of my essay on the demobilization of the Army of Northern Virginia which will appear in Virginia at War, 1865, edited by William C. Davis and James I. Robertson (University of Kentucky Press, 2010). This has not been an [...]
Today my AP classes started Reconstruction. I always enjoy teaching this section of U.S. History and given that we are using a text by Eric Foner, my students get the latest historiographical trends. On the first day I try to present and engage my students in a discussion of the challenges that Reconstruction presents. We [...]
One of this blog’s readers recently emailed some thoughts about the conference that Mark Grimsley is organizing at Ohio State. Given that I am in the middle of a blog hiatus I thought that it would make for an excellent guest post. The author agreed and re-worked the material for that purpose. From the author: [...]
It happens every year in at least one of my classes and usually around the time of Reconstruction. One of my students comments or asks a question that reveals a deep frustration with American history and particularly the role of racism in it. And when the issue is raised everything stops in my class to [...]