Category Archives: Postbellum Society

Pottsville people power

It wasn’t just well-known radicals in and out of Congress. According to documentation at the Library of Congress, on March 11, 1867 some people in Pottsville, Pennsylvania promulgated a series of resolutions calling for the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. … Continue reading

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“it is our country”

On March 7, 1867 the Southern Famine Relief Commission published a fact sheet about the severe destitution in the South, especially in Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas. General O.O. Howard wrote that although his Freedmen’s Bureau was for the most … Continue reading

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and the freedmen are ignorant?

In January 1867 the United States Congress passed a law over President Johnson’s veto that guaranteed the right to all men in the District of Columbia “without any distinction on account of color or race.” 150 years ago today black … Continue reading

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at the great white father’s

In February 1867 a delegation of about 100 Native Americans were in Washington, D.C. on treaty-making business with the Indian Bureau. 150 years ago today they visited President Johnson at the White House. According to the February 24, 1867 issue … Continue reading

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used furniture

According to the February 23, 1867 issue of The New-York Times, even though Washington’s Birthday had been a legal holiday in the state for four years, New York City’s celebration was rather subdued. Customs were slow to change and the … Continue reading

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cotton-picking wages

Almost two years after the Civil War ended Alfred R. Waud was still providing illustrations from the front for Harper’s Weekly. Back in January his drawings of a rice plantation in Georgia were published. The February 2, 1867 issue of … Continue reading

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corrections

From The New-York Times January 24, 1867: No More Negroes to be Sold in Maryland … ANNAPOLIS, Wednesday, Jan. 23. The Maryland Legislature have passed an act abolishing an article in the code permitting the sale of negroes into slavery … Continue reading

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maintaining supremacy

150 years ago this week Henry Browne Blackwell wrote an open letter to Southern state legislatures in which he put forward “the only ground of settlement between North and South which in [his] judgment can be successfully adopted.” More and … Continue reading

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murder of a Tennessee Unionist

150 years ago this week Dr. Almon Case, a Unionist State Senator in Tennessee, was shot dead by Frank Farris, a former Confederate guerrilla. From The New-York Times January 21, 1867: Cold-Blooded Assassination of a Tennessee State Senator. From the … Continue reading

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Kingstree jail fire

On January 7, 1867 the jail in Kingstree, South Carolina caught on fire. Twenty-two black prisoners were burned or smothered to death. From The New-York Times January 16, 1867: The Burning of the Kingstree, S.C., Jail – Heartrending Scenes Attending … Continue reading

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