Tag Archives: Reconstruction

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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Wade in waiting?

150 years ago today the 39th U.S. Congress ended and the 40th convened. This was an unusual move, but Congress wasn’t taking any chances. In the last days of the 39th, Congress enacted measures that curtailed President Johnson’s policies and … Continue reading

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in (and out) like a lion

On March 2, 1867 Andrew Johnson vetoed two bills as the 39th Congress was wrapping up its business. Both vetoes were immediately overridden by Congress. The Tenure of Office Act limited the President’s power to terminate certain appointees without the … 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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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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no, no

150 years ago this week President Andrew Johnson kept chalked up a couple more vetoes by opposing statehood bills for Colorado and Nebraska. You can read both veto messages at the Miller Center of the University of Virginia (Colorado andNebraska). … 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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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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