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Thaddeus Stevens Calls for Redistribution of Confederate Land
On January 6, 1865, General William T. Sherman issued Special Field Order #15, which gave millions of acres of land along the Atlantic coast to emancipated slaves, in lots of not more than 40 acres per family. In March 1865, Representative Thaddeus [...]
Southern Democrats Declare "a Dead Radical Is Very Harmless"
In 1876, using the Mississippi Plan as their model, the Democratic Party in South Carolina organized a chilling campaign of violence to steal the election for governor. Their strategy, excerpted below, succeeded with the election of former [...]
List of Murdered and Wounded Freedmen, 1868
Led by the self-styled “best men” of the South—planters, generals, lawyers and doctors—terrorist organizations like the White League and the Ku Klux Klan and paramilitary groups organized with the Democratic Party, led a [...]
Freedmen Defend Their School Against a Mob
The majority of schools for freedmen were established and run by freedmen, not by Northern reformers. Despite great logistical challenges—a scattered population, few resources to draw upon—Freedmen’s Bureau agents reported that emancipated [...]
A Native American Chief Explains the Source of Indian-Settler Conflict
Red Cloud, an Oglala Lakota chief, led a two year war against white settlers and railroad outposts between 1866 and 1868. Red Cloud's War, sometimes called the Powder River War, took place in parts of the Wyoming and Montana territories that were [...]
Federal Agents Offer Solutions for "Solving the Sioux Problem"
Native American warriors in the 19th century attacked the various people and institutions that threatened their way of life on the Great Plains. As these reports from various federal agents, including the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and General [...]
A Reformer Praises the Carlisle School
Richard Pratt, an officer of the United States Cavalry, became obsessed with the assimilation of Indians into U.S. "civilization." Pratt believed that Indians could only survive if they adapted the values of the white man; it was necessary to "kill [...]
Lowell Girls Declare "Union is Power"
The first Lowell “turn-out”, or strike, took place in 1834, when owners announced a 15% wage cut. Lowell women were angered not only by the loss of income, but also by the threat to their vision of increased independence. Eight hundred women [...]
Southern Newspapers Praise the Attack on Charles Sumner
On May 22, 1856 abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts gave a fiery speech denouncing pro-slavery activists in the territory of Kansas and their supporters in the United States Congress. The next day, while Sumner sat defenseless at [...]
A Mill Girl Explains Why She Is Leaving Factory Life
Born on a Vermont farm, Sarah Rice left home at age 17 to make it on her own. Eventually she journeyed to Masonville, Connecticut to work in textile mills much like those of Lowell. Rice's first letter was written after she had been weaving in the [...]