Tattered Remains: Emergence of the Ku Klux Klan
During the Grant administration interest in Reconstruction fades as the North becomes preoccupied with its own problems. Before Grant leaves office in 1876 Democrats redeem seven of he eleven former Confederate states. I..
Tattered Remains: Horror of Lynching, The
Lynching is a brutal form of oppression intended to silence, intimidate and terrorize African-Americans as well as a few other groups in the South that some whites believe must be kept in their place. The incidence of ly..
Tattered Remains: Obstruction of Voting Rights for Southern Blacks
Few white Southerners ever accept the idea of racial equality. The fact that former slaves acquire legal and political rights is the result of federal support which all but vanishes after federal troops withdraw in 1877...
Tattered Remains: Rebuilding African-American Family Structures
One of the most striking features of the Reconstruction period is the effort of blacks to rebuild their family structures. Marriage between African-Americans is legalized; their children are their own and cannot be sold ..
Tattered Remains: Reconstruction: The Civil War in Broader Perspective
In the generations to come, people in the North and the South will have very different perceptions about the successes and failures of Reconstruction. Its success lies mainly in the fact that the nation does reunite desp..
Tattered Remains: Southern Economy, The
In an effort to diversify the economy in the years after the Civil War, Southern industry does expand. However, new jobs in the Alabama steel industry or the textile industries in the Carolinas are generally limited to w..
Tattered Remains: System of Sharecropping
At first, the Freedman's Bureau grants land from abandoned plantations to thousands of black families, but the "gift" is only temporary as most of the land is returned to its former owners. Northerners assume that a free..
Theodore Roosevelt and Americanization
Professor of history Gary Gerstle says that Theodore Roosevelt was much more open to immigrants from southern and eastern Europe than were many of his contemporaries, including close friend Henry Cabot Lodge. Nonetheless..
Theodore Roosevelt and Asian Immigration
Professor of history Gary Gerstle explains that Theodore Roosevelt was a great admirer of the Japanese and welcomed Japanese immigrants, despite popular sentiment in the United States against the perceived "invasion by y..
Theodore Roosevelt and Reform (Part Two)
Professor of history Gary Gerstle explains that, "...the great reform effort of the first half of the twentieth century was about building a strong government that could regulate private industry and private power." Prof..