Category Archives: 150 Years Ago This Month

theme song

Posted on September 27, 2017 by SUMPTER

On September 17, 1867 a national cemetery at Antietam was dedicated; dead Confederates were excluded, at least partly because of the rancor of war. 150 years ago this month a magazine included a poem that celebrated a somewhat different attitude. … Continue reading →

Posted in 100 Years Ago, 150 Years Ago This Month, Aftermath, Postbellum Society, Reconstruction, Southern Society, War Consequences | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

the three wise men denigrated

Posted on June 24, 2017 by SUMPTER

150 years ago earlier this month Wendell Phillips seemed a bit miffed that Jefferson Davis had been bailed out back in May. From The New-York Times June 7, 1867: Jefferson Davis and His Friends. From the Anti-Slavery Standard of This … Continue reading →

Posted in 150 Years Ago This Month, Aftermath, Postbellum Politics, Postbellum Society, Reconstruction | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

big milk parlor shut down

Posted on May 25, 2017 by SUMPTER

But what should take its place? Riots broke out in Richmond, Virginia on May 11, 1867. Two days later ex-Confederate President Jefferson was released on bail in the same city. According to the following report, two of the men who … Continue reading →

Posted in 150 Years Ago This Month, Aftermath, Postbellum Society, Reconstruction, Southern Society | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

the five commandants

Posted on March 18, 2017 by SUMPTER

Pursuant to the first Reconstruction Act enacted in early March 1867, President Andrew Johnson was required to appoint a district commander for each of the five military districts that divided up the South. On March 11th the president appointed Generals … Continue reading →

Posted in 150 Years Ago This Month, Aftermath, Postbellum Society, Reconstruction | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

cotton-picking wages

Posted on February 12, 2017 by SUMPTER

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 →

Posted in 150 Years Ago This Month, Aftermath, Postbellum Society, Reconstruction, Southern Society, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

hilltop experience

Posted on January 1, 2017 by SUMPTER

In its New Year’s piece 150 year ago today The New-York Times changed up the Janus imagery a little bit: … New Year’s Day is like a hill upon which a traveler pauses to rest, to look back over the … Continue reading →

Posted in 150 Years Ago This Month, 150 Years Ago This Week, Aftermath, Postbellum Politics, Postbellum Society, Reconstruction | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

firewall

Posted on December 13, 2016 by SUMPTER

150 years ago this month an article about Reconstruction by Frederick Douglass was published in The Atlantic Monthly. In the first section Mr. Douglass asserted that the only way to protect the rights of ex-slaves in the South without creating … Continue reading →

Posted in 150 Years Ago This Month, Aftermath, Postbellum Politics, Postbellum Society, Reconstruction | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“arrested development”

Posted on November 4, 2016 by SUMPTER

150 years ago a Boston journal reacted to Andrew Johnson’s Swing Around the Circle with a 6,000 word attack on the president and his policies. Here are the first three paragraphs from The Atlantic Monthly, VOL. XVIII.—NOVEMBER, 1866.—NO. CIX: THE … Continue reading →

Posted in 150 Years Ago This Month, Aftermath, Postbellum Politics, Reconstruction | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

no more rebels to fight

Posted on November 2, 2016 by SUMPTER

So far I haven’t noticed a letter from General William T. Sherman endorsing President Andrew Johnson’s reconstruction policy being published just before the 1866 elections in New York for its bombshell affect, but according to reports the general openly supported … Continue reading →

Posted in 150 Years Ago This Month, Aftermath, Postbellum Politics, Reconstruction | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

October surprise?

Posted on October 29, 2016 by SUMPTER

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in October 1866: Gen. Sherman Endorses the President. The Washington correspondent of the New York Tribune, speaks of this distinguished General: “I am informed that General Sherman has made a second surrender to … Continue reading →

Posted in 150 Years Ago This Month, Aftermath, Postbellum Politics, Reconstruction | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment