Since I missed a post for Reconstruction Era last Friday, I owe you an extra one today! How do I wrap-up this month of studies and questions?
I think I’ll leave you with a primary source, a few facts, and some questions. I’ve shared earlier that you’re on the journey with me, studying the Reconstruction Era and it’s been a wild ride looking for the facts and encountering questions and dilemmas that still haunt us in the modern era. Continue reading
In 2017, a blog reader sent me a book recommendation. He was so anxious for me to read this book that he even offered to send me his copy of the book by mail. I appreciated the offer but was able to save everyone the shipping costs by finding the book at the library.
Today, I wanted to share about this insightful book about Reconstruction Era tragedies and also challenge you to consider the books on your shelf about the post-Civil War times. Continue reading
In 1865, the fighting on Civil War battlefields ended, but the questions were far from over. And new questions had been created during the war. One of the most exciting and most explosive questions of the era was: what did freedom look like and how would full freedom be attained by/for the former slaves?
Attempting to answer that question and solve innumerable problems, the Freedmen’s Bureau was established – originally to provide temporary aid and later re-imagined to a role that this agency never had the power successfully fill. Though the Bureau had good intentions, mixed signals from the government, lack of power/manpower, and an over-arching racism problem throughout the country limited its effectiveness.
Last August a blog reader emailed me and asked me to write specifically about the Freedman’s Bureau and its role in the Reconstruction Era. Thanks for pushing me to dig deeper into this interesting part of the era; hopefully, it will be insightful to you as well. Continue reading
Prepare yourself. I’m climbing on a soapbox this morning. The Reconstruction Era mystifies many with its complexity. It was an era of positive change and social oppression. An era of anger and reconciliation. And era of hatred and caring sacrifice. An era when American ideals and values were changing, and an era where there was extreme conflict against those changes as the battle for Constitutional interpretation continued. Continue reading
Gazette665 