The Reconstruction era was a period in United States history and Southern United States history that followed the American Civil War and was dominated by the legal, social, and political challenges of the abolition of slavery and the reintegration of the eleven former Confederate States of America into the United States. During this period, three amendments were added to the United States Constitution to grant citizenship and equal civil rights to the newly freed slaves. To circumvent these legal achievements, the former Confederate states imposed poll taxes and literacy tests and engaged in terrorism to intimidate and control black people and to discourage or prevent them from voting.
Eric Foner is an American historian. He writes extensively on American political history, the history of freedom, the early history of the Republican Party, African American biography, the American Civil War, Reconstruction, and historiography, and has been a member of the faculty at the Columbia University Department of History since 1982. He is the author of several popular textbooks, such as the Give Me Liberty series for high school classrooms. According to the Open Syllabus Project, Foner is the most frequently cited author on college syllabi for history courses. According to historian Timothy Snyder, Foner is the first to associate the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021 with section three of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
Jeremiah Haralson was a politician from Alabama who served as a state legislator and was among the first ten African-American United States Congressmen. Born into slavery in Columbus, Georgia, Haralson became self-educated while enslaved in Selma, Alabama. He was a leader among freedmen after the American Civil War.
This is a selected bibliography of the main scholarly books and articles of Reconstruction, the period after the American Civil War, 1863–1877.
Ulysses L. Houston was a pastor and state legislator in Georgia. He was elected to the Georgia State Legislature in 1868, and was an influential organizer in Savannah, Georgia's African-American community during the mid-19th century.
William Fabriel Myers was a lawyer and state senator in South Carolina. An African American, he was involved in politics during the Reconstruction Era. He served as a state senator from 1874 until 1878.
Pierre George Deslondes, last name sometimes spelled Deslonde, was an African-American sugar planter who served as Secretary of State of Louisiana during the Reconstruction era. He was a wealthy freeman. He served as secretary of state from 1872 until 1876. He later published the News Pioneer in Plaquemine. He owned $55,000 worth of property in 1860.
Robert H. Wood was an African American 19th-century politician, postmaster, and sheriff. He served as the first African American Mayor of Natchez, Mississippi from 1870 until 1871, and was part of the Adams County Board of Supervisors from 1871 to 1872. He was one of only five black mayors in the American South during the Reconstruction-era; and is thought to be the first black mayor in Mississippi.
Simeon W. Beard was an American minister, teacher, and politician who worked in Charleston, South Carolina and then in Augusta, Georgia. He served in the Union Army. He was a delegate to Georgia's constitutional convention in 1867 and 1868. African American legislators were expelled from office in Georgia.
Lawrence S. Speed was a farmer and state legislator in Alabama during the Reconstruction era. He was one of five African Americans who represented Bullock County in those years. He was also a Union League organizer in Bullock County.
Joseph E. Oates was a carpenter and politician in Florida, United States.
Nathan A. Brewington was an American state legislator in Alabama during the Reconstruction era. He represented Lowndes County from 1868 until 1870. He was prosperous.
Blanc F. Joubert (1816–1885) was a politician in Louisiana. He was from a long line of freemen.
Sanders Ford was a farmer and state legislator in South Carolina. He was elected to represent Fairfield County, South Carolina in the South Carolina Senate in 1872, and died in office in 1873.
Tenant Weatherly was an American state legislator in Mississippi. He represented Holmes County, Mississippi from 1874 to 1875 and 1880 to 1881 in the Mississippi House of Representatives. He was a Methodist.
Hezekiah Hamilton Hunter was an American teacher, minister and politician. He was an African-American politician during the Reconstruction Era and served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1870 to 1872.
George Washington was an American cotton planter and state legislator in the U.S. state of Louisiana. He represented Concordia Parish in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1870 to 1874 and from 1877 to 1879. He also served on the parish's school board in 1870. He served on the House Committee on Public Lands and Levees chaired by P. Jones Yorke.
George Young Kelso was an American politician. He was delegate at Louisiana’s 1868 constitutional convention and state senator in Louisiana from 1868 to 1876. He was a “colored”, “radical” Republican.
Edward Butler was a state legislator who served in the Louisiana Senate.
Jules A. Masicot was a state legislator in Louisiana. He served in the Louisiana House of Representatives and Louisiana State Senate and at the state's 1868 constitutional convention.
