Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)

Scope and Contents The Address to the People of Hinds County, authored by John D. Freeman in 1865, is a broadside that explores the legal and social status of freedmen in Mississippi during the Reconstruction era. In the address, Freeman acknowledges the constitutional amendments granting formerly enslaved individuals personal liberty and property rights while emphasizing the state’s role in protecting these rights. He particularly focuses on the legal implications of these...

Scope and Contents The Bailey Family Papers include letters created and received by multiple generations of family members. The bulk of the letters contains Reconstruction-era content, but there are also other later letters of interest written from Texas and Japan. Samuel Bailey wrote ten letters to his son George from 1865-1869. Although Samuel wrote most of the letters while in Macon, Georgia, he was in South Charlestown, New Hampshire, when he wrote the earliest one on June 10, 1865. The letters were...

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The Berrys were a plantation- and slave-owning family from Coweta County, Georgia. This collection contains correspondence and other materials related to several Berry family members, particularly Judge Andrew J. Berry (1798-1883) and his sons William, Thomas, and Joel Berry. Materials document the family’s economic situation both before and after the US Civil War (1861-1865).

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A letter from C. I. B. DeLage, a Mobile, Alabama, commission agent, to Carl G. Schneider detailing the financial history of Mobile during the Civil War.

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Handwritten and typescript documents - correspondence, affidavits, etc. - relating to two southern clients of the New York lawyer Quinton Corwine, dealing with compensation due them for cotton seized by federal agents during the Reconstruction period

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Contains the Reconstruction-era letterbook of the Dallas Iron Works in Selma, Alabama.

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Correspondence and financial papers of this Tuscaloosa, Alabama, attorney, as well as material relating to the Alabama Constitutional Convention of 1867, of which Peck was chairman.

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Emma Marie Cutter (1853-1937) was born in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, and attended the State Normal School at Bridgewater, Massachesetts, from 1871-1875. Cutter began teaching at the Peabody (also known as State) Normal School in Nashville, Tennessee, immediately after her graduation until 1881. This diary, which she kept from 1876-1878, discusses her life as a teacher, her travels to the Northeast to visit her family in the summer, and the people she encountered in the post-Civil War South.

Scope and Contents This collection consists of an original pencil sketch measuring 6.5 x 5 inches, depicting two African Americans engaged in conversation. One of the figures holds what appears to be a U.S. flag, while additional subjects are visible in the background. The scene likely captures a moment following the departure of Union troops, with formerly enslaved individuals collecting discarded materials. The sketch was possibly created during or shortly after the Civil War by an artist working in the...

Scope and Contents This signed letter by former Congressman and Confederate diplomat Reuben Chapman, is addressed to Alabama lawyer and former Confederate officer Septimus Douglass Cabaniss. Written on February 5, 1869, from Sumter County, Alabama, the letter discusses Chapman's interactions with freedmen sharecroppers, his concerns about cotton prices, and various business dealings. Chapman describes purchasing the freedmen's share of the cotton crop amid concerns over price fluctuations and their growing...

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Handwritten definitions and summaries of legal cases tried between 1869 and 1877, relating primarily to railroad interests and personal property law.

Scope and Contents This broadside, The Injustice of Poll Taxes Broadside, authored by Henry P. Farrow, is a passionate plea against the implementation of the poll tax in Georgia during the Reconstruction era. Written at a pivotal moment while the Georgia Reconstruction Constitutional Convention was in session, Farrow’s argument articulates the economic and moral injustices of such a tax, which disproportionately affected the poor of all races and ultimately served as a...