H. H. Chalmers, in this essay from 1881, after the end of Reconstruction, lays out many of the criticisms southerners had of African American voting rights. Attitudes such as Chalmers’s laid the groundwork for post-Reconstruction suppression of black voters throughout the former Confederacy.
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Tag Archives: 154-12
Race and Gender
While the 15th Amendment to the US Constitution extended voting rights to African American males, the question of women’s suffrage remained unresolved. This 1866 speech by African American speaker Frances Ellen Watkins Harper illustrates the complex intersection of race, gender, and politics in the Reconstruction era.
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Reconstruction
From 1865-1877, the federal government attempted to reintegrate the southern states into the united States following their secession and subsequent Civil War. There were several aspects of southern existence that the government needed to address. First was the basic re-formation of the state governments to purge them of Confederate influence. Second was the question of integrating former slaves into the social, political, and economic life of the southern states.
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