Reconstructing a Nation (1863-1899)

Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation; Work begins on the first transcontinental railroad

Freedmen’s Bureau created

Confederate armies surrender, effectively ending the Civil War; President Lincoln assassinated

Thirteenth Amendment, prohibiting slavery, is ratified

General Grenville Dodge commands military campaign against Native American tribes on the Great Plains

Major race riots in Memphis and New Orleans; Southern states begin enacting Black Codes

Republicans win solid majorities in both Houses of Congress

First, Second, and Third Reconstruction Acts are passed over Johnson’s veto

Impeachment proceedings fail to remove President Johnson from office; Fourteenth Amendment ratified; Ulysses S. Grant elected president; Fourth Reconstruction Act passed

Transcontinental railroad completed; Tennessee is first state to replace bi-racial state government with white Democratic one

Hiram Revels becomes first African American Senator; Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution ratified, guaranteeing black male suffrage; Force Acts issued

Freedman’s Bureau abolished

Financial panic causes major economic depression

Democrats regain control of both the House and the Senate

Civil Rights Act passed

Disputed Presidential election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden

Northern troops withdraw from the South under Compromise of 1877

Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas elected president for Georgia Women’s Suffrage Association

Journals of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas published