Reconstruction

ETHS Content Essays, Primary Sources and Student Activities

1878 Memphis Yellow Fever Epidemic 

Key Words: yellow fever, mosquitoes, Memphis, quarantine, Martyrs of Memphis

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

Key Words: Freedman's Bureau, impeachment

The Ku Klux Klan and Vigilantism

Key Words: Ku Klux Klan, Pulaski TN, Reconstruction, freedmen, Nathan Bedford Forrest, voting rights, Radical Republicans

1870 Constitution and Black Legislators 

Key Words:  1870 Constitution, segregation, Jim Crow laws, William Brownlow, Andrew Johnson, Sampson Keeble

The Freedman's Bureau and Fisk University

Key Words:  Freedman's Bureau, Fisk University, Memphis, orphan, school


Reconstruction Additional Resources

Reconstruction Activities

African Americans after the Civil War Lesson Plan from American Battlefield Trust

Andrew Johnson Impeachment Lesson Plan

Comparing Reconstruction Plans Through Art- Lesson Plan

Convict Lease System Lesson Plan

Freedman's Bureau Lesson Plan

Jim Crow Lesson Plan

Sharecropping Lesson Activity

Freedman's Bureau Primary Sources

ETHS Carpetbag Image

Reconstruction Web Links

Digital History

This website has wealth of primary sources (both images and documents) as well as background information for every era.  The sources on Reconstruction as excellent.

Disasters in Tennessee- Memphis Race Riots -Tennessee State Library and Archives

The Tennessee State Library and Archives’ online exhibit about the 1866 Memphis Race Riots is excellent.

Freedman's Bureau

The Freedman’s Bureau website has a searchable database of records.  You can search by state or topic.

Disasters in Tennessee :Yellow Fever- Tennessee State Library and Archives

This online exhibit from the Tennessee State Library and Archives has excellent primary source images on the 1878 Yellow Fever Outbreak.

 African American Legislators- Tennessee State Library and Archives

This online exhibit from the Tennessee State Library and Archives has a number of useful tools for teaching about African American legislators in the 19th century.  The tools include a PowerPoint, timeline, and links to primary source documents.

Reconstruction ETHS Articles

 

African-Americans

Cimprich, John. “Slavery’s End in East Tennessee.” The East Tennessee Historical Society’s Publications 52 & 53 (1980-81): 78-88.

Neidig, David. “The Hands that Rocked the Cradle: A brief history of African-Americans and slavery in the Wheat Community, Roane County, Tennessee.” Tennessee Ancestors 16, no. 3 (December 2000): 186-195.

Yeatts, Jason M. “ ‘That We May Think RightVote Right, and Do Right’: Knoxville’s Black Community, 1865-1867.” The Journal of East Tennessee History 82 (2010): 76-100.

Freedman's Bureau

Jordan, Weymouth T. “The Freedman’s Bureau in Tennessee.” The East Tennessee Historical Society’s Publications 11 (1939): 47-61.

Leventhal, David S. “ ‘Freedom to Work, Nothing More Nor Less’: The Freedmen’s Bureau, White Planters, and Black Contract  Labor in Postwar Tennessee, 1865-1868.” The Journal of East Tennessee History 78 (2006): 23-49.

Radical Republicans

Campbell, James B. “East Tennessee During the Radical Regime, 1865-1869.” The East Tennessee Historical Society’s Publications 20 (1948): 84-102.

Queener, Verton M. “A Decade of East Tennessee Republicanism.” The East Tennessee Historical Society’s Publications 14 (1942): 59-85.

Queener, Verton M. “The East Tennessee Republicans as a Minority Party, 1870-1896.” The East Tennessee Historical Society’s Publications 15 (1943): 49-73.

Sharp, J.A. “The Downfall of the Radicals in Tennessee.” The East Tennessee Historical Society’s Publications 5 (1933): 105-124. 

Additional Related Articles:

 Harrell, David Edwin, Jr. “The Disciples of Christ and Social Force in Tennessee, 1865-1900.” The East Tennessee Historical Society’s Publications 38 (1966): 30-47.

Hesseltine, W.B. “Tennessee’s Invitation to Carpet-Baggers.” The East Tennessee Historical Society’s Publications 4 (1932): 102-115.

Hodges, Robert. “Unionism and Wartime Reconstruction in West Virginia and Tennessee, 1861-1865.” The Journal of East Tennessee History 82 (2010): 53-75.

 78 (2006): 23-49.

Livingood, James W. “Chattanooga, Tennessee: Its Economic History in the Years Immediately Following Appomattox.” The East Tennessee Historical Society’s Publications 15 (1943): 35-48.

Vick, Alison. “ ‘We Are a Distinct and Peculiar People’: Oliver Perry Temple and the Knoxville Industrial Association Address of 1869.” The Journal of East Tennessee History 84 (2012): 87-100.

Wise, Thomas E. “The Day President Rutherford B. Hayes Came to Town, Knoxville, 21 September 1877.” Tennessee Ancestors 18, no. 1 (April 2002): 58-73.