The Reconstruction Era

As the sole purveyors of news and opinion, Reconstruction-era newspapers bent and spindled American public opinion with little regard for independent journalism and great regard for party politics. In other words, the newspapers of the Reconstruction era served political rather than social needs. The issues facing the nation were momentous, and opinions on how to deal with the problems were vigorously presented and defended. Using editorials, letters, essays, and news reports that appeared throughout the country's print media, this book reveals how editors, politicians, and other Americans used the press to influence opinion from 1865 to 1877. Issues such as civil rights, constitutional amendments, a presidential impeachment, Indian wars, immigration, and political corruption dominated the newspapers and gave journalists opportunities to advance their agendas. Each of the 30 chapters of this book introduces an event or issue and includes news articles representing opposing sides of the issue as it affected Americans. Readers can use the introductory essays and primary source documents to understand how newspapers and magazines presented vital events and issues to Americans of the day. This invaluable reference source presents hard-to-find opinions in the words of those who wrote them.

DONNA L.DICKERSON is Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Communication at the University of Texas, Tyler.

Series Foreword Introduction: Newspapers During Reconstruction The First Year: Expressions of Hope and Concern, 1865 Johnson's Presidential Reconstruction Plan, 1865-1866 The Freedmen's Bureau, 1865-1872 Black Codes, 1865 Seating the South's Congressional Delegation, 1865 President Johnson v. Radical Congress, 1866 Freedmen's Bureau Act, 1866 Civil Right Act of 1866 Black Suffrage: Before the Vote, 1865-1866 Fourteenth Amendment, 1867 New Orleans Riot, 1866 Congressional Reconstruction, 1867 Black Suffrage: The First Vote, 1867 The Alaska Purchase, 1867 Impeachment of President Johnson, 1868 Creating the Carpetbagger Myth, 1867-1869 The Battle for Woman Suffrage, 1867-1870 Indian Policy in the West, 1867-1876 Violence and the Ku Klux Klan, 1867-1872 Sunday Liquor Laws, 1867-1873 Mormons and Polygamy, 1870-1876 Black Suffrage: The Fifteenth Amendment and Beyond, 1869-1877 Chinese Immigration, 1867-1872 Boss Tweed and New York Ring, 1870-1873 Credit Mobilier Scandal, 1872-1873 The Trial of Susan B. Anthony, 1873 Civil Rights Act of 1875 The Hamburg Riot, 1876 The Compromised Election of 1876 End of Reconstruction, 1877