Primary Sources: Reconstruction (After U.S. Civil War): Law

Message to Congress. - Proclamation of the President ... New Haven, Conn. J. H. Benham & son, printers [1870].
U.S. President 1869-1877 U.S. Grant.

"Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, the 13th amendment abolished slavery in the United States."

Passed by Congress June 13, 1866, and ratified July 9, 1868, the 14th amendment extended liberties and rights granted by the Bill of Rights to former slaves.

Passed by Congress February 26, 1869, and ratified February 3, 1870, the 15th amendment granted African American men the right to vote.

"These documents chronicle a case in the wider wave of violence that targeted people of color during Reconstruction. The first document includes Frances Thompson and Lucy Smith’s testimony about their assault, rape, and robbery in 1866. The second document, demonstrates one way that white Southerners denied these claims. In 1876, Thompson was exposed for cross-dressing. For twenty years she successfully passed as a woman. Southerners trumpeted this case as evidence that widely documented cases of violence, sexual and otherwise, were fabricated. "

Part of the HarpWeek Explore history site focusing on the 14th Amendment.
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Part of the HarpWeek Explore history site focusing on the 14th Amendment.
[For access to the Harper's Weekly subscription database, please use the HarpWeek database on the A-Z list.]

Harper's Weekly provides access to various documents related to the KKK as part of a lesson plan for teachers.

Find and access digital items related to the 14th Amendment as provided by the Library of Congress.

"Many southern governments enacted legislation that reestablished antebellum power relationships. South Carolina and Mississippi passed laws known as Black Codes to regulate black behavior and impose social and economic control. While they granted some rights to African Americans – like the right to own property, to marry or to make contracts – they also denied other fundamental rights. Mississippi’s vagrant law, excerpted here, required all freedmen to carry papers proving they had means of employment. If they had no proof, they could be arrested, fined, or even re-enslaved and leased out to their former enslaver."