RECONSTRUCTION
After Emancipation many Black people from Maury County left their masters’ properties and sought refuge in Nashville and in Union encampments. Hundreds of young Maury County Blacks joined the colored troops to fight against their former owners.
Reconstruction, which lasted from 1865 to 1877, was an attempt by the federal government to both reintegrate the Confederate states into the Union and to assure that the rights of newly freed Blacks would be upheld. The South was divided into five military districts and soldiers were deployed to keep the peace.
In the aftermath of the war, terrorist groups such as the KKK and the Order of Pale Faces were formed in Maury County. The Freedmen’s Bureau was established in 1865 by Congress and disbanded in 1872. Despite inadequate funding, it was successful in establishing schools and colleges for training teachers. Fisk, Howard, and Clark universities were founded at this time. By 1877 white supremacy was once again established in the South and state laws (Jim Crow laws) forced Black people into lives of near-slavery. In 1877 all Southern states were reinstated into the union and the oppressive era of states’ rights began.
Heather Cox Richardson Column on Reconstruction and the 14th Amendment
White Violence Crushes Reconstruction Gains
Black Soldiers
Spanish –American War
Scott Crosby
James Cecil
John Steele
Indian War
J.F. Counce