Reconstruction Treaties

United States and Native American treaties

On the eve of the American Civil War in 1861, a significant number of Indigenous peoples of the Americas had been relocated from the Southeastern United States to Indian Territory, west of the Mississippi. The inhabitants of the eastern part of the Indian Territory, the Five Civilized Tribes, were suzerain nations with established tribal governments, well established cultures, and legal systems that allowed for slavery. Before European Contact these tribes were generally matriarchial societies, with agriculture being the primary economic pursuit. The bulk of the tribes lived in towns (some covering hundreds of acres and containing thousands of people) with planned streets, residential and public areas. The people were ruled by complex hereditary chiefdoms of varying size and complexity with high levels of military organization.[1]

By the middle of the 19th century, the United States Government had started leasing land from the Five Civilized Tribes (ex. Choctaw and Chickasaw[2]) in the western, more arid, part of Indian Territory. These leased lands were used to resettle several Plains Indian tribes that tended to be nomadic in nature, embracing the horse culture. At the extreme, the Comanche society was based on patrilinear and patrilocal extended family sharing a common language; they did not develop the political idea of forming a nation or tribe until their relocation to Indian Territory.

At the beginning of the Civil War, the Union army was withdrawn from Indian Territory exposing the Five Civilized Tribes to aggression from the Plains Indians. The Confederacy filled the vacuum. All of the Five Civilized Tribes as well as other surrounding tribes signed treaties with the Confederacy. As a part of reconstruction, the Southern Treaty Commission was created by Congress to write new treaties with the Tribes that sided with the Confederacy.

An important consequence of the Reconstruction Treaties, signed in 1866, was the emancipation of 7,000 black slaves and the abolition of slavery.[3]

## Civil War

[edit]

Main article: Indian Territory in the American Civil War

The Choctaw Nation and Chickasaw Nation in Indian Territory strongly support the Confederacy which signed the Treaty with Choctaws and Chickasaws. The Cherokee Nation, Muscogee (Creek) Nation and Seminole Nation had troops fighting on both sides.[4] Other tribes such as Osage, Seneca, Seneca and Shawnee of the Neosho Agency, and Quapaw Tribes also signed treaties with the Confederacy.

During the Civil War, the Union Congress passed a statute that gave the President the authority to suspend the appropriations of any tribe if the tribe is "in a state of actual hostility to the government of the United States… and, by proclamation, to declare all treaties with such tribe to be abrogated by such tribe"(25 U.S.C. Sec. 72).[5]

## Reconstruction Era

[edit]

Main article: Reconstruction Era of the United States

The term Reconstruction Era typically covers the transformation of the Southern United States in the decade after the Civil War. However, the reconstruction of the Indian Territory lasted significantly longer and fostered policy changes that impacted other tribes in the rest of the country.

### Southern Treaty Commission

[edit]

As a component of Reconstruction, a "grand council was called by the President of the United States, through the department of the Interior, to which a summons was issued to each of the five tribes to send representatives. This call was mandatory as far as it related to all Indian tribes which had been identified by treaty or otherwise with the late southern confederacy. Word was also given to other tribes, many of whom had reservations in Kansas."[6] The Council, the Southern Treaty Commission, held in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, was attended by hundreds of Indians representing dozens of tribes. Over the next several years the commission negotiated treaties with different tribes that resulted in additional relocations to Indian Territory and the de facto creation (initially by treaty) of an unorganized Oklahoma Territory.[7]

In September 1865, the Southern Treaty Commission, headed by Dennis N. Cooley, Commissioner of Indian Affairs met with delegates of the Five Civilized Tribes as well as other tribes. At the meeting Cooley informed the Tribes that by joining the Confederacy, their previous treaties were null and void, and that new treaties would need to be negotiated. Key components of new treaties would be the abolishment of slavery, providing homes for the freedmen, and giving up part of their lands for the settlement of other American Indians.[8]

It was stated that it was the policy of the US Government that "all nations and tribes in the Indian Territory be formed into one consolidated government after the plan proposed by the Senate of the United States, in a bill for organizing the Indian territory."[9]

One result of the meeting was an "agreement" (not an officially ratified treaty) that served as a basis for the treaties that were signed the following year. In the agreement, the tribes agreed to "in all things recognize the government of the United States as exercising exclusive jurisdiction over them, and will not enter into any allegiance or conventional arrangement with any state, nation, power or sovereign whatsoever; that any treaty of alliance for cession of land, or any act heretofore done by them, or any of their people, by which they renounce their allegiance to the United States, is hereby revoked, cancelled, and repudiated"[10]

The council adjourned, and was called back to order the middle of 1866.

### Committee on Territories

[edit]

The United States House Committee on Territories was initially formed in 1825. Shortly after the Civil War, the Committee began discussing how best to assimilate the Five Civilized Tribes into the Union. Two significant decisions were made by the committee with regards to how the Union interacted with the Native Americans:

1. It was decided that Indian removal had limited effectiveness and that the new policy would be one of assimilation. One component of assimilation would be the distribution of property held in-common by the tribe to individual members of the tribe.[11]
2. In 1871, Congress decided that the United States would no longer deal with Indian tribes through a formal treaty-making process, providing that "[n]o Indian nation or tribe within the territory of the United States shall be acknowledged or recognized as an independent nation . . .".[12][13][14]

These decisions were implemented over subsequent years through numerous "reconstruction treaties" and subsequent laws, including the Indian Appropriations Act, Homestead Act (which provided a framework for land runs), Dawes Act, Dawes Commission, Curtis Act of 1898 (which extended the allotment process to the tribes of Indian Territory and limited the scope of tribal courts and governments), Oklahoma organic act in 1890, and the Five Civilized Tribe Act of April 26, 1906 which "Provide for the Final Disposition of the Affairs of the Five Civilized Tribes in Oklahoma."[15]

## Tribes making treaties with the Confederacy

[edit]

When the Union troops withdrew from Indian Territory, the Five Civilized Tribes were unprotected from attack by the Plains Indians that had been settled in the western part of the Territory. General Benjamin McCulloch and Brigadier General Albert Pike were placed in command of Indian Territory for the Confederacy, and offered protection to the tribes in the eastern part of the territory.

Tribes that entered into treaties with the Confederacy were left "without any treaty whatever or treaty obligations for protection by the United States"[16] and include:

* Five Civilized Tribes
* Creek Nation - July 10, 1861
* Choctaw and Chickasaw - July 12, 1861
* Seminole - August 1, 1861
* Cherokee - October 7, 1861
* Other Tribes
* Shawnees, Delawares, Wichitas and affiliated tribes residing on "leased territories" (the western part of Choctaw and Chickasaw territories) - August 12, 1861
* Comanches of the Prairie - August 12, 1861
* Osage - October 21, 1861
* Quapaw - October 4, 1861
* Senecas as well as Senecas and Shawnee of the Neosho Agency - October 4, 1861

## Southern Treaty Commission Delegations

[edit]

### Federal

[edit]

Brigader General Bussey was in command of the Post at Ft. Smith. Representing the Federal Government were:[17]

* Secretary of the Interior: James Harlan
* Commissioner of Indian Affairs: Dennis N. Cooley (President of the Commission)
* Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Southern Superintendency: Elijah Sells
* Special Commissioner Ely S. Parker (a member of the Seneca Nation and future commissioner of Indian affairs under President Ulysses S. Grant)
* Commissioner of the General Land Office: James M. Edmunds
* Thomas Wistar of Pennsylvania
* Major General William S. Harney, United States Army
* Major General Harron, United States Army
* Chief Clerk of the Indian Bureau: Mr. Mix (Secretary of the Commission)
* United States Agents
* JB Abbott: Shawnees in Kansas
* Isaac Coleman: Choctaw and Chickasaw
* JW Dunn: Creek, Milo Gookins, Wichitas, and tribes on land leased from Chickasaws and Choctaws
* Justin Harlan: Cherokee
* George A Reynolds: Seminole
* Major Snow: Osage, Quapaws, Senecas and Shawnees of the Neosho Agency

### Tribal

[edit]

Tribes represented include Osage, Senecas, Seneca and Shawnee of the Neosho agency, Shawnee, Quapaw and Wyandotts. From Kansas the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Delawares, and Sacs and Foxes.[18]

* Choctaw: Colonel RM Jones (President), JR Kingsbury (Secretary), David Birney[19]
* Chickasaw: Colbert Carter (President), Lewis Johnson (Secretary), AG Griffith, (Maharda Colbert-Interpreter)
* Osage: Me-lo-tah-mo-ne, Wa-dah-ne-ga

Some tribes sent two delegations, one representing a Southern faction and the other representing a Northern faction. The Government typically negotiated only with the Northern delegates.[20]

* Cherokee
* Northern: headed by John Ross (Cherokee chief), Colonel Reese, Pas-co-fa, Fos-har-go, Cho-Cote Har-go, Fos-hut-she
* Southern: headed by Elias Cornelius Boudinot (a colonel in the Confederate States Army, and a territorial representative in the Confederate Congress) and Stand Watie (a brigadier general of the Confederate States Army, and the last Confederate general in the field to surrender.[21][22])
* Muscogee (Creek)
* Northern: Mik-ko-hut-kee (Little White Chief), Sanford Berryman
* Southern: Colonel Daniel N. McIntosh[23]
* Seminole
* Northern: John Chupco
* Southern: John Brown

## Treaties of Washington

[edit]

Many of the Reconstruction Treaties were titled with the phrase "Treaty of Washington." These treaties replaced the treaties that were voided when the tribes signed treaties with the Confederacy. Some Indian tribes signed treaties at the Ft. Smith conference. The Five Civilized Tribes agreed to draft treaties, but final treaties were signed in Washington, D.C. during the year of 1866.

* Five Civilized Tribes
* The Chickasaw and Choctaw signed the Chickasaw and Choctaw Treaty of Washington, Proclaimed on July 10, 1866[24][25]
* Creek August 11, 1866[26]
* Cherokee Reconstruction Treaty of 1866 (August 11)[27]
* Seminole treaty ratified on August 16, 1866[28]
* Tribes occupying Leased Land of Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes
* Shawnees October 14, 1868[29]
* Delawares August 10, 1866[30]
* Other Tribes
* Osage Jan 21 1867[31]
* Sac and Fox 1867[32]

All the treaties contained:[33]

* amnesty for all crimes committed against the United States prior to the treaties
* included specific provisions of peace and friendship toward the United States
* notice that previous treaties were null and void
* the Tribes acknowledgement of the supremacy of the United States Government, its Constitution, and its laws: past, present and future
* clause stating that no federal legislation could interfere with their tribal organization
* tribes would provide Land grants in their various domains for rights-of-way for railroad (and sometimes telegraph) construction through Indian Territory

### Freedman tribal rights

[edit]

Different tribes addressed freedman tribal rights (resulting from the abolition of slavery) in different ways. The Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole treaties gave the freedmen unqualified rights, while the Choctaw and Chickasaw treaty gave them the choice of being adopted into their nations or being removed by the federal government and settled elsewhere. The Chickasaw however refused to accept the Freedmen into the Chickasaw Nation on the grounds that the Nation was so small that absorbing their Freedmen would dilute the Chickasaw Nation. This refusal resulted in the Chickasaw Freedmen spending a significant number of years being citizens of no country at all.

### Intertribal Council

[edit]

The Intertribal Council evolved into the Territorial Legislature for the Indian Territory described in the Oklahoma organic act which established Oklahoma and Indian Territories. Each tribe would have one representative, with an additional representative for each one thousand tribal members. The superintendent of Indian affairs would serve as the council's chief executive.

## Land concessions

[edit]

### Choctaw and Chickasaw

[edit]

The Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations had a single Reconstruction Treaty, the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty of Washington (1866).[34] in which they sold land west of the 98 longitude to the United States for $300,000. Much of this land was previously "leased" to the Federal Government and was the home of other Indian tribes.

### Cherokee

[edit]

Cherokee gave up their "Neutral Lands" in southeastern Kansas and the Cherokee Strip, to be sold to the highest bidder for not less than $1.25 an acre. They also agreed to sell land to the Osage Nation and to allow the federal government to settle other tribes in the Cherokee Outlet in exchange for payment made by the government to the Cherokee Nation.

### Muskogee (Creek)

[edit]

The Creek ceded the western half of their lands to the Federal Government for $975,168, about $0.30 per acre

### Seminole

[edit]

The Seminole sold all of their land in the western part of the territory for $0.15 per acre to the Federal Government. The Seminole then purchased from the Federal Government about two hundred thousand acres of land (the current Seminole County, Oklahoma) for $0.50 per acre (former Creek land).

### Osage

[edit]

The Osage Nation originated in the Ohio River valley in present-day Kentucky. After years of war with invading Iroquois, they become the dominant power in an area between the Missouri and Red rivers. The Reconstruction era treaties provided an excuse for the Osage to be moved to an area in Oklahoma Territory. With the 1865 Treaty with the Osage[35] the tribe sells significant territory in Kansas and Missouri to the US for $1.25 per acre. The Drum Creek Treaty of 1870 provided that the remainder of Osage land in Kansas be sold and the proceeds used to relocate the tribe to the Cherokee Outlet. That Osage purchased the land from the Cherokees, receiving Fee simple title, provided the tribe with a legitimately that later allowed them more autonomy when the State of Oklahoma was formed. The land purchased is now the present Osage County, Oklahoma.

### Tribes of the Quapaw Indian Agency

[edit]

The tribes of the Quapaw Indian Agency are the Eastern Shawnee, Miami, Modoc, Ottawa, Peoria of the Illinois Confederation, Quapaw Tribe, Seneca and Cayuga of the Iroquois Confederacy, and Wyandotte, and some small remnants of other tribes. The tribes were originally removed from California, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and New York to Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas Territory in the 1820s and 1830s. The post-Civil War Treaties negotiated by the Southern Treaty Commission with the various tribes relocated these tribes to an area northeast of the Cherokee nation, chiefly in what is today Ottawa and Delaware Counties in Oklahoma. Many of the tribal governments are located in Miami, Oklahoma.

## See also

[edit]

* Native Americans in the United States
* Tribal sovereignty in the United States
* Native American self-determination

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "The Native People of North America: Southeast Culture Area". Archived from the original on 2012-09-27. Retrieved 2012-05-27.
2. ^ "TREATY WITH THE Choctaw AND CHICKASAW, June 22, 1855. / 11 Stats., 611. / Ratified Feb. 21, 1856. / Proclaimed Mar. 4, 1856". Retrieved 2012-05-27.
3. ^ Donald A. Grinde, Jr.; Quintard Taylor (Summer 1984). "Red vs Black: Conflict and Accommodation in the Post Civil War Indian Territory, 1865-1907". American Indian Quarterly. 8 (3). University of Nebraska Press: 212. doi:10.2307/1183929. ISSN 0095-182X. JSTOR 1183929. OCLC 499289594. Retrieved 23 February 2024. "New treaties negotiated in 1866 abolished slavery […] The most significant accomplishment of the treaties was the liberation of 7,000 black slaves"
4. ^ "Reconstruction Treaties, Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History". Archived from the original on 2014-02-20. Retrieved 2012-02-03.
5. ^ "Act of Congress, R.S. Sec. 2080 derived from act July 5, 1862, ch. 135, Sec. 1, 12 Stat. 528". Archived from the original on March 17, 2012. Retrieved 2012-02-07.
6. ^ "Perry, Dan W. "Oklahoma, A Foreordained Commonwealth" Chronicles of Oklahoma, Volume 14, No. 1, March, 1936, p30 (Oklahoma Historical Society)". Archived from the original on 2012-02-14. Retrieved 2012-02-08.
7. ^ With the passage of the Oklahoma organic act in 1890, Oklahoma Territory became an "organized" incorporated territory of the United States
8. ^ Reconstruction Treaties, ibid
9. ^ Treaty Commission Journal, p4
10. ^ "AGREEMENT WITH THE CHEROKEE AND OTHER TRIBES IN THE INDIAN TERRITORY, Sept 13, 1865, Ft. Smith, Arkansaw. House Ex. Doc. No. 1, 1st sess. 39th Cong., vol. 2, 1865-66, pp. 480 to 542". Archived from the original on 2012-02-02. Retrieved 2012-02-08.
11. ^ Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek: Hearings on H.R. 19213 Before the H. Subcomm. on Indian Affairs, at 24 (Feb. 14, 1912) (statement of Hon. Byron P. Harrison) ("While the {1866 Treaty of Washington} contemplated the immediate allotment in severalty of the lands in the Choctaw-Chickasaw country, yet such allotment in severalty to anyone was never made under such treaty, and has only been consummated since the breaking up of the tribal organization and preparatory to the organization of the State of Oklahoma.")
12. ^ Indian Appropriation Act of March 3, 1871, 16 Stat. 544, 566 (currently codified at 25 U.S.C. § 71)
13. ^ Congress' plenary authority to "override treaty provisions and legislate for the protection of the Indians." United States v. City of McAlester, 604 F.2d 42, 47 (10th Cir. 1979)
14. ^ United States v. Blackfeet Tribe of Blackfeet Indian Reservation, 364 F.Supp. 192, 194 (D.Mont. 1973) ("[A]n Indian tribe is sovereign to the extent that the United States permits it to be sovereign – neither more nor less.")
15. ^ "Act of April 26, 1906, Public Number 129". 9 July 2011.
16. ^ Treaty Commission Journal p3
17. ^ Journal of the Southern Treaty Commission 1865, Larry S. Watson, Editor. HISTREE, 1994. Retrieved 2012-01-30.
18. ^ Treaty Commission Journal, p1
19. ^ Treaty Commission Journal p18
20. ^ Reconstruction Treaties, idib
21. ^ Stand Watie bio
22. ^ Brigadier General Stand Waite, Civil War
23. ^ Daniel Newnan McIntosh was born in Georgia on 20 September 1822, son of Susannah Coe and William McIntosh (1778-1825), Principal Chief of the Lower Creeks. After the war, McIntosh represented the Creek Nation as a delegate signing the Creek Treaty of 1866. He served frequently as a tribal delegate to Washington, D.C. He became a successful farmer, stockman and landholder. During his lifetime, he had held every office except Principal Chief of the Creek Nation. "Col. Daniel McIntosh". Archived from the original on 2013-12-26. Retrieved 2014-01-30.
24. ^ "Treaty with Choctaw & Chickasaw, 1866" (PDF). Retrieved 2021-06-17.
25. ^ "Treaty of Washington United States-Choctaw Nation-Chickasaw Nation, 14 Stat. 769, signed April 28, 1866". Archived from the original on 2012-02-16. Retrieved 2012-02-05.
26. ^ "Treaty with the Creeks, 1866, June 14, 1866. (14 Stats., 785) Ratified July 19, 1866, Proclaimed Aug. 11, 1866". Archived from the original on June 13, 2006. Retrieved 2012-02-05.
27. ^ "Treaty with the Cherokee, August 11, 1866. Oklahoma Historical Society: Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties. Vol. 2, Treaties.". Retrieved 2010-02-05.
28. ^ "Treaty of March 21, 1866, with the Seminole Indians. Ratified Treaty No. 352". 24 January 2007. Retrieved 2012-02-05.
29. ^ "TREATY WITH THE SENECA, MIXED SENECA AND SHAWNEE, QUAPAW, ETC., 1867 (15 Stats., 513) Ratified June 18, 1868. Proclaimed Oct. 14, 1868". Archived from the original on February 15, 2012. Retrieved February 5, 2012.
30. ^ "Treaty with the Delawares, 1866. (14 Stats., 793) Ratified July 26, 1866. Proclaimed Aug. 10, 1866". Archived from the original on 2012-02-16. Retrieved 2012-02-05.
31. ^ "Treaty with the Osage, 1865 (14 Stat., 687) Ratified June 26, 1866. Proclaimed, Jan. 21, 1867". Archived from the original on February 16, 2012. Retrieved February 5, 2012.
32. ^ "Treaty with the Sauk and Foxes, 1867 (15 Stat., 495) Ratified July 25, 1868. Proclaimed Oct. 14, 1868". Archived from the original on November 26, 2011. Retrieved February 5, 2012.
33. ^ Reconstruction Treaties, idib
34. ^ "Treaty of Washington United States-Choctaw Nation-Chickasaw Nation, 14 Stat. 769, signed April 28, 1866". Archived from the original on February 16, 2012. Retrieved February 4, 2012.
35. ^ "TREATY WITH THE OSAGE, 1865. Sept. 29, 1865; 14 Stat., 687; Ratified June 26, 1866; Proclaimed, Jan. 21, 1867". Archived from the original on 2012-02-16. Retrieved 2012-02-08.

## External links

[edit]

* Treaty of 1866 \- Chickasaw.TV

* v
* t
* e

Reconstruction era

Participants|

Federal government

* Presidents
* Abraham Lincoln
* Andrew Johnson
* Ulysses S. Grant
* Rutherford B. Hayes

* Congress
* 38
* 39
* 40
* 41
* 42
* 43
* 44
* 45
* Radical Republicans
* Moderate Republicans
* Conservative Republicans
* African-American senators
* African-American representatives
* Reconstruction Amendments
* United States Congressional Joint Committee on Reconstruction
* United States House Select Committee on Reconstruction

* Federal judiciary
* Taney Court
* Chase Court
* Waite Court

* Federal bureaucracy
* Edwin Stanton
* Freedmen's Bureau
* Justice Department

|

State governments

* Southern United States
* Confederate States of America

Others|

* African Americans
* Free people of color
* Freedman
* Politicians
* Carpetbaggers
* Ku Klux Klan
* Scalawag
* Redeemers
* White League
* Red Shirts
* Democratic Party
* Bourbon Democrat
* Horatio Seymour
* Samuel J. Tilden
* Republican Party
* Stalwarts
* Charles Sumner
* Thaddeus Stevens
* Lyman Trumbull
* Benjamin Wade
* John Bingham
* James Mitchell Ashley
* Freedman's Savings Bank
* Women during the Reconstruction era

Elections|

Presidential

* 1864
* DNC
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* 1868
* DNC
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* 1872
* DNC
* RNC
* Liberal Republican Party
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* Victoria Woodhull

* 1876
* DNC
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* Greenback Convention
* Prohibition Convention
* Electoral Commission
* Compromise of 1877

|

U.S. Senate|

* 1864–65
* 1866–67
* 1868–69
* 1870–71
* 1872–73
* 1874–75
* 1876–77

U.S. House|

* 1864–65
* 1866–67
* 1868–69
* 1870–71
* 1872–73
* 1874–75
* 1876–77

Gubernatorial|

* 1863
* Alabama
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* 1864
* Connecticut
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* Maryland
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* 1865
* Connecticut
* Florida
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* Minnesota
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* Ohio
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* Vermont
* Wisconsin

* 1866
* Connecticut
* Delaware
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* Maine
* Michigan
* North Carolina
* Oregon
* Pennsylvania
* Texas
* Vermont
* West Virginia

* 1867
* California
* Connecticut
* Kentucky
* Massachusetts
* Maryland
* Maine
* Minnesota
* Ohio
* Vermont
* Wisconsin

* 1868
* Alabama
* Connecticut
* Florida
* Illinois
* Indiana
* Kentucky (special)
* Louisiana
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Michigan
* Missouri
* North Carolina
* New Jersey
* South Carolina
* Vermont
* West Virginia

* 1869
* Connecticut
* Iowa
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Minnesota
* Mississippi
* Ohio
* Pennsylvania
* Rhode Island
* Virginia
* Vermont
* Wisconsin

* 1870
* Alabama
* Connecticut
* Delaware
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Michigan
* Missouri
* Oregon
* Rhode Island
* South Carolina
* Vermont
* West Virginia

* 1871
* California
* Connecticut
* Iowa
* Kentucky
* Massachusetts
* Maryland
* Maine
* Minnesota
* New Jersey
* Ohio
* Rhode Island
* Wisconsin

* 1872
* Alabama
* Connecticut
* Florida
* Illinois
* Indiana
* Louisiana
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Michigan
* Missouri
* North Carolina
* Pennsylvania
* Rhode Island
* South Carolina
* Vermont
* West Virginia

* 1873
* Connecticut
* Iowa
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Minnesota
* Mississippi
* Ohio
* Texas
* Virginia
* Wisconsin

* 1874
* Alabama
* Connecticut
* Delaware
* Kansas
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Michigan
* Missouri
* New Jersey
* Nevada
* Oregon
* South Carolina
* Vermont

* 1875
* California
* Connecticut
* Iowa
* Kentucky
* Massachusetts
* Maryland
* Maine
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* Ohio
* Ohio
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* 1876
* Alabama
* Colorado
* Connecticut April
* Connecticut November
* Florida
* Illinois
* Indiana
* Kansas
* Louisiana
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Michigan
* Missouri
* North Carolina
* Rhode Island
* South Carolina
* Vermont
* West Virginia

U.S. elections|

* 1864
* 1866
* 1868
* 1870
* 1872
* 1874
* 1876

Key events|

| Prelude|

* American Indian Wars
* Slavery in the United States
* A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
* The Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women (1838)
* Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1839)
* Seneca Falls Convention (1848)
* National Women's Rights Convention (1850)
* American Civil War
* Confiscation Act of 1861
* Confiscation Act of 1862
* District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act (1862)
* Militia Act of 1862

|

1863|

* Emancipation Proclamation
* General Order No. 143
* Lincoln's presidential Reconstruction
* Ten percent plan
* National Bank Act
* Women's Loyal National League
* New York City draft riots
* 1863 State of the Union Address

1864|

* Wade–Davis Bill
* 1864 elections
* 1864 State of the Union Address

1865|

* 13th Amendment
* Second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln
* Address
* Black Codes
* Special Field Orders No. 15
* Freedmen's Bureau
* Freedmen's Bureau bills
* Confederates surrender at Appomattox
* Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
* Shaw University
* New Departure
* 1865 State of the Union Address
* Founding of the Ku Klux Klan

1866|

* Civil Rights Act of 1866
* Memphis massacre of 1866
* New Orleans Massacre of 1866
* Swing Around the Circle
* Southern Homestead Act of 1866
* Fort Smith Conference and Cherokee Reconstruction Treaty of 1866
* Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty of Washington of 1866
* Tennessee readmitted to Union
* Petition for Universal Freedom
* National Labor Union
* Ex parte Garland
* Ex parte Milligan
* Slave Kidnapping Act of 1866

* 1866 elections

1867|

* Tenure of Office Act
* Command of Army Act
* Indian Peace Commission
* Knights of the White Camelia
* Pulaski riot
* Reconstruction Acts
* Reconstruction military districts
* Constitutional conventions of 1867
* Habeas Corpus Act of 1867
* Peonage Act of 1867
* First impeachment inquiry into Andrew Johnson
* 1867 State of the Union Address

1868|

* 14th Amendment
* Second impeachment inquiry into Andrew Johnson
* Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
* Timeline
* Impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson
* Impeachment managers investigation
* Articles of impeachment
* Arkansas readmitted to Union
* Florida readmitted to Union
* North Carolina readmitted to Union
* South Carolina readmitted to Union
* Louisiana readmitted to Union
* Alabama readmitted to Union
* Opelousas massacre
* Fourth Reconstruction Act
* Georgia v. Stanton
* 1868 elections
* 1868 State of the Union Address

1869|

* National Woman Suffrage Association
* American Woman Suffrage Association
* Alabama Claims
* Proposed annexation of Santo Domingo
* Board of Indian Commissioners
* Public Credit Act of 1869
* Black Friday (1869)
* Ex parte McCardle
* First transcontinental railroad
* 1869 State of the Union Address

1870|

* 15th Amendment
* Enforcement Act of 1870
* Justice Department
* Naturalization Act of 1870
* Kirk–Holden war
* Shoffner Act
* 1870 elections
* 1870 State of the Union Address

1871|

* Ku Klux Klan hearings
* Second Enforcement Act
* Ku Klux Klan Act
* Alcorn State University
* Meridian race riot of 1871
* Treaty of Washington
* New York custom house ring
* Civil service commission
* United States expedition to Korea
* 1871 State of the Union Address

1872|

* General Mining Act of 1872
* Crédit Mobilier scandal
* Modoc War
* Star Route scandal
* Salary Grab Act
* Amnesty Act
* 1872 elections
* 1872 State of the Union Address

1873|

* Panic of 1873
* Colfax massacre
* Timber Culture Act
* Slaughter-House Cases
* Virginius Affair
* Coinage Act of 1873
* Long Depression
* Comstock laws
* 1873 State of the Union Address

1874|

* Brooks–Baxter War
* Battle of Liberty Place
* Coushatta massacre
* Red River War
* Timber Culture Act
* White League
* Election Massacre of 1874
* Vicksburg massacre
* Black Hills Gold Rush
* Sanborn incident
* Anti-Moiety Acts
* 1874 elections
* 1874 State of the Union Address

1875|

* United States v. Cruikshank
* Civil Rights Act of 1875
* Red Shirts
* Mississippi Plan
* Clifton Riot of 1875
* Yazoo City Riot of 1875
* Specie Payment Resumption Act
* Whiskey Ring
* Wheeler Compromise
* Delano affair
* Pratt & Boyd
* 1875 State of the Union Address

1876|

* Hamburg massacre
* South Carolina civil disturbances of 1876
* Ellenton massacre
* Great Sioux War of 1876
* Battle of the Little Bighorn
* United States v. Reese
* Trader post scandal
* Centennial Exposition
* Cattellism
* Safe burglary conspiracy
* 1876 elections
* 1876 State of the Union Address

1877|

* Electoral Commission
* Compromise of 1877
* Nez Perce War
* Desert Land Act
* Great Railroad Strike of 1877

Aftermath|

* Posse Comitatus Act (1878)
* Civil Rights Cases (1883)
* United States v. Harris (1883)
* Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
* Williams v. Mississippi (1898)
* Wilmington massacre
* Giles v. Harris (1903)
* Disenfranchisement

Aspects|

| Historiography|

* Bibliography of the Reconstruction era
* James Shepherd Pike
* The Prostrate State (1874)
* James Bryce
* The American Commonwealth (1888)
* Claude G. Bowers
* The Tragic Era (1929)
* Columbia University
* John Burgess
* Walter L. Fleming
* Dunning School
* William Archibald Dunning
* Charles A. Beard
* Howard K. Beale
* W. E. B. Du Bois
* Black Reconstruction in America (1935)
* C. Vann Woodward
* Joel Williamson
* William R. Brock
* The American Crisis (1963)
* John Hope Franklin
* From Slavery to Freedom (1947)
* After Slavery (1965)
* Leon Litwack
* Been in the Storm So Long (1979)
* Eric Foner
* Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 (1988)
* Kenneth M. Stampp
* Steven Hahn
* A Nation Under Our Feet (2003)
* The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution (2019)

|

Memory|

* Winslow Homer
* A Visit from the Old Mistress (1876)
* Thomas Dixon Jr.
* The Leopard's Spots (1902)
* The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan (1905)
* D. W. Griffith
* The Birth of a Nation (1915)
* United Daughters of the Confederacy
* Gone with the Wind (1939)
* David W. Blight
* Race and Reunion (2001)

Legacy|

* Women's suffrage in the United States
* Labor history of the United States
* Gilded Age
* Jim Crow era
* Civil rights movement
* American frontier

Other topics|

* African American founding fathers of the United States
* Forty acres and a mule
* Habeas corpus
* History of the United States (1865–1917)
* Paramilitary
* Race (human categorization)
* Reconstruction Treaties
* Suffrage
* Technological and industrial history of the United States
* White supremacy
* Whitecapping

* Category

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