Reconstruction of the South begins at large today as U.S. President Andrew Johnson issues the Amnesty Proclamation allowing for the restoration of property rights (slaves excluded) to eligible white Southerners who sign an oath of allegiance declaring that “I, _______ _______, do solemnly swear, (or affirm,) in presence of Almighty God, that I will henceforth…
This month Richmond’s First African Baptist Church debates pastoral leadership. White minister Robert Ryland, president of Richmond College, has long been their preacher, as antebellum and Civil War laws mandated that black congregations must be overseen by a white minister. Ryland, although a defender of black slavery, was somewhat controversial in that he advocated for…
The war has barely ended and already restrictions are being placed upon freedpersons in the former Confederate capital of Richmond, restrictions in which federal military officials play a notable role. Fields Cook (1817-1897) is a former slave who while a slave learned how to read and write, learned the precepts of Christianity through the kindness…