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United States History

Gettysburg College

Student Publications

Reconstruction

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in History

The Contradictions Of Freedom: Depictions Of Freedwomen In Illustrated Newspapers, 1865-1867, Carolyn Hauk Oct 2020

The Contradictions Of Freedom: Depictions Of Freedwomen In Illustrated Newspapers, 1865-1867, Carolyn Hauk

Student Publications

Between 1865 and 1867, artists working for Northern illustrated newspapers travelled throughout the South to document its transition from slavery to a wage labor society. Perceiving themselves as the rightful reporters of Southern Reconstruction, these illustrators observed communities of newly freed African American men and women defining their vision of freedom. Northern artists often viewed the lives of African Americans through the cultural lens of free labor ideology in their efforts to provide documentary coverage of the South as objective observers. This paper will examine how illustrations of Harper’s Weekly and Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper reveal the contradictions between free …


Military Occupation, Sexual Violence, And The Struggle Over Masculinity In The Early Reconstruction South, Cameron T. Sauers Oct 2020

Military Occupation, Sexual Violence, And The Struggle Over Masculinity In The Early Reconstruction South, Cameron T. Sauers

Student Publications

This inquiry centers on the way that sexual violence became the terrain upon which the struggles of the postemancipation and early Reconstruction South were waged. At the start of the Civil War, Confederate discourse played upon the fears of sexual violence engulfing the South with the invasion of Union armies. The nightmare never came to Southern households; rape was infrequently reported. However, Southern women, especially if they were African American, were subjected to sexual violence, which likely increased as the war dragged on. Sexual violence includes, but is not limited to, rape. Destruction of clothing, invasion of domestic spaces, and …


Assessing Reconstruction: Did The South Undergo Revolutionary Change?, Lauren H. Sobotka Apr 2015

Assessing Reconstruction: Did The South Undergo Revolutionary Change?, Lauren H. Sobotka

Student Publications

With the end of the Civil War, came a number of unanswered questions Reconstruction would attempt to answer for the South. While the South underwent economic, political and social changes for a short period, old traditions continued to persist resulting in racist sentiment.


Jeff Davis, A Sour Apple Tree, And Treason: A Case Study Of Fear In The Post-Civil War Era, Brianna E. Kirk Apr 2013

Jeff Davis, A Sour Apple Tree, And Treason: A Case Study Of Fear In The Post-Civil War Era, Brianna E. Kirk

Student Publications

The end of the Civil War raised many questions, one being how to piece back together the violently torn apart Union. With such an unprecedented war in American history, the exact course of how to do so was unknown. Would the country survive through Reconstruction, and how would sectional reconciliation be achieved? An even larger question was who to blame for the four long years of violence. In the minds of many northerners, that man was Jefferson Davis. Davis had not only led the secessionist movement, but was a traitor to the Union. By analyzing the calls for and against …