Reconstruction Era Research Paper

Dynasty Allen
HIST 3071
October 25,2016
Exam #2 Essay
In Louisiana, The Reconstruction Era started in year 1862, before the Civil war ended in 1865. National Reconstruction began in 1865, after the Civil War ended. Reconstruction started as a means of federal intervention and was a system determined to return states to the Union that was proposed and promoted by Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and then Congress. Some of the objectives of the Reconstruction Era were to rebuild the South after the ravishing Civil War, addressing enfranchisement for freed slaves, and the adoption of new state constitutions for each state. At the beginning of the era many Republicans were pushing for unification of the North and South as well as black …show more content…
“The scalawag Willie Calhoun won election to the upper house of Louisiana legislature, joining a Rapides Parish delegation that included two African Americans…the victor in the race for the sheriff’s office in Alexandria was another black man” (Pg.55). White Democrats became furious because they were in a parish where black voters outnumbered whites “999 to 157” (Pg.56). November 1868 marked the first presidential election to occur after the Civil War. After President Lincoln was assassinated, Andrew Johnson became president. Since President Johnson was very unpopular he did not receive a presidential nomination, and was impeached by Congress by 1868. was nominated as the Republican candidate and Many ballots later the Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour for the presidential election against Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant. In 1868, Extreme intimidation, threatening and violence became a common scare tactic used on black voters and radical Republicans in Louisiana during the election. Southern Democrats, Fusionist, and white supremacist were extremely angry because of how they were outnumbered by the black voters in the April election of that same year. Democrats realized that black votes were powerful and therefore decided to take matters into their own violent hands. They were determined to “stem their losses,” and so that “Black voters would not be …show more content…
Cazabat ordered Nash to incite a “riot” at the courthouse in Grant Parish. Nash then rounded up a troop of more than 300 men who were all well-armed and some of whom rode horseback. Benjamin J. Allen, a radical soldier was the commander of the courthouse defense because William Ward was not present. Nash told Allen that he had “30 minutes to remove the women and children from the line of fire” and then the battle ensued and quite slowly. A cannon was shot at the black radicals and a few fatalities occurred. But it wasn’t until James Hadnot was killed that the blacks “were overwhelmed by a blast of gunfire from the white side” (Pg.103). The body count of black men began to rise and if men tried to escape the courthouse they were shot instantly. A black man was taken captive and ordered to set the roof of the court on fire. Unarmed men were being gunned down. whites seized the opportunity to destroy the black stronghold at Colfax. The event at the Courthouse was not described as a "race riot" but as a battle that ended in a "massacre" (p.

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