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South Carolina ETV and Public Radio (SCETV) is pleased to announce the completion of its interactive and immersive educational website Reconstruction 360.
At the beginning of the Civil War, the federal government excluded Blacks from the army, but in 1862-63, as the need for soldiers grew, the government scrapped the prohibition and welcomed Black soldiers.
These men represent white Southerners who fought for the Confederacy and are strongly opposed to the idea of Black men voting. Changes that Radical Reconstruction brought about met with vicious resistance from many white Southerners.
The wife of one of the Black voters has joined her husband for this historic event. Women saw enfranchisement of Black men as a gain for the entire race and encouraged men to adhere to the wishes of the family in voting. They often accompanied their husbands to the polls and helped to protect them from hostile whites.
At this polling station, U.S. Army soldiers are serving as poll workers, since the state of Virginia is under federal military rule. In 1867, the Radical Republicans, now in control of Congress, passed the Reconstruction Acts, dividing all the seceded states except Tennessee into five military districts and putting federal troops in charge of Southern elections.