Bylines

Stephanie McCurry

W.E.B. Du Bois speaking in 1949.

During Reconstruction, a Brutal ‘War on Freedom’

First-person accounts of those scarred in many ways by the era’s violence suggest Reconstruction did not fail, it was overthrown by violence.
Paper money issued by the Bank of North America, circa 1862.

The Civil War's Economic Shadow

To finance the war, the Union had to turn to the banks, and with lasting consequences.

The Confederacy Was an Antidemocratic, Centralized State

The actual Confederate States of America was a repressive state devoted to white supremacy.
The seven members of Congress who managed the 1968 impeachment.

Is Impeachment Only About Getting a Conviction?

A new history of Andrew Johnson’s trial reminds us the impeachment is a tool to constrain executive abuse of power and publicize dissent on matters of policy.
Political cartoon showing Democrats rigging the election of 1874 through voter suppression of freedmen.

A Very Great Change

The 1868 presidential election through the eyes of a Southern white woman.
Image of enslaved man in chains, with the words "Remember Your Weekly Pledge"

Who Freed the Slaves?

For some time now, the answer has not been the abolitionists.