National Reconstruction: Land Redistribution in the South and West after the Civil War

On May 19 at noon, Adam W. Dean delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "National Reconstruction: Land Redistribution in the South and West after the Civil War."

Two thousand and sixteen marks the hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of Congressional Reconstruction, launched in 1866 after large parts of the North became unhappy with President Andrew Johnson's policies. At first glance, Reconstruction appears to involve only the South, but many in the United States also had their eyes on the West. Adam Dean will explore the connections between Reconstruction policy for the American South and the American West after the end of the Civil War. Congressional Republicans had an environmental view of citizenship, desiring to turn both African Americans and Indians into small farmers. Each group, many white Americans believed, would be loyal to the government and till the soil based on a northern agricultural model.

Dr. Adam W. Dean is an assistant professor of history at Lynchburg College. He is the author of An Agrarian Republic: Farming, Antislavery Politics, and Nature Parks in the Civil War Era (2015).