1862

• Union troops win the Battle of New Bern in March. Thousands African Americans seek freedom behind Union lines in New Bern.
• Vincent Colyer sets up night schools for freed people.

1863

• Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation.
• Recruitment of African American soldiers begins.

1864

• Abraham Galloway and four others visit Abraham Lincoln.

1865

• The Thirteenth Amendment, which abolishes slavery in the United States, is approved in January and ratified in December. Congress establishes the Freedmen's Bureau in March.
• The Civil War effectively ends with Lee’s surrender at Appomattox on April 9.
• President Lincoln is assassinated on April 15. Vice President Andrew Johnson becomes president.
• President Johnson presents plans for Reconstruction.
• Freedmen’s Convention takes place in Raleigh on September 29.
• North Carolina holds a constitutional convention on October 2.
• Congress refuses to readmit North Carolina in December.
• States enact Black Codes.

1866

• The Ku Klux Klan is created in Tennessee.
• Congress approves the Fourteenth Amendment.
• North Carolina refuses to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment.
• Radical Republicans gain control in Congress.
• Congress expands the Freedmen's Bureau’s responsibilities and powers.

1867

• The Reconstruction Acts are passed over Johnson's veto, initiating Congressional Reconstruction.
• The Union League and Abraham Lincoln League become active recruiting black voters in Craven County.

1868

• The Fourteenth Amendment is ratified, entitling all persons born or naturalized in the United States to citizenship and equal protection under the laws of the United States.
• North Carolina is readmitted to the Union.
• Andrew Johnson is impeached by Congress, but is acquitted by one vote.

1869

• Former Union General Ulysses S. Grant becomes president.
• The Freedman’s Bureau leaves North Carolina.

1870

• Hiram Revels of Mississippi (born in Fayetteville, North Carolina) is the first African American elected to the United States Senate.
• The Fifteenth Amendment is ratified, granting the right to vote to all male citizens regardless of color or previous condition of servitude.
• Three African American representatives from Craven County are elected to the General Assembly.
• Conservative government is reestablished in North Carolina, "redeeming" the state.

1871

• Governor William Holden publishes a list of crimes committed by the Ku Klux Klan.
• Act to Enforce Fourteenth Amendment (Ku Klux Klan Act) is passed in Congress.

1876

• Democrat Zebulon Vance is elected Governor of North Carolina.

1877

• The last federal troops leave South Carolina, effectively ending the Federal government's presence in the South.

Source Citation:

Exhibit Text, Claiming Citizenship: Political Activism,Days of Jubilee,Tryon Palace, New Bern, N.C.