Reconstruction

[Train Whistle] Following the Civil War, the south lay in economic and physical ruin. Upward of 4 million newly emancipated Black Americans were without human rights. Over the course of the next four years, Georgia’s government passed from domination by the republican legislatures (both black and white) to restoration of the control by conservative white democrats. During that relatively brief period however, the 13th, 14th, and 15th, amendments were passed, abolishing slavery, granting equal rights to the newly emancipated, and prohibiting states from denying the right to vote based on race. In Augusta, Springfield Baptist, a Black church located at the corner of 12th and Reynolds Street spawned progressive organizations and institutions that continue to affect the present. Men such as the Reverend William J. White, John Emery Bryan, and Richard C. Coulter, were instrumental in the formation of the Georgia Equal Rights Association, forerunner of the Georgia Republican Party, and the establishment of Augusta Institute, present day Morehouse College. [Train Whistle]

Augusta's Story
  1. Paleo-Indians
  2. Stallings Island
  3. The Age of Exploration: The DeSoto Exhibition; 1540
  4. Early Colonial Period; 1685 – 1736
  5. Late Colonial Period
  6. The American Revolution, 1776 - 1783
  7. Antebellum Society
  8. Dave: Enslaved Potter and Poet
  9. Cotton
  10. Civil War; 1861 - 1865
  11. Reconstruction
  12. The Golden Blocks
  13. The Augusta Canal and the Cotton Industry
  14. Petersburg Boat
  15. Industrial History
  16. Mill Life
  17. World War I
  18. The Great Fire of 1916
  19. 1920s
  20. World War II
  21. Savannah River Site
  22. Integrating Augusta
  23. The Augusta Riot
  24. 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s in Augusta
  25. Augusta and the Late 20th Century to Today
  26. Thank you to our partners