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3
The force of the 1886 Charleston earthquake knocked this train from its tracks. Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.
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Episode
2
At 9:45 p.m. on August 31, 1886, a major earthquake struck Charleston. There were 27 people killed in the collapse of buildings, and another 33 died later of injuries. Buildings were destroyed, roads...
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Grades
- 8
Episode
1
Senator Ben Tillman's "cow cartoons." Elected to the United States Senate in 1894, Tillman went to Washington determined to give the business end of a pitchfork to what he considered federal waste of...
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Grades
- 4
- 8
Episode
7
The South Carolina State Legislature in 1874 was known as the "Republican House," a majority of whom were African-American. Engraving from "Leslie's Illustrated Weekly," September 26, 1874. Courtesy...
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Grades
- 4
- 8
Episode
6
Portrait of Daniel H. Chamberlain, 1864. The events surrounding his election to the governorship in 1876 are dramatic enough to make into a movie or a television series, and can scarcely be done...
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Grades
- 8
Episode
5
This "composite photograph" brings together 63 members of the 1868 Reconstruction legislature of South Carolina. Of that body, 50 were African-American, 30 were white. Colonel James G. Gibbes of...
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Grades
- 8
Episode
4
In the aftermath of the 1876 election, Wade Hampton III stood on the steps of the State House on November 28, 1876, urging his followers to avoid acts of violence. Hampton and the Democrats elected to...
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Grades
- 4
- 8
Episode
3
In this Reconstruction-era cartoon labeled "The Present Stage," Governor Franklin Moses, Jr. (see Franklin I. Moses) is pictured in the embrace of African-American voters. Moses had been a supporter...
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Grades
- 4
Episode
2
The Chester County courthouse was the site of a meeting of the Union League, the Republican organization that dominated Reconstruction politics in the county, uniting African-Americans and a few...
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Grades
- 4
- 8
Episode
1
The Constitution of 1868. Dominated by radical Republicans, the U.S. Congress closed down the South's state governments in 1867 and ordered each state to call a constitutional convention. The Union...