1866-1877: Reconstruction
The end of the Civil War posed a complicated question to northern politicians about how to reintegrate states into the Union that had joined the insurrection. President Lincoln’s assassination left the governing coalition without a consolidated force that could unify legislators with different policy positions for reconstruction. In an effort to reshape the racial, political and socio-political dynamics of the country, more radical elements sought punitive measures like disenfranchisement and land redistribution for disloyal citizens. (Lause 2016, 134-36). At the time, President Andrew Johnson stonewalled any effort by congress to protect the rights and liberties of emancipated slaves, while attempting to provide amnesty for defeated Confederates to allow White southern elites the ability to handle their own reintegration (National Parks Service 2023). This yielded an uneven implementation of reconstruction over the twelve year period.
The 14th amendment, the Reconstruction Act of 1867 (which required congress to override Johnson’s veto), and later acts under the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant along with the 15th amendment achieved significantly more to protect the rights of African-Americans, although nativist and anti-suffragist elements prevented sweeping democratization of the American electoral process. Reconstruction came to an abrupt halt in 1877 when the last federal troops were withdrawn from the South in exchange for electoral votes to maintain Republican control of the presidency (Gates 2018). Immediately following the end of direct federal intervention, white Southern politicians began a long process of reverting the social structure of the South closer to the status-quo antebellum (Gates 2018).
Reconstruction was profoundly influential in shaping the national character and set the stage for later historical developments. The importance of this event to the modern nation has allowed the years of 1865-1877 to be dubbed the Reconstruction Era of American history. For the Chapin-McNeil family however, it was not the most important historical force shaping their lives. In the northern free-states where the family lived Ohio, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Kansas other issues took precedent, as Reconstruction and the rights of black citizens stayed almost exclusively a southern issue.
The Chapin-McNeil family letters from this era provide a glimpse of post-war poverty, the rise of Spiritualism, and the birth of America’s land-grant Universities. Most significantly, the letters present a chronicle of Westward expansion and the challenges of homesteading on the frontier from the perspective of female settlers.
Poverty in the post-war period
The Civil War caused a massive disruption in the socio-economic fabric of America. Government contracts for military goods deepened the pockets of big businesses and formed many near-monopolies. The displacement and mass loss of life of working age men left some families destitute and necessitated many women to leave the home and take up employment at the same time that a large number of women were becoming widowed or aging past marrying-age (Lause 2016). This radical transformation of traditional domestic structures presented many challenges; there were often no safety nets for women who tried to fill more independent roles within their families. Hannah Daggett notes the increasingly common sight of impoverished people near her home in Maine following the war, and the widowed Mary Burt related in her letters her struggles navigating the world independently as she tries to carve out a career as a teacher near Peoria, Illinois.
Spiritualism
Beyond engendering economic disruptions, the catastrophic loss of life in the Civil War also bereaved many families. Every death was a profound and personal tragedy for friends and family at home. One way mourning individuals sought comfort was through the growing Spiritualism movement.
Emerging in the late 1840s, the Spiritualist movement rode the momentum of the protestant Second Great Awakening, combining that movement’s emphasis on emotionality and personal faith with supernatural elements (Lause 2016). The movement also promoted many radical causes of the day notably abolition and women’s suffrage. Spiritualists popularized the seance, claiming to help the living commune with departed spirits. Spiritualists had been operating since before the war, but exploded in popularity during the conflict. This trend even reached the White House; First Lady Mary Todd Licoln was active in Spiritualist circles. President Lincoln often joined her for seances hosted in the White House and at the homes of Spiritualist friends in Washington (Lause 2016). The growth of this movement during the war can be partly attributed to the growing popularity of the cause of abolition, but was likely due to people’s hopes of communicating with fallen soldiers. However, between the Civil War and the First World War the enthusiasm for spiritualism subsided. Devoid of the trauma of an ongoing national crisis, the new proto-Marxist and suffragist causes championed by the Spiritualists were more often derided by the public than accepted. This can actually be seen in a letter from Harriett Pepple written in 1866 where she complains about her disruptively loud neighborhood Spiritualist.
Land-grant universities
Another seismic post-war development alluded to in the Chapin-McNeil family letters is the founding of land-grant universities, most notably the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, originally known as Illinois Industrial University. The Morrill Act of 1862 allowed states to sell federally controlled land, and to use those funds to found universities dedicated to agricultural and industrial education. Many of these Universities were founded following the conclusion of the Civil War, the University of Illinois among them. The letters from Champaign County Superintendent C.E. Larned, highlight the activities of her daughter Mary as an early female enrollee in the university. Lucinda Chapin’s stepdaughter Mary Burt was also connected to the university as her daughter Nora was heavily involved in the founding of domestic science courses at the university. Both Mary and Nora are buried on the university campus in Mount Hope cemetery.
Homesteading on the Kansas frontier
The Morrill Act was accompanied by two other formative pieces of legislation in 1862 that would greatly impact the Chapin family: -the Homestead Act and the Pacific Railroad Acts. Combined, these two acts promoted westward migration amongst white northerners and the promulgation of western homesteads. These acts offered cheap government land on the frontiers as well as a means to get there. Under the Homestead Act, individual farmers could receive 160 acres of land for just a $19 filing fee, with the stipulations that they worked the land themselves for a five year period and that they had never participated in the armed southern rebellion ( Jones 1998). Similarly, the Pacific Railroad Acts gave railroad companies grants and land to build railroads that would connect the Western and Eastern coasts of the continents and facilitate travel through the frontier. The Chapin and Christy families would use the benefits of both of these acts, moving westward to Kansas via rail, and then establishing their respective Homesteads. While the Homestead Act was intended to cultivate a frontier society of individual, self-supporting farming families, in practice, a stipulation in the law shortening the residency requirement to six months in exchange for a payment of $1.25 per acre, meant that the majority of tracts went to speculators and business interests (Jones 1998). For the homesteaders of Kansas who acquired a grant with the intention to farm, life could be brutal. The letters of Katie Chapin and Marcia Christy reflect on this hardship by elaborating on the back-breaking toil for both men and women on the frontier. Extreme weather both hot and cold, difficult soil, grasshopper swarms, health issues, and other complications made life very difficult. Living on the edge of survival meant that there was plenty of work to do on the homestead. Thus, both men and women had to contribute substantial labor to try to make ends meet. According to Jones (1998) “It is clear that…everyone worked and work was not gender specific…when more work was needed in the field, women pitched in. Women, however, were generally in charge of the house and children. They tended the garden, nursed the sick, taught the children before school was organized, sewed…cooked and baked…”
While Reconstruction itself is not specifically discussed in the letters, the collection reflects life in its tumultuous vortex. Indeed, the Chapin-McNeil family correspondences capture essential detail and important hallmarks of post-war American society.