The Civil War and Reconstruction transformed immigration policy in the United States, marking the transition from a sub-national to a national policy for regulating the admission, exclusion, and removal of foreigners. Before that turning point, Congress played almost no role in regulating immigration, other than naturalization policy (for white people) and passenger acts setting conditions … Read More Read More The post How the Federal Government Came to Control Immigration Policy and Why it Matters appeared first on The Journal of the Civil War Era ..read more

Questions of slavery, freedom, and violence are at the heart of this journal issue. For decades, historians have described how enslaved people during the Civil War saw new possibilities for escape with the presence of US military forces nearby, and how profoundly their actions shaped the course of the war and the dynamics of postwar … Read More Read More The post Previewing the March 2024 JCWE appeared first on The Journal of the Civil War Era ..read more

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of recorded interviews between the JCWE book review editor and the authors of the works reviewed in the journal. ****** Those who study the Civil War and Reconstruction are all too familiar with acts of terror, especially those committed by white vigilantes bent on securing Democratic … Read More Read More The post Beyond the Book Review: A Conversation with Chad Pearson appeared first on The Journal of the Civil War Era ..read more

Today we share an interview with Hidetaka Hirota who edited the December 2023 JCWE special issue on the transpacific connections in the Civil War era. Hidetaka Hirota is an associate professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Expelling the Poor: Atlantic Seaboard States and the Nineteenth Century Origins of … Read More Read More The post Author Interview: Hidetaka Hirota appeared first on The Journal of the Civil War Era ..read more

Today we share an interview with Tian Xu, who published an article in the December 2023 JCWE, titled “Chinese Women and Habeas Corpus Hearings in California.” Tian Xu is a postdoctoral fellow at SUNY Buffalo’s Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy. His work has been published in Journal of American Ethnic History and The … Read More Read More The post Author Interview: Tian Xu appeared first on The Journal of the Civil War Era ..read more

Today we share an interview with Beth Lew-Williams, who published an article in the December 2023 JCWE, titled “Chinese Naturalization, Voting, and Other Impossible Acts.” Beth Lew-Williams is an associate professor of history at Princeton University. She is a historian of race and migration in the United States, specializing in Asian American History. What interested you … Read More Read More The post Author Interview: Beth Lew-Williams appeared first on The Journal of the Civil War Era ..read more

Today we share an interview with Stacey L. Smith, who published an article in the December 2023 JCWE, titled “The Colored American Asiatic Traveler”: Peter K. L. Cole and American Empire in Japan.” Stacey L. Smith is an associate professor of history at Oregon State University. She is the author of Freedom’s Frontier: California and the … Read More Read More The post Author Interview: Stacey Smith appeared first on The Journal of the Civil War Era ..read more

In the late nineteenth century, opponents of Asian immigration on the West Coast claimed slavery was being resurrected in the United States. The escalation of industrial capitalism in the postbellum years had already established the perception among American workers that capitalists were attempting to enslave them as exploitable labor. As one labor leader put it … Read More Read More The post Preview of December JCWE and the Transpacific Connections Forum appeared first on The Journal of the Civil War Era ..read more

The Southern Historical Association is delighted to announce the winner of the Anne Braden Prize: Kimberly Welch, “The Stability of Fortunes: A Free Black Woman, Her Legacy, and the Legal Archive in Antebellum New Orleans,” JOURNAL OF THE CIVIL WAR ERA 12 (December 2022): 473-502. This prize, which was first awarded in 2022, recognizes the … Read More Read More The post Congratulations to the 2023 Anne Braden Prize Winner appeared first on The Journal of the Civil War Era ..read more

Even before the Civil War began, African Americans were fighting for racial and social equality. Often, historians focus on the lived experiences of African Americans residing in southern states to understand how African Americans fought to reframe society to become more inclusive. It is vital that we also acknowledge the complexities and experiences of northern … Read More Read More The post USCT Kin’s Generational Battle for Equality appeared first on The Journal of the Civil War Era ..read more