Henkel Articles: Period of Reconstruction

The author explores Booker T. Washington and his influence on the African-American community during Reconstruction and the later 19th century. The presence of a military states and the role of the Freedmen's Bureau is mentioned. The place of African-American churches during Reconstruction is discussed. Religious organizations from the northern states came and brought with them the Northern Protestant religions to the former slaves.

Focuses on the mechanism of transition in southern agriculture in the United States from 1865-1870. Decentralization of the centralized plantation using gang labor; How sharecropping began; Types of share agreement; Features of the slave system of work organization.

Assesses issues related to New South sharecropping in America. Interpretations of sharecropping by scholars; Resemblance of southern sharecropping to the nineteenth-century contract labor; Questions on the efficiency of southern sharecropping as an economically ambigous form of production.

In 1867, Francis Train, a powerful director of the Union Pacific Railroad, devised a surefire way to make some money. Train established a trust company, Crédit Mobilier of America, which was completely owned by a small group of directors of the Union Pacific. The group soon became known as the Pacific Railroad Ring. Because they controlled the board of directors of the Union Pacific, the ring was able to award building contracts to Crédit Mobilier, giving wildly favorable terms and paying exorbitant prices for the work. They used this scheme to siphon money out of the Union Pacific and into the coffers of their own company. In actuality, the primary function of the Crédit Mobilier Company was to shift money—money that came from the U.S. Treasury and the pockets of the Union Pacific's minor shareholders.

Focuses on the history of Virginia City in Storey County, Nevada. Discovery of the Comstock lode; Mining methods used; Silver and gold ores found in Comstock.