Timeline of Reconstruction in North Carolina - North Carolina Digital History

1862: Union troops win the Battle of New Bern in March. Thousands African Americans seek freedom behind Union lines in New Bern.; Vincent Colyer sets up night schools for freed people.
1863: Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation.; Recruitment of African American soldiers begins.
1864: Abraham Galloway and four others visit Abraham Lincoln.
1865: The Thirteenth Amendment, which abolishes slavery in the United States, is approved in January and ratified in December. Congress establishes the Freedmen’s Bureau in March.; The Civil War effectively ends with Lee’s surrender at Appomattox on April 9.; President Lincoln is assassinated on April 15. Vice President Andrew Johnson becomes president.; President Johnson presents plans for Reconstruction.; Freedmen’s Convention takes place in Raleigh in September.; North Carolina holds a constitutional convention in September.; Congress refuses to readmit North Carolina in December.; States enact Black Codes.
1866: The Ku Klux Klan is created in Tennessee.; Congress approves the Fourteenth Amendment.; North Carolina refuses to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment.; Radical Republicans gain control in Congress.; Congress expands the Freedmen’s Bureau’s responsibilities and powers.
1867: The Reconstruction Acts are passed over Johnson’s veto, initiating Congressional Reconstruction.; The Union League and Abraham Lincoln League become active recruiting black voters in Craven County.
1868: The Fourteenth Amendment is ratified, entitling all persons born or naturalized in the United States to citizenship and equal protection under the laws of the United States.; North Carolina is readmitted to the Union.; Andrew Johnson is impeached by Congress, but is acquitted by one vote.
1869: Former Union General Ulysses S. Grant becomes president.; The Freedman’s Bureau leaves North Carolina.
1870: Hiram Revels of Mississippi (born in Fayetteville, North Carolina) is the first African American elected to the United States Senate.; The Fifteenth Amendment is ratified, granting the right to vote to all male citizens regardless of color or previous condition of servitude.; Three African American representatives from Craven County are elected to the General Assembly.; Conservative government is reestablished in North Carolina, “redeeming” the state.
1871: Governor William Holden publishes a list of crimes committed by the Ku Klux Klan.; Act to Enforce Fourteenth Amendment (Ku Klux Klan Act) is passed in Congress.
1876: Democrat Zebulon Vance is elected Governor of North Carolina.
1877: The last federal troops leave South Carolina, effectively ending the Federal government’s presence in the South.