Discover the Reconstruction Era National Historic Network

Arlington, VA was home to a large Freedman community, pictured here.

Library of Congress

Reconstruction was a process that took place in communities throughout the nation. Many units of the national park system, as well as sites managed by state, local, and private entities preserve locations and stories that tell the story of this crucial transition from slavery to freedom in the aftermath of Civil War. You can learn how to become part of the Network on our Join the Network page.

To navigate this listing, either scroll to the state you are interested in, or select the state from the drop down menu below. Please contact the individual sites for information about planning your visit. For questions regarding the network, contact us.

Alabama

• Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site preserves the site of Tuskegee Institute, a Reconstruction era Historically Black College and University (HBCU) that remains active today.
• The Historic Huntsville Museum in Huntsville, Alabama is housed in one of the buildings designed and constructed by the Brandon family during Reconstruction. The Brandons were some of the city’s most prominent Black businesses owners and political leaders during the time period, and the museum chronicles their transition from enslavement to entrepreneurship.

Arkansas

• Fort Smith National Historic Site interprets the role of the US Courts in enforcing federal authority in Reconstruction era Arkansas and surrounding Indian territories. In addition, Fort Smith was home to a freedman community and hospital.

The District of Columbia

• Frederick Douglass National Historic Site preserves and interprets the home of Frederick Douglass, and Douglass's role as a Reconstruction era champion for civil rights.
• Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site interprets the life of Carter G. Woodson. Woodson was born during the Reconstruction era and became a champion for educational opportunities for formerly enslaved people and their descendants.
• Ford's Theatre National Historic Site interprets the significance of Abraham Lincoln's assassination - a tragedy that reverberated throughout the Reconstruction era and changed the trajectory of government policies.
• Civil War Defenses of Washington interprets the experiences of Civil War Washington. This includes experiences of the city's many contraband camps, and the Freedman communities around sites like Fort Stevens.
• The DC Legacy Project: Barry Farm-Hillsdale tells the story of a community for freed African Americans, known as Hillsdale, that thrived on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. during post-war Reconstruction, as well as the struggle for housing and land in the post-Reconstruction era.
• Located in Washington, DC, the African American Civil War Museum helps share the story of members of the United States Colored Troops. At a time when the US military was still segregated, the numerous regiments of the United States Colored Troops were involved in combat operations in various campaigns and theatres of the Civil War. In the early days of post-war Reconstruction, USCT units remained on garrison duty in areas of the South to help enforce the peace. Many veterans of the USCT went on to become prominent community leaders after mustering out of service.

Florida

• Dry Tortugas National Park preserves the site of Fort Jefferson, which served as a prison for Reconstruction era political prisoners - most notably Dr. Samuel Mudd. The fort remained as part of the garrison of the Deep South until 1874.
• Gulf Islands National Seashore preserves the sites of several coastal fortifications along the gulf coast, including Fort Pickens. These fortifications provided the military governance to create and support Freedman communities.
• Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve includes Kingsley Plantation. This antebellum plantation includes original slave cabins, where enslaved people lived and worked before and after Emancipation, and the park interprets the struggles of freed people to acquire lands in Reconstruction era Florida.

Georgia

• In 1865, formerly enslaved people moved into the old stockade at Andersonville National Historic Site. The American Missionary Association operated a Freedman's school in a prison hospital, and formerly enslaved people organized Emancipation Day services in 1869 in the cemetery. Shortly afterwards, the Ku Klux Klan attacked the freedman community and by the end of Reconstruction, the black community had been driven away by Jim Crow policies.
• After the Civil War, tensions emerged between planters and formerly enslaved people over issues of land ownership and labor on Cumberland Island National Seashore. The freedmen erected a small church which still stands in the park today.
• Fort Pulaski National Monument was captured by US forces in the Spring of 1862, an event which served as the impetus for General David Hunter to issue a series of orders formally emancipating the enslaved people of coastal Georgia and South Carolina. The fort was later garrisoned by United States Colored Troops in 1866.
• Fort Frederica National Monument on Saint Simons Island, Georgia, was home to a thriving Black community during Reconstruction, including the family of journalist and religious leader Robert S. Abbott. Recent archeological work by park staff has identified the location of Freedman cemetery, and the park includes a monument erected by Abbott in memory of his family who lived and died at the site during Reconstruction.
• Chubb Chapel United Methodist Church, located near Cave Spring, Georgia was constructed around 1870, and is the last remaining structure from the original Chubbtown, a community of free Black Georgians established in 1864.

Idaho

• Nez Perce National Historical Park and Big Hole National Battlefield interpret the Reconstruction era conflicts between the Nez Perce and the US Military forces commanded by General Oliver Howard, who had commanded the Freedman's Bureau and, in part, modeled the reservation system after the Freedman's Bureau.

Kansas

• Fort Larned National Historic Site was a projection of US jurisdiction in the Great Plains during Reconstruction, and was garrisoned at times by African America "Buffalo Soldiers."
• Fort Scott National Historic Site served as a supply depot for US military forces in the west, and was a recruiting depot for African American soldiers. For much of the post Civil War period, the fort was home to an African American community and a Freedman school that counted George Washington Carver among its students.
• Nicodemus National Historical Park preserves a Reconstruction era Freedman settlement on the Great Plains of Kansas. Formerly enslaved people, mostly from Kentucky, established the community as part of efforts to move west and escape anti-black violence of the Reconstruction era South.

Kentucky

• Camp Nelson National Monument preserves the site of a major training facility for United States Colored Troops, as well as a contraband camp for formerly enslaved people.
• During the Reconstruction era, many of the tour guides of what would become Mammoth Cave National Park were formerly enslaved people. These first "rangers" provide a glimpse into the issues of Reconstruction era labor opportunities.

Louisiana

• Cane River Creole National Historical Park interprets the story of Freedmen that remained on the land as sharecroppers during Reconstruction, and the conflicts with former enslavers during the era.
• Jean Pierre Fazande was a free man of color who owned the Chalmette Battlefield. After the Civil War, he divided the land and sold land to formerly enslaved people, making Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve a unique site to learn about land reforms during Reconstruction.
• The Plessy and Ferguson Initative, based in New Orleans, Louisiana, works with neighborhoods and community organizations to preserve and interpret the story of the Reconstruction Era, Homer Plessy and the Citizens' Committee, and Plessy v Ferguson 'separate but equal' decision's continued impact on the community.

Maryland

• Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park interprets the critical role that Harriet Tubman played in assisting people make the transition from slavery to freedom.
• During the Reconstruction Era, Clara Barton's work with the Missing Soldiers Office took her into the Deep South, where at places like Andersonville she carried news of Emancipation. Clara Barton National Historic Site interprets her contributions to American society throughout the Reconstruction era.
• Antietam National Battlefield interprets the importance of the Emancipation Proclamation as a crucial moment in the Civil War and Reconstruction periods.
• The Peale is Baltimore, Maryland’s community museum. Beginning as early as 1878, the site was home to a public school called “Male and Female Colored School No. 1” for people of color, and the building was home to the first public high school for Black citizens in Maryland.

Massachusetts

• Boston African American National Historic Site interprets the story of Boston's African American community during the Reconstruction era - including the Shaw Memorial and the emancipationist memory of the Civil War.
• One of most important job opportunities for formerly enslaved people and their descendants was military service. Bearing arms in defense of the nation was widely seen as a means to securing citizenship, and many of those arms were produced at Springfield Armory National Historic Site.

Mississippi

• Natchez National Historical Park interprets a wide array of Reconstruction stories and resources, as Natchez was a hotbed of Reconstruction era activity and was home to Hiram Revels, the first African American elected to the United States Congress during Reconstruction.
• The Corinth Interpretive Center, part of Shiloh National Military Park, preserves and interprets the site of a large contraband camp and Freedman community in northern Mississippi.
• Like many battlefields and national cemeteries in the Deep South, Vicksburg National Military Park was home to a large Freedman community, and the city was garrisoned by United States Colored Troops during the early years of Reconstruction.

Missouri

• Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site preserves the home of Ulysses S. Grant, who served as President of the United States for much of the Reconstruction era, and oversaw the passage and implementation of federal legislation designed to protect formerly enslaved people.

Montana

• As American citizens moved west during Reconstruction, they often clashed with American Indian tribes. The Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument interprets the role of western expansion during Reconstruction, and the battle affected the critical election of 1876.

Nebraska

• Homestead National Monument interprets the massive rush of emigration and land redistribution that in occurred in response to the passage of federal legislation. During Reconstruction, many people, including African Americans, moved west to take advantage of land opportunities and to escape the tensions of Reconstruction violence and disputes back east.

New Hampshire

• The Shaw Memorial was one of the most significant monuments erected during Reconstruction exploring the role of emancipation and black participation in the Civil War. Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park interprets the process of developing this Reconstruction era monument and memory.

New York

• Although most famous for her work before the Civil War, Harriet Tubman also worked to ensure that formerly enslaved people had opportunities after slavery. Harriet Tubman National Historical Park preserves Tubman's home, which was developed as a group home for formerly enslaved at the end of Reconstruction.
• Women's Rights National Historical Park interprets the fight for women's suffrage and rights, key components of citizenship debates during the Reconstruction era.
• Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site interprets the social and economic changes that occurred during the Reconstruction era as the nation began to industrialize.

North Carolina

• Fort Raleigh National Historic Site is best known for its rich colonial history. But during and after the Civil War, a large Freedman community emerged around the site.
• Strieby Church, School, and Cemetery Cultural Heritage Site is located in Asheboro, North Carolina, and interprets the 1880s school that operated out of the church, and was the center of the formerly enslaved community for generations.
• The Peabody Academy Museum and Cultural Heritage Site was founded in Troy, North Carolina in 1880 by the American Missionary Association for the education of freedmen. Today, the museum houses the Peabody Legacy Project and the archives and promotes Reconstruction era interpretation and preservation in the community.

Ohio

• Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument tells the story of Charles Young, an African American man who rose to prominence during the Reconstruction era military.
• James A. Garfield briefly served as President during the Reconstruction Era, and served in Congress as a key leader during the debates over the Ku Klux Klan Act and impeachment of Andrew Johnson. His Presidency and political life is interpreted at James A Garfield National Historic Site.

Pennsylvania

• It was at the dedication of the national cemetery at Gettysburg National Military Park that President Lincoln expressed that the postwar world would see a "new birth of freedom." During the later years of the 1800s, African American visitors - including military veterans - visited the site the celebrate an emancipationist memory of the Civil War.

South Carolina

• The Penn School on St. Helena Island in Beaufort County was first established in 1862 as one of the first schools for formerly enslaved people at the dawn of the Reconstruction era. Today, The Penn Center preserves the historic campus, and interprets the importance of education and Gullah culture on the Sea Islands. The Penn Center National Historic Landmark District is also within the boundary of Reconstruction Era National Historical Park.
• Historic Brattonsville interprets the lives of the formerly enslaved people who lived and work at the historic plantation site, including the threat of violence they faced from the property owners who were active in the Ku Klux Klan.
• First African Baptist Church was a school for freed people and an early Reconstruction Era church started by Beaufort, South Carolina's African American community. Among the congregation's parishioners was the Honorable Robert Smalls.
• Tabernacle Baptist Church served as a school and church for freed African Americans during early Reconstruction, and is an active congregation today. Among those buried in the church's cemetery is the Honorable Robert Smalls and his family.
• The Robert Smalls House, located in Beaufort, South Carolina, was purchased by war hero Robert Smalls, and this site served as his home throughout his long political career during Reconstruction.
• The Grand Army of the Republic Hall in Beaufort was home to David Hunter G.A.R. Post No. 9, which was comprised of African American Civil War veterans, including Robert Smalls.
• Located in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park preserves the site of the first self-governing community of formerly enslaved people. The community emerged early in the Civil War as part of the Port Royal Experiment.
• Wesley United Methodist Church in Beaufort, South Carolina is an active church congregation today. But during Reconstruction it served as a school for formerly enslaved people, and as a headquarters for some Republican politicians in the region.
• Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park interprets Civil War and Reconstruction era Charleston, including the story of Robert Smalls, early emancipation celebrations in the city, as well as Freedman activities at the close of the Civil War.
• The Museum of the Reconstruction Era at the Woodrow Wilson Family Home is the nation's only museum dedicated to interpreting the post-Civil War Reconstruction period and is housed in South Carolina's only remaining presidential site. Through multifaceted interpretation, the Museum of the Reconstruction Era interprets Columbia’s late 19th century history to dispel the myths of Reconstruction that are so prevalent in society today.
• Established in 1870 by Bathsheba Benedict, Benedict College is located in Columbia, South Carolina. During Reconstruction it trained "teachers and preachers," but the curriclum eventually grew to include more traditional academic and trade professions.
• Charles Pinckney National Historic Site is primarily a site associated with the Revolutionary period a century before Reconstruction. However, the park actively preserves and interprets the experiences of Reconstruction era African Americans who remained around the city, as well as the experiences of the Gullah Geechee communities during this era.
• Claflin University, established in Orangeburg in 1869, was the first college in the state of South Carolina to admit students without regard to race or religion.
• Located in Rock Hill, South Carolina, Clinton College was founded towards the end of Reconstruction with the purpose of iradicating illiteracy, and it evolved into a teachers college.
• The Center for African American History, Arts, and Culture in Aiken is based in a former school for African American children, which operated 1890-1930, and today shares the story of African Americans who lived in the surrounding area.
• Hamburg-Carrsville African American Heritage District is located in the vicinity of North Augusta, and is the site of a town established by African American freed people during Reconstruction.
• During the Civil War, the floodplain and swamplands that make up Congaree National Park became a haven for people escaping enslavement, and became a Freedman community during the Reconstruction era.
• South Carolina State University was initially established in 1896 as a land-grand institution to provide agricultural and mechanical traning to Black South Carolinians.
• Reconstruction Era National Historical Park preserves and interprets sites throughout Beaufort County that are significant to the Reconstruction era. This park also manages the Reconstruction Era National Historic Network.
• Rose Hill Plantation State Historic Site preserves the Gist family plantation in Union, SC. The park interprets the experiences of formerly enslaved people after emancipation, including land and labor reforms, as well as Reconstruction era racial violence in the region.
• Allen University, located in Columbia, was established by the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) in 1870 with a "mission of developing an educated clergy in the face of repression and violent opposition during the Reconstruction Era in South Carolina."
• Founded by Tuskegee graduate Elizabeth Evelyn Wright in 1897, as Denmark Industrial School, Vorhees College was initially a high school for Black citizens in Denmark, South Carolina. Today, it is a four year college that seeks to blend the Reconstruction era educational visions of W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington.
• The Mather School was established by Rachel Mather in Beaufort, South Carolina in 1868, and provided education to formerly enslaved women during Reconstruction. After a century of operation, the school closed, but the site today is home to the Technical College of the Lowcountry, Mather Campus.
• During Reconstruction, some Black South Carolinians were able to purchase land through the South Carolina Land Comission. The Historic Harriet Barber House in Lower Richland County, preserves the home and farmstead of Harriet and Samuel Barber, who purchased the site during Reconstruction, and the property has remained in the family ever since.
• Reverend Nelson C. Nix attended Claflin University and Benedict College, and later became a professor at South Carolina State University. The Reverend Nelson C. Nix Home, in Orangeburg, is a private residence near the campus where studied and worked.
• Columbia's Randolph Cemetery is the final resting place of at least twelve known African American public officials, including Benjamin Franklin Randolph, who served as a teacher, US Army chaplain, and South Carolina state senator during Reconstruction. He was assassinated in 1868 by white supremacists in Hodges and later buried in the cemetery which carries his name.
• Redcliffe Plantation State Historic Site in Aiken County interprets the lives of the African American and white families who shaped the cultural history and landscape of this plantation from 1855 through Reconstruction, and up to 1975. Educational programs guide visitors through the extant slave quarters and mansion on site - home to South Carolina governor James Henry Hammond in 1859.
• The Town of Lincolnville in Charleston County was founded in 1867 by Rev. Richard H. Cain and six other African American men, who purchased 620 acres of land on which they built homes, churches, and schools for freed people. This historically Black community was named in honor of the late President, Abraham Lincoln.
• The Schofield Normal and Industrial School in Aiken was founded in 1871 and was a center for Black education in South Carolina. Freed people received training at this site and went on to teach throughout rural areas of the state.
• The Garvin-Garvey House was constructed around 1870 by Cyrus Garvin (Garvey) in Bluffton, South Carolina. It is believed to be the oldest extant dwelling built by a freedman in Bluffton and remained in the possession of the Garvin family until the 1960s. In 2004, the Town of Bluffton entered a partnership with Beaufort County to maintain Oyster Factory Park, which includes the Garvin-Garvey House.
• Historic Campbell Chapel AME was originally built by enslaved people in Bluffton, South Carolina in 1853. In 1874, the chapel became part of the AME Church and served the community throughout the Reconstruction Era as a social, religious, and academic center of the community.
• The Hutchinson House on Edisto Island, South Carolina, preserves and interprets the home and farm of Henry Hutchison and his descendants. Hutchinson was a prominent Black farmer, entrepreneur, and political leader on the island during Reconstruction, and today the site is managed by the Edisto Island Open Land Trust.

Tennessee

• After the Battles for Chattanooga, the city became a haven for escaping enslaved people and a large Freedman community emerged. Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park interprets this story, and preserves a Reconstruction era home that was constructed shortly after the Civil War.
• Andrew Johnson National Historic Site preserves the home of Andrew Johnson, who was President during the early years of Reconstruction.
• After the Battle of Stones River, the area around Stones River National Battlefield and national cemetery became an African American community that thrived through the Reconstruction era, and the park actively interprets this story.

Texas

• One of the economic opportunities available to African American men during Reconstruction was military service. For much of the era, Fort Davis National Historic Site was garrisoned by African American "buffalo soldiers."
• Founded by Dr. Andrea Roberts in 2014, The Texas Freedom Colonies Project is a research, educational, and social justice initiative dedicated to preserving the spaces within and heritage of Texas’ historic African American settlements. These Freedom Colonies – 557 in total - were founded by African Americans in Texas between 1865-1930 during Reconstruction and the subsequent rise of Jim Crow. The website is an ArcGIS, StoryMap-based platform and is currently the state repository of historical Black settlement data. Using archival data crowdsourced from the public, the Project aims to fill knowledge gaps and make visible African American places, schools, churches, cemeteries, and histories in the public record and provides a publicly accessible map and data clearinghouse for descendants.
• The Historic Hezikiah Haskell House was built by Peter Tucker, a formerly enslaved man, and his wife Betty, in about 1875. It is located in the community of Clarksville, Texas, one of the first Freedom Colonies established west of the Mississippi in Texas after the Civil War, and the house also served as the community's first church.

Utah

• Golden Spike National Historic Site interprets the role of labor and railroads in shaping western expansion during the Reconstruction era.

Virginia

• Petersburg National Battlefield interprets the role of United States Colored Troops in the destruction of slavery, but is also the site of Reconstruction era communities in and around the city.
• The Gilmore Cabin at James Madison's Montpelier is a restored and preserved freedman's cabin from the Reconstruction era.
• After the Civil War, formerly enslaved people found job opportunities working to recover remains at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, and worked with the national cemetery.
• The surrender of Robert E. Lee's army at Appomattox Courthouse National Historical Park helped marked the end of the Civil War, and began a nation-wide transition from slavery to freedom.
• In 1863, the United States Army established a Freedman's Village at Arlington House. After the Civil War, this village was managed by the Freedman's Bureau, and later other government agencies. It closed in 1900, at the very end of the Reconstruction era.
• Booker T. Washington National Monument preserves the farm where Booker T. Washington grew up and lived shortly after the Civil War. In 1865, a US soldier read the Emancipation Proclamation to Washington and other now formerly enslaved people. Washington went on to become an advocate for African American education throughout Reconstruction and beyond.
• Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park preserves a plantation site, and interprets the experiences of African Americans there before, during, and after the Civil War.
• Fort Monroe National Monument preserves and interprets a wide array of Reconstruction era stories, including some of the earliest efforts to transition from slavery to freedom, a large Freedman community, and the imprisonment of Jefferson Davis during the early years of Reconstruction.
• Maggie Walker National Historic Site interprets the African American experience of Reconstruction era Richmond.
• River View Farm in Charlottesville, Virginia is an African American historic site that seeks to preserve the home, barn, and farm of the Carr, Hawkins, and Greer families. Originally established by Hugh Carr, a formerly enslaved man, in the 1870s, the farm remained operated by his descendants for a century. The site offers educational programs that examine the history of African American land ownership, farming, and the legacy of Black education during Reconstruction.
• The Coalition to Save Historic Thoroughfare was established in 2021 to preserve and interpret the location the community of formerly enslaved people and Native Americans who settled in Historic Thoroughfare, Virginia during Reconstruction.

Washington

• During Reconstruction, African American soldiers served on the garrison of Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.

West Virginia

• During the Civil War, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park was home to a large contraband camp, and after the war became a thriving Freedman community. The park includes Storer College, an educational institution for African Americans that was established during Reconstruction.

Wyoming

• During Reconstruction, federal jurisdiction expanded in a variety of ways, including the birth of the national parks in 1872 when President Grant signed the legislation creating Yellowstone National Park.