Southern Newspaper Editors and Reconstruction, 1865-1869

FAIN: FT-53371-05

Ted Tunnell
Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, VA 23284-9005)

The years immediately after the American Civil War were a seismic moment in the world of southern journalism. Old newspapers perished, or were reorganized under new owner-editors; scores of new journals started up. So great was the change that by late 1869 most of the papers in the South were new gazettes that had no existence before Appomattox. This project seeks to understand this upheaval. Who were the new editors and how did the experience of war, defeat, and Reconstruction shape their worldviews? Given that newspapers were, in that day, the only form of mass communication, these are vital questions.