“Times Change”: Frank J. Webb Addresses Robert Morris on the Promise of Reconstruction

Abstract

In 1869, African American author Frank J. Webb returned to Washington, D.C., to become a “Carpetbagger” in the Reconstruction South. In a letter to black Bostonian Robert Morris, Webb illustrated the richness of antebellum African American reform networks and portrayed one man’s boundless optimism for race relations in postbellum America.