Joseph Patrick Reidy (born 1948) is an historian of the American Civil War . He is a professor emeritus and retired associate provost at Howard University.Reidy earned a BA in sociology from Villanova University, followed in 1974 by an M.A. from Northern Illinois University with a thesis "Negro election day and the New England Black community, 1750-1865." He received his PhD in histoy in 1982, also from Northern Illinois University with a thesis "Masters and slaves, planters and freedmen : the transition from slavery to freedom in central Georgia, 1820-1880."