When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer

By Adam Sanchez and Nqobile Mthethwa

Shortly after hearing in 1865 that she When this once seemingly impossible fate and others on her Florida plantation were no became a reality, it democratized and revolution- longer enslaved, Frances told a friend what she ized U.S. society. The sense that the impossible thought their future might look like: “This time could be made possible by the organization of next year all the white folks will be at work in the oppressed people to fight against their oppression fields, and the plantations and the houses, and had implications far beyond the struggle against everything in them will be turned over to us to slavery. As Roediger documents, between 1865 do with as we please.” While her fantasy didn’t and 1869, a series of “war-and-emancipation- become a reality, something remarkable did. inspired insurgencies . . . raised the possibilities Without saying anything to their former owner, for something like a 19th-century Rainbow on New Year’s Day 1866, every freed slave on the Coalition, seeking to bring together the nation’s plantation left. aggrieved.” The ability of newly freed people to imagine But ultimately racism and sexism tore these their former owners serving them, or to walk off movements apart, and the consequences left a plantation en masse in a society that had heavily Black people few allies to fight the insurgent policed Black movement, reveals the possibilities white supremacists that one by one overthrew of a period where something that had only a few Reconstruction governments in the South. years prior seemed unthinkable was now a fact of This mixer aims to draw out many of these les- life. Because, as historian David Roediger writes sons for students by introducing them to individu- in his book Seizing Freedom, “If anything seemed als in the various social movements that followed impossible in the 1850s political universe, it was the Civil War and their attempts to build alliances the immediate, unplanned, and uncompensated with one another. In the mixer, each student takes emancipation of four million slaves.” on the role of a different person involved in the

Frances Harper, William Sylvis, Isaac Myers , and John Roy Lynch are a few of the people featured in the role play.

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 1 social movements of the time. Several roles focus activity we are going to meet many of the on the close alliance and tragic split between the people involved in these movements to try feminist and abolitionist movement; other roles to understand what brought them together emphasize the important efforts to break down after the Civil War and what ultimately kept racism and sexism inside the emerging labor them apart.” movement; a few roles touch on alliances that abo- Distribute one mixer role and a blank litionists built with the movements against Indian nametag to each student in the class. There removal and for Cuban independence; lastly, sev- are 21 roles, so in many classes some stu- eral roles focus on the incredible transformation of dents will be assigned the same characters. Black life in the South — the key example of the 2. Have students fill out their nametags using impossible becoming possible. the name of the individual they are assigned. As students meet other individuals in the Tell students that in this activity they will room, they learn the revolutionary possibility of take on the role of the person they are solidarity — the potential power of social move- assigned. Ask students to read their roles ments working together. But these stories also and to underline key points. reveal how racism, sexism, and classism can keep movements divided. For those today who care 3. Distribute a copy of the “Reconstruction about movements for social justice and whether Mixer: Questions” to every student. Explain those movements might coalesce to form some- how the mixer will work: Students will cir- thing even more powerful, this lesson opens a culate through the classroom, meeting other window into the possibilities and pitfalls such a people who fought for justice. They will use project might face. the questions on the sheet as a guide to talk with others about their lives and to complete Materials Needed: the questions as fully as possible. They must • Copies of “Reconstruction Mixer: Questions” use a different individual to answer each of for every student. the eight questions. Read the questions out loud with students and have them star the • One role for every student in the class. questions that apply to their character. • Blank nametags. Enough for every student 4. After you’ve read through the questions, in the class. have students re-read their roles one or two more times and memorize as much as they Time Required: can. It can be helpful to encourage students One class period for the mixer. Time for follow- to turn over their roles and list three to five up discussion. key facts about their character (especially ones that relate to the mixer questions — Suggested Procedure: what movements were they a part of? Did 1. Explain to students that they are going to they try to break or form alliances with do an activity about the social movements other movements? etc.). Given that the roles that emerged after the Civil War. Tell them are longer and more complex than most that “Many people were inspired by the mixers, you might also ask students to write abolition of slavery to demand things that a short interior monologue about their they had previously considered impossible. hopes and fears for the future. This meant that after the Civil War many 5. It’s helpful to lay out a few rules for the new social movements emerged and there mixer: 1) Students assigned the same person were some attempts to bring them together, may not meet themselves. 2) Engage with but by 1870 those fighting for justice in dif- each other one on one rather than in large ferent movements remained divided. In this groups. 3) It’s not a race; the point is to learn

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 2 from each character’s experience, so spend again converged. What do you think were time listening to one another; don’t just some of the consequences of this division? scribble down answers to the questions. • What connections do you see between the 4) Students should not show their roles to social movements you encountered in this anyone; this is a conversation-based activ- mixer and what’s going on today? Can ity. 5) Tell students not to adopt accents in you think of any examples of contempo- an effort to try more authentically to rep- rary social movements working together resent their individual. (These can invite or clashing with one another? stereotyping.) 9. Afterward, ask students to share some of 6. Ask students to stand up and begin to cir- their conclusions with the whole class. ◼ culate throughout the class to meet one another. Sometimes to get them out of their Adam Sanchez ([email protected]) is an editor of Re- seat it’s helpful to require that the first per- thinking Schools magazine. Sanchez teaches at Harvest Collegiate son they talk to is sitting across the room. High School in New York City and works as curriculum writer and 7. When it seems like students have had suffi- organizer with the Zinn Education Project. cient time to fill out all or most of the ques- Nqobile Mthethwa ([email protected]) is a Zinn tions, ask them to sit back down and silently Education Project Research Fellow and has a B.A. in Political Sci- write on a few debrief questions. ence from the University of Virginia. Mthethwa did archiving and 8. Here are some possible questions: research with the Carter G. Woodson Institute digital exhibition, “The Movement in the Archive.” • Out of all the people you met, whose story did you find most interesting. Why? • Historian David Roediger writes about how the self-emancipation of enslaved people during the Civil War inspired others to demand things that previously would have seemed impossible. Did you encounter these themes of “self-emancipa- tion” or making “the impossible possible” while meeting any characters? What does this say about the time period following the Civil War? • Was it possible for different social move- ments to work together after the Civil War? What brought them closer? What pushed them apart?

• Was it inevitable that these social move- This article is offered for use in educational settings as part ments would be driven apart? Why or of the Zinn Education Project, a collaboration of Rethinking why not? Schools and Teaching for Change, publishers and distributors of social justice educational materials. Contact the • What role did racism play in preventing Zinn Education Project ([email protected]) directly social movements from coming together? for permission to reprint this material in course packets, newsletters, books, or other publications. What about classism? For more information: • By 1870, those fighting for justice in dif- Rethinking Schools Teaching for Change ferent movements remained divided and it www.rethinkingschools.org www.teachingforchange.org would be decades before these movements

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 3 handout Reconstruction Mixer: Questions

1. Find someone who was enslaved before the war and accomplished something afterward that they never could have under slavery. What did this person accomplish?

2. Find someone who worked for both Black rights and women’s rights. Who is this person and what did they do to help both causes?

3. Find someone who contributed to or has an opinion about the split between those fighting for Black rights and those fighting for women’s rights. What did they do that contributed to this split? Or what is their opinion about this split?

4. Find someone who tried to build an alliance between Black and white workers or farmers. What did this person do? What can they tell you about how poor white and Black people did or did not work together during Reconstruction?

5. Find someone who tried to build an alliance between those fighting for women’s rights and those fighting for workers’ rights. What did this person do? What can this person tell you about why the alliance did not last?

6. Find someone who connected the struggle for Black rights to a fight other than the women’s or workers’ movements — for example, the fight against war, the struggles of Indians for their land or Cubans for independence. Who is this person and what did they do?

7. Find someone who can tell you about efforts to form a new third party or the role the Republican Party played in uniting or dividing various social movements. Who is this person and what is their opinion about political parties? Do you agree?

8. In your role, find someone you could take common action with. Come up with one idea for the action you might take together to further the causes you are passionate about. Who is the person and what action might you take together?

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 4 roles

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Although I am known mostly for my work fight- When both Black suffrage and women’s suf- ing for women’s right to vote, early in my career frage were on the ballot in Kansas, local Republicans I worked against slavery. After the Emancipation came out against women’s suffrage. In response, Proclamation in 1863, I helped form the Women’s Susan B. Anthony and I brought pro-slavery, National Loyal League (WNLL) to work toward a pro-women’s suffrage Democrat George Francis constitutional amendment abolishing slavery. The Train to Kansas to help us win Democratic votes. badge for the WNLL represented a Negro, half-risen, Train also provided funds for our weekly women’s breaking his own chains. The enslaved were free- rights newspaper, The Revolution. But this alliance ing themselves during the war and we wanted our with a pro-slavery Democrat split the AERA. badge to reflect that. The WNLL gathered more than I hoped that the government would extend the 400,000 signatures to support the 13th Amendment. rights of citizenship to both and After the war, I helped to form the American white women, but when it became clear that in the Equal Rights Association (AERA) to campaign for 14th and 15th amendments only Black men would the rights of both women and Blacks. But most be granted those rights, I opposed their passage. male abolitionists, like Wendell Phillips, believed For me it was inconceivable that educated white that it was the “Negro’s Hour” and that now was women would still be denied the right to vote while not the time to demand women’s rights. They the U.S. enfranchised “Africans, Chinese, and all called women’s suffrage an impossible demand the ignorant foreigners the moment they touch — but they knew that only a few years earlier the our shores.” abolition of slavery was also seen as impossible. For Until 1872, I held out hope that African Amer- them, the alliance that abolitionists had built with icans, women, and labor could unite to form a new the Republican Party was more important than third party. But I gave up on that hope. women’s rights.

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 5 roles

Wendell Phillips

I joined the abolitionist movement in the 1830s and citizens and given the right to vote. I urged women’s soon became known as “abolition’s Golden Trum- rights activists to set aside women’s suffrage for a pet” because of my skills as a speaker. After the war, while to focus on working for an amendment that I became president of the American Anti-Slavery would allow Black men to vote. I resisted attempts to Society, and argued against other abolitionists who merge the movement for Black rights with the move- wanted to dissolve the society because slavery had ment for women’s rights into a single organization been abolished. I believed that the work of aboli- and refused to mention or promote women’s suf- tionists was not fully completed until Black people frage in the American Anti-Slavery Society newspa- gained civil and political rights. per. I argued we must focus on “one thing at a time.” In addition to fighting to end slavery, I was an In addition to championing the rights of early champion of women’s rights. I wrote articles women and Blacks, I understood that the next great in support of the cause and aided activists in their question would be the rights of the laboring class petition campaigns for women’s suffrage. But I was and supported the movement to demand an eight- also practical. I realized that the abolition of slavery hour working day. And when the 14th and 15th made possible what only a few years ago seemed Amendments were passed, I argued that they also impossible. I knew that “These are not times for granted citizenship to Indians and fought against ordinary politics; these are formative hours. The the military removal of Indians from their land. I national purpose and thought ripens in 30 days as helped to organize public forums where Indians, much as ordinary years bring it forward.” such as Ponca chief Standing Bear, could tell their But I also realized that abolition would not story and speak out against the country’s Indian be complete unless Black men were recognized as removal and extermination policy.

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 6 roles

Frederick Douglass

Born into a life of slavery, I became famous after right to vote to Black men in the South, it would I escaped to the North, became an abolitionist, leave freedpeople vulnerable to white attacks. and wrote my bestselling autobiography Narrative White women were not being dragged from their of the Life of . During the Civil homes and hung upon lamp posts, they were not War, I helped convince President Lincoln that in danger of having their homes burnt down; their Blacks should be allowed to fight in the Union children were not being prevented from entering Army, declaring that those “who would be free schools. Stanton and Anthony didn’t understand themselves must strike the blow.” this, and when the Republicans moved to extend I was also an early supporter of women’s the right to vote for Black men without doing so rights. I was the only African American at the for white women, they allied themselves with rac- first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, ist Democrats. supported women’s right to vote, and promoted While I continued to champion equal rights women’s equality in my newspaper The North for all, in 1869 I became president of the Colored Star. After the war, I was voted vice president of National Labor Union and focused my attention the American Equal Rights Association, an organi- toward the plight of Black workers. While Blacks zation formed to fight for the rights of women and were now free, they were stuck in the worst jobs African Americans. and the traditional labor unions refused to let But middle-class white women like Eliza- Black people be members. I helped Black workers beth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony could fight for the right to have all trade unions and not understand the plight of Black people in the employment opportunities open to them. I knew South. While white women enjoyed some small say that if Black and white laborers were divided through the votes of men in their families, Black by racism, they could never see that “both are people had no such power. Without extending the plundered by the same plunderer.”

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 7 roles

Lucy Stone

I was the first woman from Massachusetts to earn Democrat George Francis Train to campaign for a college degree and used my education to fight women’s suffrage and stopped championing the for justice. Like many women’s rights activists, I referenda for Black suffrage. started as an abolitionist before the Civil War. I Unfortunately, this split between those who spoke out against slavery and for women’s rights believed we needed to fight for Black rights first, at a time when women were often prevented from and those who wanted to prioritize women’s speaking publicly. suffrage, only grew larger. I tried to argue both After the war, I traveled with Susan B. Anthony against abolitionists Frederick Douglass and Wen- to try to convince abolitionist organizations to dell Phillips, who believed that “the cause of merge with the women’s movement to campaign the Negro was more pressing than that of wom- for equal rights for all. I was frustrated that many an’s,” and against women’s rights advocates like abolitionists, who I had worked with for years, felt Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who began the need to champion the rights of Black men first. to associate themselves with racists in the Dem- Nevertheless, in 1866 we formed the American ocratic Party. Ultimately, however, Stanton and Equal Rights Association (AERA). Anthony went too far when they came out against I helped lead the AERA’s campaign in Kansas the 15th Amendment that gave Black men the in support of two state referenda that would have right to vote. I and others who believed that the given the right to vote to African Americans and 15th Amendment was an important step in the women. I spoke to so many crowds in Kansas right direction parted ways with Stanton and during the first three months of the campaign that Anthony and created the American Woman Suf- I lost my voice and had to return home. But when frage Association to continue to fight state by state I left, the campaign took an ugly turn and I was for women’s right to vote. “utterly disgusted” when Anthony brought racist

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 8 roles

Frances Harper

I was born free in , a state with legal- that giving white women the ballot would not be ized slavery. I was raised in a strong abolitionist a cure for our problems — after all, didn’t many household and when I turned 25, I moved north white women enslave Black people? I agreed with to teach. A few years later, Maryland passed a law many who argued that we had to have a tempo- forbidding free Blacks from entering its borders rary focus on winning Black male suffrage. The or risk being enslaved. I was outraged that I could hardships of Black women seemed to stem more not return to my home state and became an anti- from the fact we were Black than because we were slavery activist. During the 1850s and 1860s I gave women. I supported the 15th Amendment and was abolitionist speeches all across the country and was a founding member of the American Woman Suf- active in the Underground Railroad. frage Association in 1869. I increasingly criticized Like many female abolitionists, I became increas- the racism of white suffragists like Elizabeth Cady ingly aware of the ways that women were oppressed. Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. When my husband died in 1864, I was left with four But I also believed we should not put off fight- children and his debt. Even though my lecture fees ing for women’s suffrage to some distant future. I paid for our farm, the investment was legally my wrote, “When they are reconstructing the govern- husband’s, so his creditors confiscated my farm to ment, why not lay the whole foundation anew. . . . pay his debt. After the war, I joined the American Is it not the Negro woman’s hour also? Has she not Equal Rights Association to fight for both the rights as many rights and claims as the Negro man?” I of women and Black people. argued after the 15th Amendment was passed But more and more, people in the movement that the vote should immediately be extended to were choosing between working for the vote for women. white women or the vote for Black men. I believed

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 9 roles

Susan B. Anthony

I grew up in Massachusetts but moved to New first national labor federation in the United States. York in the late 1830s. After being denied a right I was pleased that the NLU president urged labor to speak at a meeting because I was a woman, I organizations to embrace female workers and was inspired to fight for women’s rights. Work- created a special committee on female labor. The ing closely with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, I started committee called for forming labor organizations petitions for women’s rights. I also promoted the among working women and fighting to win fed- anti-slavery cause by gathering signatures for the eral and state laws for equal pay for equal work. 13th Amendment abolishing slavery. Although women’s suffrage was voted down, I was After the war, Stanton and I established the encouraged by the positive steps the NLU made. American Equal Rights Association calling for I hoped the alliance between labor and women equal rights for all. But many abolitionists and could eventually lead to a new third party. Republicans felt that now was the “Negro’s Hour” But that hope crumbled when during a print- and did not support our call for women’s right ers’ strike I appealed to the employers to hire to vote. But I would rather cut off my right arm women and establish a women’s training school. before I demand the ballot for the Negro and not Although I was simply trying to open opportuni- the woman. After all, if anyone should get the vote ties for women workers, many in the labor move- first, I thought we should “give it to the most intel- ment accused me of encouraging the employers to ligent,” as I have said publicly. use women as strikebreakers. At the next National So I went searching for other allies to promote Labor Union convention, I was expelled. our cause. I helped to form the Working Women’s I continued to work for women’s suffrage and Association and was seated as a delegate at the was arrested and thrown in jail in 1872 when I congress of the National Labor Union (NLU), the voted in the presidential election.

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 10 roles

William Sylvis

I was born in Pennsylvania and became an iron federation of labor organizations in the United molder when I was 18. Iron molding was a dan- States. In 1868, I was elected NLU president. gerous job. We worked with hot metal furnaces Most labor unionists were white men. I urged and were paid little. We lived in company houses the NLU and the organizations affiliated with it and shopped at the company store — everything to allow women and Black workers into the labor we needed to survive we had to buy from our movement. I argued that this was the only way to employer. It was wage slavery. In 1857, I joined prevent these groups from being used as strike- the Philadelphia molders union when we went on breakers. If we could unite the working people of strike to oppose a wage cut. We lost the strike, but our nation, white and Black, male and female, I I became a leader in the union. I believed that if believed we could form a powerful third party and workers could unite, they could fight for higher take on the power of Wall Street. wages and improve their situation and society. In I didn’t support Reconstruction in the South 1859, I became president of the National Union of and favored the soonest possible reconciliation Iron Molders. between the North and the former Confederacy, Although the Civil War freed 4 million Black but I did fight for the NLU executive committee to people from chattel slavery, I argued that they were invite all persons in the labor movement, regard- now added to the millions of white wage slaves in less of color or sex, to our convention in 1869. the nation. I wrote that “we are now all one family Unfortunately, I died before the convention. The of slaves together, and the labor reform movement convention encouraged the organization of separate is a second emancipation proclamation.” I tried unions for whites and Blacks and expelled women to further unite working people by forming the suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony for urging news- National Labor Union (NLU), the first national papers to hire women during a printers’ strike.

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 11 roles

Augusta Lewis

I was born in 1848, the year of the first women’s Women’s Association (WWA). Anthony wanted rights conference. Orphaned as a young girl, I was the group to promote women’s suffrage. Although raised in a wealthy home. My family paid for my I supported suffrage, I was skeptical that the vote education until the depression that followed the would cure the economic inequality between men Civil War forced me, still in my teens, out into and women and thought that we should focus the workforce. I developed a deep sympathy for all first on getting women good union jobs. Unfortu- those who had to work for a wage. nately, the WWA increasingly became dominated I became a typesetter and got a job at the New by middle-class women like Anthony who didn’t York World. In 1867, members of the International understand the problems working women faced. Typographical Union in New York, which like other In 1868, in addition to starting the WWA, I labor unions did not allow women into their orga- also formed the Women’s Typographical Union nization, went on strike. To fight the union, the that quickly grew to more than 40 members. When owners of the World hired women, paid them less, the male Typographical Union again went on and trained them to set type. Setting type was almost strike in 1869, we sided with the men and encour- an all-male profession, but for a short time all my aged women not to take their jobs. We argued co-workers were women. After 10 months, the World that we would be stronger if all workers fought reached a settlement with the union and fired all of together. But Anthony argued that women should the female typesetters they had trained. I wasn’t fired, again break the strike. It allowed the employers to but I quit in support of the other women. claim they were supporting women’s rights in their After this experience, at the age of 20, I joined attempts to crush the union. By the end of 1869, with Susan B. Anthony to form the Working the Working Women’s Association disbanded.

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 12 roles

Ira Steward

By the time I was 19, I was working 12 hours a day organization of working people that we were a as a machinist’s apprentice. I started to advocate part of, the Boston Trades Assembly. Both organi- for shorter hours and was fired. I was against slav- zations endorsed the campaign for an eight-hour ery, and the same principles that led me to oppose day. I became the organizer and president of the the oppression of Black laborers in the South led Boston Eight-Hour League. Within a year, eight- me to demand the eight-hour day for all workers. hour leagues were established all over the country. I believed that after the Civil War the laborer felt By 1867, state eight-hour laws had been passed that something of slavery remained, and some- in Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, New York, and thing of freedom had yet to come. Connecticut. In 1868, Congress enacted an eight- Many people in the North critiqued slavery by hour day for government employees. These laws, arguing that enslaved people consumed less than free however, weren’t enforced and had many loop- workers and that hurt the economy. I pointed out holes, so most workers still worked long hours. that free workers were paid little and forced to work I continued to fight for eight hours and used long hours, so they also consumed very little. Most my position in the labor movement to support workers worked from sunup to sundown. An eight- Reconstruction in the South — even as many in hour day for 10-hour pay would raise the standard of the North turned against it. In 1877, the Boston living for all. When I first started making these argu- Eight-Hour League, that I helped form, was one ments, many thought an eight-hour day was impos- of the only U.S. labor organizations to oppose the sible, as most workers didn’t even have a 10-hour removal of federal troops from the South. Unfor- day. But after the war, the idea spread rapidly. tunately, many white workers remained against In 1865, I took these arguments to the Union Black rights and the labor movement remained of Machinists and Blacksmiths and the larger divided by race.

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 13 roles

Isaac Myers

I grew up in and at the age of 16, I began struggle. I encouraged the white unions to let Blacks to work as a caulker — sealing cracks between ships’ in to their organizations and denounced actions wooden planks. By the age of 20, I was supervising like those in Baltimore where white workers went the caulking of some of the largest ships in Baltimore. on strike against Blacks. Although we remained In 1865, white caulkers went on strike. Joined in separate local organizations, the NLU decided by white ship carpenters, they demanded that Blacks to welcome Black labor unions into the national working in the shipyards be fired. They were sup- federation. ported by the city government, which kicked out I issued a call for a Black labor convention and more than 1,000 Black workers. When Black workers more than 200 representatives met to form the met to respond, I proposed that we form a coop- Colored National Labor Union. We demanded leg- erative to buy a shipyard. We began raising funds islation that would give Black people full equality and Black people from all over the country donated and an educational campaign in the white unions to our cause. We were able to purchase a shipyard to overcome the opposition to Blacks. I was voted and by the end of 1866 we employed more than 300 president and toured the country encouraging Black Black workers. As we expanded, we employed white workers to organize for our demands. workers also. But when our white allies in the NLU demanded I set out to organize the growing number of that Black union members abandon the Republican Black labor organizations to fight for our rights Party and form a new Labor Reform Party, we dis- and against discrimination. I was invited to speak agreed. We feared that this would help to elect racist at the National Labor Union (NLU) convention Democrats. As a result, after 1870, Blacks weren’t in the summer of 1869. I told white workers that invited back to the NLU convention. Black workers were ready to join them in a common

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 14 roles

Newton Knight

In 1858, my family settled on a small farm in Jones After the war, I was appointed relief com- County, Mississippi. When the Civil War began, I missioner. In this position, I distributed food to volunteered to fight for the Confederacy. In 1862, the poor and helped liberate enslaved children the Confederacy passed the “Twenty Negro Law” who had not been freed. I was active in the local that allowed men who owned 20 or more slaves to Union League — an organization of mostly Black return home. As more of us poor white farmers died, and some white Republicans — that met in secret, it became clear that poor men were fighting a rich educated each other on politics, and organized to man’s war. I deserted the army and returned home. protect ourselves from the Ku Klux Klan. Repub- I was shocked by what I found. The farms were run- lican Ulysses Grant was elected president in 1868. down. The crops had failed. While children went In 1870, Mississippi at last approved a new con- hungry, the Confederacy imposed a tax system that stitution that guaranteed Black civil and voting allowed the army to take supplies from families. rights. Republicans swept political offices across When more soldiers deserted, we formed the Mississippi. I was appointed U.S. marshal for “Knight Company” to defend Jones County citi- southern Mississippi and I campaigned to build an zens from Confederate troops. We were aided by integrated school in Jones County. local whites and Blacks, some still enslaved. The In the election of 1875, however, violence and Knight Company, numbering more than 100 men, fraud kept Republicans from voting. The gover- declared ourselves “Southern Yankees” and suc- nor pleaded with President Grant to send troops, cessfully overthrew the Confederate government but he refused. The Democrats took back power in Jones County. One enslaved woman, Rachel, in Mississippi and began to turn back the clock. helped us as a spy and supplied us with food. In I retreated to my farm, married Rachel, and lived return, I promised to work for Black freedom. I fell with my interracial family until my death. in love with Rachel and had a child with her.

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 15 roles

Henry Highland Garnet

I was born into slavery in 1815 in Kent County, of Representatives urging them to adopt the 13th Maryland. When I was 9 years old, I escaped slavery Amendment. I was the first African American to with my family and we settled in New York City. deliver a sermon to Congress. It was at the Oneida Theological Institute where After the war, although slavery in the United I became known for my skills as a speaker and devel- States had been abolished, our brothers and sisters oped my philosophy on abolitionism. Eventually, I in Cuba were still in bondage. In 1868, a war broke became a minister. In 1843, I spoke to the delegates out on the island as Cubans fought for their inde- of the National Negro Convention in Buffalo, New pendence from Spain. Cuban revolutionaries like York, where I called for a militant slave revolt against José Martí linked the struggle against slavery to the the plantation owners of the South. Many abolition- fight against the Spanish. I knew we had to help ists at the time thought my call for self-emancipation their efforts and formed the Cuban-Anti Slavery was too radical. But it was ultimately the enslaved Committee in New York City in 1872. I met with rebelling — running away, refusing to work on the Cuban liberation leaders to form an international plantations, taking up arms, and joining the Union coalition to spread emancipation across the globe. Army — that won the Civil War. At a mass meeting in New York City, I urged people I opposed the U.S.-Mexico War because I knew to link the Black freedom struggle with the liberation the real aim was to reimpose slavery on Mexico, movements in Latin America. We gathered 500,000 which had abolished it decades earlier. I travelled signatures to advance the cause of freedom and the country and the world preaching about the ills delivered the petition to President Grant to recognize of slavery. In 1865, I gave a speech to the U.S. House the independent Republic of Cuba.

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 16 roles

Lydia Maria Child

I was born in Massachusetts in 1802. I became like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony involved in the anti-slavery movement in 1831 and who prioritized women’s suffrage. wrote An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans As the struggle for civil rights was debated in Called Africans, the first major study of slavery the North and the South, there was a new surge published in the United States. I also helped to of white Americans moving West. To secure edit the memoirs of fugitive Harriet Jacobs, telling land for these newly arriving whites, the federal the story of her sexual exploitation under slavery government continued to remove Indian tribes and her successful struggle to free herself and her from their native land onto reservations. I wrote children. An Appeal for the Indians, which called for an During and after the Civil War, I continued end to the violent genocide against Native Amer- to use my writing to calm white fears of emanci- icans and for a more humane policy toward these pation and push for full citizenship and suffrage “peoples less advanced than ourselves.” I argued for African Americans. I was an early supporter that U.S.-Indian relations consisted of an “almost of women’s rights, but also thought that after unvaried history of violence and fraud,” and that the war, voting rights for Black men should be we must add to the “vigilant watch over the rights prioritized over women’s suffrage. I believed that of black men” a new campaign supporting the if Black men were not given full legal and polit- rights of “red men.” I lost many friends because of ical equality they could never truly be free from my involvement in social issues, but I continued to slavery. Therefore, I worked hard for the passage advocate for truth and justice by opposing slavery of the 14th and 15th Amendments. This issue and Indian removal, and working for women’s caused a split in the women’s suffrage movement rights. between those abolitionists like myself and others

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 17 roles

P. B. S. Pinchback

I was born free in 1837. My mother was a freed the South played an important role in the Cuban slave and my white planter father was her former solidarity movement—an effort to support those enslaver. I was raised in Mississippi on my father’s leading the fight to end slavery in Cuba and sup- plantation, but when my father died, my mother port its independence from Spain. I was a leader and I moved to Ohio because she was afraid that of the Cuban Anti-Slavery Committee. I helped to the white side of the family would attempt to pass a resolution through the Louisiana legislature enslave us. urging the U.S. Congress “to give material assis- During the Civil War I fought as a Union sol- tance” to help liberate enslaved Cubans. At the dier in the all-Black 1st Louisiana Native Guard. I 1873 Convention of Colored Men in Louisiana, became one of the few Black soldiers to reach the we placed defeating the “barbarous rule of Spanish rank of captain, but I decided to quit because of authority in Cuba” alongside the effort to fight discrimination I faced from white officers. After KKK violence. the war, my family and I moved to Alabama, but In 1871, I briefly became the first African quickly had to move again to New Orleans because American governor when Governor Henry War- of white supremacist violence. moth was impeached. I also should have become It was in New Orleans where I decided to the first Black U.S. senator from Louisiana, but become politically active. In 1867, I was elected the racist U.S. Senate refused to seat me. During to the constitutional convention and played a role my time in Louisiana politics, I served on the Lou- in crafting the 1868 Louisiana Constitution. Later isiana State Board of Education and became the that year I was elected state senator. Nearly half the director of New Orleans public schools. I cared Louisiana legislature was Black. deeply about public education. In 1879, I helped As a legislator, I championed the rights of found Southern University, a historically Black those still in chains. Black political leaders across college.

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 18 roles

W. J. Whipper

I was born free in Philadelphia, the son of a promi- the South to rewrite state constitutions, I knew nent abolitionist. During the Civil War, I volunteered there was a huge opportunity. We could have built to fight in the Union Army and at the end of the war a legal system of equality for all regardless of race was part of the occupying force in South Carolina. I or sex. Unfortunately, most of my fellow delegates became a lawyer in 1865 and tried to help Black peo- felt that women’s suffrage was too radical, and the ple who were denied their legal rights. I also taught in amendment was voted down. a Freedmen’s Bureau school to educate newly freed After the convention, I was elected to the men, women, and children. I moved to Beaufort, a South Carolina House of Representatives as part city in the South Carolina Sea Islands, and along with of the first ever majority-Black state congress and Robert Smalls founded the first Republican political continued to support women’s suffrage. I married organization in South Carolina. Frances Anne Rollin, the daughter of the most I was elected to the 1868 state constitutional prominent free Black family in Charleston. Frances convention in South Carolina and took a lead- and her sisters ran a salon known as the “Repub- ing role, supporting free public education for all lican Headquarters” and she became my closest South Carolinians and equality before the law. I political advisor. Frances’ sister Lottie chaired the introduced a resolution to make South Carolina first-ever meeting of the South Carolina Women’s the first state to allow women to vote. I argued Rights Association, which I supported. I served as that the legal system we were creating would rest a South Carolina Representative until 1876 and on “insecure foundations” until “women are rec- when the Democrats took over the state govern- ognized as the equal of men.” Now that slavery ment, I fought against their efforts to disenfran- was abolished, and delegates were meeting across chise Black voters.

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 19 roles

Charlotte “Lottie” Rollins

I was born in 1849 to a free wealthy Black family In 1869, I went before the South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina. Education was House of Representatives to make my case for important to my parents and they sent my four women’s suffrage. In 1870, I organized the first sisters and me to attend schools in the North. After women’s rights convention in South Carolina the war, my sister Katherine and I opened and and formed the South Carolina Women’s Rights taught at a school for freed people in Charleston. Association. At a speech during a Women’s Rights I wanted to pass the benefits of education on to convention in 1870, I declared, “We ask for suf- newly freed Black men and women. frage not as a favor, not as a privilege, but as a I became well known as a clerk in the office of right based on the grounds that we are human a South Carolina congressman. My sisters and I beings and as such entitled to all human rights.” ran a salon known as the “Republican Headquar- The following year I led a rally at the state capitol ters,” and used our political influence to fight for demanding women’s suffrage and in 1872, I was equal rights. I loved the poetry of Lord Byron and chosen as a delegate to the national convention of believed in his verse that those “who would be free, the American Woman Suffrage Association. themselves must strike the blow.” For me, a Black Although I was able to win several white and woman, this meant I must fight for full suffrage Black Republicans to fight to amend the state and political rights for women. When my sisters constitution to give women the right to vote, the and I were interviewed by the New York Herald measure proved too controversial. After a heated because of our political influence, I proposed the debate in the legislature, which even included a Republican Party run me for vice president in the fistfight, women’s suffrage was defeated. upcoming election.

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 20 roles

Benjamin Montgomery

I was enslaved by the family of Jefferson Davis, At the end of the war, I headed back and along one of the wealthiest and most influential families with formerly enslaved people, and newly freed in Mississippi. Jefferson Davis, was the president refugees, began to farm the land. I leased the land of the Confederacy. When I was first sold to the from the Freedmen’s Bureau and quickly tripled Davises I tried to escape but was recaptured. On my initial investment with a successful cotton their plantation I learned to read and write, sur- crop. We were now free, prosperous, Black farm- vey land, repair machines, navigate steamboats, ers on the land that only a few years ago we had and design buildings. I became a skilled mechanic worked as slaves. and invented a steam-operated boat propeller. I When President Andrew Johnson pardoned applied for a patent but was denied because I was Davis, the title for the land went back to him. But enslaved. Acknowledging my talents, the Davises I had raised enough money to buy it from him. By made me the manager of the plantation store and 1873, my family was the third largest cotton pro- eventually the entire plantation. ducer in Mississippi with an award-winning crop. When the Union Army approached during the But when I was appointed justice of the peace, our Civil War, the Davises fled, leaving me in charge. I white neighbors were infuriated at the thought of a tried to help lead the hundreds of enslaved people Black judge. The increasingly hostile racial politics, who stayed behind supervising production of corn combined with falling cotton prices and floods, and vegetables to feed the community. But after eventually led me to sell the plantation back to Union soldiers burned the plantation mansion, and Jefferson Davis. But my son continued the family Confederate troops burned our crops, it became legacy by co-founding Mound Bayou, a successful clear that staying was too dangerous. I took my wife all-Black colony in Northwest Mississippi. and four children to Ohio until the war ended.

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Abram Colby

I was born into slavery in Greene County, Georgia. hold public office. Many white Republicans voted My mother was enslaved and my father was our with the Democrats to expel Black legislators. owner. In 1851, after more than 30 years in slavery, The Ku Klux Klan stepped up their attacks on my father freed me. Republican voters. When I ran for re-election, I After the Civil War, I built a local chapter of was offered $5,000 to join the Democratic Party, the Georgia Equal Rights Association. We orga- but I told them “I would not do it if they give me nized against employers who were cheating Black all the county was worth.” Twenty-three KKK freedmen out of wages and still whipping them. members then came to my house in the middle We couldn’t get a fair hearing in the courts, so I of the night, pulled me out of bed, and took turns appealed to the military general in control of Geor- whipping and beating me. gia to address our grievances. He never responded. In December 1869, Congress reimposed mili- But Congress put Georgia under military occu- tary rule on Georgia. The Black legislators who had pation after the Georgia legislature rejected the 14th been expelled were reseated. As Georgia’s first Black Amendment and sent Alexander Stephens, the vice legislators, we tried to pass bills creating a militia to president of the Confederacy, to Congress. Black protect freedmen, guarantee civil rights, and ensure voters across the state registered to vote for the first equal access to public transportation. But we failed time. In Greene County, Blacks became a majority because the white Republicans were too weak. of registered voters. I was re-elected to the House of Representa- We organized ourselves into companies and tives in 1870, but Democrats won more than 80 marched to the polls. I was elected to represent percent of the seats. Despite intense violence, I Greene County in the Georgia House of Represen- continued to organize and speak out against racist tatives. But the Georgia Democrats argued that the terrorists. state Constitution did not give Blacks the right to

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 22 roles

John Roy Lynch

I was born into slavery in Louisiana. My mother was of the first generation of African American U.S. enslaved, and my father, the plantation overseer, was congressmen and traveled to Washington, D.C., to an Irish immigrant. He began to raise money to buy represent Mississippi. I was the youngest member our freedom, but suddenly died and we were sold to of Congress. I advocated for the Civil Rights Act of a plantation in Mississippi. During the Civil War, I 1875, which ended legal discrimination in public freed myself by running away and joining the Union places and transportation, until the U.S. Supreme Army. Court declared the law unconstitutional in 1883. After the war, I joined the Republican Party in Back in Mississippi, racist Democrats unleashed Mississippi working as assistant secretary for the a wave of violence and intimidation in an effort to Republican State Convention. In 1869, the gover- take back power. I exposed Democrats for work- nor appointed me as justice of the peace in Adams ing with terrorists like the Ku Klux Klan and other County. In this position, I had significant authority. paramilitary groups to overthrow the Republican Now that Black people felt like they could get some Party and suppress the Black vote. But the federal justice, they would bring in white people for the government refused to intervene. I was re-elected to smallest offense. In several cases, I was able to punish Congress in 1876 and 1880 but felt increasingly iso- white planters who beat or threatened their Black lated as Democrats took back power by force across workers — dispensing justice that was never received the state. As I grew older, I became increasingly under slavery. concerned about the racist and inaccurate portrayal The same year I was elected to the Mississippi of Blacks by historians of Reconstruction. I wrote House of Representatives. And in 1872, by the time I a book titled The Facts of Reconstruction to set the was 25, I became the first African American Speaker record straight. of the House. Later that year, I was elected as part

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 23 roles

Walter Moses Burton

I was born into slavery in North Carolina, but was public schools and to get wealthy white landowners later brought to Texas where I spent most of my life. to sell unused land to newly freed Blacks. It was my The plantation owner I worked for, Thomas Burke job to make sure taxes were paid and justice was Burton, taught me how to read and write. given equally to Blacks and whites. When I was freed after the Civil War, Mr. Burton In 1873 I was elected to the Texas Senate, where I sold me several large plots of land, making me one served for seven years. As a state senator, I advocated of the wealthiest Black men in Fort Bend County. I for public education and helped establish the first became involved in politics, joined the Republican state-supported Black college in Texas. I also opposed Party, and was soon elected president of the Fort the convict labor system that provided corporations Bend County Union League. The Union Leagues and plantations with free Black labor. Because the were secret interracial political organizations that 13th Amendment abolished slavery “except as a pun- educated voters, trained and nominated candidates ishment for crime,” Blacks who were convicted even for office, and provided armed protection at the polls on bogus charges could be re-enslaved. and from white terrorists. No other county in Texas elected more Blacks Ford Bend County was 80 percent Black and we to political office than Fort Bend. Long after Recon- were organized. In 1869, the first election held under struction had ended Black people were still in posi- the new Reconstruction constitution, I was elected tions of power in our county. But white people both tax collector and the first ever African American outnumbered Black people in Texas two to one. sheriff in the United States. These were especially Reconstruction was short-lived here and the Dem- important local positions because Reconstruction ocrats took back control of the state government governments raised taxes to provide money for through fraud, violence, and intimidation in 1872.

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 24 roles

Kate Mullany

I was born in Ireland in 1845, but a few years later and supported male labor unions and donated my family moved to the United States. When I was large sums of money when they went on strike. 19, my father passed away and my mother became In 1868, I was invited to attend the National ill, leaving me the main breadwinner of the family. Labor Union (NLU) convention. I was appointed I worked 12- to 14-hour days with other young by President William Sylvis to be the assistant women washing, drying, and ironing clothes, secretary, becoming the first woman officer in the using harsh chemicals, and earning less than $4 a NLU. I coordinated national efforts with various week. When we asked for a pay increase, employ- working women’s associations. ers ignored us, so we started discussing how to Our efforts gained support from suffragists like organize to demand higher wages and better work- Susan B. Anthony and they helped us raise funds ing conditions. We had seen how male workers in after we lost a difficult strike in 1869 to start our the National Union of Iron Molders went on strike own collar manufacturing cooperative. But ulti- to win their demands. In 1864, I went on strike for mately, I felt the most important rights for working five and a half days with more than 300 women women could be won only by organizing on the job who worked across 14 laundry companies. We with male workers. Anthony and her middle-class won a 25 percent increase in wages and organized followers increasingly focused only on the right the Collar Labor Union, the first female labor to vote. I was surprised when I went to speak to union in the United States. Anthony’s Working Women’s Association, to raise The following year, the Collar Laundry Union funds for our cooperative, that the women I met organized again for increased wages and our pay there did not at all seem like the working women I went from $8 to $14 a week. We often worked with knew, who labored all day in a dirty shop.

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer – Zinn Education Project 25