DOCSLIB.ORG

During Reconstruction, Georgia Established a Regain Control of the Government for White State-Funded Public School System for All the Southerners

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
During Reconstruction, Georgia Established a Regain Control of the Government for White State-Funded Public School System for All the Southerners _____________________________________ ____________________ ____________________ __________________________ ___________ ____________________ ____________________ __________________________ ___________ _ _ __________________ _ _ __________________ _ _ _________________ _ _ __________________ _ _ __________________ _ _ __________________ _ _ __________________ _ ict as soldiers _ __________________ _ Its Heritage and Its Promise _ __________________ _ white supremacy, _ __________________ _ TERMS _ __________________ _ PEOPLE Georgia: Oliver O. Howard O. Oliver _ __________________ _ The end of the Civil War was War The end of the Civil Redeemers, poll tax,Redeemers, _ __________________ _ Reconstruction, freedmen, Freedmen’s Bureau, tenant Bureau, Freedmen’s Klan, Fifteenth Amendment, Klan, Fifteenth _ __________________ _ Thirteenth Black Amendment, Johnson, Henry McNeal Turner, Johnson, HenryTurner, McNeal William Felton, Alfred Colquitt, Felton, William Charles Jones Jenkins, HerschelCharles Jones Jenkins, convict segregate lease system, Codes, Fourteenth Amendment, Fourteenth Codes, carpetbagger, scalawag, Ku Klux scalawag, carpetbagger, discrimination, discrimination, Right: a time for many tearful many a time for reunions on both sides of the confl their homes. returned to Andrew Johnson, James Johnson,Andrew 416 ___________________ crop lien, sharecropping, farming, _ _ ___________________ _ _ __________________ _ _ __________________ _ _ __________________ 417 _ _ __________________ _ _ __________________ orts from _ _ __________________ erent _ _ __________________ _ _ __________________ _ _ __________________ _ _ __________________ _ _ __________________ South began the dif- Reconstruction _ _ __________________ _ _ __________________ differe were many e southern states were in _ _ _________________ Reconstructing the State forceserent would try to con- _ _ __________________ _ _ __________________ of period is ________t ___________ ldld fter four long years of bloodshed, the of bloodshed, long years fter four f U.S. Civil War ended in the late spring Civil U.S. U War of 1865. Th o chaoschc without stable governments. CropsCCCCCCCCCCC and buildings in lay ruins in o ey also the southern had to rebuild in these involvement eff e North’s SSSSo _ _ __________________ Chapter 17: _ _ __________________ aas _ _ __________________ are y _ _ __________________ ny Many questions facedMany and the South. the nation In 1865, the North and the _ _ __________________ e South was left to its own solutions. In this chap- cult work of bringing the southern states back into mma many areas.many Soldiers struggled to get home, while anxious families waited. African Many Americans set out in search of family or work or simply to exercise their freedom. would the twoHow sections of the country be re- economy be rebuilt,united? would the South’s How and how would southerners make their living? What would happen to the almost four million who slaves were now free, but who had no land and, in most cases, no education? would the new How southern society be structured? Th ___________________opinions on how these questions be should answered. over a decade,For diff trol the direction of the South. fi Th the Union. states in all areas of life—politics, and the economy, Th the society. lasted only a few years. By 1877, northerners and the governmentnational were focused on other issues. Th the developments we will explore in politics,ter, the and the society and cultureeconomy, as Georgia and the rest of the South recovered following and rebuilt Th the Civil War. 1865 to 1877 set Georgia on the path it would follow decades.for many _ ____________________ ____________________ __________________________ ___________ ____________________ _____________________________________ As you read, look for • the presidential plans for Reconstruction, • the impact of the Black Codes, • the actions taken by the state to rejoin the Union, • the Reconstruction amendments, • the end of Reconstruction, • terms: freedmen, Thirteenth Amendment, Black Codes, Fourteenth Amendment, carpetbagger, scalawag, Ku Klux Klan, Fifteenth Amendment, Redeemer, poll tax, ddiscrimination.iscrimination. 1867 1868 Georgia put under New constitution adopted; State ratifi ed 14th Amendment; Georgia readmitted to Union military rule; 1869 constitutional convention State returned to military rule 1865 1870 1876 Charles Georgia ratifi ed 15th Amendment and Alfred Colquitt elected governor Jones readmitted to Union Jenkins elected 1871 1877 governor James Smith elected governor New constitution written 18661866 18681868 18701870 18721872 18771877 Congress President First national Yellowstone First Flag Day held passed Andrew weather Park, world’s fi rst 1875 14th Johnson bureau national park, Aristides won fi rst Kentucky Derby Amendment impeached established created but 1865 acquitted by one vote President Lincoln assassinated; Andrew Johnson became president; Freedmen’s Bureau founded 418 Chapter 17: Reconstructing the State One of the major issues at the end of the war was how the Union and the Above: During his second inaugural former Confederacy would be recombined. Th e South had considered it- address, on March 4, 1865, President self a separate nation during the war. If that logic was followed, then it was Abraham Lincoln expressed his desire a conquered nation at the end of the war and could have been considered that the nation could reunite “with “territory.” However, the United States government had not considered malice toward none.” secession to be legal, so it did not look at the South as a conquered nation but an area that had been in rebellion. At the end of the war, it no longer was. Getting the former rebel states reunited with the northern states and constructing loyal governments in those states was the task facing the na- tional government. Th e return of Georgia to the Union is a confusing story because two sides were trying to gain power. One side wanted Georgia after the war to be as much like Georgia before the war as possible. Th e other side wanted Geor- gia to go in a new direction. For several years, power went back and forth between them. Finally, those wanting less change gained power for good. Presidential Reconstruction Before the Civil War ended, President Abraham Lincoln had begun preparing for the South to return to its “proper relationship” with the rest of the country. As he said in his second inaugural address in March 1865, he wanted Americans to “bind up the nation’s wounds.” Lincoln believed that this process, called Reconstruction, should be directed by the president. His goal was a quick and easy reunion. He was willing to pardon almost any rebel southerner who renounced secession Section 1: Political Reconstruction 419 and accepted the end of slavery. Under Lin- coln’s Reconstruction plan, after 10 percent of the voters in a former Confederate state had taken an oath of loyalty to the United States, the state could begin to form a new government. Many northern leaders thought that Lincoln’s “Ten Percent” plan made it too easy for ex- Confederates to return and that it did not call for any guarantees for rights for the freedmen (the newly freed slaves). In July 1864, the U.S. Congress offered a plan that required more. At least 50 percent of the former Confederates in each state would have to take the loyalty oath, and each new state constitution would have to be written by those who had not participated in the rebellion. Congress’s plan also contained guarantees of rights for African Americans. Lincoln did not sign the Wade-Davis Bill, which outlined Con- gress’s plan, so it did not become law. Lincoln continued to conduct Reconstruction in his own way, but he never had the chance to see it through. On April 14, 1865, southerner John Wilkes Booth entered the Ford Th eatre in Washington, D.C., where President and Mrs. Lincoln were watching a play, and shot the president. Lincoln died a few hours later. Vice President Andrew Johnson became the president. He had been an interesting SectionS i 11. NeitherN i h slaveryl nor iinvoluntaryl servitude,i d choice as Lincoln’s vice presidential running except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall mate in the 1864 election. He was a Democrat, have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United while Lincoln had been a Republican. He States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. was also from the South, a Tennessean, who had opposed secession and the war, which he blamed on the planter class of the South. Like Lincoln, Johnson also wanted a quick and easy Reconstruction for the South. Since Congress had adjourned in March 1865 and would not meet again until December, Johnson believed he had several months to carry out his own Reconstruction plan. Th at plan included renouncing both seces- sion and the debts owed by the Confederate government and ratifying the Th irteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Th at amendment made President Andrew Johnson it unconstitutional for anyone to be held in “involuntary servitude,” which did not object to the Black was another way of saying “slavery.” Although Johnson disliked southern Codes of Georgia or any planters, he pardoned most of those who applied and returned to them lands that had been taken away in the war. other southern state. In June 1865, President Johnson appointed Columbus attorney and Unionist James Johnson as provisional governor. Th at October, white male 420 Chapter 17: Reconstructing the State voters elected delegates to a state constitutional conven- tion. Many of those elected to the 1865 convention had initially opposed secession. The delegates passed the president’s requirements, although some did not like having to do it. For example, they repealed the ordinance of secession but refused to say that they did not have the right to secede. Th ese delegates also wrote a new con- stitution. It outlined citizens’ rights in Article 1 and, in following articles, established the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government and outlined their powers. Article V held “miscellaneous” provisions.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Professor Russell Duncan CV [email protected] Personal
    INSTITUT FOR ENGELSK , GERMANSK OG ROMANS K KØBENHAVNS UNIVERSIT ET Professor Russell Duncan CV [email protected] Personal: 01.JULY 2011 Citizenship: USA Resident Status: Denmark (since 1998) Home Address: Skaboeshusevænget 1, 5800 Nyborg, Denmark NJALSGADE 130 Born: 30 May 1951, Statesboro, Georgia, USA 2300 COPENHAGEN S DIR 35328577 Education: 1988 Ph.D. History, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA [email protected] 1984 M.A. History, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA 1975 M.S. Sociology, Valdosta State University, Valdosta, Georgia, USA 1973 B.S. Political Science (emphasis on Criminal Justice), Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia, USA Employment: 2004- Professor of History and Social Studies in the English-Speaking World, University of Copenhagen, Denmark 1998-03 Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen, Denmark 1997-98 Professor, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway 1996-97 Associate Professor, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway 1993-96 Associate Professor, John Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA 1989-93 Assistant Professor, John Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA 1988-89 Assistant Professor, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA 1982-88 M.A. and PhD. Student, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA 1975-82 Flight Instructor/Captain, RF4-C reconnaissance aircraft, United States Air Force, Zweibrücken, Germany 1973-75 Special Agent, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Atlanta, Georgia, USA Publications: SIDE 2 AF 16 Books: Contemporary America (with Joseph Goddard). 3rd Edition. Contemporary States and Societies Series. London: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2009. Beijing: Renmin University Press, 2009. Bucharest: University of Bucharest Press, 2010. Transnational America: Contours of Modern US Culture (ed. with Clara Juncker), Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen/Museum Tusculanum Press, 2004.
    [Show full text]
  • 'They Made Gullah': Modernist Primitivists and The
    “ ‘They Made Gullah’: Modernist Primitivists and the Discovery and Creation of Sapelo Island, Georgia’s Gullah Community, 1915-1991” By Melissa L. Cooper A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in History written under the direction of Dr. Mia Bay and approved by New Brunswick, New Jersey January 2012 2012 Melissa L. Cooper ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION “ ‘They Made Gullah’: Modernist Primitivists and the Discovery and Creation of Sapelo Island, Georgia’s Gullah Community, 1915-1991” by Melissa L. Cooper Dissertation Director: Dr. Mia Bay ABSTRACT: The history of Sapelo Islanders in published works reveals a complex cast of characters, each one working through ideas about racial distinction and inheritance; African culture and spirituality; and the legacy of slavery during the most turbulent years in America’s race-making history. Feuding social scientists, adventure seeking journalists, amateur folklorists, and other writers, initiated and shaped the perception of Sapelo Islanders’ distinct connection to Africa during the 1920s and 1930s, and labeled them “Gullah.” These researchers characterized the “Gullah,” as being uniquely connected to their African past, and as a population among whom African “survivals” were readily observable. This dissertation argues that the popular view of Sapelo Islanders’ “uniqueness” was the product of changing formulations about race and racial distinction in America. Consequently, the “discovery” of Sapelo Island’s Gullah folk was more a sign of times than an anthropological discovery. This dissertation interrogates the intellectual motives of the researchers and writers who have explored Sapelo Islanders in their works, and argues that the advent of American Modernism, the development of new social scientific theories and popular cultural works during the 1920s and 1930s, and other trends shaped their depictions.
    [Show full text]
  • University of Cincinnati
    UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI Date:_December 13, 2006_ I, James Michael Rhyne______________________________________, hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of: Doctor of Philosophy in: History It is entitled: Rehearsal for Redemption: The Politics of Post-Emancipation Violence in Kentucky’s Bluegrass Region This work and its defense approved by: Chair: _Wayne K. Durrill_____________ _Christopher Phillips_________ _Wendy Kline__________________ _Linda Przybyszewski__________ Rehearsal for Redemption: The Politics of Post-Emancipation Violence in Kentucky’s Bluegrass Region A Dissertation submitted to the Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in the Department of History of the College of Arts and Sciences 2006 By James Michael Rhyne M.A., Western Carolina University, 1997 M-Div., Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1989 B.A., Wake Forest University, 1982 Committee Chair: Professor Wayne K. Durrill Abstract Rehearsal for Redemption: The Politics of Post-Emancipation Violence in Kentucky’s Bluegrass Region By James Michael Rhyne In the late antebellum period, changing economic and social realities fostered conflicts among Kentuckians as tension built over a number of issues, especially the future of slavery. Local clashes matured into widespread, violent confrontations during the Civil War, as an ugly guerrilla war raged through much of the state. Additionally, African Americans engaged in a wartime contest over the meaning of freedom. Nowhere were these interconnected conflicts more clearly evidenced than in the Bluegrass Region. Though Kentucky had never seceded, the Freedmen’s Bureau established a branch in the Commonwealth after the war.
    [Show full text]
  • The Politics and Culture of Literacy in Georgia, 1800-1920
    THE POLITICS AND CULTURE OF LITERACY IN GEORGIA, 1800-1920 Bruce Fort Atlanta, Georgia B. A., Georgetown University, 1985 M.A., University of Virginia, 1989 A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Corcoran Department of History University of Virginia August 1999 © Copyright by Bruce Fort All Rights Reserved August 1999 ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the uses and meanings of reading in the nineteenth­ century American South. In a region where social relations were largely defined by slavery and its aftermath, contests over education were tense, unpredictable, and frequently bloody. Literacy figured centrally in many of the region's major struggles: the relationship between slaveowners and slaves, the competing efforts to create and constrain black freedom following emancipation, and the disfranchisement of black voters at the turn of the century. Education signified piety and propriety, self-culture and self-control, all virtues carefully cultivated and highly prized in nineteenth-century America. Early advocates of public schooling argued that education and citizenship were indissociable, a sentiment that was refined and reshaped over the course of the nineteenth century. The effort to define this relationship, throughout the century a leitmotif of American public life, bubbled to the surface in the South at critical moments: during the early national period, as Americans sought to put the nation's founding principles into motion; during the 1830s, as insurrectionists and abolitionists sought to undermine slavery; during Reconstruction, with the institution of black male citizenship; and at last, during the disfranchisement movement of the 1890s and 1900s, with the imposition of literacy tests.
    [Show full text]
  • Additional Reading: Black Reconstruction
    Name:____________________________________________________________ Class Period:_____ Additional Reading: Black Reconstruction Source: Black Reconstruction - THE INITIAL STAGES, BLACK POLITICAL POWER, THE END OF RECONSTRUCTION, LAYING THE FOUNDATION FOR FUTURE RESISTANCE - JRank Articles http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6010/Black-Reconstruction.html#ixzz2Br7mauZI Directions: Read the article. Highlight your cues (main ideas & significant proper nouns… people and events), then write your thesis in response to the prompt. The term Black Reconstruction refers to the actions and activities of both black and white Americans in the period immediately after the Civil War. It involved the transformation of Southern political, economic, and social institutions in a manner consistent with the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, which collectively established black freedom and equality. Many historians define Black Reconstruction as spanning the years from 1863 (the year of the Emancipation Proclamation, which made possible widespread black military participation in the Civil War) through 1877 (the year of the national political agreement to remove federal troops from the South). However, significant political and other Reconstruction activity by African Americans continued at the local and state levels beyond 1877. The rebuilding of Southern society and the political reintegration of the South into the nation after the Civil War is referred to more generally simply as Reconstruction. Unfortunately, for the first half of the twentieth century, scholarly and historical attention focused almost exclusively on the actions of whites, both in the South and in the North, and ignored the immense contributions of African Americans. Moreover, to the extent that white historians considered the activities of African Americans at all, for much of the twentieth century they adopted the white supremacist views that Columbia University professor William Dunning and his followers held at the turn of the nineteenth century.
    [Show full text]
  • Civil War Reconstruction Notes: Minutes 1-5 Minutes 6-10 Minutes 11-15 Minutes 16-20 Southerners Heard Rumors of Rebel Victories, Anything to Keep Hope Up
    Name_______________________Hr._____ Civil War Reconstruction Notes: Minutes 1-5 Minutes 6-10 Minutes 11-15 Minutes 16-20 Southerners heard rumors of rebel victories, anything to keep hope up. With surrender, honor, glory, manhood, independence all gone. Slaves are the only ones they know that are conquered. Lincoln suggested in speech that some blacks may get right to vote. Booth heard this and was infuriated. Minutes 21-25 What rights will former slaves have? Who will rule in the South? What happens to people from the South? Execution? What will new president bring? Johnson was enemy of big planters. Said traitors needed to be punished, but wanted to keep blacks subordinate. Johnson scorned Frederick Douglass. What was to become of lands under Sherman’s field Order 15? Opportunity to create an independent black community existed. Minutes 26-30 An immediate calling for seed, plows. Crops were in the ground right off the bat. Blueprint for a government with Campbell as President at St Catherines Island. Twitchell gets job with Freedman’s Bureau. Minutes 31-35 Twitchell and a few black soldiers head up from New Orleans on a riverboat. In Sparta, LA he sets up an office for the Freedman’s bureau. This is an extremely unfriendly to blacks area. Planters resented this intrusion. Johnson took 48 days (May) after taking office to announce his plan for Presidential Reconstruction. – Rampant – lenient – blanket pardons hurry up the process. Northerners were surprised. South just had to admit they lost. Planters had to write Johnson personally to beg for clemency. Minutes 36-40 Johnson wanted to look out for poor whites in the South.
    [Show full text]
  • The African-American Emigration Movement in Georgia During Reconstruction
    Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University History Dissertations Department of History Summer 6-20-2011 The African-American Emigration Movement in Georgia during Reconstruction Falechiondro Karcheik Sims-Alvarado Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_diss Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Sims-Alvarado, Falechiondro Karcheik, "The African-American Emigration Movement in Georgia during Reconstruction." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2011. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_diss/29 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of History at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN EMIGRATION MOVEMENT IN GEORGIA DURING RECONSTRUCTION by FALECHIONDRO KARCHEIK SIMS-ALVARADO Under the Direction of Hugh Hudson ABSTRACT This dissertation is a narrative history about nearly 800 newly freed black Georgians who sought freedom beyond the borders of the Unites States by emigrating to Liberia during the years of 1866 and 1868. This work fulfills three overarching goals. First, I demonstrate that during the wake of Reconstruction, newly freed persons’ interest in returning to Africa did not die with the Civil War. Second, I identify and analyze the motivations of blacks seeking autonomy in Africa. Third, I tell the stories and challenges of those black Georgians who chose emigration as the means to civil and political freedom in the face of white opposition. In understanding the motives of black Georgians who emigrated to Liberia, I analyze correspondence from black and white Georgians and the white leaders of the American Colonization Society and letters from Liberia settlers to black friends and families in the Unites States.
    [Show full text]
  • "The Great Cry of Our People Is Land!": Black Settlement and Community Development on Ossabaw Island, Georgia, 1865-1900
    Swarthmore College Works History Faculty Works History 2010 "The Great Cry Of Our People Is Land!": Black Settlement And Community Development On Ossabaw Island, Georgia, 1865-1900 Allison Dorsey Swarthmore College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-history Part of the History Commons Let us know how access to these works benefits ouy Recommended Citation Allison Dorsey. (2010). ""The Great Cry Of Our People Is Land!": Black Settlement And Community Development On Ossabaw Island, Georgia, 1865-1900". African American Life In The Georgia Lowcountry: The Atlantic World And The Gullah Geechee. 224-252. https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-history/185 This work is brought to you for free by Swarthmore College Libraries' Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Faculty Works by an authorized administrator of Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Allison Dorsey “The great cry of our people is land!” Black Settlement and Community Development on Ossabaw Island, Georgia, 1865–1900 The great cry of our people is land. If they can be protected they will get on well enough. They want to be free-holders, land holders and to hold office like white men. —Tunis Campbell, 1871 shaken Andrew Waters wrote to John W. Magill, superinten- A dent of the Freedmen’s Bureau for Ossabaw Island, informing him that, in the face of violent confrontation on December 3, 1866, he had been unsuccessful in arresting a defendant charged with “con- tempt of authority.” Less than pleased, Magill ordered Waters “to arrest Mustapha Shaw and bring him before me .
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 16: Reconstructing a Nation, 1865-1877
    Chapter 16: Reconstructing a Nation, 1865-1877 Overview Reconstructing the Union and the nation’s political economy presented many questions and few answers. There was no plan in place at the end of the war, many options were tried. President Johnson was committed to limited government and resisted Republican plans to use federal power to help freed people. His reconstruction plans failed miserably. Congressional Reconstruction prevailed and this time an even more radical Congress took power. Reconstruction politics affected Northerners in ways that were not predicted. Key Topics • Wartime approaches to Reconstruction • The failure of President Johnson’s plan for Reconstruction • The transformation of the southern labor system • The nature of Congressional Reconstruction • Declining national interest in Reconstruction Review Questions 9 Why was the “Banks Plan” in Louisiana so controversial? 9 What was the fate of the various efforts to redistribute southern land among freed people? 9 What was so “radical” about Radical Reconstruction? 9 Why was Andrew Johnson impeached? 9 How did Reconstruction affect the North? What were the major causes for the decline of Radical Reconstruction? Annotated chapter outline John Richard Dennett Visits a Freedmen’s Bureau Court: John Dennett, a reporter for The Nation, toured parts of the South following the Civil War. In Liberty, Virginia, he spent the day with an agent of the Freedmen’s Bureau as he tried to mediate labor disputes between white land owners and newly freed black men. His observations that day illustrrated the obstacles the nation faced as it tried to reconstruct itself. War Time Reconstruction: Reconstructing the Union and the nation’s political economy presented many questions and few answers.
    [Show full text]
  • 0205010628.Pdf
    10644_17_ch17_p410 12/17/10 4:04 PM Page 410 The war passed from words to stones which the white children began to hurl at the colored. Several colored children were hurt and, as they had not resented the rock throwing . , the white children became more aggressive and abusive. — T. Thomas Fortune, from Norfolk Journal and Guide, 1866 Theodor Kaufmann (1814–1896), On to Liberty, 1867. Oil on canvas, 36 ϫ 56 in (91.4 ϫ 142.2 cm). Runaway slaves escaping through the woods. Art Resource/Metropolitan Museum of Art. 10644_17_ch17_p411-442 12/17/10 4:08 PM Page 411 17 Reconstruction 1863–1877 Hear the Audio Hear the audio files for Chapter 17 at www.myhistorylab.com. the competing political plans for reconstructing the defeated Confederacy? the most important changes in the lives of African Americans in the years immediately following the war? were Southern Republicans in reshaping southern society and government? the northern political landscape change in the decades after the Civil War? 10644_17_ch17_p411-442 12/17/10 4:08 PM Page 412 412 CHAPTER 17 RECONSTRUCTION, 1863–1877 AMERICAN COMMUNITIES Hale County, Alabama: From Slavery to Freedom in a Black Belt Community ON A BRIGHT SATURDAY MORNING IN MAY 1867, 4,000 FORMER SLAVES antebellum period, in which large groups of slaves worked under streamed into the town of Greensboro, bustling seat of Hale County the harsh and constant supervision of white overseers, to the share- in west-central Alabama. They came to hear speeches from two dele- cropping system, in which African American families worked small gates to a recent freedmen’s convention in Mobile and to find out plots of land in exchange for a small share of the crop.
    [Show full text]
  • An Analysis of the Freedmen's Bureau Subassistant Commissioners In
    A STRANGER AMONGST STRANGERS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE FREEDMEN’S BUREAU SUBASSISTANT COMMISSIONERS IN TEXAS, 1865-1868 Christopher B. Bean, B.A., M.S. Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS August 2008 APPROVED: Richard G. Lowe, Major Professor Randolph B. Campbell, Committee Member Richard B. McCaslin, Committee Member Melodie Kelly, Committee Member Arian R. Lewis, Committee Member and Chair of the Department of History Sandra L. Terrell, Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies Bean, Christopher B. A Stranger Amongst Strangers: An Analysis of the Freedmen’s Bureau Subassistant Commissioners in Texas, 1865-1868. Doctor of Philosophy (History), August 2008, 476 pp., 5 maps, bibliography, 372 titles. This dissertation is a study of the subassistant commissioners of the Freedmen’s Bureau in Texas from late 1865 to late 1868. Its focus is two-fold. It first examines who these men were. Were they northern born or southern? Did they own slaves? Were these men rich, poor, or from the middle-class? Did they have military experience or were they civilians? How old was the average subassistant commissioner in Texas? This work will answer what man Freedmen’s Bureau officials deemed qualified to transition the former slave from bondage to freedom. Secondly, in conjunction with these questions, this work will examine the day-to-day operations of the Bureau agents in Texas, chronicling those aspects endemic to all agents as well as those unique to certain subdistricts. The demand of being a Bureau agent was immense, requiring long hours in the office fielding questions and long hours in the saddle inspecting subdistricts.
    [Show full text]
  • Resisting Redemption the Republican Vote in Georgia in 1876
    Richard Hogan Resisting Redemption The Republican Vote in Georgia in 1876 Analysis of the Republican Party popular vote in Georgia county congressional elec- tions of 1876 suggests that Charles Tilly’s (1978) model of interest-based collective action would be useful if embedded in the dynamic model of political processes and mechanisms that Tilly (2007) proposes. Specifically, class (petit bourgeois), status (black), and party (liberal Republican) interests explain 25 percent of the variance in the election returns. Adding a racial- change variable increases the explained variance to 32 percent but fails to distinguish the yeoman and freedman constituencies and the process through which the Democratic Redeemers divided and conquered the opposition in the process of “de- democratization” (ibid.). By embedding the structural analysis in the analysis of process (quantitatively and qualitatively), we can appreciate how yeo- man and freedman constituencies experienced contract/convict labor differently and expressed opposition to Redeemers in qualitatively different ways, ultimately facilitat- ing divide- and- conquer efforts. Once they lost federal allies, Republicans in Confederate states were hard- pressed to resist Democratic Redeemers. Democrats reestablished the uneasy alliance of Appalachian and cotton-belt whites while effectively dividing and conquering black opposition. Although most Confederate states could claim a white majority (Degler 1974: 193) and could use state government authority or local Ku Klux Klan or militia coercion
    [Show full text]