ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: RECKONING WITH FREEDOM: LEGACIES OF EXCLUSION, DEHUMANIZATION, AND BLACK RESISTANCE IN THE RHETORIC OF THE FREEDMEN’S BUREAU Jessica H. Lu, Doctor of Philosophy, 2018 Dissertation directed by: Professor Shawn J. Parry-Giles Department of Communication Charged with facilitating the transition of former slaves from bondage to freedom, the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (known colloquially as the Freedmen’s Bureau) played a crucial role in shaping the experiences of black and African Americans in the years following the Civil War. Many historians have explored the agency’s administrative policies and assessed its pragmatic effectiveness within the social, political, and economic milieu of the emancipation era. However, scholars have not adequately grappled with the lasting implications of its arguments and professed efforts to support freedmen. Therefore, this dissertation seeks to analyze and unpack the rhetorical textures of the Bureau’s early discourse and, in particular, its negotiation of freedom as an exclusionary, rather than inclusionary, idea. By closely examining a wealth of archival documents— including letters, memos, circular announcements, receipts, congressional proceedings, and newspaper articles—I interrogate how the Bureau extended antebellum freedom legacies to not merely explain but police the boundaries of American belonging and black inclusion. Ultimately, I contend that arguments by and about the Bureau contributed significantly to the reconstruction of a post-bellum racial order that affirmed the racist underpinnings of the social contract, further contributed to the dehumanization of former slaves, and prompted black people to resist the ongoing assault on their freedom. This project thus provides a compelling case study that underscores how rhetorical analysis can help us better understand the ways in which seemingly progressive ideas can be used to justify exercises of power and domination. Additionally, this interpretation of the Bureau’s primary role as a mechanism of supervision, rather than support, sheds light on the history of unjust practices that persist today in American race relations. Finally, this study affirms how black people have persevered in inventive and innovative ways to disrupt the pervasive discourse that seeks to destroy them. RECKONING WITH FREEDOM: LEGACIES OF EXCLUSION, DEHUMANIZATION, AND BLACK RESISTANCE IN THE RHETORIC OF THE FREEDMEN’S BUREAU by Jessica H. Lu Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2018 Advisory Committee: Professor Shawn J. Parry-Giles, Dissertation Chair and Chair of the Advisory Committee Professor James F. Klumpp Professor Damien Pfister Professor Michelle V. Rowley Professor Catherine Knight Steele © Copyright by Jessica H. Lu 2018 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am indebted to a great many people who helped propel this project toward completion. I extend my sincere gratitude first to the graduate faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park, especially those teaching and researching in the Departments of Communication and Women’s Studies. I thank, especially, my committee: Dr. Shawn Parry-Giles, Dr. James F. Klumpp, Dr. Catherine Knight Steele, Dr. Damien Pfister, and Dr. Michelle Rowley. Their brilliance, compassion, and critical insights contributed to this study in innumerable ways. This project would not have been possible without two exceptional advisers supporting my work in distinct stages of its development: Shawn, who always believed in me more than I ever believed in myself and never failed to remind me that I had someone in my corner; and Dr. Klumpp, who taught me how to build an argument and guided me in those strange, early years, when I felt both terrifyingly out of my depth and completely in my element at the same time. During the final year of this project’s maturation, I had the honor of joining the African American History, Culture, & Digital Humanities (AADHum) team, which embraced, sheltered, and nurtured me at a time when I needed it the most. Catherine, Jovonne, Justin, Kevin, Melissa, and Will have selflessly shared their inspiration and genuine care, and taught this rhetorician what it means to work together. Along with Trevor, Purdom, Raff, and Ed at the Maryland Institution for Technology in the Humanities (MITH), they have shown me how my work and joy can merge together and balance one another in new and beautiful ways. I dare say the field owes a great debt to true teachers, like Dr. Bryan Crable and Dr. Abraham Khan, who are engaged, passionate, and generous enough to mentor undergraduates and introduce them to the joys of intellectual rigor, curiosity, and play. Years ago, Bryan and Abe set me on this path and lit a fire under me, the ferocity of which I could hardly ever imagine. Finally, I offer my most heartfelt appreciation to the people who have enriched my life and made it possible for me to endure the unpredictable highs and lows of graduate school: My parents, Brian and Dau, who raised a determined woman whom they ultimately let find her own way; and Justine, who has shown me time and time again what it means to power through. The cherished friends who have renewed my spirit and have remained closest by my side, for a moment or for a lifetime— Vivien V. Angelus, Robby Breithaupt, Elizabeth Gardner, Taylor Hahn, James Huganir, Elissa Lawson, Katie Mayberry, Thomas McCloskey, Jade Olson, Yvonne Slosarski, Janna Söder, Robin Tilley, and Kathryn Zoerb. ii My students, especially those in Rhetoric of Black America and Communication and Gender, who have joined me in learning. I thank, especially, Mary Ellen Tokar, Logan Nelson, Desiree Harrison-Brown, Hannah Grimes, Tam-Anh Nguyen, and Samira Jackson for proving that nothing is impossible if we support strong and brilliant women. And Mike, who found me at the finish line, with optimism, patience, breaths of fresh air, and—most importantly—dreams of a future beyond this. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv INTRODUCTION 1 THE RHETORIC OF FREEDOM 4 THE PROBLEM OF FREEDOM IN THE ERA OF EMANCIPATION 35 AN OUTLINE OF CHAPTERS 48 NEW FREEDOMS, OLD TERMS: THE BUREAU’S RHETORIC OF EARNED RIGHTS 67 HEAD COMMISSIONER HOWARD: “A GENTLEMAN, FAITHFUL AND COOPERATIVE” 71 THE BUREAU’S TERMS 78 THE CONSEQUENCES OF COMPROMISE 96 FORTIFYING FREEDOM’S BORDERS: CLASSIFICATION, CONFINEMENT, AND CONTROL IN FREEDMEN’S VILLAGE 107 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF FREEDMEN’S VILLAGE 109 THE BUREAU TAKES COMMAND 113 EARNED RIGHTS IN PRACTICE 120 A NEW MASTER 135 THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM: THE ABANDONMENT OF FREEDMEN IN THE 1866 CONGRESSIONAL DEBATE 145 S. NO. 60: A “LIGHTNING ROD OF CONTROVERSY” 147 THE DEBATE: ARGUMENTS OF CRISIS, TIME, AND RACIAL DIFFERENCE 155 “MASTERS OF THE SITUATION” AND THE SOCIAL CONTRACT 180 “NEW IDEAS WANT NEW MEN”: FREEDOM AND BLACK RESISTANCE IN THE NEW ORLEANS TRIBUNE, 1864-1866 200 BLACK RESISTANCE IN ANTEBELLUM AMERICA 202 THE TRIBUNE’S EMBRACE OF EARNED RIGHTS 207 A DEFENSE OF NATURAL RIGHTS 223 A LEGACY OF BLACK PROTEST 242 CONCLUSION 258 THE STUDY OF IDEAS 262 THE LEGACY OF THE FREEDMEN’S BUREAU 264 FREEDOM AND BLACK RESISTANCE 268 BIBLIOGRAPHY 273 iv INTRODUCTION In 1619, a “frightening ship, a ship of mystery,” flying a Dutch flag made port at Jamestown, in the English colony of Virginia.1 Nearly two and a half centuries later, a man named Oliver Otis Howard embarked on a two-month journey through the southern states on those same waters.2 Howard later contemplated the symbolic magnitude of the James River in a lecture reflecting on his experiences. He attributed the river’s historical significance to that fateful seventeenth-century ship, which carried “on its broad bosom the first load of African slaves ever brought to this country.”3 Howard concluded that the river’s tides ferried even greater meaning in the wake of the Civil War. Four years of “carnage at Big Bethel, Yorktown, Williamsburg, Malvern Hill, and on numerous other fields,” he observed, was “recorded along her banks.” Howard decided that the river’s embattled history was the inevitable legacy of its infamous slave freight. The bodies that fell upon the shores of the James River and the blood that stained its waters were the river’s penance, “the terrible expiation of her sin.”4 Despite this traumatic past, Howard was optimistic that the Civil War had delivered slavery’s final absolution—freedom for black slaves. As he declared, “the blood of the oppressed patriot is certainly the seed of liberty.” When Howard reflected upon the “curse” of slavery and the fated arrival of the Dutch vessel, he concluded “that the shades of those slaves—a ghostly crew upon a ghostly vessel—may have looked upon the carnage … and been fully satisfied.”5 By Howard’s estimation, their blood had been repaid, freedom was justly restored, and the ghosts of slavery had been put to rest. Howard’s mission was to protect and nurture the seeds of liberty as Head Commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands.6 1 Established in 1865 and colloquially known as the Freedmen’s Bureau, this provisional agency served to facilitate the transition of emancipated slaves from bondage to freedom.7 The Bureau was charged with “the supervision and management of all abandoned lands, and the control of all subjects relating to refugees and freedmen from rebel states.”8 This meant that the agency was authorized to provide rations, clothing, supplies, and temporary shelter to loyal refugees and emancipated slaves. Randall Miller has referred to their task as undertaking “an extraordinary crisis,” due to the complex political terrain of the period.9 The Bureau was caught in the crosshairs of conflict between white and black people, North and South, and Congress and the presidency.