Download Life for Former Slaves After the War

Life After the Civil War
What was life like for former slaves?
Pgs. 184, 188-189
A Free People
• With the Union victory, 4 million enslaved
people were freed.
• Free Africans quickly began to form new
communities.
• They built churches and schools and
opened businesses.
• Many former slaves began to search for
family members who had been sold during
slavery.
A Free People
• Newspapers were filled with ads asking for
help in locating loved ones.
• Former slaves worked hard to build new
lives. Yet life remained difficult.
• Often it was hard to find food, clothing,
and shelter.
• Many began to look to the United States
government for help.
New Amendments
• The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the
United States and was ratified on December 18,
1865.
New Amendments
• The 14th Amendment made blacks citizens
of the United States and guaranteed them
the same legal rights as whites. It was
ratified on July 28, 1868.
New Amendments
• The 15th Amendment
says that
governments in the
United States may not
prevent a citizen from
voting because of his
race, color, or
previous condition of
servitude (slavery). It
was ratified on
February 3, 1870.
Former Confederate States Readmission to the Union
The Freedmen’s Bureau
• The Freedmen’s Bureau was
set up by Congress in 1865
to help former slaves.
• The Bureau gave food and
other supplies to freed
slaves.
• The most important job of the
Freedmen’s Bureau was
education. Newly freed
slaves were eager to learn to
read and write.
• Over 4,000 schools were built
to educate former slaves.
The Freedmen’s Bureau
• The Bureau also wanted to give free land
to former slaves to farm.
• The land was to be taken from plantations
taken during the war, but the government
decided to give plantations back to their
owners.
Sharecropping
• In search for jobs, some former slaves
went back to work on plantations.
• Many planters welcomed them.
• Fields needed to be plowed, and crops
needed to be planted
• Now, however, plantation owners had to
pay Africans for their work.
Sharecropping
• In the days after the war, there was not much
money. Instead of paying in cash, many
landowners paid them in shares.
• A landowner would provide a cabin and
supplies. (tools, mules, seeds, etc.)
• At harvest time the landowner would take part of
the crops, plus enough to cover the cost of the
worker’s rent and supplies. What was left was
the workers share.
• Even in good times, most workers received very
little, if anything at all.