Download Who Freed the Slaves? The Civil War and

Who Freed the Slaves?
The Civil War and
Reconstruction
Patrick Rael
Associate Professor
Bowdoin College
Introduction
 From a war for union
 To a war to end slavery
 The key: the agency of African
Americans themselves
Emancipation from the bottom
up
 day-to-day resistance during the
war
 the significance of flight
 proximity of Union lines
Eastman Johnson, “Ride for Liberty: The Fugitive
Slaves” (1862-63)
Emancipation from the bottom
up
 General Benjamin F. Butler, Fortress
Monroe, Va., 1861
 Slaves are “contraband of war”
 Every slave removed from the
Confederacy = one Union worker
Slaves behind Union lines lived in “contraband” camps. Life was
difficult, but many former slaves received their first formal
schooling in such camps.
Slave contrabands often worked the most odious details
Emancipation from the top
down: in the field
 What to do with enslaved African
Americans behind Union lines?
 General John C. Frémont, Missouri,
1861
 General David Hunter, South
Carolina and Georgia, 1862
General David
Hunter
General John C.
Fremont
Emancipation from the top
down: in Congress
 The war stalemates
 First Confiscation Act (1861):
masters cannot reclaim slaves
 Second Confiscation Act (1862):
slaves of disloyal citizens “forever
free”
 Abolition of slavery in District of
Columbia and U.S. territories
Rejoicing over abolition of slavery in District of Columbia, 1862
Emancipation from the top
down: Lincoln
 Transformation of war aims
• Risks losing border states
• Military necessity of emancipation
 Emancipation Proclamation
• Preliminary draft, September 1862
“President Lincoln, writing the Proclamation of Freedom,” Currier
and Ives
Emancipation from the top
down: Lincoln
 Transformation of war aims
• Risks losing border states
• Military necessity of emancipation
 Emancipation Proclamation
• Preliminary draft, September 1862
• Goes into effect January 1, 1863
• Declares slaves in Confederate lands free
Lincoln, presenting the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet
“Emancipation,” idealized vision of life before and after
Emancipation Proclamation:
effects
 Transforms war from war for union
to war against slavery
• Keeps Great Britain from allying with
Confederacy
• Sets precedent for freedom
• Enlists the enslaved in the Union war
effort
Recruitment of black soldiers
 54th Massachusetts Volunteer
Infantry (the “Glory” regiment)
54th Massachusetts, assaulting Fort Wagner, South Carolina
Recruitment of black soldiers
 54th Massachusetts Volunteer
Infantry (the “Glory” regiment)
 1st South Carolina Volunteers
 189,000 African Americans serve in
Union army and navy
Recruiting posters for AfricanAmerican troops
Many former slaves served as Union soldiers
The reconstruction of black
labor
 War aims transformed by necessity,
not a change in attitudes
 First priority after the war: sectional
reconciliation
Lincoln’s plan for reconstruction
 Under what conditions can former
Confederate states re-enter the Union?
 “10% plan” (December 1863)
• “Proclamation of Amnesty and
Reconstruction”
• 10% of population must swear oath of
loyalty to Union
• Must ratify 13th Amendment abolishing
slavery
• Freedpeople: ??
The “Port Royal Experiment”
 South Carolina Sea Islands, 1861
 Experiment in “free labor”
 Abolitionists, missionaries and
philanthropists
 “Gideon’s Band”: James Miller
McKim, Edward S. Phillsbrick
What they wanted
 The freedpeople:
 Subsistence crops
 Production for
local exchange
networks
 Work in families
on own land
 The planters:
 Cotton
 Production for
international
capitalist
economy
 Work in gangs for
share of crop
The labor negotiation
 Freedpeople vs. planters
 Bureau of Freedmen, Refugees, and
Abandoned Lands (“Freedmen’s
Bureau”)
Idealized image of a Freedman’s Bureau officer at work
The labor negotiation
 Freedpeople vs. planters
 Bureau of Freedmen, Refugees, and
Abandoned Lands (“Freedmen’s
Bureau”)
 The result = sharecropping
• local credit monopolies
• collusion with local white officials
Sharecropping in the post-Civil War South
Presidential Reconstruction (186567)
 Andrew Johnson succeeds Lincoln
(April 1865)
Andrew Johnson, 17th
President of the United
States
Presidential Reconstruction (186567)
 Andrew Johnson succeeds Lincoln
(April 1865)
 Lenient terms for Confederate reentry into Union
 Many former Confederates
admitted to office
 Black Codes
Black Codes
 Strict controls over terms of labor
 Vagrancy laws kept freedpeople a docile,
immobile labor force
 Denial of basic civil rights
 Violation of free market principles
 Race riots during Presidential
Reconstruction:
• Memphis, TN (1866)
• New Orleans, LA (1866)
Memphis riot, 1866
New Orleans riot, 1866
Radical Republicans respond
 “Radical” Republicans: pre-war
abolitionists and antislavers now in
Congress
 Rep. Thaddeus Stevens; Sen.
Charles Sumner
Thaddeus Stevens,
Pennsylvania
Congressman and
Radical Republican
Radical Republicans respond
 “Radical” Republicans: pre-war
abolitionists and antislavers now in
Congress
 Rep. Thaddeus Stevens; Sen.
Charles Sumner
 Impeachment of Andrew Johnson,
1868
Congressional Reconstruction
(1867-77)
 a.k.a. “Radical” or “Military”
Reconstruction
 Reconstruction Act of 1867
 All former Confederate states removed
from Union (except Tennessee)
 Former Confederacy placed under
military rule
The former Confederacy was divided into military districts during
Congressional Reconstruction
Congressional Reconstruction
(1867-77)
 a.k.a. “Radical” or “Military” Reconstruction
 Reconstruction Act of 1867
 All former Confederate states removed from
Union (except Tennessee)
 Former Confederacy placed under military rule
 New conditions for re-entry of states into
Union:
• New state constitutions
• Enfranchisement of African-American men
• Ratification of 14th Amendment (guarantees blacks
citizenship)
Why black enfranchisement?
 Conservative constitutional foundations
 States’ rights federalism: highly
proscribed role for federal government
in local matters
 Protection of black rights required
federal intervention
 Enfranchisement = blacks can use the
vote to protect themselves
 Distasteful federal intervention
minimized
Blacks played an important role in the state constitutional
conventions mandated by Congress
Harper’s Weekly’s stereotyped view of black campaigning in the
Reconstruction South
The Radical state governments
 Blacks hold office in most states
African-Americans in Congress during Reconstruction
J.R. Rainey of
South
Carolina, an
antebellum
free African
American
Hiram
Revels
occupied
the
Mississippi
Senate seat
once held by
Jefferson
Jonathan
Jasper
Wright, 1st
black state
supreme
court justice
(South
Carolina)
Robert Smalls, former slave, war
hero, Congressman from South
Carolina
The Radical state governments
 Blacks hold office in most states
 Free schools, social institutions,
internal improvements
 All southern states fall out of
Republican hands by 1877
The re-establishment of conservative state governments
The failure of Radical
Reconstruction
 Internal divisions within local
Republican machines
• “Carpetbaggers” vs. “scalawags”
• Among African Americans themselves
 Loss of crucial “swing” vote of
southern whites
• New social costs borne by all
 The key: racial violence
The failure of Radical
Reconstruction
 White supremacist paramilitary
organizations
• Knights of the White Camilla
• White League
• Invisible Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
The White League served as
the paramilitary wing of the
Democratic Party
The Ku Klux Klan enforced
labor control and racial
hierarchy
The failure of Radical
Reconstruction
 White supremacist paramilitary
organizations
• Knights of the White Camilla
• White League
• Invisible Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
 Function as
• Military wing of Democratic Party
• Agents of labor and racial control
The tactics of white supremacy
The failure of Radical
Reconstruction
 White supremacist paramilitary organizations
• Knights of the White Camilla
• White League
• Invisible Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
 Function as
• Military wing of Democratic Party
• Agents of labor and racial control
 Consequences:
• Force necessity of distasteful federal intervention in
local affairs
• Northern support for Reconstruction wanes
• Crucial southern white “swing” vote turns against
Republicans
Alternatives to federal
intervention
 Give freedmen role in local selfgovernment
 14th Amendment (1868): guarantees
black citizenship
 15th Amendment (1870): secures
suffrage for black men
 Civil Rights Act of 1875: prohibits
discrimination in public places (later
declared unconstitutional)
The Fifteenth Amendment: an idealized view
The end of Reconstruction
 Republican state governments fall to the
Democrats
 1876 Presidential Election:
• Contested electoral vote in Louisiana and
Florida
• Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) vs.
Samuel J. Tilden (Democrat)
Samuel J. Tilden
(Democrat)
Rutherford B. Hayes
(Republican)
The contenders in the 1876 Presidential Election
The 1876 Presidential election electoral dispute
The end of Reconstruction
 Republican state governments fall to the
Democrats
 1876 Presidential Election:
• Contested electoral vote in Louisiana and Florida
• Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) vs. Samuel J.
Tilden (Democrat)
– “Compromise of 1877"
• In exchange for White House, Republicans leave
South to its own devices
• Republican Party ceases to advocate for black
rights
“Shall we call home
our troops?”
(liberal political
cartoon, 1876)
Conclusion: Who freed the
slaves?
 What was the sine qua non of black
freedom?
 African Americans struggled to create
their own lives in freedom
 The letter of the law insufficient to
guarantee black freedom
 Emancipation and enfranchisement the
products of expedience, not
enlightenment
 An important precedent for biracial
democracy
The End