Freedmen's town

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As Freedmen's towns were in the United States municipalities and communities referred to the so-called Freedmen were built, former African-American slaves , during or after the Civil War were emancipated. Freedmen's towns sprang up in a number of states , but most notably in Texas . They are also known as Freedom colonies , named after the title of a book by historians Thad Sitton and James H. Conrad.

history

The Emancipation Proclamation and the passage of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution resulted in the release of 4 million people from slavery in the crumbling Confederate States of America . Many of these people were faced with the question of where they would go, what they would eat, and how could they survive. Therefore, many decided to stay on the plantations and work as a sharecropper . However, many freedmen emigrated from the white areas to build their own communities away from whites' supervision. They also created their own churches and civic associations. These settlements had greater protection from the direct effects of the Jim Crow laws . "Such places were defensive communities, where black landowners moved together against outsiders - a" fortress without walls ". The freedmen settlements were black enclaves who stayed to themselves and until the end of Jim Crow wanted - or dared - few whites to live there. "

education

Education was a top priority for the residents of Freedmen Towns. They founded schools that both adults and children attended to learn to read and write. Up until 1915, the schools built in the settlements were mostly small one- or two-room schools. School books were usually donated by white schools, but were often in poor condition. The teachers thought discipline was very important and strictly enforced it, e.g. B. by chastising the students with brushes or by making them stand on one leg in a corner.

Freedmen's Bureau and Reconstruction

To assist the Freedmen in their education and transition to freedom, including negotiating employment contracts and establishing the Freedmen's Bank , President Abraham Lincoln established the Freedmen's Bureau . In 1865 the Minister of War Edwin M. Stanton was looking for an army officer to head Freedmen's Bureau. General Ulysses S. Grant proposed General John Eaton , a field chaplain with an established reputation as an advocate of humanitarianism , responsible for helping black refugees after the Civil War. However, the post of bureau commissioner went to another Christian general and Civil War veteran, General Oliver Otis Howard , who had earned the title of "Christian General" due to his close ties to Freedmen aid organizations. The Freedmen's Bureau was largely staffed with former Union officers who distributed food to black and white people in need.

They oversaw the development of a free-labor farm and provided the necessary financial resources to build schools for former slaves. However, some were suspected of collaborating with plantation owners to enforce repressive regulations and ignore when blacks were betrayed. Some whites in the south suspected the Bureau of being part of a conspiracy designed to undermine black-whites' relations in the south by inciting blacks against those whites who cared about black interests. However, both freedmen and plantation owners turned to the Bureau for help, which it provided regardless of individual plans to undermine their efforts.

The Freedmen's Bureau was established by the American Freedmen's Inquiry Commission, established by the War Department in 1863, to promote methods of dealing with emancipated slaves. The commission was founded by three lifelong abolitionists Robert Dale Owen , James McKaye and Samuel Gridley, who traveled the south collecting testimonies from blacks and whites. They wrote two joint reports and many accounts of observations made by individuals.

Andrew Johnson and Jim Crow

After taking office, President Andrew Johnson vetoed the re-approval and funding of the office in February 1866 during the reconstruction process . It was finally dissolved in 1872 under pressure from white MPs from the former southern states.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Emancipation means migration! In: Texas Institute for the Preservation of History and Culture. Accessed August 6, 2018 .
  2. ^ A b Thad Sitton, James H. Conrad: Freedom Colonies: Independent Black Texans in the Time of Jim Crow . Ed .: University of Texas Press. 2010, ISBN 978-0-292-77781-1 , pp. 178 ( google.com ).
  3. ^ Brown, 2015, essay, Washington Post
  4. ↑ Sitton, 2005 , pp. 112-115
  5. ↑ Sitton, 2005 , p. 116
  6. ↑ McFeely, 1981 , p. 127
  7. ↑ Foner, 2014 , p. 142
  8. ↑ Kolchin, 2003 , p. 212
  9. ↑ Foner, 2014 , pp. 68-69
  10. ↑ Foner, 2014 , p. 163
  11. ^ Law Creating the Freedmen's Bureau. University of Maryland, November 14, 2014, accessed February 11, 2015 (Freedmen's Bureau Act).

swell

literature

  • George R. Bentley: A history of the Freedmen's Bureau . Ed .: University of Illinois Press. 1976 ( archive.org ).
  • Carl R. Osthaus: Freedmen, philanthropy, and fraud: a history of the Freedman's Savings Bank . Ed .: University of Pennsylvania. 1955 ( google.com ).
  • Clarence E. Walker: A Rock in a Weary Land: The African Methodist Episcopal Church During the Civil War and Reconstruction . Ed .: Louisiana State University Press. 1982, ISBN 978-0-8071-0883-3 ( archive.org ).
  • Booker T. Washington : Up from Slavery . Ed .: Cosimo, Inc. 2007, ISBN 978-1-60206-801-8 ( google.com ).