In May 1865, less than one month after the death of President Lincoln, the Freedman’s Bureau was established (DuBois Souls 21). The need for such an agency grew out of a “national crisis” of destitution and atrocious living conditions among freed slaves. The squalid reality of African Americans was exacerbated by violent terrorism (Coates 19-21). Deep racism and years of neglect resulted in lack of access to political agency, education, and the economic management skills required for self-sufficiency (Souls 17-18, 28; Balfour 26-28). Black people existed in an ambiguous and violent space between a citizen and a slave (Balfour 28). While legally free, former slaves were not allowed to exercise their freedom. In the south, they were driven from …show more content…
This need led “radical republicans” in the government to establish an authority committed to the “improvement, protection, and employment of refugee freedmen” (Coates, 20, Souls 19). The initial purpose of the Freedman’s Bureau was vast in scope. The Bureau’s charge was to serve as the central agency providing assistance in “all subjects relating to refugees and freedmen” (21). These duties included: immediate war relief (clothes, food, fuel), creating systems of regulated labor and fair contracting, building schools and hospitals, serving as an alternative law and court system, re-instituting legal marriage among African Americans, distributing property confiscated from southern plantation owners to freedmen, and keeping records of it all (20-22). The Freedmen’s Bureau was an attempt to provide for the neglected societal needs accumulated over 200 years of slavery. Education, financial literacy, land ownership, suffrage, employment, and health care were offered widely to the African American population for the first time in the history of the United States. Du Bois called this project, “America’s chance to be a modern democracy” and “The most extraordinary and far-reaching institution of social uplift that America has ever attempted” (DuBois in Shapiro 13 and Balfour …show more content…
This unfinished work lies largely in the problem of reigning white supremacy perpetuated by the psychological and financial wages of whiteness, the cross-class alliance, and colorblind policies (Olsen 70,76). The historical counterpart fought for the abolition of slavery, advocates of abolition-democracy seek the abolition of white citizenship and elimination of “racial privileges” (Olson 126-7). The post-civil rights era is plagued with problematic colorblind policies that appear to promote equality, but do nothing to actually achieve it – much in the same way that emancipation did not achieve freedom immediately post-civil war (76). Abolition-democracy focuses on increased political participation, redistribution of wealth and reparations, and embraces an explicit mission to challenge structural inequalities – much like the Freedmen’s Bureau did (129,141). However, the Freedmen’s Bureau work was tragically cut short and it was not able to mend the relationship between ex-master and ex-slave. The Freedmen’s Bureau represented a new institution, rising to reconstruct democracy for Black folks. Because the mission was never realized, and the promising institutions dissolved, African Americans were once again subject to new forms of systemic oppression (Davis AD 73). Abolition-democracy
Hahn discusses both the well-known struggle against white supremacy and the less examined conflicts within the black community. He tells of the remarkable rise of Southern blacks to local and state power and the white campaign to restore their version of racial order, disenfranchise blacks, and exclude them from politics. Blacks built many political and social structures to pursue their political goals, including organizations such as Union Leagues, the Colored Farmers’ Alliance, chapters of the Republican Party, and emigration organizations. Hahn used this part of the book to successfully recover the importance of black political action shaping their own history.
As an unabridged version of his other book, Eric Foner sets out to accomplish four main goals in A Short History of Reconstruction. These points enable the author to provide a smaller, but not neglectful, account of the United States during Reconstruction. By exploring the essence of the black experience, examining the ways in which Southern society evolved, the development of racial attitudes and race relations, and the complexities of race and class in the postwar South, as well as the emergence during the Civil War and Reconstruction of a national state possessing vastly expanded authority and a new set of purposes, Foner creates a narrative that encompasses some of the major issues during Reconstruction. Additionally, the author provides
The role of the Freedmen Bureau in African-American development during the Reconstruction era has been a polarizing topic since the Bureau’s inception. While most concur that the Bureau was well intended, some scholars, believe that the Freedmen’s Bureau was detrimental to African-American development. One such scholar was W.E.B. Dubois, who in his book The Souls of Black Folk, expressed his discontent with the actions of the Bureau and suggested that the Bureau did more harm than good. Upon further probing, research refutes the position that the Freedmen’s Bureau was chiefly detrimental to Black development. While far from flawless in its pursuits to assist the newly freed Negroes, the actions of the Freedmen’s Bureau did not impede African-American progress; instead, these actions facilitated African-American development.
Black Power, the seemingly omnipresent term that is ever-so-often referenced when one deals with the topic of Black equality in the U.S. While progress, or at least the illusion of progress, has occurred over the past century, many of the issues that continue to plague the Black (as well as other minority) communities have yet to be truly addressed. The dark cloud of rampant individual racism may have passed from a general perspective, but many sociologists, including Stokely Carmichael; the author of “Black Power: the Politics of Liberation in America”, have and continue to argue that the oppressive hand of “institutional racism” still holds down the Black community from making any true progress.
In “The Case for Reparations,” Ta-Nehisi Coates sets out a powerful argument for reparations to blacks for having to thrive through horrific inequity, including slavery, Jim Crowism, Northern violence and racist housing policies. By erecting a slave society, America erected the economic foundation for its great experiment in democracy. And Reparations would mean a revolution of the American consciousness, reconciling of our self-image as the great democratizer with the facts of our history. Paying such a moral debt is such a great matter of justice served rightfully to those who were suppressed from the fundamental roles, white supremacy played in American history.
This story was set in the deep south were ownership of African Americans was no different than owning a mule. Demonstrates of how the Thirteenth Amendment was intended to free slaves and describes the abolitionist’s efforts. The freedom of African Americans was less a humanitarian act than an economic one. There was a battle between the North and South freed slaves from bondage but at a certain cost. While a few good men prophesied the African Americans were created equal by God’s hands, the movement to free African Americans gained momentum spirited by economic and technological innovations such as the export, import, railroad, finance, and the North’s desire for more caucasian immigrants to join America’s workforce to improve our evolving nation. The inspiration for world power that freed slaves and gave them initial victory of a vote with passage of the Fifteenth Amendment. A huge part of this story follows the evolution of the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment more acts for civil rights.
The Strange Career of Jim Crow, by C. Van Woodward, traces the history of race relations in the United States from the mid and late nineteenth century through the twentieth century. In doing so Woodward brings to light significant aspects of Reconstruction that remain unknown to many today. He argues that the races were not as separate many people believe until the Jim Crow laws. To set up such an argument, Woodward first outlines the relationship between Southern and Northern whites, and African Americans during the nineteenth century. He then breaks down the details of the injustice brought about by the Jim Crow laws, and outlines the transformation in American society from discrimination to Civil Rights. Woodward’s argument is very persuasive because he uses specific evidence to support his opinions and to connect his ideas. Considering the time period in which the book and its editions were written, it should be praised for its insight into and analysis of the most important social issue in American history.
The thesis “The New View of Reconstruction”, Eric Foner reviews the constantly changing view on the subject of the Reconstruction. The postwar Reconstruction period has been viewed in many different lights throughout history but one fact remains true, that it was one of the most “violent, dramatic and controversial” times in US’s history (224). In the beginning of his thesis, Eric Foner talks about the way the Reconstruction was though as before the 1960 as a period of intense, corruption and manipulation of the freedman. After mentioning the old way of thinking before the 1960’s, Eric Foner reveals the reason for this train of thought, the ignored testimonials of the black freedman.
The author describes Reconstruction following the Civil War in the text as a time where important change also created a challenge. He referenced a former slave's autobiography where the author Houston Hartsfield Holloway wrote that he and other former slaves "did not know how to be free". and that "white people did not know how to have a free colored person about them." These words reflected the difficulties in the time period of reconstruction. The author also describes Reconstruction by explaining the Freedman's Bureau. This organization set up schools and helped former slaves find lost family members. The Bureau also tried to help freedmen get jobs. Most of these jobs that the Bureau helped them get was the job of a sharecropper. The author
The Reconstruction Period which may also be known as the Radical Reconstruction took place from 1865 to 1877 (Foner, 439). Throughout this time a coherent definition for Freedom was not yet established leading to many disadvantages mainly to the African American communities. During this time political, social and economic issues affected the South. Therefore, regaining order in the Confederate state became important to the Union. By 1865 Congress established the Freedmen’s Bureau which brought a successful outcome, but was not sufficient to cure all established problems. According to Eric Foner the Freedmen’s Bureau was seen as a government experiment with the idea of establishing a sense of equality between social interactions. Not only this but it offered assistance to the poor and aged it brought about peace between the whites, blacks and freed people it helped establish equality between different social classes in the presence of courts. Many expectations were placed when established, but unfortunately not all were accomplished. Even though notable outcomes were seen, by the end of 1877 African Americans experienced disenfranchisement, segregation and racism. By making use of Ways of white folks written by Langston Hughes and Give me Liberty by Eric Foner both authors help depict an accurate idea of African American and White social and cultural interaction.
From slavery being legal, to its abolishment and the Civil Rights Movement, to where we are now in today’s integrated society, it would seem only obvious that this country has made big steps in the adoption of African Americans into American society. However, writers W.E.B. Du Bois and James Baldwin who have lived and documented in between this timeline of events bringing different perspectives to the surface. Du Bois first introduced an idea that Baldwin would later expand, but both authors’ works provide insight to the underlying problem: even though the law has made African Americans equal, the people still have not.
DuBois presents the question “[h]ow does it feel to be a problem?”, introducing the attitude towards African-Americans upon their emancipation (DuBois 3). The idea of freedom for slaves meant equality, but “the freedman has not yet found in freedom his promised land […] the shadow of a deep disappointment rests upon the Negro people” (6). The challenge faced during this time was how to deal with the now freed slaves who once had no rights. DuBois states that African-Americans merely wish “to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly i...
In this paper I will show that the Freedmen’s Bureau was able to affect positive transition of blacks after the civil war despite the lack of support from the federal government. I will first give you a description of the Freedmen’s Bureau. I will discuss what the Freedmen’s Bureau was created to do and the social environment they operated in. Next I will talk about some of the programs the Freedmen’s Bureau operated that positively impacted the transition from slavery for many black people. Finally I will show how those programs helped black transition.
Freedom was knowledge, education and family, but “The root of oppression decided as a “tangle of pathology” created by the absence of male authority among Black people” (Davis, 15). Therefore, they enjoyed “as much autonomy as they could seize, slave men and women manifested irrepressible talent in humanizing an environment designed to convert them into a herd of subhuman labor units” (Davis). Instead of being the head of the “household”, he and the women treated each other as an equal. This thought would soon become a historical turning point that initiated the fight for gender
According to Hannah Rosen in her novel, Terror in the Heart of Freedom, this new definition erupted in the Antebellum era of America where, “whiteness, manhood, and domestic authority constituted what it meant to be a citizen in antebellum Arkansas, and exclusive citizenship as well as domestic authority constituted what it meant to be a white man.” (Rosen, 97) This definition elucidates Anglo-Saxons belief in their superiority considering their whiteness derived from an exclusive partnership between civilian and state that did not extend to those they deemed unworthy. During this time whiteness, or exclusive citizenship, is not extended to blacks considering blacks were not independent and existed as the “preindustrial fantasy” of white men. In addition, black men’s and white women’s dependency is created and supported by the legislation that gives political power to white men (93). For example, Rosen points out that by using the modifier free whites in the Arkansas constitution, whites living in Arkansas create and reinforce black’s and women’s dependency, while producing avenues such as exclusive citizenship. In response, blacks unified and attempted to gain political power. They employed educated black men to guide poor and illiterate former slaves on how to become politically active