1. (At nine years old)… “We were told that we were all free and could go when and where we pleased. My mother, who was standing by my side, leaned over and kissed her children, while tears of joy ran down her cheeks” -Booker T. Washington (the future leader in education was 9 when word spread of their newly federally protected freedoms)

2. “Right off colored folks started on the move. They seemed to want to get closer to freedom, so they’d know what it was like – like it was a place or a city.” -James (a freed cowhand from Texas)

3. “We have a right to the land where we are located. For why? I tell you. Our wives, our children, our husbands, have been sold over and over again to purchase the lands we now locate upon; for that reason we have a divine right to the land.” -Unknown (a Virginia freedman)

4. “I never before saw children so eager to learn. Coming to school is a constant delight and recreation to them… Many of the grown people are desirous of learning to read. It is wonderful how a people who have been so long crushed to the earth… can have so great a desire for knowledge, and such a capability for attaining it.” -Charlotte Forten

5. Black Codes Johnson’s loyalty to the south, And his battle with Republicans (even though he was the GOP leader) led to States growing stronger at the expense of federal power Southern states create the Black Codes

6. Black Codes Vagrancy laws (those not working could be fined, whipped or sold for a year’s labor

7. Black Codes Labor Contracts: Freedmen were forced to sign one-year employment contracts. If they quit in the middle of the contract, they would often lose all of their wages.

8. Black Codes Freed people could rent land or homes only in rural areas (forcing them to live on plantations).

9. Break, Discussion, & Writing a Report back to Washington

10. Civil Rights Act of 1866 Black Codes are now against Federal Law Vetoed by Johnson Veto overturned by Congress

11. To ensure that the Civil Rights Act of 1866 would not be legally challenged, Congress passed the 14 th Amendment in 1866. The 14 th Amendment was ratified by the States in 1868

13. “If we (freedmen) are good law-abiding citizens, praying for its (the nation’s) prosperity, rejoicing in its progress, paying its taxes, fighting its battles, making its farms, mines, work-shops and commerce more productive, why deny them the right to have a voice in the election of its rulers.” - The “black citizens of Nashville,” January 9, 1865

14. In 1869, Congress passed the 15 th Amendment to the Constitution It continued the theme of citizenship established in the 14 th Amendment by stating that no citizen may be denied the right to vote by the “United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” It was ratified by the States in March 1870.