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” ( )

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 John C. Fremont General David Hunter

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  54 th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (the “Glory” regiment)

54 th Massachusetts, assaulting Fort Wagner, South Carolina

Recruitment of black soldiers  54 th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (the “Glory” regiment)  1 st South Carolina Volunteers  189,000 African Americans serve in Union army and navy

Recruiting posters for African- American 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 13 th 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 ( )  Andrew Johnson succeeds Lincoln (April 1865)

Andrew Johnson, 17 th President of the United States

Presidential Reconstruction ( )  Andrew Johnson succeeds Lincoln (April 1865)  Lenient terms for Confederate re- entry 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 ( )  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 ( )  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 14 th 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

Robert Smalls, former slave, war hero, Congressman from South Carolina 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, 1 st black state supreme court justice (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 self- government  14 th Amendment (1868): guarantees black citizenship  15 th 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)

Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) Samuel J. Tilden (Democrat) 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