1. The Emancipation Project
Mr. Reinking
U. S. History, GAVS
8 October 2013

2. These are the topics that this presentation covers:
The Emancipation Proclamation
The Freedmen's Bureau
13-15th Amendments
The Black Codes
The Ku Klux Klan

3. The Emancipation Proclamation
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, announcing, "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious areas "are, and henceforward shall be free." 

4. The Emancipation Proclamation, continued
The order first freed all slaves that were in the Confederate states that were not in control of the Union forces. The slaves were not freed right then. It took some time, but eventually about 4 million people got out of slavery.

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The Emancipation Proclamation made it so that freed slaves could enlist into the United States military, the Union army. During the war nearly 200,000 blacks joined the Union Army. The great majority of those black men were former slaves who contributed to winning the war.
Of course, slaves were very happy at hearing that they would be freed but what was surprising was that most owners of the slaves were not violent about the order to free the slaves.

7. The Emancipation Proclamation, continued
The enslaved people waited for the Emancipation Proclamation the night before President Lincoln announced at Watch Meetings. Many churches continued the tradition to remind of the eventful time.

8. Freedmen’s Bureau
In 1865, Congress established the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, that became known as the Freedmen’s Bureau. The Freedmen’s Bureau was established by an act of Congress on March 3, 1865, two months before  the Civil War was ended. The Freedmen’s Bureau was supposed to help former black slaves who had been freed from slavery. The Freedmen’s Bureau was supposed to be able to provide food, housing, medical treatment, establish schools, help with jobs, and help with legal matters. It also attempted to settle former slaves on Confederate lands confiscated or abandoned during the war. The bureau was unable to carry out all of its programs because there was not enough money or people to help. The bureau was shut down by Congress in 1872.

9. Freedmen’s Bureau, continued
There were many hardships faced by the slaves who got freed. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of freed slaves died from starvation and disease. Initially, they had no one to help them get food, jobs, or education.
While the Freedmen’s Bureau workers tried to help, the freed slaves still suffered. There were churches set up where former slaves band together, where education was started, and it gave some time to get jobs.

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12. The 13th Amendment
One January 31, 1865, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It abolished slavery in the United States of America. 
The amendment states: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude...shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."

13. The 13th Amendment, continued
It was the 13th Amendment that eventually made it so that four million slaves were freed.

14. The 14th Amendment
The 14th amendment was ratified on July 28, It is important because it provides some specifics about what it means to be a U.S. citizen and clarifies the rights of citizens. The three most important parts:
Citizenship Clause: The freed slaves were made citizens because they were born in the United States. Before the amendment passed, African Americans were not able to become citizens and that made it hard to overcome their hardships.
Due Process Clause – The due process clause protects the 1st amendment rights of the people and prevents those rights from being taken away by any government without “due process.” Due process is a trial by jury for all people accused of wrongdoing.
Equal Protection Clause – This part of the fourteenth amendment states that there may be no discrimination against them by the law. The federal government enforces this protection on the states.

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This amendment is referred to a lot even nowadays to protect others, not just freed slaves.

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17. The 15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment was ratified on February 3,  The Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states:
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

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States are not allowed to deny citizens the vote because of their race, color, or the previous experience of being a slave.
States are not allowed to deny the vote to anyone based on literacy, property, or the circumstances of his birth.
All male citizens who were 21 or older had the right to vote. (Former slave women, along with all other women, had to wait another 50 years until 19th amendment to get the right to vote.)

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20. The Black Codes
The Black Codes were laws created by states that were against former slaves and were based on the slave codes that were in effect when slavery was legal. It was a way to discriminate against the former slaves and to mistreat them as inferior.
There were vagrancy laws that declared a former slave to be vagrant if unemployed and without permanent home.
A former slave person could be arrested, fined, and forced to labor if unable to pay the fine

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Another twist was “apprentice laws” that allowed the “hiring out” of orphans and other young former slaves to people that sometimes even turned out to be their former slave owners.
Some states limited the type of property former slaves could own, and in other states blacks were excluded from certain businesses or from the skilled trades.

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Former slaves were forbidden to carry firearms or to testify in court, except in cases concerning other former slaves.
Legal marriage between former slaves was allowed but interracial marriage was prohibited.

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Sharecropping was a system created to have laborers with no land of their own to work on farm plots owned by others. Then at the end of the season, landowners were to pay workers a share of the crop. They were often cheated.
The former slaves who were very poor, often illiterate, and very much intimidated by widespread violence after the Civil War fell into the system.
There were many former slaves who agreed to sharecropping contracts that were actually designed to keep them poor, with almost no chance of every becoming land owners themselves.

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Sharecropping was a very difficult way to live and work.

25. The Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan was founded during in Pulaski, Tennessee by six Confederate veterans as a social club.
In the beginning, the Klan was a secret fraternity club rather but later became more like a terrorist organization.
After the Civil War ended, the former Confederate soldiers who were stripped of their citizenship, their right to vote, their property, and their livelihoods.

26. The Ku Klux Klan, continued
The word “Ku Klux” comes from the Greek word "kuklos," which means circle, and the English word clan.
The costume or disguise worn by its members was a mask and white robe and high conical pointed hat. 

27. The Ku Klux Klan, continued
Eventually, the KKK became a serious terrorist group that killed many innocent former slaves and black men, women, and children. It faded for awhile but in the 1920s reared its ugly cone-head again. They killed people, often going unpunished, up until the late 1960s. There are still KKK people active now but they are not getting away with lynching like they did back then. They still threaten black people and people who help black people.

28. Works Cited
“Black Codes,” Accessed 6 October “Eyewitness to History: The Ku Klux Klan” Accessed 6 October “Freedmen’s Bureau.” 6 October “Historical Documents: Emancipation Proclamation,” Accessed 6 October “How the End of Slavery Led to Starvation and Death for Millions of Black Americans.” war.com.” Accessed 6 October “Passage of the Fifteenth Amendment,” Accessed 6 October “Slave to Sharecropper.” Accessed 6 October “The Creation of the 13th Amendment.” Accessed 6 October “The Creation of the 14th Amendment.” Accessed 6 October /“The Emancipation Proclamation,” Accessed 6 October 2013.