Freedmen's town
In the
History
The Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment brought 4 million people out of slavery in the defunct Confederate States of America plus the four "border" slave states that did not secede. Many freed people were faced with the questions of where they would go, what they would eat and how they would survive. Many decided to remain on plantations working as sharecroppers.[3] Many freedmen migrated from white areas to build their own towns away from white supervision. They also created their own churches and civic organizations. Freedmen’s settlements had a greater measure of protection from the direct effects of Jim Crow. "Such places were defensive communities, where black property owners had circled the wagons against outsiders—a “fortress without walls.” Freedmen’s settlements were black enclaves that kept to themselves and until the end of Jim Crow few whites wished—or dared—to live there”.[2]
Education
Education was of the highest priority for the residents of freedmen towns. They started schools, which both adults and children attended to learn to read and write.[4] By 1915 schools built in the Freedmen's settlements were mostly small frame one or two room structures. Textbooks for the schools were typically donated from white schools, but often they were in poor condition. Teachers were very serious about discipline which was strictly enforced by eg. switching students with a brush, or making them stand in a corner on one leg.[5]
Freedmen's Bureau and Reconstruction
To provide help in education and managing the transition of the people to freedom, including negotiation of labor contracts and establishing the Freedmen's Bank, President
The Freedmen's Bureau was created by the American Freedmen's Inquiry Commission, which had been created by the War Department in 1863 to assist and advise emancipated slaves in adjusting. It was created by three life-long abolitionists, Robert Dale Owen, James McKaye and Samuel Gridley, who visited the south and gathered testimony from Blacks and Whites, authoring two joint reports and many accounts of individual observations.[9]
Andrew Johnson and Jim Crow
After taking office, President
Freedmen's Town Historic District
The
See also
- List of freedmen's towns
- Reconstruction
- Jim Crow laws
- African American settlements in western Canada
References
- ^ "Emancipation means Migration!". Texas Institute for the Preservation of History and Culture. Retrieved August 6, 2018.
- ^ ISBN 9780292777811.
- ^ Brown, 2015, Essay, Washington Post
- ^ Sitton, 2005, pp. 112–115
- ^ Sitton, 2005, p. 116
- ^ McFeely, 1981, p.127
- Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877, p. 142
- ^ Kolchin, 2003, p.212
- ^ Foner, 2014, pp.68–69
- ^ Foner, 2014, p. 163
Sources
- Brown, DeNeen L. (2015). "Black towns, established by freed slaves after the Civil War, are dying out". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 4, 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-06-235451-8.
- ISBN 978-0-8090-1630-3.
- ISBN 0-393-01372-3.
- Sitton, Thad; Conrad, James H. (2005). Freedom Colonies: Independent Black Texans in the Time of Jim Crow. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-2927-0642-2.
- Sitton, Thad (2007). "Freedmen's Settlements". Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved August 4, 2018.
Further reading
- Bentley, George R. (1955). A history of the Freedmen's Bureau. University of Pennsylvania.
- Osthaus, Carl R. (1976). Freedmen, philanthropy, and fraud: a history of the Freedman's Savings Bank. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780252003059.
- ISBN 978-0-8071-0883-3.
- ISBN 978-1-6020-6801-8.