Create a Magic Lantern Show:
Freedpeople in the Reconstruction South
Essential Questions:
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How, after the Civil War, did freedpeople act on their freedom?
In what ways did the freedpeople attempt to secure their citizenship status?
Why did freedpeople believe land ownership to be crucial?
Why did freedpeople believe they had a claim to the land?
What were the methods of physical violence and intimidation used by white southerners in response to freedpeople's
attempts to exercise their political and economic rights?
Instructions
1. Step 1: We will read p. 1-2 of the viewers guide prior to beginning the film Dr. Toer's Amazing Magic Lantern Show:
A Different View of Emancipation (20 minutes).
2. Step 2: After
3. Step 2: After the film (AND THEN FOR HW), you will divide into groups of 4-7 students. Each student will be given
a worksheet and each group a packet of the documents. We will review the three historical understandings on the
worksheet, making sure that you understand what all the words mean. After the discussion, you should decide whether
each document is an example of what was done "to" "for" or "by" freedpeople during Reconstruction and note that on
your worksheets.
Historical Context
At the end of the Civil War, a freed slave and Baptist minister named J.W. Toer traveled the South holding public meetings of
men and women recently freed from slavery. Historical documents show that these meetings featured a "magic lantern show"
entitled "The Progress of Reconstruction," which illustrated the enormous changes then taking place in the South. Dr. Toer's
journey took place in the Reconstruction years, 1865-1877, when Americans grappled with the effects of the Civil War and
Emancipation. Four million black men and women made the enormous leap from slavery to freedom and citizenship. With
slavery dead, the social and economic foundations of southern society had to be rebuilt. It was potentially a revolutionary
moment, full of fear and promise. Its outcome would shape the lives of African Americans—indeed, the lives of all
Americans—for generations to come.
The 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments
Congress passed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, outlawing slavery, before the Civil War had ended. Once the war was over, white
southerners passed laws (known as Black Codes) to keep freedmen from exercising their rights, and Congress responded by passing a Civil
Rights Act in 1866 to ensure black citizenship. Congress overrode President Andrew Johnson’s veto and went even further, passing the 14th
Amendment. When enfranchised African Americans began exercising political power, white southerners and organizations like the Ku Klux
Klan targeted them with violence and intimidation (especially after 1867). To protect black voting rights, Congress passed the 15th Amendment.
The 15th Amendment, however, did not outlaw literacy tests, poll taxes and other methods that might prevent poor blacks and whites from voting.
After Congressional passage, constitutional amendments require three fourths of the states to approve them—by 1871, 31 states out of 37 had
ratified the 14th and 15th amendments.
AMENDMENT XIII
Passed by Congress on 31 January 1865; Ratified 6 December 1865
Section 1
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,
shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
AMENDMENT XIV
Passed by Congress 13 June 1866; Ratified 9 July 1868
Section 1
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and
of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of
citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor
deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws…
AMENDMENT XV
Passed by Congress 26 February 1869; Ratified 3 February 1870
Section 1
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…
SOURCE | U.S. Constitution, National Archives; full text available from the National Archives,
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_amendments_11-27.html.
CREATOR | U.S. Congress
ITEM TYPE | Laws/Court Cases
Black Codes Restrict Newly Won Freedom
In the fall of 1865, white southerners, most of them ex-Confederates and planters, won large majorities in local and state elections throughout
the South. They quickly passed a series of restrictive laws, or Black Codes, which varied only slightly from state to state. These laws were
designed to control and limit the political, social, and economic opportunities of African Americans, forcing them to work under conditions not
very different than slavery. The punishment for violating the Codes was years of unpaid hard labor. In response, freedmen demanded that the
federal government do more to protect their rights; outraged white northerners urged their Congressmen to intervene as well.
Vagrancy
Any person who is able to work is not allowed to wander or stroll about leisurely. Such people will be deemed vagrants and be
arrested. Anyone can arrest a vagrant. Landowners or other people with a source of income are not subject to vagrancy
laws. (Georgia)
Labor & Contracts
No person of color can be an artisan, mechanic or shop-keeper, or pursue any other trade or business besides farming, manual
labor or domestic service (South Carolina)
Police and sheriffs must find and arrest any laborer or domestic servant who quits his or her job before the contract has expired;
the police or sheriff must return the laborer or servant to his or her employer. Any person is allowed to fetch and return laborers
and servants who quit their jobs, but only police and sheriffs are compelled to (Mississippi)
When a person of color working on a farm or plantation deliberately disobeys orders, is impudent or disrespectful to his
employer, refuses to do the work assigned, or leaves the premises, he can be arrested. (Florida)
If a judge declares that a parent cannot support his or her children, then the children can be bound out as apprentices until they
are 21 (for boys) and 16 (for girls)(Alabama)
The former slave owner gets first preference when their former slave children are bound out as apprentices (Georgia and North
Carolina)
It is illegal for any person to hire or to offer a better contract to any black person contracted in domestic service or manual labor
to another (Mississippi)
Testifying Against Whites
No person of color can testify against a white person in court, unless the white person agrees to it (North Carolina)
Serving in State Militias
No person of color can serve in the state militia; it is illegal for black people to own firearms, swords or other military
weapons (South Carolina)
Crime and Punishment
Each county will elect two jail keepers, one to be in charge of poor whites and one to be in charge of poor blacks (North
Carolina)
If any white person sees a black person commit a misdemeanor or felony crime, the white person has the authority to arrest the
black person. If a white person commits a crime, then the witness must first get a warrant for his arrest from a judge before the
criminal can be arrested (South Carolina)
It is legal to prevent the escape of a black person who has committed a crime at night by any means necessary, even if the black
person is killed (South Carolina)
Any black man who is convicted of rape or attempted rape of a white woman will be given the death penalty (North Carolina)
Interracial Marriage
It is a felony crime for any person of color to marry a white person; white people may not marry freedmen or other people of
color. Any person who commits this crime will be sentenced to life in prison (Mississippi)
Voting
Only white men can serve on juries, hold office, and vote in any state, county, or municipal election (Texas)
No colored persons have the right to vote, hold office or sit on juries in this state(Tennessee)
SOURCE | Adapted from “The American Black Codes, 1865-1866,” George Washington University Library,
http://home.gwu.edu/~jjhawkin/BlackCodes/BlackCodes.htm.
CREATOR | Various
ITEM TYPE | Laws/Court Cases
The First Vote
This illustration from Harper's Weekly features three figures symbolizing black political leadership: a skilled craftsman, a sophisticated city
dweller, and a Union Army veteran.
Focus Questions
Look at the three men in line. How are they similar and how are they different?
SOURCE | Alfred R. Waud, "The First Vote," wood engraving, Harper's Weekly, 11 November 1867.
CREATOR | Alfred R. Waud
ITEM TYPE | Poster/Print
A Freedman Seeks to Reunite His Family
After emancipation, many former slaves immediately searched for family members who had been sold away during slavery. They used whatever
scant information they had and frequently placed advertisements like this in southern newspapers.
SAML. DOVE wishes to know of the whereabouts of his mother, Areno, his sisters Maria, Neziah, and Peggy, and his brother
Edmond, who were owned by Geo. Dove, of Rockingham County, Shenandoah Valley, VA. Sold in Richmond, after which
Saml. and Edmond were taken to Nashville, Tenn., by Joe Mick; Areno was left at the Eagle Tavern, Richmond.
Respectfully yours,
SAML. DOVE.
Utica, New York, Aug. 5, 1865-3m
SOURCE | The Colored Tennessean, August 12, 1865, courtesy of the Chicago Historical Society; available at Slavery and the Making of America,
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/family/docs2.html.
CREATOR | Samuel Dove
ITEM TYPE | Advertisement
The Freedmen's Bureau Aids Civil War Refugees
In the chaotic last days of the Civil War, newly emancipated slaves were on the move across the South. Some had escaped bondage by joining
Union military forces and following them; others were attempting to reunite with lost family members. Most had only the clothes on their backs.
In March 1865 Congress established the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands (which became known as the Freedmen’s
Bureau) to oversee the transition from slavery to freedom. The Freedmen’s Bureau provided food, shelter, and medical aid to the freedpeople and
other war refugees. The Sanitary Commission was a U.S. government agency that coordinated the work of women volunteers to the Union cause
during the war. The author’s original spelling and grammar has been preserved.
The average arrivals of Freedmen in transit from all parts of the state, Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina seeking their
relatives and endeavoring to reach their homes have been fifty (50) per day, and twenty one thousand (21,000) rations have been
issued to such persons during June and July on the ground of absolute destitution and inability to proceed further without such
aid. . . . One hundred articles of clothing have been given to Freedmen since June 1st, the value of which was fifty dollars
($50.00). The whole of it was donated by the Agent of the Sanitary Commission and no supplies distributed from this office
have apparently been more needed or better bestowed. . . . Many of those who followed Genl. Sherman from Georgia, suffering
from the toilsome march, exposure and insufficient clothing & food died soon after reaching Port Royal, leaving friendless and
unprotected orphans; of this class a large number subsist we hardly know how, mainly in Beaufort & it seems an imperative
duty to provide for them some place of refuge. The benevolence of northern associations will secure clothing &c but the Govt
should set apart from unsold property a building or buildings in which they can be property cared for.
SOURCE | H. G. Judd to Maj. Gen. R. Saxton, 1 August 1865, Beaufort, South Carolina; The Freedmen’s Bureau Online: Records of the Bureau of
Freedmen, Refugees and Abandoned Lands, http://freedmensbureau.com/southcarolina/scoperations5.htm.
CREATOR | H. G. Judd
ITEM TYPE | Diary/Letter
Freedpeople Describe the Meanings of Freedom
At the end of the Civil War, Northern officials were not yet sure what exactly freedom would entail for the millions of freedpeople in the South.
The following first-person accounts by former slaves and free blacks describe their expectations, experiences, and struggles during the
Reconstruction Era. Their actions, in the years following emancipation, defined what freedom would entail, from social equality to political
participation to new threats of danger.
Land Ownership:
"Every colored man will be a slave, and feel himself a slave, until he can raise his own bale of cotton and put his own mark
upon it and say this is mine." —a Black Soldier
"There ain't going to be no more master and mistress, Miss Emma. All is equal. I done hear it from the courthouse steps. All
the land belongs to the Yankees now, and they're going to divide it out among the colored people. Besides the kitchen of the
big house is my share. I helped build it." —Cyrus, a freedman to his former mistress, Emma Mordecai, after the fall of
Richmond, April 1865
"Our wives, out children, our husbands have been sold over and over again to purchase the lands we now locates upon; for that
reason we have a divine right to that land." —Bayley Wyat, a former slave protesting eviction from land assigned to him by the
Union Army
"We feel it to be very important that we obtain HOMES–owning our shelters, and the ground...which our children can say–
'These are ours'" —Resolution of Virginia freedmen sent to Freedmen's Bureau, August 4, 1865
Education:
"I was full of energy and hope, and…put forth every effort to make a man of myself, and to earn an honest living. I saw that I
needed education; and it was one of the bitterest remembrances of [slavery] that I had been cheated out of this inalienable
right….Hence I entered the night-school for freedmen… and faithfully attended its sessions during the months it was kept
open." —Louis Hughes, Thirty Years a Slave, 1897
"A question arose whether the white teachers or the colored teachers should be superintendents. The freedmen had built the
school-house for their children, and were Trustees of the school….The result was a decision that the colored teachers should
have charge of the school. We were gratified by this result...These people, born and bred in slavery, had always been so
accustomed to look upon the white race as their natural superiors and masters, that we had some doubts whether they could
easily throw off the habit; and the fact of their giving preference to colored teachers, as managers of the establishment, seemed
to us to indicate that even their brief possession of freedom had begun to inspire them with respect for their race." —Harriet
Jacobs, Letter from Teachers of the Freedmen, 1864
Family and Marriage:
"This meeting again of mother and daughters, after years of separation and many [hardships], was an occasion of the
profoundest [deepest] joy, although all were almost wholly [without] the necessaries of life. This first evening we spent together
can never be forgotten. I can see the old woman now, with bowed form and gray locks, as she gave thanks in joyful tones yet
reverent manner, for such a wonderful blessing." —Louis Hughes, whose wife found her mother and sister in Cincinnati, Ohio
after the war
"I went to church in Monticello [Kentucky], and there I and finally married Henry Coffee. Henry, he'd been in the war, and
belonged to the 6th Kentucky Cavalry. Us was the third colored couple to get [a] marriage license in 1868....Then [we] moved
to London [Kentucky], and Henry farmed and done first one thing and another to make a living. We bought a nice little place
and lived real nice, and worked in the church." —Anna Maria Coffee, interview for the Works Progress Administration ExSlave Narratives project
Law and Politics:
“The law no longer knows white nor black, but simply men, and consequently we are entitled to ride in public conveyances,
hold office, sit on juries and do everything else which we have in the past been prevented from doing solely on the ground of
our color…” —Delegate to a convention of Alabama freedmen, 1867
"We were eight years in power. We had build schoolhouses...provided for the education of the deaf and dumb, rebuilt the jails
and courthouses, rebuilt the bridges and reestablished the ferries. In short, we had reconstructed the State and placed it upon the
road to recovery." —Thomas Miller, a freeborn African-American who served in the South Carolina legislator
Violence and the Ku Klux Klan:
"I am afraid to leave town and in constant dread of being murdered....This state of things cannot long continue. Either we must
have protection or leave....We have fallen upon evil times when an American citizen can not express his honest opinions
without being in great danger of being murdered." —Daniel Price, in a letter to Alabama governor William Smith, October 7,
1868
"On Friday night, there came a crowd of men to my house...calling, knocking, climbing and shoving at the door....It is a plot to
drive me out of the country because I am a school teacher. They say that I shall not teach school any longer in this
country. Please your honor, send some protection up here." —Letter from Thomas H. Jones to South Carolina's Republican
governor, 1871
SOURCE | American Social History Project, Who Built America?: Working People and the Nations History, vol. 1, third edition, (Boston: Bedford/St. Martins,
2008), 597; Joseph R. Johnson to Gen O. O. Howard, 4 Aug. 1865, National Archives, available at Freedmen and Southern Society Project,
http://www.history.umd.edu/Freedmen/J%20Johnson.htm; Louis Hughes, Thirty Years a Slave (Milwaukee, 1897) available at Documenting the American South,
http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/hughes/hughes.html; Harriet A. Jacobs and Louisa Jacobs, "Letter from Teachers of the Freedmen," in National Anti-Slavery
Standard, 16 April 1864, available at Documenting the American South, http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacob/support4.html; Anna Maria Coffee, Works Progress
Administration (WPA) Ex-Slave Narratives, Library of Congress, http://dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/page.cfm?ID=13913&Current=004&View=Text; Delegate to a
convention of Alabama freedmen, 1867, in William E. Gienapp, ed., The Civil War and Reconstruction: A Documentary Collection (New York: W.W. Norton &
Co., 2001), 367; Thomas Miller, in American Social History Project, eds., Freedom's Unfinished Revolution: An Inquiry Into the Civil War and
Reconstruction (New York: The New Press, 1996), 172, 229, 274, 261.
CREATOR | Various
ITEM TYPE | Diary/Letter
Gathering the Dead and Wounded
A Harper’s Weekly engraving shows some of the grim results of a terrorist attack on the African-American citizens of the rural town of Colfax,
Louisiana, in April 1873. Starting in 1871, the Democratic party in several southern states began an organized campaign of intimidation to
unseat Republicans from state governments. They drove whites out of the Republican party through race-baiting, economic pressure, and threats
of violence and intimidated African-American Republicans through violence and economic coercion. In Colfax, freedmen who feared Democrats
would seize the county government blockaded the town and held it for three weeks until they were overpowered the White League, a paramilitary
group that targeted black and white Republicans throughout Louisiana. Seventy African Americans and two whites were murdered in Colfax;
most of the murdered African Americans had already surrendered when they were killed. The massacre in Colfax was one of hundreds of such
attacks on black voters, politicians, schools and farms during the Reconstruction era.
The Louisiana Murders--Gathering the Dead and Wounded
SOURCE | “Gathering the Dead and Wounded,” Harper’s Weekly, 10 May 1873, American Social History Project.
CREATOR | Unknown
ITEM TYPE | Poster/Print
Marriage of a Colored soldier at Vicksburg by
Chaplain Warren of the Freedmen's Bureau
Because marriages between slaves before emancipation had no legal standing, many couples rushed to have their marriages officially registered
and made solemn during Reconstruction. The Freedmen's Bureau along with African-American ministers became strong advocates of legalized
marriages. This sketch showed a chaplain marrying an African-American couple in the offices of the Vicksburg, Mississippi Freedmen's Bureau.
The sketch was the basis for a news illustration published in Harper's Weekly. Marriage was only one way that former slaves exercised their new
freedom. For many former slaves, freedom meant choosing a new name for themselves, dressing as they pleased, learning to read, or refusing to
be deferential toward their former owner.
Focus Questions
This sketch was turned into an illustration for Harper's Weekly magazine. Why was it news?
SOURCE | Alfred R. Waud, Marriage of a Colored Soldier at Vicksburg by Chaplain Warren of the Freedmen's Bureau, drawing, c. June 1866, American
Social History Project.
CREATOR | Alfred R. Waud
ITEM TYPE | Poster/Print
A Northern Reformer Teaches Freed Children to Read
Calling themselves Gideon’s Band (after the biblical hero), many northern reformers went to the Sea Islands in Georgia to live with and assist
the freed population. Abolitionist Laura M. Towne, shown here with three of her students, ran a school on St. Helena Island. A report from
North Carolina indicates how urgent the need for teachers, black and white, was: “The whole number of schools…is 63, the number of teachers
85, and the number of scholars 5,624.” Eventually freedpeople operated most of the Sea Island schools themselves and replaced northern
teachers who lost their zeal and returned home as Reconstruction dragged on.
Feb. 1866--Laura M. Towne
Dick, Maria, Amoretta
SOURCE | From R.A. Holland, ed., Letters and Diary of Laura M. Towne (1912), American Social History Project.
CREATOR | Unknown
ITEM TYPE | Photograph
A Northern Teacher Finds Eager Students and
Threatening Neighbors
Edmonia Highgate, the daughter of freed slaves, grew up and was educated in New York. She was part of a wave of northern reformers who
traveled south as the Civil War was still ongoing to set up schools for freedpeople, both adults and children. In this letter to her sponsor the
American Missionary Society, Highgate notes that while her students were eager to learn, area whites were hostile to her school and the changes
it wrought. The author’s original spelling and grammar has been preserved.
Louisiana
Lafayette Parish
Vermillionville, Dec. 17th, 1866
Rev. M.E. Strieby, Sec. A.M.A.:
Dear Friend:
Perhaps you may care to know of my work here for the Freed people… The Lord blessed me and I have a very interesting and
constantly growing day school, a night school, and, a glorious Sabbath School of near one hundred scholars. The school is
under the auspices of the Freedman’s Bureau, yet it is wholly self-supporting. The majority of my pupils come from plantations,
three, four and even eight miles distant. So anxious are they to learn that they walk these distances so early in the morning as
never to be tardy. Every scholar buys his own book and slate, etc… Most of them are trying to buy a home of their own. Many
of them own a little land on which they work nights in favorable weather and Sabbaths for themselves. They own cows and
horses, besides their raising poultry.
There is more than work for two teachers yet I am all alone. God has wonderously spared me. There has been much opposition
to the School. Twice I have been shot at in my room. Some of my night-school scholars have been shot but none killed. A week
ago an aged freedman was shot so badly as to break his arm and leg—just across the way. The rebels here threatened to burn
down the school and house in which I board before the first month was passed. Yet they have not materially harmed us. The
nearest military Jurisdiction is two hundred miles distant at New Orleans… But I trust fearlessly in God and am safe…
Yours for Christ’s poor,
Edmonia G. Highgate
SOURCE | Edmonia G. Highgate, “Letter to M.E. Strieby,” 17 December 1866, available from PBS, Reconstruction: The Second Civil War,
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reconstruction/schools/ps_highgate.html.
CREATOR | Edmonia G. Highgate
ITEM TYPE | Diary/Letter
A South Carolina Landowner Attempts to Indenture a
Free Child
When slavery ended, southern landowners attempted to establish a labor system that would pay freedpeople low wages and keep them under strict
control. One method of accomplishing this was through indenture contracts for African-American children who were orphans or whose families
were incapable of providing for them. These contracts required that the master feed, house, clothe, and educate the child for a set period of years
(sometimes as long as a decade or more) in exchange for the child’s labor. Some states passed laws requiring that former owners have the first
opportunity to indenture orphans who had once belonged to them. Many African-American parents objected to this system. As this report from a
Freedmen’s Bureau agent demonstrates, the Freedmen’s Bureau frequently intervened in such disputes between landowners and freedpeople.
In one instance a Mr. Ben Ville Ponteaux living about 38 miles from Charleston on the North Eastern R. Road held a
freedman’s son, aged about 12 years, against the wishes of his father, who complained to me about it. On my request to Mr.
Ponteaux to inform me whether or not he had authority to retain the boy in his service, I received no answer, but Mr. Ponteaux
is said to have remarked that he had nothing to do with the ‘Yankees’ and to have threatened to shoot the boy’s father if he
again came to his house. I went to Mr. Ponteaux to enquire on the matter, and found the boy there. Mr. Ponteaux gave as his
reason for holding the boy that he was unwilling to live with his father. I sent the boy to his parents. Mr. Ponteaux denied
having made the above mentioned remark and to have threatened to shoot the boys father. At first I intended to arrest and bring
this man to trial, but finding that I could not get sufficient evidence to convict him, I merely confiscated his gun thereby
preventing him to carry out his threat to shoot.
SOURCE | F. W. Liedke to Major H. W. Smith, 30 April 1866, Moncks Corner, S. C., The Freedmen’s Bureau Online: Records of the Bureau of Freedmen,
Refugees and Abandoned Lands, http://freedmensbureau.com/southcarolina/scoperations6.htm
CREATOR | F. W. Liedke
ITEM TYPE | Diary/Letter
A Visit from the Ku Klux
After the end of slavery, African Americans, particularly those who attempted to exercise their right to vote, were often the victims of harassment,
intimidation, and murder at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan was a secret society founded by former Confederate military officers during
Reconstruction; it was dedicated to maintaining white supremacy. This Harper's Weekly illustration from 1872 was meant to elicit sympathy from
white Northern readers for African-American victims of the Klan.
SOURCE | Frank Bellew, "A Visit from the Ku-Klux," wood engraving, Harper's Weekly, 24 February 1872; From Library of Congress,
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2001695506/.
CREATOR | Frank Bellew
ITEM TYPE | Poster/Print
Thomas Nast Cartoon #1 1865
Caption: FRANCHISE. AND NOT THIS
MAN?
Source: Thomas Nast was a political cartoonist who
drew for a New York magazine called Harper’s
Weekly. He supported the North’s side during the
Civil War.
Thomas Nast Cartoon #2 1874
Caption: COLORED RULE IN A
RECONSTRUCTED (?) STATE.
(The members call each other thieves, liars,
rascals, and cowards.)
COLUMBIA: “You are aping the lowest
Whites. If you disgrace your race in this way
you had better take back seats.”
Name: ____________________ DIRECTIONS: Read over the documents. Decide which historical understanding the
document BEST illustrates. On the line, write TO, FOR, or BY to indicate which historical understanding it illustrates.
DOCUMENTS
th
th
HISTORICAL UNDERSTANDINGS
th
______ The 13 , 14 and 15 Amendments (excerpt)
______ Black Codes Restrict Newly Won Freedom
What was done TO freedpeople
White southerners used physical violence, intimidation and
coercive contracts in response to freedpeople’s attempts to
exercise their political and economic rights.
_______ The First Vote
______ A Freedman Seeks to Reunite His Family
______ The Freedmen’s Bureau Aids Civil War Refugees
______ Freedpeople Describe the Meanings of Freedom
_______ Gathering the Dead and Wounded
_______ Marriage of a Colored Soldier at Vicksburg
What was done FOR freedpeople
The federal government’s Reconstruction plan encompassed
protection of freedpeople’s civil rights, provided for their physical
safety, and, through the Freedmen’s Bureau, established schools
and helped to ensure fair labor contracts between freedpeople
and their former masters. Northern reformers set up schools to
educate both adults and children.
______ A Northern Reformer Teaches Freed
Children to Read
______ A Northern Teacher Finds Eager Students
and Threatening Neighbors
______ A South Carolina Landowner Attempts to
Indenture a Free Child
______ A Visit From the Ku Klux Klan
_____ Thomas Nast Cartoons
What was done BY freedpeople FOR
THEMSELVES?
After the Civil War, freedpeople acted on their freedom by reuniting with their
families and getting married. They attempted to secure their citizenship by
voting, establishing schools and holding elected office. Freedpeople believed
land ownership was crucial to their economic self-sufficiency and that they
had a right to the land they had worked.