Making History on the Web: Sample Course: Unit 6


Freedom had many meanings in the context of the American Civil War. Nearly 200,000 black men proudly enlisted in the Union cause, illustrated by exploits of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Colored Infantry, who fought bravely and with large casualties. For more on the historical experiences of African Americans in the Civil War era, see an African American Webliography and be sure to check out the "African American Mosaic" through the Library of Congress.

At war's end, slave self-emancipation, radical abolitionist agitation, military needs, and burgeoning industrialism hastened the passage of such Reconstruction legislation as the Freedmen's Bureau bill in 1865. The Bureau became the first large-scale U.S. government venture into social welfare and intervention in economic and social change. The Bureau was intended to be an umbrella under which slaves could pass unhindered to freedom, citizenship, and self-determination. Although created only for a one-year term, the Bureau's tenure was extended to four years by acts of Congress.

Freedmen and women knit together family ties separated by slavery and the war by sending their children to schools and regulating their own affairs with their own institutions. As eager as the freedmen were for domestic security and cultural independence, they also realized that the full measure of freedom could come only with economic independence. Land ownership offered the surest path to such independence.

Free African Americans -- Life Stories

Henry Bedford (78)
Julia Ann James (83)
Tap Hawkins (87)
and Susie Hawkins (79)
Slave Narratives. 1937 Interviews With Ex-Slaves in Ohio. Federal Writers Project. Courtesy of the Center for Archival Collections, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green Ohio.

A. Official Documents

  • Emancipation Proclamation
  • For John Hope Franklin's analysis of the Emancipation Proclamation, click here.
  • Act Establishing the Freedmen's Bureau, March 3, 1865. Also the Second Act. [Folder]
  • Andrew Johnson's veto of the Freedmen's Bureau Bill.
  • Report of Brevet Major General O.O. Howard, Commissioner Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands to the Secretary of War, 1869.

    B. The Freedmen

  • Testimony before the Joint Committee on Reconstruction
  • Lydia Maria Child addressed the problems of the freedmen in The Freedmen's Book, published in 1865.
  • Jourdan Anderson's Letter from a Freedman to His Old Master offers a compelling view of one man's view of freedom.
  • Click for page 2. Click for page 3.

    C. Labor Relations

  • Examples of Black Codes, from Mississippi Statute of 1865.
  • Indenture, dated August 19 1865, between Lieut. A. S. Dial, 7th District, VA and John F. Hawkins, of Bedford Co., for the services of Susan, a five year old "free girl of color." She was bound to Hawkins until the age of 18.
  • 2 of George Hannah's work agreements with freedmen. December 30, 1865 (for 1866) and January 1, 1867 (for 1867).
  • Note from Charles G. Alexander to George H. Robinson concerning shipments of corn made by freedmen.
  • Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands to Fanny Grymes, re: surviving relatives trying to collect the pension due Henry Brooks, son of Grymes' former slaves and private in the 23rd US Colored troops during the war, 2 March 1871.


    Black Population in 1880
    Carrol E. Arnold
    Bowling Green State University
    Bowling Green, OH
    carrole@bgnet.bgsu.edu

    Earl F. Mulderink
    Southern Utah University
    Cedar City, UT
    mulderink@suu.edu

    Louise Netreba
    Hartwick College
    Oneonta, NY
    netrebal@hartwick.edu