Social IssuesIn many ways the society and way of life of the Antebellum South was lost along with the Confederate cause.  Freed from bondage, former African America slaves, experienced a new era of freedom as well as hostility.  What was life like in the South after the Civil War?  Was Reconstruction successful at reintegrating the south, socially?

Freedmen's Bureau CartoonAnti-Freedmen's Bureau Campaign Ad, Pennsylvania, 1866

Source: "Andrew Jackson's Administration", Authentic History Center, 2012. Web. <http://www.authentichistory.com/1865-1897/1-reconstruction/1-johnson/index.html>

Historically Black Colleges

Literacy Statistics

Mississippi Black CodesAs Carl Schurz reported, after the Civil War whites in the South sought a system of race relations in which African Americans would be clearly subordinate to whites and would constitute a readily accessible and controllable workforce.Immediately after the Civil War southern whites wrote or revised vagrancy laws and the old slave codes as a means of establishing the system of race relations they wanted. Following is one of their most famous attempts to codify race relations, the Black Codes passed by the Mississippi legislature.The Mississippi codes gave blacks rights they had not had before and clearly acknowledged that chattel slavery had ended.  The codes recognized the right of African Americans to own property, though not in incorporated towns or cities. (Before the Civil War there were black property owners in Mississippi and even a few black slaveholders, but their legal standing was not clear.) The 1865 codes also recognized marriages among blacks as legal.Not all the southern states passed comprehensive Black Codes, and some codes were much less stringent that those of Mississippi. South Carolina’s codes differed in that they restricted blacks to buying property in cities or towns.The creators of the codes drew their ideas from the world in which they lived.  Slavery had just ended very abruptly, and the ravages of war were ever present.  The men who drafted these codes used the old slave codes from the South, vagrancy laws from the North and the South, laws for former slaves in the British West Indies, and antebellum laws for free blacks.  They were also aware that most northern states had laws that discriminated against African Americans and that very few northern states allowed African Americans to vote.Most of these codes and similar measures were declared void by the Union army officials who were stationed in the former Confederate states. Subsequently, during Reconstruction, the rights of African Americans were greatly expanded.

 1. CIVIL RIGHTS OF FREEDMEN IN MISSISSIPPI

 … That all freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes may sue and be sued…may acquire personal property … and may dispose of the same in the same manner and to the same extent that white persons may: [but no]  freedman, free negro, or mulatto … [shall] rent or lease any lands or tenements except in incorporated cities or towns, in which places the corporate authorities shall control the same.... All freedmen, free negroes, or mulattoes who do now and have herebefore lived and cohabited together as husband and wife shall be taken and held in law as legally married, and the issue shall be taken and held as legitimate for all purposes; that it shall not be lawful for any freedman, free negro, or mulatto to intermarry with any white person; nor for any white person to intermarry with any freedman, free negro, or mulatto; and any person who shall so intermarry, shall be deemed guilty of felony, and on conviction thereof shall be confined in the State penitentiary for life; and those shall be deemed freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes who are of pure negro blood, and those descended from a negro to the third generation, inclusive, though one ancestor in each generation may have been a white person… [F]reedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes are now by law competent witnesses … in civil cases [and in criminal cases where they are the victims]… All contracts for labor made with freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes for a longer period than one month shall be in writing, and in duplicate… and said contracts shall be taken and held as entire contracts, and if the laborer shall quit the service of the employer before the expiration of his term of service, without good cause, he shall forfeit his wages for that year up to the time of quitting. ....Every civil officer shall, and every person may, arrest and carry back to his or her legal employer any freedman, free negro, or mulatto who shall have quit the service of his or her employer before the expiration of his or her term of service without good cause; and said officer and person shall be entitled to receive for arresting and carrying back every deserting employee aforesaid the sum of five dollars.... …If any person shall persuade or attempt to persuade, entice, or cause any freedman, free negro, or mulatto to desert from the legal employment of any person before the expiration of his or her term of service, or shall knowingly employ any such deserting freedman, free negro, or mulatto, or shall knowingly give or sell to any such deserting freedman, free negro, or mulatto, any food, raiment, or other thing, he or she shall be guilty of a misdemeanor… 2. MISSISSIPPI APPRENTICE LAW ....It shall be the duty of all sheriffs, justices of the peace, and other civil officers of the several counties in this State, to report to the probate courts of their respective counties semi-annually, at the January and July terms of said courts, all freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes, under the age of eighteen, in their respective counties, beats or districts, who are orphans, or whose parent or parents have not the means or who refuse to provide for and support said minors… the clerk of said court to apprentice said minors to some competent and suitable person, on such terms as the court may direct, having a particular care to the interest of said

minor: Provided, that the former owner of said minors shall have the preference when, in the opinion of the court, he or she shall be a suitable person for that purpose. ....In the management and control of said apprentice, said master or mistress shall have the power to inflict such moderate corporal chastisement as a father or guardian is allowed to inflict on his or her child or ward at common law: Provided, that in no case shall cruel or inhuman punishment be inflicted… 3. MISSISSIPPI VAGRANT LAW …That all rogues and vagabonds, idle and dissipated persons, beggars, jugglers, or persons practicing unlawful games or plays, runaways, common drunkards, common night-walkers, pilferers, lewd, wanton, or lascivious persons, in speech or behavior, common railers and brawlers, persons who neglect their calling or employment, misspend what they earn, or do not provide for the support of themselves or their families, or dependents, and all other idle and disorderly persons, including all who neglect all lawful business, habitually misspend their time by frequenting houses of ill-fame, gaming-houses, or tippling shops, shall be deemed and considered vagrants, under the provisions of this act, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not exceeding one hundred dollars… and be imprisoned at the discretion of the court, not exceeding ten days. ....All freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes in this State, over the age of eighteen years, found on the second Monday in January, 1866, or thereafter, with no lawful employment or business, or found unlawfully assembling themselves together, either in the day or night time, and all white persons so assembling themselves with freedmen, free negroes or mulattoes, or usually associating with freedmen, free negroes or mulattoes, on terms of equality, or living in adultery or fornication with a freed woman, free negro or mulatto, shall be deemed vagrants, and on conviction thereof shall be fined in a sum not exceeding, in the case of a freedman, free negro or mulatto, fifty dollars, and a white man two hundred dollars, and imprisoned at the discretion of the court, the free negro not exceeding ten days, and the white man not exceeding six months.... 4. PENAL LAWS OF MISSISSIPPI …That no freedman, free negro or mulatto, not in the military service of the United States government, and not licensed so to do by the board of police of his or her county, shall keep or carry fire-arms of any kind, or any ammunition, dirk or bowie knife… ....Any freedman, free negro, or mulatto committing riots, routs, affrays, trespasses, malicious mischief, cruel treatment to animals, seditious speeches, insulting gestures, language, or acts, or assaults on any person, disturbance of the peace, exercising the function of a minister of the Gospel without a license from some regularly organized church, vending spirituous or intoxicating liquors, or committing any other misdemeanor, the punishment of which is not specifically provided for by law, shall, upon conviction thereof in the county court, be fined not less than ten dollars, and not more than one hundred dollars, and may be imprisoned at the discretion of the court, not exceeding thirty days… …If any freedmen, free negro, or mulatto, convicted of any of the misdemeanors provided against in this act, shall fail or refuse for the space of five days, after conviction to pay the find and costs imposed, such person shall be hired out by the sheriff or other officer, at public outcry, to any white person who will pay said fine and all costs, and take said convict for the shortest time.

Laws of Mississippi, 1865, pp.82ff

Kevin J. Fernland. Documents to Accompany America’s History Volume Two: Since 1865. Sixth Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008. 

Terrorized by the Klan“They Have Killed My Poor Grandpappy”Terrorized by the KlanCharlotte Fowler  Congress's reconstruction plan required southern states to grant suffrage to black men and to disqualify former Confederate officials from voting or holding office. Many black men were elected to the new state governments created under Reconstruction. But, southern secret societies, most notoriously the Ku Klux Klan, used violence to promote white supremacy and to prevent black men from voting. In her 1871 testimony to a congressional committee investigating Klan violence, Charlotte Fowler described the murder of her 70-year-old husband, Wallace Fowler. 

Tell how he was killed. The night he was killed, I was taken sick on Wednesday morning, and I laid on my bed Wednesday and Thursday. I didn't eat a mouthful. I couldn't do it. I was so sick, so he went out working on the farm. We still had a little grandchild living with me—my daughter's child. He had two little children living with him on the farm...He kept coming backward and forward to the house to see how I got on and what he could do for me. I never ate nothing until Thursday night. When he came home, he cooked something for me to eat and said: "Old woman, if you don't eat something you will die." Says I: "I can't eat." Says he: "Then I will eat and feed the little baby." That is the grandchild he meant. I says, " You take that little child and sleep in the bed: I think I have got the fever, and I don't want you to get it." He said, "No, I don't want to get the fever, for I have got too much to do." He got up and pulled of his clothes and go in bed. He came and called to the grandchild, Tody—she is Sophia—and he says, "Tody, when you are ready to come to bed, come and grandmother will open your frock, and you can go to bed." So he laid there for about a half an hour, and then I heard the dogs. I was only by myself now, for the children were all abed. Then I got up and went into my room to my bed. I reckon I did not lay in bed a half hour before I heard somebody by the door. It was not one person, but two—ram! ram! ram! at the door. Immediately, I was going to call him to open the door, but he heard it as quick as lightning, and he said to them, "Gentlemen, do not break the door down: I will open the door." And just as he said that they said: "God damn you, I have got you now." I was awake, and I started and got out of bed and fell down on the floor. I was very much scared. The little child followed its grandfather to the door—you know in the night it is hard to direct a child. When he said, "God damn you, I have got you now," and he said, "Don't you run," and just then I heard the report of a pistol, and they shot him down. And this little child ran back to me before I could get out and says, "Oh grandma, they have killed my poor grandpappy." He was such an old gentleman that I thought they just shot over him to scare him, but sure enough, as quick as I got to the door, I raised my right hand and said, "Gentlemen, you have killed a poor, innocent man." My poor old man! Says he: "Shut up." I never saw but two of them: by that time the others had vanished. How did you know there were any others there?The little boy that was there when they shot his grandpappy ran into the house. He was there, and when they started I heard the horses' feet going from the gate. I was then a hallooing and screaming. After they shot the old man, they came back in the house—"Chup! Chup! Chup! make up a light." I said, "I am not able to make up a light: I have been sick two days." I called to the little girl, "Is there any light there?" She says, "No," but the matel was there where I could reach it. "Light that splinter," and she lit the splinter. He said, "Hand it

here," and she lit handed it to him. And then he says, "March before me, march before me." That was done in the middle of my room. He says, "Hand me up your arms"—that is, the guns. Says I, "There isn't any here, sir." Says he, "Hand me up that pistol." I says, "There is none here; the old man had none in slavery and had none in all his freedom, and everybody on the settlement knows it." When he told me about the light he put that pistol up to my face—so—and says, "If you don't come here I will get you light out of this." He did that when I was a poor woman by myself...... Did these men have masks on?Only the one that shot him.  What kind of a mask?  It was all around the eyes. It was black, and the other part was white and red, and he had horns on his head. He came in the house after he killed the old man and told me about the light, and I made the little girl make a light. He took the light from her and looked over the old man. Another man came out of the gate, dropped a chip of fire on him and burned through his shirt—burned his breast. They had shot him through the head, and every time he breathed his brains would come out..... Was the old man dead when the fire was thrown on him?He did not die until Friday between one and two o'clock, but he couldn't speak a word. He was just bleeding and his brains and blood came out over his eyes. Did your old man belong to any party?Yes, sir. What party?The Radicals How long did he belong to them?Ever since they started the voting. Was he a pretty strong Radical?Yes, sir. A pretty strong Radical. Did he work for that party?Yes, sir....... Did he vote in the last election?Yes, sir.

Testimony from Mattie CurtisExcerpts of Testimony from Mattie Curtis (1937)

from Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former SlavesAn interview with Mattie Curtis, 98 years old, of Raleigh, North Carolina.

…When de Yankees come dey come an’ freed us. De woods wus full of Rebs what had deserted, but de Yankees killed some of dem.

Some sort of corporation cut de land up, but de slaves ain’t got none of it dat I ever heard about.

I got married before de war to Joshua Curtis. I loved him too, which is more dam most folks can truthfully say. I always had craved a home an’ aplenty to eat, but freedom ain’t give us notin’ but pickled hoss meat an’ dirty crackers, an’ not half enough of dat.

Josh ain’t really care ’bout no home but through dis land corporation I buyed dese fifteen acres on time. I cut down de big trees dat wus all over dese fields an’ I milled out de wood an’ sold hit, den I plowed up de fields an’ planted dem. Josh did help to build de house an’ he worked out some.

All of dis time I had nineteen chilluns an’ Josh died, but I kep’ on an’ de fifteen what is dead lived to be near ’bout grown, ever one of dem.

Right atter de war northern preachers come around wid a little book a-marrying slaves an’ I seed one of dem marry my pappy an’ mammy. Atter dis dey tried to find dere fourteen oldest chilluns what wus sold away, but dey never did find but three of dem.

But you wants ter find out how I got along. I’ll never fergit my first bale of cotton an’ how I got hit sold. I wus some proud of dat bale of cotton, an’ atter I had hit ginned I set out wid hit on my steercart fer Raleigh. De white folks hated de nigger den, ’specially de nigger what wus makin’ somethin’ so I dasen’t ax nobody whar de market wus.

I thought dat I could find de place by myself, but I rid all day an’ had to take my cotton home wid me dat night ’case I can’t find no place to sell hit at. But dat night I think hit over an’ de nex’ day I goes’ back an’ axes a policeman ’bout de market. Lo an’ behold chile, I foun’ hit on Blount Street, an’ I had pass by hit seberal times de day before.

I done a heap of work at night too, all of my sewin’ an’ such an’ de piece of lan’ near de house over dar ain’t never got no work ’cept at night. I finally paid fer de land. Some of my chilluns wus borned in de field too. When I wus to de house we had a granny an’ I blowed in a bottle to make de labor quick an’ easy.

Dis young generation ain’t worth shucks. Fifteen years ago I hired a big buck nigger to help me shrub an’ ’fore leben o’clock he passed out on me. You know ’bout leben o’clock in July hit gits in a bloom. De young generation wid dere schools an dere divorcing ain’t gwine ter git nothin’ out of life. Hit wus better when folks jist lived tergether. Dere loafin’ gits dem inter trouble an’ dere novels makes dem bad husban’s an’ wives too.

"Excerpts of Testimony from Mattie Curtis", Teaching American History, 2006-2012, Ashbrook Center at Ashland

Univeristy. Web. <http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=2227>