Slavery and Its Legacies in North America
Emancipation took effect unevenly in different parts of the conquered Confederacy. Some slaves resisted the liberating Union armies due to their loyalty to their masters.
The church became the focus of black community life in the years following emancipation. Blacks formed their own churches pastured by their own ministers. Education also arose for the blacks due to the emancipation proclamation. Blacks now had the opportunity to learn to read and write.
Because many freedmen (those who were freed from slavery) were unskilled, unlettered, without property or money, and with little knowledge of how to survive as free people, Congress created the Freedmen's Bureau on March 3, 1865. It was intended to provide clothing, medical care, food, and education to both freedmen and white refugees. Union general Oliver O. Howard led the bureau. The bureau's greatest success was teaching blacks to read. Because it was despised by the President and by Southerners, the Freedmen's Bureau expired in 1872.
The Black Codes was a series of laws designed to regulate the affairs of the emancipated slaves. Mississippi passed the first such law in November 1865.
The Black Codes aimed to ensure a stable and subservient labor force.
Blacks were forced to continue to work the plantations after their emancipation due to the system of "sharecropping." Plantation owners would rent out pieces of their land to blacks and make the cost of rent higher than the return the land produced. The renters of the land were bound by contract to continue to work the land until debts were repaid to the plantation owner. Unable to repay the debts, blacks began to "jump" their contracts.
The codes imposed harsh penalties on blacks who "jumped" their labor contracts, some of which usually forced the blacks to work for the same employer for one year. The codes also sought to restore the pre-emancipation system of race relations. The codes forbade a black to serve on a jury or to vote. The Black Codes mocked the idea of freedom and imposed terrible hardships on the blacks who were struggling against mistreatment and poverty to make their way as free people.
The Republicans were strongly opposed to the Black Codes.
After gaining the right to vote from the 15th Amendment, blacks began to organize politically. They were strong participators in the Union League, originally a pro-Union organization. Freedmen turned the Union League into a network of political clubs that educated members and campaigned for Republican candidates. The League also took up building black churches and schools, representing black grievances before local employers and government, and recruiting militias to protect black communities from white retaliation.
From 1868-1876, blacks began to hold major offices in government (senator, congressmen).
War and Diplomacy
All rebel (Confederate) leaders were pardoned by President Johnson in 1868.
:)
