Freedmen and Southern Society Project
The Freedmen & Southern Society Project was established in 1976 to capture the essence of the profound social revolution of emancipation in the United States.
- After Confederate war crimes against Black troops, Theodore Hodgkins, a Black New Yorker wrote to Secretary of War Stanton that "black soldiers have been murdered again & again yet where is there an instance of retaliation."
- "If the murder of the colored troops at Fort Pillow is not followed by prompt action on the part of our government," Hodgkins warned, "it may as well disband all its colored troops for no soldiers whom the goverment will not protect can be depended upon."
- If the US treated war crimes seriously, "the rebels will learn that the U.S. Govt. is not to be trifled with & the black men will feel not a spirit of revenge for have they not often taken the rebels prisoners even their old masters without indulging in a fiendish spirit of revenge or exultation."
-
View full thread"Act first in this matter," Hodgkins advised, & then "afterward explain or threaten" since "the act tells" without which "the threat or demand is regarded as idle." War crimes, he concluded, must be punished visibly & severely to offer any hope of protection against future lawlessness.
- After learning that captured Black soldiers "have been cruelly murdered by your authorities, & others sold into slavery," U.S. Major General David Hunter wrote to Confederate President Jefferson Davis to condemn "every outrage of this kind against the laws of war and humanity."
- These Confederate war crimes, Gen. Hunter threatened, "shall be followed by the immediate execution of the Rebel of highest rank in my possession; man for man, these executions will certainly take place, for every [Black soldier] murdered, or sold into a slavery worse than death."
- "On your authorities will rest the responsibility of having inaugurated this barbarous policy," he fumed, "and you will be held responsible, in this world and in the world to come, for all the blood thus shed."
-
View full thread"This is the kind of liberty," Hunter warned the Confederate President, "the liberty to do wrong–which Satan, Chief of the fallen Angels, was contending for when he was cast into Hell."
- After the Army forced Black officers out of the ranks in 1863, a group of Black former officers from Louisiana petitioned to be reinstated "to assist in putting down this wicked rebelion. And in restoring peace to our once peaceful country."
- "Give us A commander," the group of former Black officers pleaded, "who will appreciate us as men and soldiers, And we will be willing to surmount all outer difficulties."
- "If the world doubts our fighting," they argued, "give us A chance and we will show then what we can do–" Instead, the Union commander continued to refuse Black officers & deployed Black troops primarily as manual laborers.
- After emancipation, a Black Mississippi veteran reported that his white neighbors "outraged [Black Southerners] beyound humanity. Houses have been tourn down... & the old Negroes after they have worked there till they are 70 or 80 yers of age drive them off in the cold to frieze & starve to death."
- One Black mother reported, he wrote, that "the coldest day that has been this winter & said that she & her eight children lay out last night, & come near friezing after She had paid some wrent on the house." The white landowner evicted her, despite her rent having been paid.
- Some Black Mississippians, he asserted, "are being knocked down for saying they are free, while a great many are being worked just as they ust to be when Slaves, without any compensation."
-
View full threadThis relentless white conservative state & vigilante violence against Black Southerners could only be resolved in one way: "get Congress to stick in a few competent colered men [into public service] as they did in the army & the thing will all go right."
- Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society ProjectWe’ve published a fantastic new primary source collection—"Radicalism and Popular Protest in Georgian Britain, c. 1714–1832”. Visit the collection landing page at buff.ly/Mf1q0nH.
- Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society ProjectThank you so much. This is my hometown and I’ve never heard of this incident. Will definitely look into this more
- Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project[Not loaded yet]
- After the police chief in Columbia, SC murdered a Black resident in cold blood, an anonymous Black woman wrote to the govt in May 1866: "Our friends in Congress are wasting time & breath, & all the bills they may pass, will do us no good, unless men are sent here that will see these laws enforced."
- Her testimony, which is part of our Law & Justice series we plan to publish next year, revealed widespread abuse, not only by local law enforcement but also from federal officials & soldiers who "wink at, & allow these things to go on thus."
- The Union commander at Columbia, SC noted dismissively that "the chief of Police has been justified at a civil & military investigation of the homicide complained of" & suggested that the woman was bitter for being unable to hold "a public 'Fandango' or 'Break Down'"—racist terms for dance.
- From the archive, Black education was under assault from its earliest origins after emancipation: "A very respectable young colored Female, teacher of the colored School near Vienna Dorchester Co md. was assaulted on the road near the school House by a white man named Cyrus Stack."
- The unnamed Black woman teacher was apparently knocked unconscious by her white assailant, the local school commissioner reported, "remaining for sometime in an insensible state!"
- "There was another white man near by," the school commissioner explained, "but he 'didn't see' it of course. Our state laws afford no protection to this class of people, and the failure of the 'Freedman's bureau bill' leaves them in a pitiable state indeed."
- While the Freedmen's Bureau investigated the charges, it ultimately left the case in the hands of racist local officials who, they noted, were unlikely to prosecute the offender.
- In December 1865, 2500 Black Washingtonians petitioned Congress for the right to vote. "Experience teaches," they wrote, "that all reforms have their opponents. The same experience also teaches that apprehensions of evil arising from reforms founded in justice, are but seldom if ever realized."
- They explained that Black Washingtonians are "property holders... pay[ing] no inconsiderable amount of taxes; but are nevertheless as slaves to its distribution, unlike other tax-payers they see the proceeds of their labor taken & disposed of without a single voice."
- "Out of a [Black] population of less than 15000," they wrote, "we have contributed three full regiments, over 3500 enlisted men, while the white citizens out of a population of upwards 60000 sent only about 1500 enlisted men for the support of the Union, the Constitution & the Laws."
-
View full threadThe Black petitioners concluded that their commitment to the rule of law, their right to have a say in the distribution of their tax dollars, & their demand for equality in the judicial system "are the basis upon which we predicate our claim for suffrage, & civil equality before the law."
- Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project[Not loaded yet]
- After emancipation, Black schoolteacher & future Alabama state legislator William V. Turner reported to the Freedmen's Bureau that local officials were illegally withholding food assistance from Black mothers, telling them it "is not for negroes, but for the poor white women."
- The Black woman, Turner wrote, "has a large family of little ones, & she is their sole support." "I know her to be an industrious hard striving woman," he attested, but "she cannot get any aid, from the subsistence agent here, because she is not white" & bc her husband had fought for the Union.
- After testifying abt the denial of food assistance to Black mothers, Turner concluded that "It certainly must be a great crime to be a Negro, I cannot view it in any other light."
- After fighting to destroy slavery, Turner explained, "We the colored people have done all we could to aid the government, in her hour of need, & now our services are no longer needed, our women may suffer hunger—when it is in the hands of the agents relieve their wants—simply bc [they] are black."
- A Black veteran, Sergeant Joe Brown, testified that he was attacked by white cops in Memphis for having served in the military: "he then stepped back a few paces & ran up and struck me with his club, on the head."
- The attack began, Brown explained, as "I was sitting in my own door on Sunday night the 10″ of Sept., about dark. And a policeman who lives opposite to me on corner Brown-Avenue & Causey Streets Named Sweatt. said to me I wish I could get a chance to kill all the Damned N****r Soldiers."
- Refusing their abuse, Sergt. Brown replied "you cant kill me," after which the cops began beating him with their clubs. "they thru me down," he testified, "and stamped me in the back while lying on the ground."
- Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project[Not loaded yet]
- As we begin the 1st few weeks of classes, a reminder that FSSP hosts a large collection of classroom-ready documents related to slavery & its destruction. These first-hand testimonies of enslaved people, Black soldiers, & officials give life to lessons on slavery & the contested arc of emancipation.
- Also, we're in the process of updating our web presence & dramatically expanding our online resources. If you use our collections in your teaching, we would *love* to hear from you as we advance & refine this digitization project.
