Chapter 15: "What is Freedom": Reconstruction (1865-1877)

15.1 Petition of Black Residents of Nashville (1865)

Loyalty to the Union

• The $petitioners$ placed so much emphasis on their loyalty to the union cause during the war
    * They wanted the $government$ to have a clear understanding of how dedicated they are to gaining human rights as a member of America’s working class
• A $union’s current job$ was to work for safer conditions for laborers to protect them from harm and exhaustion.
• The petitioners convey that for the past 200 years their race has been in bondage and if the Constitution doesn't abolish slavery, then no black man, woman, or child will genuinely ever be free.
    * The text says that the same trend will continue if nothing is done.

Petitioner’s Understanding of American Freedom

• The petitioners originate the idea of being treated equally to their white counterparts, which was the motive behind the Civil Rights movement.

15.2 Petition of Committee on Behalf of the Freedmen Andrew Johnson (1865)

Importance of Retaking Edisto Island

• It's important for petitioners to purchase land in the land on Edisto Island because $in order to vote at this time$ %%you had to be a landowner%%
    * It was also $important for them to take back this land$ because it is the southern grounds they were once enslaved in.
    * This is also very important when it comes to the idea of freedom.

Relationship between Freedom and Land Ownership

• Freedom and owning land have an equal relationship because $it gives you the ability to vote and even holds office$.
• The African Americans wanted to be citizens and be able to $participate and have a voice just like white citizens$.

15.3 The Mississippi Black Code (1865)

Mississippi Requiring Blacks to Sign Yearly Labor Contracts

• The state of Mississippi $required blacks to sign yearly labor contracts$ but not the whites
    * They wanted to find ways around the term "slavery."
• By this I mean it forced blacks to fall back into the arms of white plantation owners doing the same tasks they were before.
• Black codes stated that $African Americans had to sign a yearly labor contract,$ or they %%would be fined and sent to jail.%%

Basic Rights Denied by the Black Code

• The Black Codes prevented blacks from owning land or holding a place in the office.
• The problem with this is blacks didn't have any money to give because they had just previously been enslaved without pay, so $they would be sent to prisons and leased off jobs that didn't allow them to rise$.

15.4 A Sharecropping Contract (1866)

Limitations of the Sharecropping Contract

• The contact that came with sharecropping limited the freedom of those under it because the $laborers were usually illiterate$ therefore, they couldn't read the contracts they were signing which ultimately gave the white land owner the right to supervise the work of his employees.
• It also forced the black workers to share a portion of their crops with the landowner as a fee for using their land to grow crops on.

Benefits & Risks

• A $benefit$ of this sharecropping system is that the African Americans did work of their own and work of their own will, but the landowner did supervise them.
• A $risk$ is that it was hard to keep up with the demand for sharing the blacks were forced to disperse.
    * This left them in a constant cycle of work and if they had a bad season they would be behind in what they owed

15.5 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Home Life“ (ca. 1975)

Stanton on the Social Revolution After the Civil War

• The social revolution was defined as being more important than the political or the religious revolution because it went deep down the very foundation of society

How to Establish Individual Freedom within the Family

• Stanton believes that individual freedom within the family can be established through individual judgment

15.6 Frederick Douglass, “The Composite Nation“ (1869)

Douglass on ‘‘Composite Nationality“

• Douglass means by the term "composite nationality" that all races come together as a nation to follow the same laws, speak the same language and uphold the same government, prosper together, etc.
• This was a radical gesture for his time, however, it meant enough discrimination and prejudice but instead find comfort in that they are all here for the same opportunities and to work together to support one other's endeavors.
• He believes that people should be allowed to move freely from one country to another because he sees the $benefits of networking with each other to create a sense of equality for one another$.
• It produces the start of a healthy relationship with other countries or nations.

People Moving Freely

• He believes that people should be allowed to move freely from one country to another because $he sees the benefits of networking with each other$ to create a sense of equality for one another.
• It produces the start of a healthy relationship with other countries or nations.
• It also $creates a sense of home from one country to another$, to create the mannerism of treating others better

15.7 Robert B. Elliot on Civil Rights (1874)

Elliot on the Constitutionality of the Civil Rights Bill

• The constitution warrants it, the supreme court sanctions it and justice demands it.
• There was never a bill more completely within the constitutional power of congress.
• It appealed for more support more strongly to the sense of justice and fair play which is said to be a characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon race.

Elliot Referencing Stephen’s “Cornerstone Speech“

• it represents that slavery was the main subject of the American government and these events $got rid of the pseudo-government$ which rested %%on greed, pride, and tyranny%%.