Section1Section1

PFigure 22Timeline1865-1880

1865 1870 1875 1880

The end of the war brought freedom to the slaves, or so it seemed. Actually,freedom for the slaves was not official until the states ratified the ThirteenthAmendment to the U.S. Constitution. Although the slaves were free, free-dom alone would not provide for their needs. Most of the freedmen, formerslaves, could not read or write, and there were no jobs available for them.Some former owners, like Francis W. Pickens, announced to their slaves thatthey were free, but that those who stayed would be paid for their work.Many of those who left the plantations huddled in the towns and lived in

The Freeing ofthe Slaves

As you read, look for:• life of freedmen,• presidential and congressional Reconstruction plans, and• vocabulary terms: Thirteenth Amendment, freedmen,

Freedmen’s Bureau, Radical Republicans, and pocket veto.

1876General George Custer and 264 troopers killed atLittle Big Horn River

1873The first penny postcardissued

1871Most of Chicagodestroyed inGreat Fire

1869Transcontinentalrailroadcompleted

1865Lewis Carrollpublished Alice’sAdventures inWonderland

1867United Statesbought Alaskafrom Russia for$7.2 million

1877Radical Reconstruction ended

1876Hamburg massacre

1871Allen University and Benedict College established

1868State constitution rewritten; President Johnson impeached but acquitted

1865Freedmen’s Bureau created; Andrew Johnson became president;Civil War ended; SC wrote new constitution; Ku Klux Klan organized

1867Radical Reconstruction plan adopted

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Below: Congress createdthe Freedmen’s Bureau tohelp feed, clothe, andeducate destitute freedmen.They lined up at Bureauoffices all over the state toget help.

deserted houses or shacks built of scrap ma-terials. Thousands of South Carolina slavesmoved to Charleston, and many moremoved to other states like Florida and Loui-siana. Many died from hunger or disease.

Some of the planters were shocked whentheir most trusted slaves—the drivers andhouse servants—left them. To the slave-holders, the desertion of their most trustedservants was a sign of ingratitude, unfaithful-ness, and disloyalty. The loss of the slaves alsosignaled the end of their power over these individuals. The slaves left becausethey could, and it proved they were free. One former house slave from theLaurens area said: “I must go; if I stay here I’ll never know I am free.”

There were slaves who stayed. In her diary, Mary Boykin Chesnut toldof an old black man who comforted his master at the end of the war: “Whenyou ’all had de power, you was good to me, and I’ll protect you now.”

The Freedmen’s BureauBecause of the plight of the freed slaves, they received national attention.

In an effort to help them, the federal government created the Freedmen’sBureau in 1865 and put it under the control of the army. The Bureau pro-vided food, clothing, and medical supplies to needy blacks. It helped thefreedmen find jobs and supervised work contracts so that illiterate blacks

Figure 23The Thirteenth Amendmentto the U.S. Constitution

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, ex-cept as a punishment for crime whereof the party shallhave been duly convicted, shall exist within the UnitedStates, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

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Above: In 1864, this build-ing served as the office ofthe Freedmen’s Bureauin Beaufort. The sea islandsfell to the Union Navy earlyin the war, and thousandsof slaves fled there forfreedom and protection.

would not be treated unfairly. TheFreedmen’s Bureau also establishedschools and had the power to estab-lish military courts.

Views on the success of theFreedman’s Bureau vary. The agencyhad a difficult task. There were 3.5million freedmen in the South andseveral hundred thousand in SouthCarolina alone. The agency was thefirst time the federal governmenthad provided for the livelihood ofdestitute individuals. The bureauhad little in the way of cash or re-sources to use, and working with theplanters was difficult. Southernplanters had no money with whichto pay for work. They used what

little cash and gold they had during the war, and most of their wealth hadbeen in the form of land and slaves before the war. In addition, the plantersresented the presence of the Bureau because it represented the victoriousfoe. And, the Bureau was trying to help change the Southern lifestyle.

In 1901, one advocate of education for blacks looked back on the daysof the Freedmen’s Bureau. He believed that the Bureau had actually ham-pered the progress of the freedmen.

This institution [speaking of the Freedmen’s Bureau] was in every respectmost unfortunate. The Negro ran away from his old master’s cornfield andhis appeals to work in order to enjoy the free bounty of the federal govern-ment. I knew a Negro to walk one hundred miles in order to obtain half abushel of corn meal from the Bureau. In the time required he might haveearned by labor four and half bushels, or nine times what he got by beg-ging. But the evils of idleness, although great, would soon have passed away,if the two races had been left alone.

Dr. William Wells Brown was also critical of the influence of theFreedmen’s Bureau, particularly the Freedman’s Saving Bank.

The hope of every one . . . seemed to centre in the Freedman’s Saving Bank.“This is our bank,” said they; and to their institution the intelligent and theignorant, the soldier fresh from the field of battle, the farmer, the day la-borer, and the poor washerwoman, all alike brought their earnings anddeposited them in the Freedman’s Bank. This place of safety for their scantystore seemed to be the hope of the race for the future. . . . These deposits

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Above: This was the lastphotograph taken of Presi-dent Lincoln before he waskilled. Alexander Gardenertook the photograph onApril 9, 1865.

were the first installments toward purchasing homes or getting ready to beginsome mercantile or mechanical business. The first announcement, therefore,of the closing of the Freedman’s Saving Bank had a paralyzing effect uponthe blacks everywhere. . . . Large numbers quit work; the greater portionsold their bank books for a trifle, and general distrust prevailed throughoutthe community. Many who had purchased small farms, or cheap dwellingsin cities and towns, and had paid part of the purchase money, now becamediscouraged, surrendered their claims, gave up the lands, and went aboutas if every hope was lost. . . .

The Freedmen’s Bureau disappointed many of the freed slaves. Federalpromises of “forty acres and a mule” did not materialize. The freedmen didnot receive an education or money to get started in new professions. In short,the Bureau promised more than it could ever deliver.

And while the Freedman’s Bureau was not successful in getting the freed-men land, one of the few successes of the South Carolina government dur-ing Reconstruction was the South Carolina Land Commission. Thecommission bought land and then sold it to small farmers. Most of thesesmall farmers were black. Before the end of Reconstruction, over 2,000 smallfarmers had bought land from the commission. The Promised Land Com-munity in Greenwood County today is on land purchased from the com-mission. While the Freedman’s Bureau was unsuccessful in getting land tovery many people in South Carolina, the state of South Carolina was moresuccessful than any other state in getting land to freedmen.

Presidential ReconstructionLong before the Civil War was over, President Lincoln began to think of

how the Union and the Confederate states would be reunited. The reunifi-cation of the country after the Civil War is known as Reconstruction. Re-construction would also involve rebuilding the South—its farms, homes,bridges, railroads, and the many other things that had been destroyed. Andthere was a need to reconstruct southern society in a way to provide for thefreed slaves.

Lincoln’s PlanIn December 1863, President Lincoln announced his plan to politically

reconstruct the Union. He wanted Reconstruction to be simple, mainlybecause he believed the southern states had never left the Union; they hadonly rebelled. Lincoln thought Reconstruction should involve two steps: (1)Remove those government officials of the Confederate States of Americaand (2) replace them with officials who were loyal to the Union.

Lincoln’s plan included three provisions. First, as punishment for theirdisloyalty, all high-level Confederate officials—both civilian and military—were prohibited from voting. Second, Confederates would be pardoned and

Section 1 The Freeing of the Slaves 385

given back their property if they agreed to take an oath to obey the U.S.Constitution and the laws of the Union. Third, when ten percent of the menin a particular state who could vote in 1860 had taken the oath of allegianceto the Union, that state would be allowed to write a new constitution, elect

new state officials, and reassume itsplace in the Union. South Carolin-ians probably paid little attention toLincoln’s plan.

Lincoln’s plan, however, met op-position in the North. Radical Re-publicans, those who wanted tomake the South pay dearly for thewar, believed the president’s planwas too easy. In the early summerof 1864, they pushed the Wade-Davis Bill through Congress. Itgreatly increased the conditions forreinstatement. Lincoln recognizedthe Wade-Davis Bill for what itwas—an attempt to punish all

southerners for the actions of the secessionists. Lincoln quietly decided todo nothing about the bill. This is known as a pocket veto, an indirect vetoby a president who holds the bill unsigned until after Congress adjourns.Lincoln’s actions, however, signaled that there was going to be a fight overReconstruction.

Unfortunately, Lincoln was not part of that fight. On April 14, 1865,John Wilkes Booth shot and wounded the president, who was attending aplay at Ford’s Theatre in Washington. Lincoln died the next day. Booth, asouthern sympathizer, blamed Lin-coln for the war and felt he was help-ing the South when he shot thepresident. As it turned out, Boothprobably did the South more harmthan good. Lincoln was no longeraround to keep the Radical Repub-licans in check.

Johnson’s PlanWhen Lincoln died, Andrew

Johnson became president. A Ten-nessean, Johnson had decided tostay in the U.S. Senate when Tennes-see seceded. In 1864, he was re-warded for his allegiance to the ?

The wooden altar of St.Helena’s Episcopal Churchin Beaufort was carved bythe crew of the USS New

Hampshire, which wasstationed nearby during

Reconstruction. In thechurchyard are tombstones

used as operating tablesduring the Civil War.

Did You Know?Did You Know?

Above: John Wilkes Booth’sdecision to shoot PresidentLincoln had a dramaticimpact on Reconstructionand, perhaps, on the futurehistory of our nation.

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Above: Vice PresidentAndrew Johnson, the formergovernor of Tennessee, wasas stunned as the rest of thenation over the assassinationof President Lincoln. Hequickly decided to carry outLincoln’s moderate planof Reconstruction, but theRadical Republicans inCongress had other ideas.

Union with the vice presidency. Nowhe was president and in charge of Re-construction.

Johnson supported Lincoln’s plan,but he did add several more provi-sions. First, planters whose propertywas worth $20,000 or more had toappear before him personally to askfor pardon. This was Johnson’s wayof getting even with the planter classfor what he perceived as their poortreatment of him in the past. Second,Johnson required all the southernstates to approve the ThirteenthAmendment. Third, he required thesouthern states to nullify their ordi-nances of secession. Fourth, the south-ern states had to promise not to repaythe individuals and institutions thathad helped finance the Confederacy.

South Carolina’sConstitution of 1865

In September 1865, a conventionmet in Columbia to adopt a new con-stitution for the state. The documentthat emerged from those meetings dif-fered little from the constitution the state had written when it joined theConfederacy. Voting was still restricted to white men, but now the peopleinstead of the legislature elected the governor. Article IX, Section 11 didrecognize the freedom of the slaves and forbade the reinstatement of sla-very in the state—except as a punishment for a crime. This article, however,did not prevent the state from passing laws that essentially made the freed-men free in name only. And, many of the same people who had led SouthCarolina out of the Union remained in power under the new constitution.

1. What was the Freedmen’s Bureau established to provide?2. Why did the Radical Republicans disagree with Lincoln’s

Reconstruction plan?3. Who became president after Abraham Lincoln died?

It’s Your TurnIt’s Your Turn

Section 1 The Freeing of the Slaves 387

Cultural ConnectionsCultural Connections

African AmericanDenominations

One goal most slave owners had was toconvert their slaves to Christianity. Thoughmost slaves could not read and write, someslaves were taught to read by their ownersso they could read the Bible. In addition,the slaves were not usually expected towork on Sundays. Instead, the slaves wereexpected to attend church if there was achurch nearby.

Prior to the Civil War, slaves that went tochurch for the most part went to the samechurches as their owners. Most of thechurches had a section reserved for slaves;most of the time the section was the bal-cony. Owners and slaves would attend thesame church, though they did not sit to-gether. There were two denominations thatwere primarily black, the African Method-ist Episcopal Church and the African Meth-odist Episcopal Church (Zion). Neither de-nomination, however, had significantmembership prior to the Civil War.

As the Civil War approached, manychurch denominations in the United Statessplit over the issue of slavery into a North-ern branch and a Southern branch. Whenthe war was over, the two branches did

African AmericanDenominations

Right: The First African Baptist Churchin Beaufort was built by freedslaves in 1865 and was given to otherfreed slaves.

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not immediately reunite; in fact, the two mainbranches of the Presbyterian Church did not mergeuntil the mid 1980s. However, the greatest changesthat occurred regarding churches after the Civil Warwere the growth of the Christian denominations spe-cifically for blacks and the significant decline in blackmembership in the white churches.

What caused the growth of the black denomina-tions? Freedom for the slaves allowed them to attendchurch without oversight by their former owners wasone reason. More significantly was the attitude of bothblacks and whites that they should not associate witheach other socially. In the Episcopal Church, blackswere officially made unwelcome and in some casesblacks were forced out of the congregations in whichthey were members. Data indicate that there were

46,640 black Methodists in 1860, but the numberdwindled to 421 by 1876. Episcopalians saw blackmembership drop from 2,973 in 1860 to 262 in 1876.

While several black congregations remained part ofthe Southern part of the Presbyterian Church, moreblacks joined the Northern branch, and by the end ofReconstruction one of the largest churches in the statewas Zion Presbyterian Church in Charleston, a blackcongregation. Other large churches in Charleston wereEmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and Cen-tenary Methodist Church, part of the Northern branchof the Methodist Church.

While the predominately white churches lost mem-bership during Reconstruction, black denominationsgrew significantly. Before the Civil War there were only85,000 blacks on denominational rolls; by 1877 therewere over 218,000. Several denominations grew morethan others. The Colored Baptist Educational, Mission-ary and Sunday School Convention had 100,000 mem-bers by 1877, while the African Methodist EpiscopalChurch had 44,000 members. The South Carolina Con-ference of the Northern Methodist Episcopal Churchhad 26,000 members and the African Methodist Epis-copal Church (Zion) had 46,000 members. It is obvi-ous that blacks wanted to worship without interfer-ence from their former owners.

Many of the black denominations established schoolsfor their members, including colleges. Allen Universityin Columbia was founded in 1870 by members of theAfrican Methodist Episcopal Church, and the school re-mains affiliated with the church today. Benedict Collegealso was founded in 1870 by the American Baptist HomeMission Society. Morris College in Sumter was foundedby the Baptist Educational and Missionary Conventionof South Carolina. Claflin University was founded by theMethodist Church and Voorhees College was estab-lished by the Episcopal Church.

The growth of black denominations after the CivilWar shows that blacks wanted to have a social life freefrom control by their former owners. Over the last 140years those denominations have worked to provideeducation for their members and improve the life ofblacks. The denominations remain strong in the life ofthe state today.

Above: One of the first colleges founded for thefreedmen was Allen University in Columbia.

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