Printable Version
A New Birth of Freedom: The Day of Jubilee |
Previous |
Next |
Digital History ID 3098
|
The North's victory in the Civil War produced a social revolution
in the South. Four million slaves were freed and a quarter million
southern whites had died, one fifth of the male population. $2.5
billion worth of property had been lost.
Slave emancipation did not come in a single moment. In coastal
South Carolina and parts of Louisiana and Florida, some slaves
gained their freedom as early as the fall of 1861, when Union
generals like John C. Fremont, without presidential or Congressional
authorization, proclaimed slaves in their conquered districts
to be free. During the war, slaves, by the tens of thousands,
abandoned their plantations and flocked to Union lines. Black
soldiers in the Union Army and their families automatically gained
freedom.
Many slaves in Texas did not formally hear about freedom until
June 19, 1865, which is why "Juneteenth" continues to
be celebrated as emancipation day throughout the Southwest. Many
slaves in the border states that remained in the Union--Delaware,
Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri--were not freed until December
1865, eight months after the end of the Civil War, when the 13th
Amendment, abolishing slavery, was ratified.
For former slaves, emancipation was a moment of exhilaration,
fear, and uncertainty. While some greeted the announcement of
freedom with jubilation, others reacted with stunned silence.
Responses to the news of emancipation ranged from exhilaration
and celebration to incredulity and fear.
In Choctaw County, Mississippi, former slaves whipped a planter
named Nat Best to retaliate for his cruelties. In Richmond, Virginia,
some 1,500 ex-slaves gathered in the Free African church to sing
hymns. A parade in Charleston attracted 10,000 spectators and
featured a black-draped coffin bearing the words "Slavery
is Dead." A northern journalist met an ex-slave in North
Carolina who had walked 600 miles searching for his wife and children
who had been sold four years before. But many freed men and women
felt a deep uncertainty about their status and rights.
Ex-slaves expressed their newly-won freedom in diverse ways.
Many couples, forbidden to marry during slavery, took the opportunity
to formalize their unions. Others, who had lived apart from their
families on separate plantations, were finally free to reside
with their spouses and children. As an expression of their freedom,
many freedmen dropped their slave names, adopted new surnames,
and insisted on being addressed as "mister" or misses."
Many black women withdrew from field labor to care for their families.
Many ex-slaves left farms or plantations for towns or cities
"where freedom was free-er." Across the South, former
slaves left white-dominated churches and formed independent black
congregations; founded schools; and set up mutual aid societies.
They also held freedmen's conventions to air grievances, discuss
pressing issues, and press for equal civil and political rights.
Shocked at seeing former slaves transformed into free women
and men, many southern whites complained of "betrayal"
and "ingratitude" when freedmen left their plantations.
Revealing slaveowners' capacity for self-deception, one former
master complained that "those we loved best, and who loved
us best--as we thought--were the first to leave us."
In many parts of the South, the end of the war was followed
by outbursts of white rage. White mobs whipped, clubbed, and murdered
ex-slaves. In contrast, the vast majority of former slaves refrained
from vengeance against former masters. Instead they struggled
to achieve social and independence by forming separate lodges,
newspapers, and political organizations.
Reconstruction was a time of testing, when freedmen probed
the boundaries and possibilities of freedom. Every aspect of southern
life was subject to redefinition, from forms of racial etiquette
to the systems of labor that would replace slavery.
Copyright 2021 Digital History
|