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Section 2: Building the Black Community: The Family Section 2: Building the Black Community: The Church Section 2: Building the Black Community: The School Section 2: Quest for Economic Autonomy and Equal Rights Section 2: Memory and Mourning Section 2: Violence

 

Five Generations of an African-American Family, 1862.

Five Generations of an African-American Family, 1862.
(Library of Congress)

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Even as an enslaved people, African-Americans maintained strong family ties. After emancipation, African-Americans struggled to reunite families that had been disrupted by sale and many couples legalized their marriages.

Family and kinship ties, together with the church, remained the foundation of the black community.
Copyright 2003
A New Birth of Freedom: Reconstruction During the Civil War The Meaning of Freedom: Black and White Responses to Slavery From Free Labor to Slave Labor Rights and Power: The Politics of Reconstruction Introduction The Ending of Reconstruction Epilogue Additional Resources Credits for this Exhibit