Freedmen in the Southand Rise of the

KKK

Freedmen's Memorial to Abraham Lincoln by Thomas Ball

Freedmen's Memorial to Abraham Lincoln Thomas Ball

• freedom a gift from white men• Lincoln= figure who lifts slaves from

servitude with his words• Lincoln- clothes, slave- partially nude

indicating he is a slave• commissioned by African Americans• design chose by white men

Freedom from African American Viewpoint

• Acquisitions of rights and protections

• How?- redistribute propertyor- legal equality

• Freedom from white control- schools-churches-aid societies

"Northern Coat of Arms."

Black feet emerge from beneath a Phrygian

liberty cap-- which was worn by newly freed

slaves in Ancient Rome. The cap is faintly embroidered with

several stars, an eagle with an olive branch,

and the word "Liberty." At first glance, this may seem a fairly humorous

image, but the underlying message is unmistakable: freedom

is too great a responsibility for

African-Americans.

Southern White interpretation of Freedom

• Restore life to antebellum days- legally tie Blacks to the plantation- keep white supremacy

• No interference from the Federal Government and the North

an idealized image of the Freedmen's Bureau from

Harper's Weekly from 1868

The Freedman’s Bureau• established by Congress March 3, 1865• the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and

Abandoned Lands, AKA Freedmen’s Bureau• Original life span one year

- July 16, 1866, Congress extended the life of the bureau over the veto of President Andrew Johnson

• Goals- provide food, medical care, help with resettlement, administer

justice, manage abandoned and confiscated property, regulate labor, and establish schools

Failures of the Bureau• 850,000 acres of abandoned and confiscated

land given to freedmen,- President Andrew Johnson returned

the land to Confederate owners. • encouraged freedmen to work on plantations

- eventually led to oppressive sharecropping and tenancy arrangements.

• 1869- Congress terminated all of the bureau’s work except for its efforts in education

- education efforts ended in 1870

Harpers Weekly Commentary:

April 14, 1866, Thomas Nast drew a

cartoon of "The Grand Masquerade Ball" featuring large sketches of many of the celebrities of the

day. Andrew Johnson is pictured

kicking out the Freedmen’s Bureau with his veto, with

scattered black people coming out

of it.

The Crop-Lien System

• allowed farmers to receive commodities such as food, supplies, seeds, etc. on loan (or credit)

• pay this debt back after their crop was harvested and sold.

- there was a lien against the crop- amount of credit was based on the

estimated value of the crop

Problems with Crop-Lien

• mistakes in valuing the crop• a bad crop year meant longer

indebtedness • merchants could often control the prices of

the supplies and therefore, the debt • many Blacks lost land due to debt• tied in to planting and selling cotton:

depleting land and preventing diversification

Politics• Carpetbaggers

- Northern Republicans- move South- cashed in on S. distress

• Scalawags- Southern Republicans- viewed as traitors

• African Americans begin to exercise their right to vote

• Run for political office- state legislature- US House and Senate- no Governors

1868, Blacks dominated the

Louisiana Legislature during

Reconstruction. The militarily conquered Whites of the South

were denied all Constitutional Rights; they could not vote, run for public office,

or hold Civil positions. They were

denied redress of grievances, yet, were

forced to pay excessive taxes to pay for the war.

Negro poll watcher oversees election in which only Blacks, scalawags, and carpetbaggers could

vote.

                                                                                           Black congressmen from the late-

1800s. Among those depicted is the first African American to serve in the

United States Senate, Hiram Revels of Mississippi, far left, who served in the

41st Congress from 1869 to 1871.

Ku Klux Klan:Founded in 1866 by

Nathan Bedford ForrestLatin for

“family circle”

"The Union As It Was,"

representatives of the Ku Klux Klan and the White

League shake hands over a cowering black family. In the background on the right is a burning school

house, a stark contrast to Nast's depiction of the

school in his earlier drawing. In the left

background a lynching victim hangs from a tree.

The Rise of the KKK

Ku Klux Klan Costumes,

1868, The KKK's hooded

costumes were meant to

protect the anonymity of its members and

promote fear of an "unknown" terror among blacks. The

costumes were also crucial to

the KKK's desire to invoke the rituals and

traditions of secret white,

male brotherhoods of

the past.

Ku Klux Klan

• 1866• terrorism, violence,

and acts of intimidation, such as cross burning and lynching

• Goal: end Black political power and Black voting

A cartoon threatening that the KKK would lynch carpetbaggers, Tuscaloosa, Alabama,

Independent Monitor, 1868

                                                             

K.K.K.: Secret Society that opposed African American Civil Rights by using violence and terror

Ku Klux KlanFormer Confederate soldiers founded the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) after the American Civil War (1861-1865). The KKK used violence and intimidation to prevent blacks from voting and holding office, and to keep them segregated.

@#$!@#$!

Klansmen when he gets to

heaven

Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha HaHe He He HeHo Ho Ho Ho

Barry Black, a Klan leader has described cross burning as "a

very sacred ritual.""We don't light [the cross] to

desecrate it," he told the Roanoke Times in 1999. "We light it to show that Christ is

still alive." The burning symbolizes the "burning away

of evil."

Federal Government v. KKK

• 1870, 1871• 2 Enforcement Acts (AKA KKK Acts)• cannot discriminate against voters based

on race• federal govt. can prosecute instead of

state court• President can use military to enforce and

can suspend habeas corpus• by 1872 Klan violence was in decline

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