former slaves
became free people after the Civil War. (13 amendment)
After the Emancipation Proclamation, enslaved individuals in the United States were commonly referred to as "freedmen" or "freedwomen," highlighting their newly acquired status as free individuals. The term "freedpeople" was also used to collectively describe them. This change in terminology reflected their liberation from slavery and the ongoing struggles for civil rights and social integration in a post-emancipation society.
The Freedmen's Bureau was established in 1865 to assist formerly enslaved individuals in transitioning to freedom after the Civil War. Its primary goals included providing food, housing, medical care, education, and legal support, as well as facilitating labor contracts between freedpeople and landowners. The Bureau aimed to promote economic self-sufficiency and help integrate African Americans into society. However, it faced significant challenges, including limited funding and resistance from Southern white populations.
Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie has written: 'Freedpeople in the tobacco South' -- subject(s): Economic conditions, History, Freedmen, Tobacco farms, African American farmers
After the Civil War, freed slaves were commonly referred to as "freedmen" for males and "freedwomen" for females. The term "freedpeople" was also used to encompass both genders collectively. In the context of the Reconstruction era, they were often associated with efforts to gain civil rights and integrate into society as equal citizens.
After the Emancipation Proclamation, enslaved individuals in the United States were commonly referred to as "freedmen" or "freedwomen," highlighting their newly acquired status as free individuals. The term "freedpeople" was also used to collectively describe them. This change in terminology reflected their liberation from slavery and the ongoing struggles for civil rights and social integration in a post-emancipation society.
The Freedmen's Bureau helped African Americans. In the years following the Civil War, the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (the Freedmen's Bureau) provided assistance to tens of thousands of former slaves and impoverished whites in the Southern States and the District of Columbia. The war had liberated nearly four million slaves and destroyed the region's cities, towns, and plantation-based economy. It left former slaves and many whites dislocated from their homes, facing starvation, and owning only the clothes they wore. The challenge of establishing a new social order, founded on freedom and racial equality, was enormous. The Bureau was established in the War Department in 1865 to undertake the relief effort and the unprecedented social reconstruction that would bring freedpeople to full citizenship. It issued food and clothing, operated hospitals and temporary camps, helped locate family members, promoted education, helped freedmen legalize marriages, provided employment, supervised labor contracts, provided legal representation, investigated racial confrontations, settled freedmen on abandoned or confiscated lands, and worked with African American soldiers and sailors and their heirs to secure back pay, bounty payments, and pensions.
The US Civil War widened the economic gap between the North and the South. The Northern economy boomed, as the region produced many different kinds of goods. The Southern economy, however, had collapsed. The labor system of slavery was gone. Southern industry and railroads were destroyed. Many farms also lay in ruins. As a result, The South would remain poor for many decades. The North took advantage of the western frontiers and railroads hastened the growth of populations that settled in California and in the plains states. While the Northern economy had placed the war in its rear view mirror, the South languished in the Reconstruction Era. Also, instead of focusing on economic growth, many Southerners focused on racial supremacy issues. They sought to have whites regain their political power and they forced the Black population into a state of fear. White supremacy was the order of the day, and many Black people were denied access to voting polls and lynch mobs curtailed Blacks from full citizenship.