Unit
Years: 1861-1877
Economy & Society
Historical Events, Movements, and Figures
As the Union forces took more and more of the Confederacy’s territory, formerly enslaved Black Americans found themselves in an ambiguous economic position. While the Union Army often brought de-facto emancipation to these liberated areas, a system of free labor did not yet exist to integrate Black Americans into the economy on equal footing. With the Southern plantation economy in disarray, different communities tried various solutions. These experiments ranged from creating autonomous Black communities of subsistence farmers in South Carolina to exploiting Black workers in a system that would later become sharecropping. The Union army and Union government officials backed some of these plans, as no centralized policy yet existed to manage the integration of newly freed people into the economy. Although some Black families became landowners and experienced economic mobility, the vast majority of these economic experiments ended in the continued exploitation of formerly enslaved Black Americans in systems that closely resembled slavery–but with a different name.
Source: Excerpted from William E. Gienapp, ed.,The Civil War and Reconstruction: A Documentary Collection (New York: W. W. Norton, 2001), 380.
Dayton, Ohio, August 7, 1865. To my old Master, Colonel P. H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee.
Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.
I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get $25 a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy (the folks call her Mrs. Anderson), and the children, Milly, Jane, and Grundy, go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, “Them colored people were slaves” down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.
As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At $25 a month for me, and $2 a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to $11,680. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor’s visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.
In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve and die, if it come to that, than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.
From your old servant,
Jourdon Anderson
P.S.— Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.
A war fought between opposing groups within the same country or nation, typically over issues of governance, sovereignty, or territorial control.
A union is an organized association or group of workers who come together to protect their rights, advocate for better wages and working conditions, and negotiate with employers on behalf of their members. Unions play a significant role in collective bargaining and labor representation.
A union or alliance of states, nations, or parties for a common purpose or goal, often used to refer to the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.
The act of making someone a slave or subjecting them to slavery, bondage, or involuntary servitude.
A large agricultural estate or farm, typically in tropical or subtropical regions, dedicated to the cultivation of cash crops such as sugar, cotton, tobacco, or coffee, and characterized by extensive landholdings, labor-intensive production methods, and hierarchical social structures, including the use of coerced or enslaved labor, historically associated with colonialism, imperialism, and plantation economies.
A social and economic initiative implemented by Union authorities during the American Civil War in 1862 on the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina, aimed at providing land, education, and economic opportunities to newly emancipated African Americans, as well as addressing issues of labor, land tenure, and citizenship rights in the post-emancipation South. The Port Royal Experiment involved the establishment of schools, churches, and cooperative farming communities, and sought to empower formerly enslaved individuals and promote self-sufficiency and economic independence.
The 17th President of the United States (1865-1869) who succeeded Abraham Lincoln after his assassination and oversaw the early Reconstruction period following the Civil War.
Sharecropping was an agricultural system prevalent in the Southern United States after the Civil War, in which landless farmers, often formerly enslaved individuals, rented land and equipment from landowners in exchange for a share of the crops grown.
A military order issued by Union General William T. Sherman in 1865, during the Civil War, which allocated confiscated land along the southern coast of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida for the settlement of formerly enslaved African Americans. This order is also known as the "40 Acres and a Mule" promise, although it was later revoked by President Andrew Johnson.
The period in American history following the Civil War, approximately from 1865 to 1877, where efforts were made to rebuild and transform the Southern states that had seceded from the Union. It aimed to address issues such as the integration of formerly enslaved African Americans into society.
The disparity in wealth accumulation between different racial groups within a society, resulting from historical discrimination, disparities in access to education and employment opportunities, housing segregation, and systemic racism in financial institutions.
Compensation or restitution provided to individuals or communities who have been harmed or wronged, typically as a result of historical injustices such as slavery, colonialism, or genocide, aiming to acknowledge past wrongs and promote reconciliation and justice.