Forty acres and a mule: after the Civil War, 4 million former slaves had their freedom--but not much else. What could be done to help get them on their feet?

Freedom! When the Civil War ended in April 1865, William Matthews and the other slaves on his master's plantation heard the good news: After a lifetime of bondage, they were finally free.

But there was little time for celebration. The plantation's mistress, Mary Adams, gathered the ex-slaves together. She bitterly predicted that they would be back working for her within 10 years. Then she banished them from the plantation.

Many of the South's 4 million freed slaves suddenly had no place to live and no way to support themselves. "No money, no nothin'," Matthews remembered. "Just run loose without nothin'."

The North had won the war. The Union was preserved. But the South lay in ruins, and now the U.S. government faced a huge problem. How could the South's cities, factories, and railroads be rebuilt and its rebellious states allowed to rejoin the Union? This problem would consume the nation during the 12-year period known as Reconstruction.

Getting former slaves on their feet would be a big part of the job. To do this, Congress created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Better known as the Freedmen's Bureau, its main mission (objective) was to help former slaves.

The Sick and the Poor

Bureau agents set up offices across the South. They encountered huge obstacles, including the hostility of many Southern whites. One bureau agent in Lexington, Virginia, was assaulted on the streets, and gangs gathered outside his office at night, daring him to come out.

To make matters worse, Congress hadn't given the bureau enough funding. In some places, a single agent was responsible for as many as 40,000 former slaves. An agent might go to work in the morning to find 500 people lined up waiting for help. Some needed emergency supplies; others claimed that their new employers--many of them former slaveholders--were treating them unfairly or had physically abused them.

The bureau's most urgent task was helping the hungry and the sick. In the first 15 months following the war, agents handed out 13 million rations--each with enough corn, flour, and sugar to feed one person for a week.

The bureau also set up hospitals to treat the former slaves. But the assistance did not last. Once the hospitals were established, the bureau turned over control to local officials. Southern white doctors often refused to treat black people.

"Give Us Our Own Land"

Near the end of the war, many slave owners had fled, and the Union Army confiscated (seized) their lands. Union General William Tecumseh Sherman tried to give some of this land to former slaves. In January 1865, he issued a war order promising them 40-acre homesteads. Later, he said the army might also loan each new landowner a mule with which to work the land, giving rise to a popular saying, "40 acres and a mule."

But in the summer and fall of 1865, President Andrew Johnson pardoned (forgave) most former Confederates and gave back their property. The Freedmen's Bureau had to order 40,000 angry freed people off the land they'd been given. "Give us our own land, and we take care of ourselves," said one ex-slave from Mississippi. "But without land, the old masters can hire us to starve us as they please."

Most former slaves had to go back to work on the plantations of former slave owners, as Mary Adams had predicted. For farming the land, they were paid $9 to $15 a month, or one-fourth to one-half of the crop. Some workers had to sign contracts that kept them in conditions much like slavery. They were fined for bad language or disobedience, and were not allowed to leave the plantation without permission.

Education Makes a Man Free

Although the Freedmen's Bureau failed at many of its tasks, its agents understood what education meant to former slaves. Freedman Charles Whiteside, for instance, remembered one thing his former master told him: "If you lives to be a hundred, you'll still be a slave 'cause you got no education, and education is what makes a man free!"

The bureau helped start more than 4,300 schools, including the three universities now known as Fisk, Hampton, and Howard. White teachers arrived from the North to assist in the effort. "I feel that it is a precious privilege to be allowed to do something for these poor people," wrote one teacher.

Former slaves flocked to the classrooms. Children learned to read and write, then went home and taught their parents. Young blacks trained to become teachers so that they could start their own schools. Education would become the Freedmen's Bureau's greatest accomplishment.

Things Fall Apart

In July 1869, Congress closed the Freedmen's Bureau. The bureau's education efforts continued for three more years, but the end of Reconstruction was near. Reconstruction programs were expensive, and Southern opposition to them was bitter.

In 1877, the newly elected U.S. President, Rutherford B. Hayes, pulled the last federal troops out of the South. Reconstruction was over. For Southern blacks, things went from bad to worse.

A white terrorist group called the Ku Klux Klan tried to scare blacks and keep them from voting. White-hooded Klan members rode through black communities at night, burning homes and churches, and beating and murdering local residents.

In 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed blacks all the rights of U.S. citizens. But with the end of Reconstruction, Southern states began passing laws that enforced segregation (separation by race) in schools, parks, and other public places. Laws even kept blacks from voting by requiring them to pay poll taxes and pass literacy tests--which were not required of whites. These would become known as Jim Crow laws, after a minstrel (musical) performer who was insulting to blacks.

Mixed Results

The Freedmen's Bureau enabled millions of people to survive. But it left millions of blacks dependent on their former owners for work and security. In the words of one Mississippi freedman, "The slaves expected a heap from freedom they didn't get."

Words to Know

* freedman: an individual freed from slavery.

* Reconstruction: 1865-1877, the years after the Civil War when the United States government worked to rebuild and reorganize the Southern states that had seceded from the Union.

* ration: a fixed amount of food and/or necessary materials given to each person, especially in times of scarcity.

Your Turn

WORD MATCH

1. mission                  A. forgive
2. ration                   B. separation by race
3. confiscate               C. food allowance
4. pardon                   D. seize
5. segregation              E. objective

THINK ABOUT IT

What were some of the successes
of Reconstruction? What were
some of its failures? How might
U.S. history have been different if
more time and resources had been
devoted to helping former slaves?

1. E

2. C

3. D

4. A

5. B

* OBJECTIVES

Students should understand

* the U.S. government established the Freedmen's Bureau to help freed slaves at the end of the Civil War.

* TEACHING STRATEGY

Ask students: "What do you think life was like for ex-slaves in the South?"

* BACKGROUND

Many Southerners feared that the region's agricultural economy would collapse unless ex-slaves returned to work for white landowners. These economic fears, along with resentment over the new legal status of black Americans, led to a series of laws in Southern states called the Black Codes, beginning in 1865. These were the first legal attempts to return blacks to a condition of slavery.

* CRITICAL THINKING

COMPREHENSION: How were former slaves denied their rights after the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment? (Southern states passed "Jim Crow" laws that denied blacks their legal rights and kept them segregated. Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan also used violence to intimidate blacks.)

MAKING COMPARISONS: In what sense were black Americans treated better as slaves than as freed people after the Civil War? (As slaves, black Americans had no legal rights and were recognized only as property. To protect the value of their investments, however, slave owners tended to make sure that blacks were properly fed and cared for. After the Civil War, Southern state laws made it almost certain that blacks would remain poor and powerless.)

* ACTIVITY

PERSONAL NARRATIVE: Have students write a personal narrative of life in the South during Reconstruction--from the perspective of an ex-slave, a white plantation owner, a "carpet-bagger," or an agent of the Freedmen's Bureau.

STANDARDS

SOCIAL STUDIES, GRADES 5-8

* Power, authority, and governance: How the U.S government went about assisting former slaves in the 12 years after the end of the Civil War.

* Culture: How the failures of Reconstruction led to the rise of white militancy groups and the start of institutionalized segregation.

RESOURCES

PRINT

* Greene, Meg, Into the Land of Freedom (Lerner Pub., 2004). Grades 5-8.

* Edwards, Cheryl, Reconstruction: Binding the Wounds (Discovery Enterprises, 1995). Grades 5-8.

WEB SITES

* America's Reconstruction digitalhistory.uh.edu/reconstruction/index.html

* The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow (PBS series) pbs.org/wnetljimcrow

AMERICAN HISTORY: FORTY ACRES AND A MULE, PAGES 12-14

* Write the letter of the answer on the line provided.

--16. What was life like for former slaves in the South immediately after the Civil War?

A. Ex-slaves without money, jobs, or homes struggled to adapt to freedom.

B. Ex-slaves endured discrimination and violence from resentful whites.

C. A and B are correct.

--17. Which of the following limited the effectiveness of the Freedmen's Bureau?

A. President Lincoln pardoned former Confederates and returned confiscated farms.

B. Congress did not provide adequate financial and political support to the Bureau.

C. A and B are correct.

--18. How did Jim Crow laws prevent many black Americans from exercising their right to vote?

A. Blacks were required to pass literacy tests or pay poll taxes in order to vote.

B. Blacks could only vote for white politicians.

C. Most polling places were located in urban areas, far from most black communities.

--19. Which of the following was the Freedmen's Bureau's greatest accomplishment?

A. confiscating land from slave owners

B. providing ex-slaves with 40 acres of land and a mule

C. starting more than 4,300 schools across the South to educate blacks

--20. Which of the following guaranteed black Americans all the rights of U.S. citizens?

A. Dred Scott v. Sanford

B. Fourteenth Amendment

C. Civil Rights Act of 1964

16. C

17. B

18. A

19. C

20. B