Climbing Up to Glory (42 page)

Local conditions pertaining to education, economics, politics, social life, and race relations as well as invaluable insight into the civil affairs of freedmen can be gleaned from the extensive Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, Record Group 105, and the Department of the South Papers, Record Group 393, in the National Archives in Washington, DC. However, thanks to the Southern History Project, much of this material has been published in several edited volumes under the guidance of historian Ira Berlin. The volumes most important for this study are Ira Berlin et al., eds.,
Free at Last: A Documentary History of Slavery, Freedom, and the Civil War
(New York: New Press, 1992), and Ira Berlin and Leslie S. Rowland, eds.,
Families and Freedom: A Documentary History of African-American Kinship in the Civil War Era
(New York: New Press, 1992).

Although black source material for this study is limited, a large collection of slave testimony, recorded as part of the Federal Writers' Project in the 1930s, is available. The Federal Writers' Project interviews are reproduced in George P. Rawick, ed.,
The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography
, 19 vols. and supplements (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1972). Slave narratives are also published in John W. Blassingame, ed.,
Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1977); B. A. Botkin, ed.,
Lay My Burden Down: A Folk History of Slavery
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1945); and James Mellon, ed.,
Bullwhip Days: The Slaves Remember, An Oral History
(New York: Avon Books, 1988).

Published travel accounts, letters, memoirs, journals, and diaries by Northerners and Europeans who made excursions into the South during this period comment on relations between blacks and whites and on the social and economic conditions and everyday lives of slaves and free blacks. Travel accounts are useful in ascertaining how former slaves perceived their relations with whites and how freedmen interacted with the propertied class of blacks. The best travel accounts of the economic, social, and political activities of blacks during emancipation and Reconstruction are Sidney Andrews,
The South since the War: As Shown by Fourteen Weeks of Travel and Observation in Georgia and the Carolinas
(Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1866); Henry M. Christman, ed.,
The South As It Is: 1865-1866
(By John Richard Dennett) (New York: Viking Press, 1965); J. T. Trowbridge,
The South: A Tour of Its Battlefields and Ruined Cities: A Journey through the Desolated States, and Talks with the People
(Hartford, CT: L. Stebbins, 1866); and C. Vann Woodward, ed.,
After the War: A Tour of the Southern States
,
1865-1866
(By Whitelaw Reid) (New York: Harper and Row, 1965). Diaries, journals, memoirs, and letters written by both Northern and Southern blacks and whites who spent some time in various capacities in the South round out the picture provided by the writings of travelers. The best of these are R. J. M Blackett, ed.,
Thomas Morris Chester: Black Civil War Correspondent, His Dispatches from the Virginia Front
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989); Donald Yacovone, ed.,
A Voice of Thunder: The Civil War Letters of George E. Stephens
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997); Patricia W. Romero and Willie Lee Rose, eds.,
Reminiscences of My Life: A Black Woman's Civil War Memoirs
(By Susie King Taylor) (New York: Markus Wiener, 1988); Frank [Francis] A. Rollin,
Life and Public Services of Martin A. Delany, Sub-Assistant Commissioner, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, and Late Major 104th U.S. Colored Troops
(Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1883); John W. Alvord,
Letters from the South Relating to the Condition of Freedmen Addressed to Major General O. O. Howard
(Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1870); Elizabeth Hyde Botume,
First Days amongst the Contrabands
(New York: Arno Press and New York Times, 1968, reprint); and Rupert Sargent Holland, ed.,
Letters and Diary of Laura M. Towne: Written from the Sea Islands of South Carolina
,
1862-1884
(Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press, 1912).

On the question of Lincoln and the issue of black freedom, see Benjamin Quarles,
Lincoln and the Negro
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1962); Stephen B. Oates,
With Malice toward None: The Life of Abraham Lincoln
(New York: Harper and Row, 1977); LaWanda Cox, “Lincoln and Black Freedom,” in Gabor S. Boritt, ed.,
The Historian's Lincoln: Pseudohistory, Psychohistory, and History
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988), 175-96; Richard N. Current, “The Friend of Freedom,” in Kenneth M. Stampp and Leon F. Litwack, eds.,
Reconstruction: An Anthology of Revisionist Writings
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1969), 25-47; J. G. Randall and Richard N. Current, “Race Relations in the White House,” in Don E. Fehrenbacher, ed.,
The Leadership of Abraham Lincoln
(New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1970), 150-55; Waldo E. Martin Jr.,
The Mind of Frederick Douglass
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984); and James M. McPherson,
Drawn with the Sword: Reflections on the American Civil War
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).

The black military experience in the Civil War is covered superbly by several scholars. Black soldiers in the Union army are discussed in Benjamin Quarles,
The Negro in the Civil War
(Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1969); James M. McPherson,
The Negro's Civil War: How American Negroes Felt and Acted during the War for the Union
(New York: Vintage Books, 1965); Dudley T. Cornish,
The Sable Arm: Negro Troops in the Union Army
,
1861-1865
(New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1956); Joseph T. Glatthaar,
Forged in Battle: The Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officers
(New York: Meridian Books, 1990); and Noah Andre Trudeau,
Like Men of War: Black Troops in the Civil War
,
1862-1865
(Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1998). Although the military experience of blacks in the Confederate armed services has not been dealt with extensively by scholars, some excellent works have been published on the topic. For example, see Richard Rollins, ed.,
Black Southerners in Gray: Essays on Afro-Americans in Confederate Armies
(Redondo Beach, CA: Rank and File Publications, 1994); Ervin L. Jordan Jr.,
Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia
(Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995); James G. Hollandsworth Jr.,
The Louisiana Native Guards: The Black Military Experience during the Civil War
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1995); and Robert F. Durden,
The Gray and the Black: The Confederate Debate on Emancipation
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1972).

The literature on the black family, women, and children during the Civil War, emancipation, and Reconstruction has steadily increased in volume in recent years. Much of this work is solid. Herbert G. Gutman,
The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom
,
1750-1925
(New York: Pantheon Books, 1976), is still the most thorough study and emphasizes the strength of the black family despite the brutality and destructiveness of slavery. Readers should also find the following works particularly insightful: C. Peter Ripley,
Slaves and Freedmen in Civil War Louisiana
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1976); Robert F. Durden, “Georgia's Blacks and Their Masters in the Civil War,”
Georgia Historical Quarterly
69, no. 3 (Fall 1985): 355-64; and Robert H. Abzug, “The Black Family during Reconstruction,” in Nathan I. Huggins, Martin Kilson, and Daniel M. Fox, eds.,
Key Issues in the Afro-American Experience
(New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971), 2:26-41. Black women and children are superbly covered in Wilma King,
Stolen Childhood: Slave Youth in Nineteenth-Century America
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995); Jacqueline Jones,
Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work, and the Family, from Slavery to the Present
(New York: Vintage Books, 1985); Ella Forbes,
African American Women during the Civil War
(New York: Garland, 1998); Noralee Frankel,
Freedom's Women: Black Women and Families in Civil War Era Mississippi
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999); and Leslie A. Schwalm,
A Hard Fight for We: Women's Transition from Slavery to Freedom in South Carolina
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997).

Eric Foner,
Reconstruction
:
America's Unfinished Revolution
,
1863-1877
(New York: Harper and Row, 1988), is the most thorough synthesis of the period and presents blacks as central players in the story of Reconstruction. W. E. B. DuBois,
Black Reconstruction: An Essay toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880
(New York: Harcourt Brace, 1935), though published more than sixty-five years ago, is a classic and must be read by those interested in the study of this period. The best general work on blacks during emancipation and Reconstruction in the South is Leon F. Litwack,
Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery
(New York: Vintage Books, 1979). Although the definitive work on the social and economic adjustment of freedmen after slavery on the state level is Joel Williamson,
After Slavery: The Negro in South Carolina during Reconstruction
,
1861-1877
(Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1990), there are additional excellent studies by state. For example, see James M. Smallwood,
Time of Hope, Time of Despair: Black Texans during Reconstruction
(Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 1981); and Peter Kolchin,
First Freedom: The Responses of Alabama's Blacks to Emancipation and Reconstruction
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1972).

On the Freedmen's Bureau and the struggle by blacks to obtain land, open bank accounts, establish businesses, and engage in other economic activities, see Martin Abbott,
The Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina, 1865-1872
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1967); George R. Bentley,
A History of the Freedmen's Bureau
(New York: Octagon Books, 1970); Claude F. Oubre,
Forty Acres and a Mule: The Freedmen's Bureau and Black Land Ownership
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press,1982); Carl R. Osthaus,
Freedmen, Philanthropy, and Fraud: A History of the Freedman's Savings Bank
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1976); Eric Arnesen,
Waterfront Workers of New Orleans: Race, Class, and Politics
,
1863-1923
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1991); Loren Schweninger,
Black Property Owners in the South, 1790-1915
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990); and Peter J. Rachleff,
Black Labor in the South: Richmond, Virginia, 1865–1890
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1984).

There is a wealth of fine literature on black education. Those interested in the antebellum period in the South should consult Janet Cornelius, “We Slipped and Learned to Read: Slave Accounts of the Literacy Process, 1830-1865,”
Phylon
44, no. 2 (September 1983): 171-86. The definitive work is James D. Anderson,
The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988), which offers a detailed analysis of the efforts of blacks to establish and maintain schools. A chapter by Herbert Gutman titled “Schools for Freedom: The Post-Emancipation Origins of Afro-American Education,” in Ira Berlin, ed.,
Herbert Gutman, Power and Culture: Essays on the American Working Class
(New York: New Press, 1987), 260-97, also highlights the efforts by blacks to support their own educational endeavors. The establishment of historically black colleges and universities are nicely dealt with in Clarence A. Bacote,
The Story of Atlanta University: A Century of Service, 1865-1965
(Atlanta, GA: Atlanta University, 1969); Rayford W. Logan,
Howard University: The First Hundred Years, 1867-1967
(New York: New York University Press, 1968); and Robert Francis Engs,
Freedom's First Generation: Black Hampton, Virginia, 1861-1890
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1979).

Several excellent works on black religion exist. Although dated, E. Franklin Frazier,
The Negro Church in America
(New York: Schocken Books, 1974), and Carter G. Woodson,
The History of the Negro Church
(Washington, DC: Associated Publishers, 1921), are both still solid. Wilson Fallin Jr.,
The African-American Church in Birmingham, Alabama, 1815-1963: A Shelter in the Storm
(New York: Garland, 1997), provides good coverage of the black church on the local level. Reginald F. Hildebrand,
The Times Were Strange and Stirring: Methodist Preachers and the Crisis of Emancipation
(Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995), is the best book on black Methodist preachers during emancipation. William E. Montgomery,
Under Their Own Vine and Fig Tree: The African-American Church in the South, 1865-1900
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1993), is probably the best book on the black church during emancipation and Reconstruction.

Although Thomas Holt,
Black over White: Negro Political Leadership in South Carolina during Reconstruction
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1977), is by far the most thorough work on black politicians during Reconstruction, there are many fine works on the subject that proved beneficial to this study. For example, see Edmund L. Drago,
Black Politicians and Reconstruction in Georgia: A Splendid Failure
(Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992); Howard N. Rabinowitz, ed.,
Southern Black Leaders of the Reconstruction Era
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982); and Peggy Lamson,
The Glorious Failure: Black Congressman Robert Brown Elliott and the Reconstruction in South Carolina
(New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1973).