Historian Alwyn Barr confidently stated, “Slavery died with the Confederacy.”[i] However, in the midst of celebrating their new freedoms, Texas’ former soon slaves realized they were ill prepared for life after slavery. That new life not only included making their own decisions, but also extreme instances of violence committed against them. While the Freedmen’s Bureau tried to ease the transition from slavery to freedom, the Ku Klux Klan attempted to maintain white supremacy through violence and intimidation.
Freedmen’s Bureau
The Freedmen’s Bureau’s education initiatives in Texas established many schools specifically for blacks. Admittedly, this was their greatest success. However, protecting the black community was their greatest challenge. As such, blacks in Texas were often assaulted and killed with little regard for justice or decency. For example, a black male was killed because he did not remove his hat, while another was stabbed outside a church because his attacker said he did not yield to a white female. Black females were also victimized. One reported receiving 200 lashes because she supposedly made noises when a white female passed her on the street.
The atmosphere of terror led local Freedmen’s Bureau officials to question if anyone would be arrested for such outrages.[ii] Many whites in Texas hated the Freedmen’s Bureau, believing they were using blacks to punish southern whites.[iii] As a result, some whites openly bragged about murdering blacks.[iv]
KKK: Hooded Terrorists
The Ku Klux Klan remains perhaps the most pervasive symbol of racism during the Reconstruction. Klansmen disrupted Republican meetings, terrorized potential black voters, and threatened radical leaders.[v] However, the veil of secrecy surrounding Klan members generally protected them from prosecution.[vi]
Former Texas slaves William Hamilton and Will Adams recalled instances of violence following emancipation. Hamilton believed Klansmen used violence as a means of maintaining power over blacks. He said, “It am allus after dark when dey comes to the house and catches the men whups him for nuttin. Dey has de power and it am done for to show dey has de power.”[vii]
Even though Will Adams also remembered the violence, he believed it was the result of Northern interference. He said, “The carpet-baggers ruint the niggers and the white men couldn’t do a thing with them, so they got up the Ku Klux and stirs up the world. Them carpet-baggers come ‘round larnin’niggers to sass the white folks what done fed them.”[viii]
Regardless of who was to blame, the atmosphere of violence that existed in Texas continued having its damaging psychological effects on the black community for generations. This was evident when former slave Lu Perkins commented that she prayed for “a wall of the Lord ‘round me so they couldn’t get at me. The turrible things they did ain’t worth tellin’. I wouldn’t want to make no recollection of them.”[ix] But, if we don’t who will?
Sources:
[i] Alwyn Barr, “Change and Continuity in Texas During the Civil War and Reconstruction,” in Texas Heritage (Arlington Heights, IL: Harlan Davidson, 1992), 97.
[ii] Letter from ME Davis to HA Ellis, October 13, 1866, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1869, National Archives M821, roll 32.
[iii] The thesis that blacks were mere pawns to the North’s desire to punish the South was explored in James Smallwood’s Time of Hope, Time of Despair: Black Texans During Reconstruction. He found that blacks had limited political power during the Reconstruction, and the power did they exercise was only at the consent of the minority white Republicans.
[iv] Letter from L. Shoemaker to EM Pease, June 23, 1868, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1869, National Archives M821, roll 32.
[v] Elliott J. Gorn, “Black Spirits: The Ghostlore of Afro American Slaves,” American Quarterly, 36 (1984), 551 (549-65); Gladys-Marie Fry, Night Riders in Black Folk History (Athens: the University of Georgia Press, 1991), 146.
[vi] Kenneth Stampp, The Era of Reconstruction, 1865-1877, (New York: Vantage Books, 1965), 199-201; John Hope Franklin and Alfred Moss, From Slavery to Freedom, (Boston: McGraw-Hill Publishers, 2000), 275.
[vii] William Hamilton, Slave Narratives, Box 4H359, The University of Texas, Center for American History.
[viii] Will Adams. Slave Narratives, Box 4H359, The University of Texas, Center for American History.
[ix] Lu Perkins, Slave Narratives, Box 4H359, University of Texas, Center for American History.
