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In your own words, summarize the Reconstruction Amendments

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1. In your own words, summarize the Reconstruction Amendments.

2. In your own words, summarize the provided excerpts of Mississippi’s Vagrancy Law, Civil Rights of Freedmen, and Penal Code.

3. In your own words, summarize the provided excerpts of the Texas Black Codes.

4. In your own words, summarize General Reynolds’s report on the Conditions in Texas in 1868.

5. In your own words and using the primary sources provided, please answer the following questions.  Were the Reconstruction Amendments effective in achieving their purpose in the years immediately following the end of the Civil War?  Why or why not?

6. In your own words, summarize Henry George’s thinking in the provided selections from Progress and Poverty.

7. In your own words, summarize Jacob Riis’s thinking in the provided selections from How the Other Half Lives.

8. In your own words, summarize William Graham Sumner’s thinking in the provided selections of “On Social Darwinism.”

9. In your own words, summarize Andrew Carnegie’s thinking in the provided selections of Gospel of Wealth.

10. In your own words, and using the primary sources provided, please answer the following questions.  Who did Americans in the late nineteenth century blame for wealth inequality?  What did they think should be done about wealth inequality?

For this assignment, you will read several primary sources related to the material we covered for Quiz 1 and Quiz 2. A primary source is a document or other artifact created during the time period that is being studied. Primary sources can also be thought of as evidence or data.

When historians write about the past, they make their claims based on their understanding of primary sources. So, for example, the social media posts you make today will be used by historians in the future to make an argument about people in the U.S. in 2021. Similarly, we will look at primary sources from the past to make claims about people who lived in the past.

Following each primary source or group of primary sources, you will find a set of questions. Those questions are intended to help you think critically about the sources. You do not need to submit your answers to those questions for this assignment; they are there only for your benefit.

At the end of this document, you will find another set of questions, most of them asking you to summarize what you have read. Your responses to those questions will comprise your work for this assignment. Please use only the primary sources provided in this assignment to answer the questions, and please put all answers in your own words. You may paraphrase the sources provided, but please do not quote.

As the Civil War came to an end, Americans debated the end of slavery. While northerners agreed slavery should end, there were a wide range of opinions concerning what freedom should look like for newly freed Black Americans.

Ultimately, a variety of measures were taken in an effort to provide opportunity for free Blacks. None were more significant than passage of three constitutional amendments--known as the Reconstruction Amendments--designed to give Black Americans political and legal rights.

Thirteenth Amendment (1865)

Amendment XIII

Section 1.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Fourteenth Amendment (1868)

Amendment XIV

Section 1.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

 

Fifteenth Amendment (1870)

Amendment XV

Section 1.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

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Reading Questions

1. What does the Thirteenth Amendment do?

2. What exception does the Thirteenth Amendment include?

3. According to the Fourteenth Amendment, what are the two ways a person can become a U.S. citizen?

4. Why did the authors of the Fourteenth Amendment establish birthright citizenship?

5. What does the Fourteenth Amendment mean when it says “no state shall . . . deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”?

6. Which specific right was the Fifteenth Amendment designed to protect, and who was it designed to protect?

 

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Many southern governments enacted legislation that reestablished antebellum power relationships. Mississippi and Texas (and other southern states) passed laws known as Black Codes to regulate black behavior and impose social and economic control. While they granted some rights to African Americans – like the right to own property, to marry or to make contracts – they also denied other fundamental rights.

Mississippi Black Code (1865)

Vagrancy Law

Section 2. Be it further enacted, that all freedmen, free Negroes, and mulattoes in this state over the age of eighteen years found . . . with no lawful employment or business, or found unlawfully assembling themselves together either in the day or nighttime, and all white persons so assembling with freedmen, free Negroes, or mulattoes, or usually associating with freedmen, free Negroes, or mulattoes on terms of equality, or living in adultery or fornication with a freedwoman, free Negro, or mulatto, shall be deemed vagrants; and, on conviction thereof, shall be fined in the sum of not exceeding, in the case of a freedman, free Negro, or mulatto, 150, and a white man, $200, and imprisoned at the discretion of the court, the free Negro not exceeding ten days, and the white man not exceeding six months….

. . .

Section 7. Be it further enacted, that if any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto shall fail or refuse to pay any tax . . . it shall be prima facie evidence of vagrancy, and it shall be the duty of the sheriff to arrest such freedman, free Negro, or mulatto, or such person refusing or neglecting to pay such tax, and proceed at once to hire, for the shortest time, such delinquent taxpayer to anyone who will pay the said tax, with accruing costs, giving preference to the employer, if there be one.

Civil Rights of Freedmen

Section 7. Be it further enacted, that every civil officer shall, and every person may, arrest and carry back to his or her legal employer any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto who shall have quit the service of his or her employer before the expiration of his or her term of service without good cause, and said officer and person shall be entitled to receive for arresting and carrying back every deserting employee aforesaid the sum of $5, and 10 cents per mile from the place of arrest to the place of delivery, and the same shall be paid by the employer, and held as a setoff for so much against the wages of said deserting employee:

Penal Code

Section 1. Be it enacted by the legislature of the state of Mississippi, that no freedman, free Negro, or mulatto not in the military service of the United States government, and not licensed so to do by the board of police of his or her county, shall keep or carry firearms of any kind, or any ammunition, dirk, or Bowie knife; and, on conviction thereof in the county court, shall be punished by fine, not exceeding $10, and pay the costs of such proceedings, and all such arms or ammunition shall be forfeited to the informer; and it shall be the duty of every civil and military officer to arrest any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto found with any such arms or ammunition, and cause him or her to be committed for trial in default of bail…

. . .

Section 5. Be it further enacted, that if any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto convicted of any of the misdemeanors provided against in this act shall fail-or refuse, for the space of five days after conviction, to pay the fine and costs imposed, such person shall be hired out by the sheriff or other officer, at public outcry, to any white person who will pay said fine and all costs and take such convict for the shortest time.

Texas Black Codes (1868)

Chapter LIX,

Section 1 . . . 3rd. Persons of color shall not testify, except where the prosecution is against a person who is a person of color ; or where the offence is charged to have been committed against the person or property of a person of color. . . .

Chapter LXXX, An Act regulating Contracts for Labor.

SEC. 2. Every laborer shall have full and perfect liberty to choose his or her employer, but when once chosen, they shall not be allowed to leave their place of employment, until the fulfillment of their contract, unless by consent of their employer, or on account of harsh treatment or breach of contract on the part of the employer, and if they do so leave without cause or permission, they shall forfeit all wages earned to the time of abandonment.

SEC. 8. In case of sickness of the laborer, wages for the time lost shall be deducted, and, when the sickness is feigned, for purposes of idleness and also, on refusal to work according to contract, double the amount of wages shall be deducted for the time lost and, also, when rations have been furnished, and should the refusal to work continue beyond three days, the offender shall be reported to a Justice of the Peace or Mayor of a town or city and shall be forced to labor on roads, streets and other public works, without pay, until the offender consents to return to his labor.

SEC. 9. [The employee] shall obey all proper orders of his employer or his agent, take proper care of his work-mules, horses, oxen, stock of all character and kind ; also, all agricultural implements; and employers shall have the right to make a reasonable deduction from laborers’ wages for injuries done to animals or agricultural implements committed to their care, or for bad or negligent work.

Failing to obey reasonable orders, neglect of duty, leaving home without permission, impudence, swearing or indecent language to, or in the presence of the employer, his family or agent, or quarrelling and fighting with one another, shall be deemed disobedience.

For any disobedience, a fine of one dollar shall be imposed on, and paid by the offender.

For all lost time from work hours, without permission from the employer or his agent, unless in case of sickness, the laborer shall be fined twenty-five cents per hour.

For all absence from home without permission, the laborer will be fined at the rate of two dollars per day ; fines to be denounced at the time of the delinquency.

Laborers will not be required to labor on the Sabbath, except to take necessary care of stock, and other property on the plantation or to do necessary cooking or household duties, unless by special contract for work of necessity. For all thefts of the laborer from the employer, of agricultural products, hogs, sheep, poultry, or any other property of the employer, or willful destruction of property, or injury the laborer shall pay the employer double the amount of the value of the property stolen, destroyed or injured, one-half to be paid to the employer, and the other half to be placed in the general fund, provided for in this section,

No live stock shall be allowed to laborers without the permission of the employer. Laborers shall not receive visitors during work hours. All difficulties arising between the employer and laborers under this section, shall be settled, and all fines imposed by the former ; if not satisfactory to the laborer, and appeal may be had to the nearest Justice of the Peace, and two free holders, citizens, one of said citizens to be selected by employer, and the other by the laborer….

SEC. 10. Laborers, in the various duties of the household, and in all the domestic duties of the family, shall, at all hours of the day or night, and on all days of the week, promptly answer all calls, and obey and execute all lawful orders and commands of the family, in whose service they are employed, unless otherwise stipulated in the contract ; and any failure or refusal by the laborer to obey, as herein provided, except in case of sickness, shall be deemed disobedience, within the meaning of this Act.

And it is the duty of this class of laborers to be especially civil and polite to their employer, his family and guests, and they shall receive gentle and kind treatment. Employers, and their families, shall after ten o’clock at night, and on Sundays, make no calls on their laborers, nor enact any service of them which exigencies of the household or family do not make necessary or unavoidable.

Chapter LXXXII.

SECTION 1. …any person who shall persuade, or entice away from the service of an employer, any person who is under a contract of labor to such employer, or any apprentice, who is bound as such, from the service of his master, or who shall feed, harbor, or secrete, any such person under contract, or apprentice who has left the employment of employer or master, without the permission of such employer or master, the person or persons so offending shall be liable in damages to the employer or master, and shall, upon conviction, be punished by fine, in a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars, nor less than ten dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail, or house of correction, for not more than six months or by both such fine and imprisonment.

Chapter XCII. An Act to prohibit the carrying of Fire-Arms on premises or plantations of any citizen without the consent of the owner.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas, That it shall not be lawful for any person or persons to carry fire-arms on the enclosed premises or plantation of any citizen without the consent of the owner or proprietor other than in the lawful discharge of a civil or military duty and any person or persons so offending shall be fined a sum not less than one nor more than ten dollars or imprisonment in the county jail not less than one day nor more than ten days, or both, in the discretion of the Court or jury before whom the trial is had.

Chapter CXXVIII. An Act to define and declare the rights of persons lately known as Slaves, and Free Persons of Color.

SEC. 2. …nothing herein shall be so construed as to repeal any law prohibiting the inter-marriage of the white and black races, . . .

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Reading Questions

1. What did Section 2 of Mississippi’s Vagrancy Law forbid? What was the punishment for violating the law?

2. What did Section 7 of Mississippi’s Vagrancy Law forbid?

3. What did Section 7 of Mississippi’s Civil Rights for Freedmen establish?

4. What did Section 1 of the Mississippi Penal Code forbid?

5. According to Section 5 of the Mississippi Penal code, what was the penalty for Blacks who could not pay fines?

6. According to Chapter LIX Section 1 of the Texas Black Codes, what limitations were placed on Blacks?

7. According to Chapter LXXX of the Texas Black Codes, how were Black employees expected to behave? What were the consequences of failing to behave according to expectations?

8. Who was discussed in Chapter LXXXII Section 1 of the Texas Black Codes? What was that group prevented from doing, and what was the penalty for breaking this law?

9. What did Chapter XCII Section 1 of the Texas Black Codes forbid?

10. What did Chapter CXXVIII Section 2 of the Texas Black Codes forbid?

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By 1868, a variety of armed groups, wearing disguises, had emerged in Texas to intimidate former slaves. In addition to burning crops and stealing horses, these groups assaulted and even murdered blacks. The following document includes questions (and required responses) for those initiated into the KKK during Reconstruction.

Questions Asked at an Initiation to the Ku Klux Klan

1. --Do you belong to the White race?

Ans. –I do.

2. –Did you ever marry any woman who did not, or does not, belong to the White race?

Ans. –No.

3. –Do you promise never to marry any woman but one who belongs to the White race?

Ans. –I do.

4. –Do you believe in the superiority of your race?

Ans. –I do.

5. –Will you promise never to vote for any one, for any office of honor, profit or trust, who does not belong to your race?

Ans. –I do.

7. –Are you opposed to allowing the control of the political affairs of this country to go, in whole or in part, into the hands of the negro or African race, and will you do everything in your power to prevent it?

Ans. –Yes.

 

Most histories of the Civil War claim that the war ended in the summer of 1865 when Confederate armies surrendered. However, violent resistance and terrorism continued in the South for over a decade. In this report, General J.J. Reynolds describes the lawlessness of Texas during Reconstruction.

General Reynolds Describes Lawlessness in Texas (1868)

General: I have the honor to forward herewith annual tabular statement of expeditions and scouts, and reports of movements of the various regiments serving in this district, for the year ending September 30, 1868.

Armed organizations, generally known as “Ku-Klux Klans,” exist, independently or in concert with other armed bands, in many parts of Texas, but are most numerous, bold, and aggressive east of Trinity River.

The precise objects of the organizations cannot be readily explained, but seems, in this state, to be to disarm, rob, and in many cases murder Union men and negroes, and as occasion may offer, murder United States officers and soldiers; also to intimidate every one who knows anything of the organization but who will not join it.

The civil law east of the Trinity River is almost a dead letter. In some counties the civil officers are all, or a portion of them, members of the Klan. In other counties where the civil officers will not join the Klan, or some other armed band, they have been compelled to leave their counties. Examples are Van Zandt, Smith, and Marion counties; (the county seat of the latter is Jefferson.)

In many counties where the county officers have not been driven off their influence is scarcely felt. What political end, if any, is aimed at by these bands I cannot say, but they attend in large bodies the political meetings (barbecues) which have been and are still being held in various parts of this State under the auspices of the democratic clubs of the different counties.

The speakers encourage their attendance, and in several counties men have been indicated by name from the speaker’s stand, as those selected for murder. The men thus pointed out have no course left them but to leave their homes or be murdered on the first convenient opportunity.

The murder of negroes is so common as to render it impossible to keep an accurate account of them.

Many of the members of these bands of outlaws are transient persons in the State; the absence of railroads and telegraphs and great length of time required to communicate between remote points facilitating their devilish purposes.

These organizations are evidently countenanced, or at least not discouraged, by a majority of the white people in the counties where the bands are most numerous. They could not otherwise exist.

I have given this matter close attention, and am satisfied that a remedy to be effective must be gradually applied and continued with the firm support of the army until these outlaws are punished or dispersed.

They cannot be punished by the civil courts until some examples by military commissions show that men can be punished in Texas for murder and kindred crimes. Perpetrators of such crimes have not heretofore, except in very rare instances, been punished in this state at all.

Free speech and a free press, as the terms are generally understood in other States, have never existed in Texas. In fact, the citizens of other states cannot appreciate the state of affairs in Texas without actually experiencing it. The official reports of lawlessness and crime, so far from being exaggerated, do not tell the whole truth.

Jefferson is the center from which most of the trade, travel, and lawlessness of eastern Texas radiate, and at this point or its vicinity there should be stationed about a regiment of troops. The recent murder at Jefferson of Hon. G. W. Smith, a delegate to the constitutional convention, has made it necessary to order more troops to that point. This movement weakens the frontier posts to such an extent as to impair their efficiency for protection against Indians, but the bold, wholesale murdering in the interior of the state seems at present to present a more urgent demand for the troops than Indian depredations. The frontier posts should, however, be reinforced if possible, as it is not improbably that the Indians from the northwest, after having suffered defeat there, will make heavy incursions into Texas.

To restore measurable peace and quiet to Texas will require, for a long time, that troops be stationed at many county seats, until, by their presence, and aid if necessary, the civil law can be placed in the hands of reliable officers, and executed. This will be the work of years, and will be fully accomplished only by an increase of population.

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Reading Questions

1. In the initiation of new members of the Ku Klux Klan, what seem to be the most important issues to Klan members?

2. In the initiation of new members of the Ku Klux Klan, what does the Klan seem to want to prevent Black people from doing? What does it want to prevent White people from doing?

3. How did General Reynolds describe the activities of the KKK in East Texas?

4. According to General Reynolds, why was Klan activity so widespread in East Texas?

5. According to General Reynolds, how did Texas’s size and state of development contribute to the problems in East Texas?

6. According to General Reynolds, what was needed to end Klan activity in East Texas?