Details

Subject(s)

• African Americans—History—1863-1877—Sources—Juvenile literature [Browse]
• African Americans—Southern States—History—Sources—Juvenile literature [Browse]
• Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)—Sources—Juvenile literature [Browse]
• African Americans—History—1863-1877—Sources [Browse]
• Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)—Sources [Browse]

Summary note

The years following Appomattox offered the freed people numerous opportunities and challenges. Ex-slaves reconnected with relatives dispersed by the domestic slave trade and the vicissitudes of civil war. They sought their own farms and homesteads, education for their children, and legal protection from whites hostile to their new status. They negotiated labor contracts, established local communities, and, following the 1867 Reconstruction Acts, entered local, state, and national politics. Though aided by Freedmen's Bureau agents and sympathetic whites, former slaves nevertheless faced daunting odds. Ku Klux Klansmen and others terrorized blacks who asserted themselves, many northerners lost interest in their plight, and federal officials gradually left them to their own resources. As a result, former Confederates regained control of the southern state governments following the 1876 presidential election.

Notes

Original edition published under title: Black voices from Reconstruction, 1865-1877. Brookfield, Conn. : Millbrook Press, 1996.

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references (pages 117-125) and index.

Reproduction note

Electronic reproduction. New York Available via World Wide Web.

Source of description

Description based on print version record.

ISBN

• 9781613763070 (electronic bk.)
• 1613763077 (electronic bk.)

Statement on language in description

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