Directions: Use the following information to complete the matrix assignment.

Women in the North

After the Civil War women of the north, former abolitionists turned their efforts to trying to gain rights for women when it did not come naturally after the war. Including working for groups like the National and American Women Suffrage Associations to try and win voting rights for women (NWSA and AWSA). It would be another 55 years later before they would enjoy that privilege and many other opportunities (education, divorce rights, jobs, etc.). The National Women Suffrage Association and its founders, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, opposed the Fifteenth Amendment unless it included the vote for women. Men were able to join the organization as members; however, women solely controlled the leadership of the group. The NWSA worked to secure women’s enfranchisement (voting rights) through a federal constitutional amendment. Contrary to its rival, the American Women Suffrage Association (AWSA), believed success could be more easily achieved through the state-by-state campaigns. Two organizations who believed and worked for the same outcome achieved in different ways.

Ex-slaves in the North

Many former slaves who found themselves without families, a place to live, or a job moved north. They were not always welcome there because while the northerners did not want them to be held as slaves, they also did not want them moving north and taking jobs away from them. Union soldiers were returning home and factories were changing production from war goods to consumer goods. The men of the north did not necessarily want to work side by side with an African American. Here is a letter written by Jourdon Anderson, a former slave to his ex-master.

Dayton, Ohio, August 7, 1865

To my Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee

Sir: I got your letter and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdan, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Col. Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here; I get $25 a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy (the folks here call her Mrs. Anderson), and the children, Milly Jane and Grundy, go to school and are learning well; the teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday-School, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated; sometimes we overhear others saying, "Them colored people were slaves" down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks, but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Col. Anderson. Many darkies would have been proud, as I used to was, to call you master. Now, if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost- Marshal- General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you are sincerely disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years and Mandy twenty years. At $25 a month for me, and $2 a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to $11,680. Add to this the interest for the time our wages has been kept back and deduct what you paid for our clothing and three doctor's visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams Express, in care of V. Winters, esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night, but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the Negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.

In answering this letter please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve, and die if it comes to that, than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood, the great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.

P.S.—Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

From your old servant, Jourdan Anderson

Ex-slave Holders in the North

Many ex-slave holders left the south and moved north to find work in the factories. Their families had been wrecked by war, losing fathers, sons, uncles, and other family members to war. Their homes may have been destroyed and their land lost to fire or looting. They were not well received in the north because they were still viewed at traitors to the U.S. government. Some found work in the port cities of the east but experienced a poverty they had never known before.

Native Americans in the North

Many Native Americans served both in the Union and Confederate Armies. During the height of the Civil War in Minnesota there was another confrontation occurring, the Dakota War of 1862. In July 1862, settlers fought against Santee Sioux in Minnesota. Because the war absorbed so many government resources, the annuities owed to the Santee Sioux in Minnesota were not paid on time in the summer of 1862. In addition, Long Trader Sibley refused the Santee Sioux access to food until the funds were delivered. In frustration, the Sioux, led by Little Crow, attacked the settlers in order to get supplies. After the Sioux lost the fighting, they were tried (without defense lawyers), found guilty on flimsy evidence, and many were sentenced to death. It resulted in the largest mass hanging in the history of the U.S. when 38 Native Americans were hung for fighting for their treaty rights they had been promised and denied. After that conflict many Native American in the northern U.S. experienced racism as never before. There were some who maintained military prominence, for instance, Ely S. Parker who was the Union Civil War General who wrote the terms of the surrender between the United States and the Confederate States of America. Parker was one of two Native Americans to reach the rank of Brigadier General during the Civil War. After the war many relocated west with many of the other citizens of the country. The new citizenship status would however not apply to Native Americans for many more years to come.

Women in the South

Women of the south were not used to doing their own laborious tasks. Many looked to “hire” help so that they could maintain their more traditional roles of wives and mothers. Even though they had hired help they still had to pick up additional responsibilities that they did not have to do prior to reconstruction. These women had to face a new life as their communities and homes had been destroyed by the ravages of war. Women also began to advocate for the education of their children, all of their children, boys and girls.

Ex-slaves in the South

In the south former slaves had no money, no home, no education and no job. Efforts to help the freedmen (men and women who were former slaves) met resistance within the new political factions in Congress. Ex-Slaves were forced into a cycle of poverty by accepting the institution of SHARECROPPING. Ex-Slave holders would provide a place to rent (their old slave quarters), a parcel of land, a few seeds, and some tools all for a price, which would need to be paid with the proceeds of their own fields AND the commitment to work in the homes and fields of their former masters. This was a legal form of slavery. These people were denied rights and faced racism just as before, and for many of them life was worse. In addition, the government enacted many BLACK CODES, or laws that only pertained to the former African American slave population. Laws like, former slaves could not serve on a jury, or could not own a gun, or in some places prohibited from owning land. If there was a law broken white judges could even sentence the children of former slaves to work for their former masters!

Ex-slave Holders in the South

Ex-slave holders began to rebuild their plantations. Many had to learn to do things themselves while others engaged their ex-slaves in the practice of sharecropping. Renting land, seeds, tools and shacks to their former slaves in exchange for help within their own fields and a payment with interest on their initial investment.

Native Americans in the South

Many Native Americans served in the Confederacy during the war. The Cherokee Nation was the most negatively affected of all Native American tribes during the Civil War, its population declining from 21,000 to 15,000 by 1865. Despite the federal government’s promise to pardon all Cherokee involved with the Confederacy, the entire nation was considered disloyal, and after the war their rights were revoked.

Women in the West

Many women moved west to be part of the opportunities for free land by participating in the Homestead Act. It was a program created by the U.S. government, signed into law by President Lincoln on May 20, 1862. The Act offered free parcels of land, 160 acres to those who would qualify. To qualify you must never have taken up arms against the United States government (including freed slaves and women), were 21 years of age or older, or was the head of a family. You would need to file an application to claim a federal land grand and live and work on the land for 5 years. There was an opportunity for women to OWN land, something that was not allowed in the southern states.

Ex-slaves in the West

Many ex-slaves who had been in the Union army during the war stayed in the army. They were stationed west to help secure the safety of the homesteaders AND to kill the food source, aka buffalo, of the Native Americans. This activity prompted them to be called “Buffalo Soldiers”. Some sought job opportunities on the railroads and in the rail head cities along the rail lines. They worked in menial jobs for very low pay but they were their own bosses, no one owned them. Others tried their hand at staking their own claim to free land. These people were called EXODUSTERS, a biblical reference to the book of Exodus which tells of the Jews leaving their chains of slavery behind in Egypt.

Ex-slave Holders in the West

Rather than subjecting themselves to prejudice from the citizens of the north, some ex-slave holders chose to move west and participate in the land rush by staking a claim offered by the United States government. These people knew agriculture but were not well acquainted with the difficult life style that accompanied this option.

Native Americans in the West

Many Native Americans were either forced or willingly chose to move westward after the Civil War. As they warred with other nations over lands they were faced with another enemy trying to discourage them from moving westward. The United States government used their retired military forces (many who were African Americans, aka Buffalo Soldiers) to kill the buffalo, and if necessary the Native Americans themselves to make way for the Homesteaders who were rushing to the area.

Sources:

 "Reconstruction Era." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 02 Aug. 2013. Web. 09 Jan. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction_Era>.

 "Life after the Civil War", Web. 02 Feb. 2013. http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215469/after_the_civil_war.htm