Blacks in reconstruction Texas, 1865-1877

Abstract

This dissertation outlines the role played by the Negroes during the Reconstruction era in Texas, 1865-1877. It studies the black reaction to new-found freedom and recounts the problems the Negroes had in making the necessary adjustments, economically, socially, and politically to their new status. The most pressing question facing the white Texan after the close of the Civil War was what to do with the Negro and his new-found freedom. How was his labor to be secured and so regulated that he would be economically helpful to the white planter? And of equal concern was the question of the Negroes' position in a society where the white man was no longer legally able to control the black man's destiny. The black political activity combined with the federal support of the Freedmen's Bureau provided significant educational and limited economic advancement for blacks in the years immediately following the Civil War. The Negroes of Texas made advances in the field of education during the Reconstruction era. Many elementary and secondary schools were opened for them. By the end of the Reconstruction period many blacks had not only learned to read and write, but they also revealed a desire for broader and even higher education. Economically the Negroes survived in a free society by doing much as they had done during the days of slavery. Many continued farming through sharecropping and tenant farming, while others performed various kinds of domestic work. Earlier historians have given a one-sided view of the Reconstruction period, playing down the role of the Negroes with the assumption that they were incapable of contributing constructively to American development. Examination of the facts, however, discloses that the Negroes of Texas contributed to the efforts of the state to readjust to near normal conditions by the end of the Reconstruction period. A few of the Negro office holders were educated and displayed ability in their particular offices. Contributions of these Negro leaders have been obscured by bitterness in partisan politics. The era of black optimism faded with the amnesty acts and the restoration of white voting power and the removal of the Freedmen's Bureau. The withdrawal of state financial support from the black schools curtailed advancement, and the shortage of black capital limited their ability to become independent farmers or businessmen, although a few surmounted these difficulties.