8 Civil War and Beyond
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Transcript 8 Civil War and Beyond
Civil War, Freedmen’s
Bureau, African American
Benevolent Societies
U.S. Sanitary Commission
Positive result of war
First national public health group (private)
Laid groundwork for state boards of health and national
efforts in public health
Needy in Wartime
Post-war destitution in north and south
States appropriated funds to help disabled soldiers,
widows and orphans
Feds provided funds for veterans and families (even
elderly)
Conditions at End of War
Emancipation 1863
Freed slaves often moved from original homes
No land or capital
No provisions for earning living
Major need for labor to rebuild South
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen,
and Abandoned Lands
Freedman’s Bureau Established 1865
Substitute government in former Confederacy
General Oliver O. Howard was director
General O.O. Howard
Activities of Freedmen’s
Bureau
Disbursed rations and other aid
Supervised labor contracts/employment bureau
Employed doctors and maintained hospitals
Maintained civil and criminal courts
Helped establish schools (help of northern agencies)
Helped reunite and establish families
Settled disputes
Johnson’s Veto
Vetoed on constitutional grounds, “A system for the
support of indigent persons in the United States was
never contemplated by the authors of the
Constitution…”
Thought recovery from slavery was freedman’s
responsibility
Congress overrode Johnson’s veto, and the Bureau
continued its operations to 1870 (with some functions
continued to 1872)
Was first federal social welfare program on a large
scale, but had little impact on social welfare policies of
the time
Educational Efforts in the South
Encouraged by Freedmen’s Bureau
Often financed and staffed by agencies from the
north
Example: Calhoun School in Lowndes County
Alabama
Calhoun School
Thorne & Dillingham went to Lowndes County, AL, in
1892
Raised $250 at first meeting
Influenced by Booker T. Washington, who insisted on
tuition (25 or 50 cents a month)
Much assistance from northern philanthropists
Curriculum was practical: carpentry, painting, dairy,
reading, Writing, arithmetic, history, literature
Adult education
Encouraged sharecroppers to purchase land
Community health care (school nurse)
Children got glasses, checkups
Other Activities
Parents meetings
Homemaking clubs
Christmas and Thanksgiving celebrations
Promotion of better roads
Visited by educators from throughout the world
Nickname = Lighthouse on the Hill
Character development stressed
Ended during Great Depression
Graduates moved away
Hard to sustain life on 40-60 acres, as had the farmers
in the area
Work of Black Benevolent
Societies
Other aid for blacks came from self help groups
History dates to 1775 with African Masonic lodge in
Boston
Free African Society in Philadelphia gave aid to
“distressed members”
Social Welfare Membership
Organizations
1839 United Sons of Salem Benevolent Society in
Salem, New Jersey
$30 membership fee, plus fines and contributions
Male, 21-45, good health, moral character, approved by
two thirds of membership
Activities of Salem Group
Could get $2.50 weekly if sick
$12 for burial
$1 to widow for 5 months, clothing and education for
children
Wives and children also insured against death
Other Activities of Benevolent
Groups
Job training and education
Medical services from participating doctor
Fostered high moral standards
Members had a direct interest in health and well-being
of other members
Fostered pride and self-respect
Benefits not considered charity, and this preserved the
dignity of recipients
Such organizations continue to this day, and some
have evolved into major insurance companies
Conditions of African Americans
in the South
Segregation became the norm
Rise of Black Codes (prohibitions on types of work,
living in towns and cities, voting, bearing arms)
End of Reconstruction occupation 1877
Sharecropping emerged as dominant economic form
(debt bondage)
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Separate rise of separate state institutions for needy