Federal government debated political and legal definitions. Professor turner also discusses of religious role and educational institutions in newly freed africanamerican communities. Professor turner ok, so today, we are going to be talking about the meaning of freedom and i wanted to capture our earlier discussions about the meaning of freedom when we talked about free communities, free folks in the north and how we came with this representation of freedom. Reedom the question of freedom and what does it mean. For today, we are going to be talking about what did freedom mean . In particular, what did it mean to the free people . In january of 1865, the secretary of war, Edward Stanton and general William Sherman had a meeting with 20 preachers in savannah, georgia. They were preachers, pastors, lay Church Leaders and they wanted to find out from these preachers basically what is it that the freed people wanted from freedom . What did they expect . And what did they expect in the aftermath of the emancipation proclamation . Who wasp of 20 people ostensibly representative of freed black folks in the community selected garrison frazier, a 67yearold man to be the representative of the community. To speak for them. Eral sherman asked him what did he understand freedom to me especially in light of the emancipation proclamation . And he said taking us from under the yoke of bondage and lacing us where we can reap the fruit of our labor, take care of us, and a cyst the government in maintaining our freedom. You can hear some of the language from the emancipation proclamation. Assisting the government in maintaining freedom. People who were emancipated serving in the military, go to work and do that diligently. He is reflecting that. He is also reflecting the ability to reap the fruits of their labor so they get the benefit of their labor. The secretary and the general asked other questions like could black people take care of themselves . Yes, they could. What did they need . Land. Did they want to live among white people . Some did but garrison fraser did not. In this discussion, we can start to see what freed people wanted theytheir lives even as look at the governmental exploration for what freedom meant for freed people. They were already asserting what they wanted freedom to be. Is building on our conversations of freedom and freed black life and how precarious it was. In moving into what two freedom meaning more. What could it mean . One of the other things that was connecting was the question of how do black people appear on the landscape of the United States . At the beginning of the term we talked about whether black identity formation or was it something about pushing the nation to live out the true meaning of the crete. We are thinking about the question of whether or not freed people were pushing the meaning of what this nation was supposed to be and what its founding documents claim trip. In the process of doing that, we will start to see how it was that when people talk about emancipation and the moment of reconstruction, that sometimes the question is framed the way that sherman and stanton framed it which is basically what can the freed people do for the country . And theres a question about what do the freed people want for themselves . And we look at reconstruction. A lot of times, what is it that freed people wanted for subsumeds it gets by the question of what can they do for the nation . I think we need to keep both of those questions and balance. Thinking about the relationship of their freed people to the nation but also and more prominently, what is it that free people wanted for themselves . One of the ways we will get at that is by thinking about these first places where freed people lived, where they went to. They were called contraband camps. We will spend the majority of our time looking at how freed people to find freedom. With someo start out of what i call the first class of freed people. That is the black soldiers. When we think about lack soldiers, many of them were freed black men that enlisted to support the union effort. Some of them were self liberatedng men who themselves from slavery and joined the union ranks. It was a real debate about whether or not enslaved men, or freed black men should support the war effort. You can think about reasons why. Think about their experience of africans in the American Revolution. What happened after the American Revolution . Did they realize the freedom that the American Revolution promise . No. That is why we had that graphic. They had freedom but it was not full or meaningful freedom or a complete freedom. There was a real debate about whether or not lack men should support the war effort. Eventually they do and they enlist. They enlist after the emancipation proclamation because it becomes a war measure to enlist black men to support the union effort. They believe they can demonstrate their commitment to the union and the principals of the nation. And that would reflect well on african people. That they were participating in this process. Refused to. Some refused to enlist and some were forced into the army even on the union side. Soldiers that participated in the war ready to jump into the war effort. But many did. They made up 10 of the union army and 25 of the union navy. There was a significant by yen for black soldiers. Buy in for black soldiers. They often did not get competent leadership because they were laboring under the systems of racism that kept them from getting their primary leaders. And they were sometimes denied the ability to hold commissioned positions as leaders. Eventually, they were allowed to gain some commissions. They have some leadership role. They were also often placed at the forefront. Cannon fodder. D put on the frontlines of different battles. They suffered some of the greatest numbers of casualties. As a result of this service. Of suffering casualties because of being placed on the front lines but also the tenor of the war was so charged that they would experience extreme violence because they were freed black men that they were viewed as being runaway slaves. Hello in tennessee fort pillow in tennessee, there was a group of black soldiers. Is a massacre of union troops trying to surrender. Black soldiers were often on the front lines. That is what happened there in tennessee where they were holed up in a fort. The Union Soldiers were trying to escape. When they tried to escape from the fort, they believed there was going to be a transport waiting for them. There was not. As they tried to escape and surrender, they were massacred and shot as they were fleeing from the fort. And a similar situation happened at the battle of the greater where there were a black soldiers on the front lines of the union effort. As they rushed in, they were blown up with mines. Massacred as a confederate soldiers were screaming no quarter. They would not be allowed to surrender. Havenly end they could would be death. We can see how black soldiers were leading the cause of the war by articulating how they could be supportive of the union. We can see how they were thinking through and struggling under some of the limitations including being denied pay. That happened early on. Some of them refused to be paid until they would get paid the same amount as white soldiers. Same compensation as far as wages as well as clothing and things like that. The other piece of what they did in terms of leadership in the war effort was in terms of helping secure freedoms for their families. I will talk in a minute about the contraband camps and how people were liberating themselves. But also happened for the men that served in the military was that they were able to gain freedom for their wives and children. They were able to figure out that by serving in the union, they could gain freedom for their families and children. We also know that when it comes to pursuing freedom, it is not viewed sometimes it is as an individual moment. People making choices for themselves. Ple also make chill choices for their families and communities. We start to think about some of the first freedoms. And the places where enslaved people started to find their first freedoms. It was and the contraband camps places where enslaved people ran to virginia minds when they heard that there was an army in the area. They knew they could find freedom there. They knew the significance of the war. This is significant. Sometimes people think people do not know what was going on. But they did. There was a black Communication Network sharing what was when the union came to the area, they knew what that meant. One of the first places of freedom was fort munro near hampton, virginia in 1861. We start to find that the first from a political crisis and a humanitarian crisis. All at the hands of an slaved people liberating themselves. The second place is fort royal, South Carolina which was viewed as a rehearsal for reconstruction in these first moments of what the reconstruction process would look like. In 1861, in virginia, there were from enslaved men who ran their person who was enslaving them. He was a colonel in the confederate army. They ran to where the union army had set up camp. They said they did not work anymore for the confederate colonel who was the end slaver. Enslaver. When they got there, virginia general Benjamin Butler had no plan for Something Like this. What would he do with these men that had liberated themselves from slavery . He figured out quickly how to handle the situation. That these men should be treated like contraband. Contraband was an idea he pulled from International Law that said any goods being transported by a neutral party could be for the benefit of the army. And could be considered contraband. He decided he would deem these men as contraband. He also recognized relatively quickly that the idea of treating these human beings like property was not a workable idea. He also realized there was a conflict of what was the union going to do with these people now that they deemed them as property but they did not want to hold property. They did not want to hold these formerly enslaved people as property. In this moment, it starts to layout the landscape by which the union could start to think about these self emancipating men as potential laborers for the war and eventually as soldiers. That is what he did. He put the men to work in the union camps. A good workaround for the time being. They had to figure out what that would mean. Much later. What ends up happening is not only are men coming to the area and camps like that, but women are coming and children are coming as well as elderly people. It becomes a question what do we do with these people . He starts a work camp essentially. Under the union guard. And had these people work for the union he had women doing laundry and cooking and taking care of the elderly they brought with them. He did not see that he could let the families what else was he going to do with them . That started to push the Political Landscape of emancipation. In South Carolina, we can see how these contraband camps impact the social and cultural aspects of emancipation. You have union presence. Self emancipating enslaved people. But you have the influence of a religious community that starts with a humanitarian crisis response. Resources for people that are emancipating themselves in South Carolina. They envisioned, the northern missionaries, they called themselves gideons. They were made up of missionaries from a variety of denominations including congregationalist and others congregationalists and others. They imagine themselves going down to teach formerly enslaved people how to become citizens. How to labor diligently. How to reproduce families that were moral. And how to create a religious community. They were shocked to find that there was already Robust Networks for education, for religion and churches that people were already taking care of their own spiritual lives. They were already pushing the landscape in terms of what it meant to be free for their families. Moment,less, in this they start to set up. So it looks like other elements of reconstruction. As established in some establishing the landscape for how the government would interact with these people. The freedmens bureau. Freedmen moment, you have contraband camps created by the impetus of freed Union Running to the lines. Socially, culturally, what are we going to do . How do we sustain and support these communities . We are turning to look a little more deeply at the question of what did it mean to be free from the perspective of self emancipating folks . It is a robust landscape of information. What did it mean in terms of labor . In terms of their mental and intellectual pursuits . In terms of their personal goals for their families and themselves . Political goals in terms of government, Office Holding . The religious community. And even geography and movement . What did it mean to be free . We heard he heard from garrison fraser that what the freed people wanted was land and to be independent. They also wanted control of their labor. They wanted to get the fruits of their own labor. A picture ways we get of what it is that freed people the now famous letter of a formerly enslaved man named Jordan Anderson writing to his former enslaver about his response to his enslavers request that he returned to the plantation that he left from and return to work. Of the things that jordan he very memorably challenges the former enslaver about the way he treated him, the violence visited upon him and his family. And he says basically in dayton, ohio, he can work and get paid every week, his wife is able to be respected and called by her name as mrs. Anderson. He calculates how much money he would get in back pay if his himer enslaver were to pay the hourly wage he gets now for the years of service he had done without pay. If he would compensate mandate for her labor mandy for her labor as well. He estimated that the amount owed to them would be about 11,680 in 19th century dollars. A significant amount. And he said if you are willing to pay me that and guarantee some other things, we will come back. He is having a moment of im not doing that. But letting his former enslaver no that this is what the wages are and i want to be compensated and respected for the work that i do. In another instance, in terms of labor and controlling labor and getting their fruits of their labor, there was an enslaved in the 1860s. A she was so known for and disciplined for going and enslaving womans perfume and going into the vanity put on a little makeup and look at herself in the out the sideeck profile. She was disciplined for doing this. For her, that is what freedom was going to mean. To be will to do that and not be policed in that way. She might have responded after emancipation the way another freed woman did. She was disciplined for not responding appropriately and weekly enough. There is a sense of i want to control my labor and i am going to push back against those systems of disciplining black labor. Some people wanted not to labor at all. They did not want to have to work for anyone. They did not want anyone to control their labor. Wasway it manifested itself not necessarily not to labor but to control the labor of the family whether it be children or wives who now wanted to stay at home or be kept at home. This idea of choosing not to labor was another choice. That they wanted. Or, to labor for themselves. The fruits ofgain their labor from their own hands. And that meant or manifested itself because as garrison fraser pointed out and as we know, enslaved people were liberated without land. From theto secure land landowners and in gauge in sharecropping or they gained a portion of the crops. And profit from that or from having crop liens where they owned their own land. Own crops grow their and have a portion of the crop they would have to give to the landowner or to the person assisting them. Was not on the best terms for the formerly enslaved people. Jacobs in the letter that we read today pointed this out. She said the freed men with few exceptions were treated cheated out of their crop of cotton. She said there was a system where people were being manipulated and not getting their full amounts. Lastly, they wanted land and they had good reason. They had good reason to want it and to believe that they would get it. General sherman, as part of the conversation he was having with the ministers of savannah was thinking about what to do with all of these freed people who had liberated themselves and the virginia army. Having all of these people falling behind because they realize the meaning of the armys presence and that they could liberate them. He figured he could take a swath of land on the eastern seaboard of georgia and South Carolina and promise to distribute some of the land to these self emancipating folks and freed people to labor on for themselves and take care of themselves. That is what would be needed in the very Agricultural Society at the time. And that is what people did. He apportioned the land. Homesteads. Ll them they labored there. But sometimes that was not fulfilled. We will highlight the point in terms of the limitations of the friedman spirit and distributing the land. They wanted to control their own land, have respect for their labor. What did it mean to be free in terms of mental and intellectual processes . Areas where of the the pursuit of literacy was robust. It was incredibly robust. Describedwashington it as a whole nation trying to go to school. I imagine everybody trying to get into the schoolhouse to get an education to learn to read, to learn math, all of the elements of education. Some of what emerges during this time from missionary and common in places like fort royal, a lot of the missionary set up schools but they also find there are already schools there. People like mary peek pictured here in the corner, the freed black woman in hampton who has already been running a free school in hampton for freed black folks before the war. There is already an infrastructure for an education of a sort among freed lack folks to educate other black folks. That continues on during the period of emancipation. There are already places where people are creating schools right and then you have people like Charlotte Boyden and Harriet Jacobs who goes south to help establish schools and teaching them. You wil