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Freedmen and Southern Society Project

@fssp.bsky.social

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The Freedmen & Southern Society Project was established in 1976 to capture the essence of the profound social revolution of emancipation in the United States.

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Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

FSSP editor William Horne discusses what we can learn abt gendered struggles for liberation, recognition, & dignity from the cases of two women caught by the Army in men's clothes. www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2026/04/i-wa...

1864 photo of five women with military regalia sown onto their dresses for an Army Relief Bazar. The photo is discussed in the linked article as an example of how women complicated gender boundaries in their wartime performances of patriotism.

Original from the Library of Congress here: https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.58008/

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

Dr. William Horne @wihorne.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

We are just on the cusp of making it public. Will be sharing on here & @fssp.bsky.social when it’s live.

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

FSSP editor William Horne writes about what we can learn of postemancipation citizenship & rights through the experiences of Black war widow Henrietta Emory Meads. You check out the full transcription & original images embedded in the article.

journalofthecivilwarera.org

The Unspendable Pension of Henrietta Emory Meads - The Journal of the Civil War Era

Sometime in July 1867, Henrietta Emory wrote to a clerk in the Claim Division of the Maryland Freedmen’s Bureau describing the challenges she had faced in trying to get money due to her as a soldier’s...

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

FSSP editor William Horne writes about what we can learn of postemancipation citizenship & rights through the experiences of Black war widow Henrietta Emory Meads. You check out the full transcription & original images embedded in the article.

journalofthecivilwarera.org

The Unspendable Pension of Henrietta Emory Meads - The Journal of the Civil War Era

Sometime in July 1867, Henrietta Emory wrote to a clerk in the Claim Division of the Maryland Freedmen’s Bureau describing the challenges she had faced in trying to get money due to her as a soldier’s...

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Amy Moore & her enslaved family were freed by the Union Army in Alabama, only to be arrested & sold as slaves behind Union lines. "We claim protection," Moore wrote in 1865, "under that [Emancipation] Proclamation from the fact of our living in one of the States mentioned in Said Proclamation."

freedmen.umd.edu

Former Alabama Slave to the Freedmen's Bureau Superintendent of the Subdistrict of Louisville, August 14, 1865, Enclosing the Former Slave's Affidavit

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Moore's testimony offers an important window into the tactics of forced relocation, the precarity of refugee status, & the lawlessness of local authorities, who leveraged their family's vulnerability as migrants to treat them as property.

freedmen.umd.edu

Former Alabama Slave to the Freedmen's Bureau Superintendent of the Subdistrict of Louisville, August 14, 1865, Enclosing the Former Slave's Affidavit

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Union authorities, Moore testified, "brought us all to Nashville Tenn where we were put on board of a transport & Started for Cincinnati Ohio... when we arrived at Louisville Ky we were arrested by a man who Said he was a watchman & taken to the Slave pen on Second Street Louisville Ky."

freedmen.umd.edu

Former Alabama Slave to the Freedmen's Bureau Superintendent of the Subdistrict of Louisville, August 14, 1865, Enclosing the Former Slave's Affidavit

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Moore noted the lawlessness of her re-enslavement & requested help "in procuring our wages for the time we have labored for these parties as slaves since we have been actually free."

freedmen.umd.edu

Former Alabama Slave to the Freedmen's Bureau Superintendent of the Subdistrict of Louisville, August 14, 1865, Enclosing the Former Slave's Affidavit

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Amy Moore & her enslaved family were freed by the Union Army in Alabama, only to be arrested & sold as slaves behind Union lines. "We claim protection," Moore wrote in 1865, "under that [Emancipation] Proclamation from the fact of our living in one of the States mentioned in Said Proclamation."

freedmen.umd.edu

Former Alabama Slave to the Freedmen's Bureau Superintendent of the Subdistrict of Louisville, August 14, 1865, Enclosing the Former Slave's Affidavit

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

"Act first in this matter," Hodgkins advised, & then "afterward explain or threaten" since "the act tells" without which "the threat or demand is regarded as idle." War crimes, he concluded, must be punished visibly & severely to offer any hope of protection against future lawlessness.

freedmen.umd.edu

Black New Yorker to the Secretary of War, April 18, 1864

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

"This request or suggestion is not made in a spirit of vindicativeness," Hodgkins explained, "but simply in the interest of my poor suffering confiding fellow negros who are even now assembling at Annapolis and other points to reinforce the army of the Union."

freedmen.umd.edu

Black New Yorker to the Secretary of War, April 18, 1864

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

If the US treated war crimes seriously, "the rebels will learn that the U.S. Govt. is not to be trifled with & the black men will feel not a spirit of revenge for have they not often taken the rebels prisoners even their old masters without indulging in a fiendish spirit of revenge or exultation."

freedmen.umd.edu

Black New Yorker to the Secretary of War, April 18, 1864

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

"If the murder of the colored troops at Fort Pillow is not followed by prompt action on the part of our government," Hodgkins warned, "it may as well disband all its colored troops for no soldiers whom the goverment will not protect can be depended upon."

freedmen.umd.edu

Black New Yorker to the Secretary of War, April 18, 1864

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

After Confederate war crimes against Black troops, Theodore Hodgkins, a Black New Yorker wrote to Secretary of War Stanton that "black soldiers have been murdered again & again yet where is there an instance of retaliation."

freedmen.umd.edu

Black New Yorker to the Secretary of War, April 18, 1864

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

"This is the kind of liberty," Hunter warned the Confederate President, "the liberty to do wrong–which Satan, Chief of the fallen Angels, was contending for when he was cast into Hell."

freedmen.umd.edu

Commander of the Department of the South to the Confederate President, April 23, 1863

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

"You say you are fighting for liberty," he concluded, "liberty to keep four millions of your fellow-beings in ignorance & degradation–liberty to separate parents & children, husband & wife, brother & sister–liberty to steal the products of their labor, exacted with many a cruel lash & bitter tear."

freedmen.umd.edu

Commander of the Department of the South to the Confederate President, April 23, 1863

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Gen. Hunter observed that Black soldiers "are fighting for liberty in its truest sense; and Mr [Thomas] Jefferson has beautifully said,–'in such a war, there is no attribute of the Almighty, which will induce him to fight on the side of the oppressor.'"

freedmen.umd.edu

Commander of the Department of the South to the Confederate President, April 23, 1863

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

"On your authorities will rest the responsibility of having inaugurated this barbarous policy," he fumed, "and you will be held responsible, in this world and in the world to come, for all the blood thus shed."

freedmen.umd.edu

Commander of the Department of the South to the Confederate President, April 23, 1863

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

These Confederate war crimes, Gen. Hunter threatened, "shall be followed by the immediate execution of the Rebel of highest rank in my possession; man for man, these executions will certainly take place, for every [Black soldier] murdered, or sold into a slavery worse than death."

freedmen.umd.edu

Commander of the Department of the South to the Confederate President, April 23, 1863

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

After learning that captured Black soldiers "have been cruelly murdered by your authorities, & others sold into slavery," U.S. Major General David Hunter wrote to Confederate President Jefferson Davis to condemn "every outrage of this kind against the laws of war and humanity."

freedmen.umd.edu

Commander of the Department of the South to the Confederate President, April 23, 1863

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

"If the world doubts our fighting," they argued, "give us A chance and we will show then what we can do–" Instead, the Union commander continued to refuse Black officers & deployed Black troops primarily as manual laborers.

freedmen.umd.edu

Black Former Officers in a Louisiana Black Regiment to the Commander of the Department of the Gulf, April 7, 1863

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

"Give us A commander," the group of former Black officers pleaded, "who will appreciate us as men and soldiers, And we will be willing to surmount all outer difficulties."

freedmen.umd.edu

Black Former Officers in a Louisiana Black Regiment to the Commander of the Department of the Gulf, April 7, 1863

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

After the Army forced Black officers out of the ranks in 1863, a group of Black former officers from Louisiana petitioned to be reinstated "to assist in putting down this wicked rebelion. And in restoring peace to our once peaceful country."

freedmen.umd.edu

Black Former Officers in a Louisiana Black Regiment to the Commander of the Department of the Gulf, April 7, 1863

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

This relentless white conservative state & vigilante violence against Black Southerners could only be resolved in one way: "get Congress to stick in a few competent colered men [into public service] as they did in the army & the thing will all go right."

freedmen.umd.edu

Mississippi Black Soldier to the Freedmen's Bureau Commissioner, December 16, 1865

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Not only did local police & officials refuse to protect Black rights in the state, but actually worked to undermine them. "They have been accusing the colered peple of an insorection which is a lie, in order that they might get arms to carrie out their wicked designs–"

freedmen.umd.edu

Mississippi Black Soldier to the Freedmen's Bureau Commissioner, December 16, 1865

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Some Black Mississippians, he asserted, "are being knocked down for saying they are free, while a great many are being worked just as they ust to be when Slaves, without any compensation."

freedmen.umd.edu

Mississippi Black Soldier to the Freedmen's Bureau Commissioner, December 16, 1865

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

One Black mother reported, he wrote, that "the coldest day that has been this winter & said that she & her eight children lay out last night, & come near friezing after She had paid some wrent on the house." The white landowner evicted her, despite her rent having been paid.

freedmen.umd.edu

Mississippi Black Soldier to the Freedmen's Bureau Commissioner, December 16, 1865

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

After emancipation, a Black Mississippi veteran reported that his white neighbors "outraged [Black Southerners] beyound humanity. Houses have been tourn down... & the old Negroes after they have worked there till they are 70 or 80 yers of age drive them off in the cold to frieze & starve to death."

freedmen.umd.edu

Mississippi Black Soldier to the Freedmen's Bureau Commissioner, December 16, 1865

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

British Online Archives (BOA) @boapublishing.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

We’ve published a fantastic new primary source collection—"Radicalism and Popular Protest in Georgian Britain, c. 1714–1832”. Visit the collection landing page at buff.ly/Mf1q0nH.

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Of course! Happy to help!

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Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

quaithe of the shadow asshai @clarkconquers.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Thank you so much. This is my hometown and I’ve never heard of this incident. Will definitely look into this more

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

You will see if you do a newspaper search for his name, however, that there are numerous other complaints against him from Black South Carolinians, several of which led to guilty verdicts, an incredibly unlikely outcome given the racist nature of the courts.

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Thank you for asking! His name was Samuel Green. Needless to say, the details in the letter give a very different account, but this is a clipping from the Daily Phoenix newspaper in Columbia that gives an overview of the coroner's inquest.

Photo of a newspaper article from The Columbia Daily Phoenix, May 15, 1866, p. 2.

"Coroner's Inquest.--A Coroner's Inquest was held on the body of the freedman, shot by Mr. Green, Chief of Police, on Saturday morning. After hearing of testimony, both white and colored, the jury returned the following verdict: That John Brown, a freedman, came to his death on the 13th day of May, 1866, from the effects of a wound caused by a ball fired from a pistol in the hands of Samuel Green, Chief of Police, while in the discharge of his official duties."

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

ann @anndotann.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Eighteen. Sixty-six.

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

The transcription is in the alt text.

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Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

The Union commander at Columbia, SC noted dismissively that "the chief of Police has been justified at a civil & military investigation of the homicide complained of" & suggested that the woman was bitter for being unable to hold "a public 'Fandango' or 'Break Down'"—racist terms for dance.

Photo of the reply of the commander at Columbia, SC:

"Columbia S.C. June 23d 1866
Respectfully returned with the remarks that the statement of this woman regarding public matters are usually unreliable and those of this anonymous Colored Woman are particularly wild and extravagant. The act of the chief of Police has been justified at a civil and military investigation of the homicide complained of. No troops have been granted to assist in the awful work of murdering colored people. The sanction of the Mayor is necessary (and this is the case in all well regulated communities) for the holding of a public “Fandango” or “Break Down” which is probably the party or gathering referred to in the letter. The Post Comdr having no knowledg of the game of Billiards has never even entered the saloon devoted to its pursuit and finally the Post Comdr having an impartial regard for the interests of both the White & Colored race has no Negro Code in force or in existence within the limits of his command.
(Sigd) J. D. Greene."

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

Her testimony, which is part of our Law & Justice series we plan to publish next year, revealed widespread abuse, not only by local law enforcement but also from federal officials & soldiers who "wink at, & allow these things to go on thus."

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

After the police chief in Columbia, SC murdered a Black resident in cold blood, an anonymous Black woman wrote to the govt in May 1866: "Our friends in Congress are wasting time & breath, & all the bills they may pass, will do us no good, unless men are sent here that will see these laws enforced."

Screenshot from an anonymous letter to the head of the Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina:

"It is hard I tell you. Our friends in Congress are wasting time & breath, & all the bills they may pass, will do us no good, unless men are sent here that will see these laws enforced."

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

While the Freedmen's Bureau investigated the charges, it ultimately left the case in the hands of racist local officials who, they noted, were unlikely to prosecute the offender.

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

"There was another white man near by," the school commissioner explained, "but he 'didn't see' it of course. Our state laws afford no protection to this class of people, and the failure of the 'Freedman's bureau bill' leaves them in a pitiable state indeed."

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

The unnamed Black woman teacher was apparently knocked unconscious by her white assailant, the local school commissioner reported, "remaining for sometime in an insensible state!"

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

From the archive, Black education was under assault from its earliest origins after emancipation: "A very respectable young colored Female, teacher of the colored School near Vienna Dorchester Co md. was assaulted on the road near the school House by a white man named Cyrus Stack."

Photo of a handwritten letter:

Cambridge March 6th 1866
To Maj. Genl. Howard
Dear Sir
You will please excuse
me for the liberty I take, in presenting to
your consideration a case which recently
occured in our County, A very respectable
young colored Female, teacher of the colored
School near Vienna Dorchester Co md. was
assaulted on the road near the school House
by a white man named Cyrus Stack, and
knocked down, remaining for sometime in
an insensible state! There was an other
white man near by, but he "didn't see" it
of course. Our state laws afford no protection
to this class of people, and the failure
of the "Freedman's bureau bill" leaves
them in a pitiable state indeed.
Can anything be done for them?
very truly yours,
John G. Robinson
School Commission 3d Dist
Dorchester Co Md

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

The Black petitioners concluded that their commitment to the rule of law, their right to have a say in the distribution of their tax dollars, & their demand for equality in the judicial system "are the basis upon which we predicate our claim for suffrage, & civil equality before the law."

freedmen.umd.edu

Black Residents of Washington, D.C., to the U.S. Congress, December 1865

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

Black Washingtonians pointed out that "without the right of suffrage, we are without protection, & liable to Combinations of outrage" from "officers of the law" who "naturally defer to the one having a vote" which "operates greatly to the disadvantage of the colored citizen."

freedmen.umd.edu

Black Residents of Washington, D.C., to the U.S. Congress, December 1865

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

"Out of a [Black] population of less than 15000," they wrote, "we have contributed three full regiments, over 3500 enlisted men, while the white citizens out of a population of upwards 60000 sent only about 1500 enlisted men for the support of the Union, the Constitution & the Laws."

freedmen.umd.edu

Black Residents of Washington, D.C., to the U.S. Congress, December 1865

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

They explained that Black Washingtonians are "property holders... pay[ing] no inconsiderable amount of taxes; but are nevertheless as slaves to its distribution, unlike other tax-payers they see the proceeds of their labor taken & disposed of without a single voice."

freedmen.umd.edu

Black Residents of Washington, D.C., to the U.S. Congress, December 1865

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

In December 1865, 2500 Black Washingtonians petitioned Congress for the right to vote. "Experience teaches," they wrote, "that all reforms have their opponents. The same experience also teaches that apprehensions of evil arising from reforms founded in justice, are but seldom if ever realized."

freedmen.umd.edu

Black Residents of Washington, D.C., to the U.S. Congress, December 1865

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

Brother Manns From The 5th Floor @kmanns.blacksky.app · 04/11/2025

Same as it ever was

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

After fighting to destroy slavery, Turner explained, "We the colored people have done all we could to aid the government, in her hour of need, & now our services are no longer needed, our women may suffer hunger—when it is in the hands of the agents relieve their wants—simply bc [they] are black."

freedmen.umd.edu

Alabama Black Teacher to the Alabama Freedmen's Bureau Superintendent of Education, February 5, 1867; and Headquarters of the Alabama Freedmen's Bureau Assistant Commissioner to the Government Relief ...

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

After testifying abt the denial of food assistance to Black mothers, Turner concluded that "It certainly must be a great crime to be a Negro, I cannot view it in any other light."

freedmen.umd.edu

Alabama Black Teacher to the Alabama Freedmen's Bureau Superintendent of Education, February 5, 1867; and Headquarters of the Alabama Freedmen's Bureau Assistant Commissioner to the Government Relief ...