When Hiram Revels was appointed to fill one of Mississippi’s seats in the U.S. Senate, Southern Democrats tried to stop it. They said he couldn’t serve in the Senate because a Senator had to be a citizen of the United States for nine years. Revels, as an African-American man, had not legally been considered a citizen until the Fifteenth Amendment passed. On February 25, 1870, five years after the end of the Civil War, the Congress took a vote to determine whether Revels could claim his seat in the Senate: 48 Republicans voted yes, 8 Southern Democrats voted no. Hiram Revels was sworn in.
While Hiram Reels was the first man of color to serve in the U.S. Senate (after being appointed to take the spot of a senator who had resigned mid-term), Blanche K. Bruce was the first man of color elected to the U.S. Senate. He was the son of a house slave and a plantation owner, but he had been raised and educated with his white half-brother. He was a wealthy landowner in the Mississippi Delta. Later, he became Register of the Treasury, which made him the first African-American whose signature appeared on money.
A Senator from the newly created state of Nevada. When Hiram Revels was sworn in as a Senator, Nye said, “Sir, what a magnificent spectacle of retributive justice is witnessed here today! In the place of that proud, defiant man, who marched out to trample under foot the Constitution and the laws of the country he had sworn to support, comes back one of that humble race whom he would have enslaved forever to take and occupy his seat upon this floor.” Nye was referring to the fact that Revels’ Senate seat had previously been held by a Confederate leader who left the Senate when Mississippi seceded from the Union. The other Senate seat from Mississippi had been held by Jefferson Davis, who was the President of the Confederacy during the Civil War.
The Freedman Bureau was an organization that worked to help ex-slaves get education, jobs, and even food and clothing after the war. The Bureau encouraged plantation owners to hire Freedmen, and specifically supported interracial working conditions. It handed out food and clothing. It helped African-Americans families who had been separated during slavery find each other.
The Freedman Bureau was most successful in starting schools, some of which eventually became historically African-American colleges. Many of their teachers were young African-American men who had somehow learned to read and write, like George Ruby. Through the Freedman Bureau, Ruby was assigned to teach in Galveston, Texas, and later became a Texas Senator.
After the war, Republicans pushed through a law (which Lincoln opposed) that required Southerners to swear they had never fought in or supported the fight against the Union, if they wanted to be able to vote. Many Southerners refused to swear they hadn’t supported the Confederacy. So until it was repealed (the last state to have it repealed did so in 1871) many Southerners were unable to vote.
After the war, Northerners moved into the devastated south, buying land and establishing businesses. Their suitcases were often made from a strong fabric that was similar to carpet—because it was strong. These were called “carpet bags” and led to the term “carpetbagger”. There were two meanings of carpetbagger: one referred to Northern Abolitionists who wanted to fix the south and the other to Union soldiers (and some non-soldiers) who wanted to make money. Because these soldiers could swear the Ironclad Oath, they often ran for office. Southerners resented having their states and cities run by people from other parts of the U.S.
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