Historical Romance of the American Negro

by Charles Henry Fowler

I have just above compared the condition of the South at the close of the war to that of a forest of mighty trees, all suddenly dashed to the earth by the force of overwhelming and irresistible winds—even the terrible winds that are swept upon the land from the wild and stormy ocean that breaks upon our shores. The question next was how were we to clear this forest land; remove all the trees with their great upturned roots; fill up the great cavities—in a word, "clear the land," and worst of all, restore the forest? What Abraham Lincoln might have done if he had lived—he and his cabinet between them—I am unable to say. A great many people are of the opinion that had Lincoln lived things would have gone ten times better with Reconstruction than they did. That may have been so, but the wish was father to the thought, and it has always been my opinion that there would have been a bad time of it for years and years to come, as there was without the great war President. Poor fellow! Because ever during his lifetime, and when the war was going on, there were many times when Lincoln himself confessed that he was almost at his wit's end, and did not know what to do for the best. With the Southerners going home, sullen, angry and defeated, and four millions of slaves redeemed from the curse of the "peculiar institution," for the very life of me I am unable to see that any one with much less wisdom than that which is divine, could ever had at once brought order out of chaos in a day, or even in a year. Even with the assistance of 10,000 giants, it must have taken time to clear away that fallen forest, fill up the awful gaps, and put a new forest in the place of the one that had been knocked down!

In order to make a beginning at Reconstruction it was decided to place the late rebellious States under military governors, who acted in concert with the Bureau for Freedmen, Refugees and Abandoned Lands. This "Freedman's Bureau," as it was briefly called, was wisely established in the spring of 1865 for the purpose of assisting in every possible way those 4,000,000 of the African race whom the war had made free and turned loose on the country. Of course they must not be permitted to starve, and the Government at Washington wisely established the bureau to assist them in tiding over the crisis. Richmond and the Confederacy had not fallen yet, but the grand crash was at hand, and all things were in readiness for the mighty changes that were at the door of the nation.

But the freedmen were not the only people who had to be provided for. There was a host of white people—all sorts of refugees—who had also been rendered homeless and entirely destitute, who were in precisely the same condition as the recent slaves of African descent. These had to be looked after the same as the rest of the people, and all had to be clothed and fed, and encouraged to go to work at once, besides sending their children to public schools that were to be established all over the States lately in rebellion. Besides all these, courts of law were set a-going to try ordinary cases throughout the new military districts everywhere. And for the purpose of farming, it was decided to take the lands that had been abandoned by the rebels during the war, or confiscated by the government, and portion out the same to freedman and refugees, not giving more than forty acres to each, and that upon the easiest terms, for the space of three years, with the right of purchase afterwards, if the tenants wished to buy, when the easiest terms again would be granted. But right here I have something of a most unusual pleasant nature to relate. My indulgent reader, my book would come far short of the mark without it!

The war that had lasted about four years and a half was now all over and gone. The last rebel had been forced to lay down his arms, and slavery, that had existed under the most aggravated form for about two hundred and fifty years, had been swept from the land, and there remained not the shadow of a doubt that every colored man, woman and child were entirely free. Then, like the Jews of old, after the drowning of Pharaoh and his rebel army in the Red sea, there arose a loud and long-continued song of joy from the hearts of all the 4,000,000 of freed people all over Secessia—from Mason and Dixon's line to the Rio Grande river; and from the wild Atlantic waves to the State of Missouri in the far west. For some time after the close of the war, throughout the entire South, the entire colored race could think of little else but rejoicing, singing and dancing for joy. And I would think it a very strange thing if the redeemed race had not so abandoned themselves to such joy and rejoicing for a time at least. It was the natural song of the captive, suddenly and unexpectedly released from his prison. Joy, joy, joy! Oh, nothing but joy! "I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea." For two hundred and fifty years the poor, dear, oppressed people of God had been under the lash of the task-master; but now they were free as the masters themselves! This was right, perfectly right, and accounts for all their joy, their songs and rejoicing all over the lately far-extended battle-field. "Oh, praise ye the Lord, for He is good: for His mercy endureth forever!"

When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, who had been elected vice-president, became in turn the President of the United States. This man had been brought up in the South, and when Reconstruction came, all his Southern sympathies floated up to the surface. He entered into a direct quarrel with the houses of Congress, and vetoed almost every bill that ever came before him. But in all such cases, Congress passed his vetoes over his head, and they were of no effect. At last he was impeached and tried for his cross-grained, contrary measures, but escaped conviction by the smallest majority. But all the same he was one of the most destructive rebels that we had.

In the meantime Reconstruction went on in the late rebellious States in the best way that Congress knew how to do it, which was not much at the best. A race of men swept down from the North with their carpet-bags in their hands in search of fortune, who were nick-named carpet-baggers; then there were the middle class whites of the South, who were nick-named the scalawags, who assisted the carpet-baggers in ruling the South, all of whom, however, were under the eyes of the military generals, each of whom was placed in command of one of the States, and these generals in turn worked hand in hand along with an assistant commissioner of the Freedman's Bureau, Major-General O. O. Howard, at Washington, being the chief commissioner, and one of the best men that ever lived.

Immediately after the close of the war, many of the more pronounced rebels retired abroad, where they found employment in foreign armies, or more peaceful occupations. They had no heart for any further rule under the flag of Uncle Sam, which now, indeed, floated freely over all races of people from the Lakes to the Gulf. For such arch-rebels the Sunny South was a home no more. But many of the late rebel leaders preferred to stay at home and take their chance, hoping for mercy and pardon from the Northern government, which they had so terribly outraged. As a general thing they were cross-vexed and sullen, and had no heart whatever for the reconstruction of the Southern states, which was entirely conducted by legislatures, composed of loyal Southerners and colored men, all of whom were duly elected. These colored men were in all the lower houses of legislature, while in some of the States they were also in the Senate, and in a few of the States they filled the office of deputy-governor. The heads and leaders of the late rebellion showed no disposition to lend a hand; they allowed the military and civil administrators to take their own way, assisted as the latter were by the colored senators and representatives in the State legislature, carpet-baggers and scalawags.

Whilst no doubt all of the above were doing the best they knew how, the entire race of 4,000,000 of freedmen had recovered from their dance of new and glorious liberty; had opened their eyes to the stern realities of the changed situation, and settled down to steady work all over the land. Many of them crowded into the towns, cities and villages, while a host of others went to work over all the plantations and farms—some working on shares with their former masters, whilst others farmed their own lands, and did wonderfully. Many a brave old "prophecy" had been uttered that the descendants of Africans were unfit for the pursuits of freedom, and that the whole freed race would fall to pieces like a ship on the sands; but the race went steadily to work, and with some aid from the Freedman's Bureau, they prospered from the very beginning. In short, the people now fairly began to see the beauties of personal liberty, and they had a mind to work. The American Government, however, never did a better thing than to establish that bureau, without the aid of which entire legions of colored and white people must inevitably have perished.

All things, however, did not work satisfactorily, and under the crooked circumstances perhaps that was more than was to be expected. Throughout the entire South the system of working on shares was not in favor of the redeemed race in many cases. The white man had got a notion in his head that he had been cheated out of his rights, and that somehow or other, the former slave still of right belonged to him. Some of them therefore thought themselves privileged in beating the freedman out of the fruits of their toil in every possible way. If such white men were thus aggrieved over the new order of things, their wives were worse, and could find no one to comfort them! The slave was now, at least, as free as themselves, and there was no power in the land to force him back to his former condition. So they took their spite out of him by cheating him on the division of the crops, and he was obliged either to stay on the lands and be imposed upon, or leave at a loss. The public papers were full of the freedman's complaints at the time. One way of defrauding him who did all the hard work was to open a general store for the sale of all kinds of groceries and other needful things. The accounts were cooked and managed in a way to suit the bosses, and almost everything was charged for far above the general prices of the country. Thus, when the day of settlement came, the laborer usually found himself from $50 to $200 in debt, owing to the system of thieving practiced on him by his betrayer. The Southern people generally were sullen, and almost inconsolable under the new order of things, and they refused to be comforted for a long time. Indeed, some of them are not comforted yet, and never will be. Andrew Johnson, the President, did much harm in contending for the rebels in every way in his power. In fact, he went right over to them, and even obstructed Reconstruction itself in every way that he could.

This sullenness on the part of the Southerners at last found vent in the organization of a secret and murderous conspiracy called the Ku-Klux-Klan—whoever was guilty of inventing such an ugly name! This Ku-Klux-Klan reached for their shot-guns, and went forth by night, and shot down the carpet-baggers and their like, like crows. This was soon after the first election of President Grant, an election, by the by, in which the rebels took no part, but they now determined to spoil that which they were unwilling to mend. These wicked Ku-Klux sought to obstruct the courts of justice, harass and trouble the colored people in every possible way, and cripple the local governments. The terror that spread all over the South at the time was perfectly dreadful. People were shot down everywhere, colored churches and school-houses were burned to the ground in the night, and the work of revenge and destruction went on night and day. It seemed as if the late rebel soldiers, who had been beaten in the field by the North, were once more trying to raise a rebellion in a new form. The writ of habeas corpus was suspended for a time, and Uncle Sam put his heavy foot down upon the whole matter. The powers of the day went forth; arrests were made; the trials and convictions of many of those bad men were secured, and some of the penitentiaries were filled with the enemies of law and order. Then for a time, at least, followed a pause in the obstructing work of the reconstruction of the late rebellious States, and the governments by colored legislators, scalawags and carpet-baggers went on as before. How much better it would have been if all parties, both white and black, had been harmonious and agreeable after Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House! But instead of that the defeated rebel went home, nursed his wrath to keep it warm. Robbing and stealing from the injured freedmen followed, and then he went out working mischief after dark with the aid of his shot-gun.