The Freedmen S Bureau Politics And Stability Operations During Reconstruction In The South

The United States’ Civil War ended in 1865. However, the post-conflict period immediately following, known as Reconstruction, lasted another twelve years. This era provides a great case study to examine the impacts of politics on military stability operations. This paper studies the Freedmen’s Bureau during its existence from 1865 to 1872. Envisioned as the lead organization for integrating former slaves into American society, the Bureau’s efforts in the post-Civil War South were undermined by a hostile political situation at the national and state level and a diminishing lack of popular support throughout the entire nation to embrace radical social changes. The Bureau’s operational timeframe splits into three distinct periods: conflict with President Andrew Johnson from 1865 to early 1867, revamped efforts during Congressional Reconstruction from early 1867 to the end of 1868, and a reduced operational focus (primarily education) from 1869 to 1872. The Bureau faced manning challenges and fought racism as it worked to help former slaves become self-sufficient, educated, and true citizens of the nation in which they resided. Unfortunately, hostile political conditions meant much of the civil rights work accomplished by the Bureau was subdued after its demise until the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

This book breaks down the outcomes of stabilization operations including those related to establishing or enhancing safety and security, institutions of governance, rule of law, social well-being, economic development, access to education and health care, infrastructure development, reducing corruption and all the associated elements for shoring up fragile communities. These are analyzed through the unusual lens of the US post-Civil War case of Reconstruction, and lessons are identified for improving outcomes for future stabilization missions. The book is designed to be accessible to military advisors, international development professionals, students, policymakers and planners, and all who are involved in peacebuilding in the field, not only in the ivory tower.

In its brief seven-year existence, the Freedmen’s Bureau became the epicenter of the debate about Reconstruction. Historians have only recently begun to focus on the Bureau’s personnel in Texas, the individual agents termed the “hearts of Reconstruction.” Specifically addressing the historiographical debates concerning the character of the Bureau and its sub-assistant commissioners (SACs), Too Great a Burden to Bear sheds new light on the work and reputation of these agents. Focusing on the agents on a personal level, author Christopher B. Bean reveals the type of man Bureau officials believed qualified to oversee the Freedpeople’s transition to freedom. This work shows that each agent, moved by his sense of fairness and ideas of citizenship, gender, and labor, represented the agency’s policy in his subdistrict. These men further ensured the former slaves’ right to an education and right of mobility, something they never had while in bondage.

Within two months of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House on 9 April 1865, the Confederacy had collapsed, and its armed forces had ceased to exist. In the spring of 1865, the U.S. Army faced the unprecedented task of occupying eleven conquered Southern states and administering "Reconstruction"-the process by which the former rebellious states would be restored to the Union. But a rapid demobilization of the Army placed the remaining occupation troops at a disadvantage almost from the start.This brochure traces the Army's law enforcement, stability, and peacekeeping roles in the South from May 1865 to the end of Reconstruction in 1877, marking a unique period in American history. During that time, the Southern states remained under military occupation, and for several years, they were also ruled by military government. Veteran Army commanders such as Philip H. Sheridan, John M. Schofield, Daniel E. Sickles, Edward R. S. Canby, and Winfield S. Hancock may have found the work of Reconstruction less dangerous than fighting the Civil War had been, but they also found it no less challenging.

Traces how the Republican Party in the South after Reconstruction transformed from a biracial organization to a mostly all-white one.

Report on the Condition of the South is a title written by Carl Christian Schurz, who was a German revolutionary and an American statesman, journalist, and reformer. Schurz was sent through the South to make a tour and report on the economic conditions there. This book represents not only the information the author gathered, but provides us also with his insight into the topic of slavery.

Reproduction of the original: Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama by Walter L. Fleming