"We Can Take Care of Ourselves Now": Establishing Independent Black Labor and Industry in Postwar Yorktown, Virginia

IF 0.2 3区 历史学 Q2 HISTORY CIVIL WAR HISTORY Pub Date : 2024-08-08 DOI:10.1353/cwh.2024.a934384
Rebecca Capobianco Toy
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Massey, the Freedman's Bureau agent in charge of York County, Virginia, wrote to his superior officer of a recent conversation between himself and a formerly enslaved man. \"When asked if the new freed-people would be able to provide for themselves,\" the newly emancipated man had replied, \"'We used to support ourselves and our masters, too, when we were slaves, and I reckon we can take care of ourselves now.'\"<sup>1</sup> In this assertion, the interviewee highlighted the reality that white observers often missed: formerly enslaved people had always been the backbone of the Southern economy. They emerged from slavery with the skills necessary to support themselves and knew that they were capable of doing so. In their interactions with the Freedmen's Bureau and other white benevolent workers, Black residents of York County frequently expressed their desire to direct the course of their own labor and resisted the bureau's attempts to manage their freedom. While the efforts of the federal government and benevolent organizations to establish a wage labor economy in the postwar South are well documented, a reevaluation of ground-level sources reveals the ways Black Southerners worked to negotiate and direct that process for themselves through locally specific \"personal economies\" such as subsistence farming, fishing, oystering, and shipping. In <strong>[End Page 43]</strong> defining the terms of their own labor, Black York County residents sought to manifest their own visions of freedom rather than have the terms of their freedom determined for them.</p> <p>A Jim Crow South was not inevitable. During the years of slavery's demise, and as Virginians began to imagine the nation without its peculiar institution, opportunities remained to define what that Commonwealth would look like.<sup>2</sup> While postwar political debates between Republicans and Democrats are well documented, the vision of freedom that Black Americans brought to this period is less so. Told from the perspective of federal agents or white Northerners, as events of this period so often are, formerly enslaved people found themselves in desperate need of intervention and direction from white authorities. Yet, buried in the often mundane Freedmen's Bureau records and those of other benevolent organizations, are the clear articulations of what freedom meant to Black Virginians, what they expected of their postwar worlds, and their intentions to make those visions reality. Focusing on sources at the level at which most Black Americans negotiated their lives—within their local communities—reveals the strategies they used and the types of work they valued. Black Americans in York-town believed that freedom and citizenship entitled them to have political rights and education but also to direct the course of their own labor as well as the products of that labor, and they fought mightily to maintain that definition of independence.</p> <p>The record reveals that York County's freedpeople struggled against federal agents like Massey and other benevolent workers who approached the postwar South believing that formerly enslaved people had to be taught how to be free. As Julie Saville maintains, white Northerners who engaged in the work of reconstruction believed they were \"planting … a new social order.\" This order rested on an assumption of what \"free labor\" should look like based on their experiences in the North. Their work was part of an ongoing conversation that had commenced long before slavery began to crumble about the merits of free labor and what composed a functional economy.<sup>3</sup> <strong>[End Page 44]</strong></p> <p>Recent studies of refugee communities have identified the ways that the Civil War created new opportunities for enslaved people to seek freedom and how the wartime context of this struggle limited what Black Southerners could achieve. Both Chandra Manning and Amy Murrell Taylor have highlighted the logistical pressures of attempting to carve out a measure of independence in an environment of scarcity and violence. In particular, the changeability of refugee communities and their dependence on the presence of the US Army for security meant that wartime freedom was unstable and unpredictable.<sup>4</sup></p> <p>However, in places along the coast, such as the Virginia Peninsula...</p> </p>","PeriodicalId":43056,"journal":{"name":"CIVIL WAR HISTORY","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"CIVIL WAR HISTORY","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cwh.2024.a934384","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"HISTORY","Score":null,"Total":0}
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Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • "We Can Take Care of Ourselves Now"Establishing Independent Black Labor and Industry in Postwar Yorktown, Virginia
  • Rebecca Capobianco Toy (bio)

In May 1866, Lt. F. J. Massey, the Freedman's Bureau agent in charge of York County, Virginia, wrote to his superior officer of a recent conversation between himself and a formerly enslaved man. "When asked if the new freed-people would be able to provide for themselves," the newly emancipated man had replied, "'We used to support ourselves and our masters, too, when we were slaves, and I reckon we can take care of ourselves now.'"1 In this assertion, the interviewee highlighted the reality that white observers often missed: formerly enslaved people had always been the backbone of the Southern economy. They emerged from slavery with the skills necessary to support themselves and knew that they were capable of doing so. In their interactions with the Freedmen's Bureau and other white benevolent workers, Black residents of York County frequently expressed their desire to direct the course of their own labor and resisted the bureau's attempts to manage their freedom. While the efforts of the federal government and benevolent organizations to establish a wage labor economy in the postwar South are well documented, a reevaluation of ground-level sources reveals the ways Black Southerners worked to negotiate and direct that process for themselves through locally specific "personal economies" such as subsistence farming, fishing, oystering, and shipping. In [End Page 43] defining the terms of their own labor, Black York County residents sought to manifest their own visions of freedom rather than have the terms of their freedom determined for them.

A Jim Crow South was not inevitable. During the years of slavery's demise, and as Virginians began to imagine the nation without its peculiar institution, opportunities remained to define what that Commonwealth would look like.2 While postwar political debates between Republicans and Democrats are well documented, the vision of freedom that Black Americans brought to this period is less so. Told from the perspective of federal agents or white Northerners, as events of this period so often are, formerly enslaved people found themselves in desperate need of intervention and direction from white authorities. Yet, buried in the often mundane Freedmen's Bureau records and those of other benevolent organizations, are the clear articulations of what freedom meant to Black Virginians, what they expected of their postwar worlds, and their intentions to make those visions reality. Focusing on sources at the level at which most Black Americans negotiated their lives—within their local communities—reveals the strategies they used and the types of work they valued. Black Americans in York-town believed that freedom and citizenship entitled them to have political rights and education but also to direct the course of their own labor as well as the products of that labor, and they fought mightily to maintain that definition of independence.

The record reveals that York County's freedpeople struggled against federal agents like Massey and other benevolent workers who approached the postwar South believing that formerly enslaved people had to be taught how to be free. As Julie Saville maintains, white Northerners who engaged in the work of reconstruction believed they were "planting … a new social order." This order rested on an assumption of what "free labor" should look like based on their experiences in the North. Their work was part of an ongoing conversation that had commenced long before slavery began to crumble about the merits of free labor and what composed a functional economy.3 [End Page 44]

Recent studies of refugee communities have identified the ways that the Civil War created new opportunities for enslaved people to seek freedom and how the wartime context of this struggle limited what Black Southerners could achieve. Both Chandra Manning and Amy Murrell Taylor have highlighted the logistical pressures of attempting to carve out a measure of independence in an environment of scarcity and violence. In particular, the changeability of refugee communities and their dependence on the presence of the US Army for security meant that wartime freedom was unstable and unpredictable.4

However, in places along the coast, such as the Virginia Peninsula...

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"我们现在就能照顾自己":在战后弗吉尼亚州约克镇建立独立的黑人劳工和工业
以下是内容的简要摘录,以代替摘要: "我们现在可以照顾自己 "在战后的弗吉尼亚州约克镇建立独立的黑人劳工和工业 丽贝卡-卡波比安科-托伊(简历 1866 年 5 月,负责弗吉尼亚州约克县的自由人局代理人 F. J. 梅西中尉写信给他的上司,讲述了他最近与一名前奴隶之间的对话。当被问及 "新解放的人们是否有能力养活自己 "时,这位新解放的男子回答说:"'我们以前当奴隶时也是自己养活自己,养活主人,我想我们现在可以照顾好自己'。"1 在这一断言中,受访者强调了白人观察者经常忽略的现实:以前被奴役的人一直是南方经济的支柱。他们摆脱了奴隶制,掌握了养活自己所需的技能,并且知道自己有能力养活自己。约克郡的黑人居民在与自由民事务局和其他白人慈善工作者的互动中,经常表达出他们希望指导自己的劳动进程,并抵制事务局管理他们自由的企图。虽然联邦政府和慈善组织在战后南方建立雇佣劳动经济的努力有据可查,但对实地资料的重新评估揭示了南方黑人通过当地特定的 "个人经济"(如生计农业、渔业、牡蛎养殖业和航运业)为自己谈判和指导这一进程的方式。在确定自己的劳动条件时,约克郡的黑人居民试图展现自己的自由愿景,而不是让别人来决定他们的自由条件。吉姆克劳南方并非不可避免。在奴隶制消亡的岁月里,弗吉尼亚人开始想象一个没有奴隶制的国家,他们仍有机会确定联邦的面貌。从联邦特工或北方白人的视角来看,这一时期的事件往往是这样,曾经被奴役的人们发现自己亟需白人当局的干预和指导。然而,在通常平淡无奇的自由人局记录和其他慈善组织的记录中,却清楚地阐述了自由对弗吉尼亚黑人的意义、他们对战后世界的期望,以及他们将这些愿景变为现实的意图。重点研究大多数美国黑人在当地社区协商生活的资料来源,揭示了他们使用的策略和重视的工作类型。约克镇的美国黑人认为,自由和公民身份使他们有权享有政治权利和教育,但也有权指导自己的劳动过程和劳动产品,他们为维护这种独立定义而进行了艰苦卓绝的斗争。记录显示,约克郡的自由民与像梅西这样的联邦特工和其他仁慈的工人进行了斗争,这些人在战后的南方认为,以前被奴役的人必须接受如何获得自由的教育。正如朱莉-萨维尔(Julie Saville)所认为的,参与重建工作的北方白人认为他们是在 "建立......一种新的社会秩序"。这种秩序建立在他们对 "自由劳动力 "的假设之上,这种假设是基于他们在北方的经验。他们的工作是一场持续对话的一部分,而这场对话早在奴隶制开始瓦解之前就已经开始了,对话的主题是自由劳动力的优点以及什么是功能性经济。钱德拉-曼宁(Chandra Manning)和艾米-穆雷尔-泰勒(Amy Murrell Taylor)都强调了在匮乏和暴力的环境中试图获得一定程度的独立所面临的后勤压力。特别是,难民社区的易变性及其对美军存在的安全依赖意味着战时的自由是不稳定和不可预测的。
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来源期刊
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期刊介绍: Civil War History is the foremost scholarly journal of the sectional conflict in the United States, focusing on social, cultural, economic, political, and military issues from antebellum America through Reconstruction. Articles have featured research on slavery, abolitionism, women and war, Abraham Lincoln, fiction, national identity, and various aspects of the Northern and Southern military. Published quarterly in March, June, September, and December.
期刊最新文献
Contesting "the Insatiable Maw of Capital": Mine Workers' Struggles in the Civil War Era Contributors The Open-Shop Movement and the Long Shadow of Slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction Book Review Essay: After War and Emancipation, an Irrepressible Conflict "We Can Take Care of Ourselves Now": Establishing Independent Black Labor and Industry in Postwar Yorktown, Virginia
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