To what extent did former slaves in the South seek integration into white society between 1865 and 1877?
Emancipation projected a new vision of the future for former slaves; a life that was once not possible to contemplate was now just beginning. However, their new found freedom came at a price and although many former slaves did seek integration into white society, a society that they had once admired at a distance, they never gained complete freedom or equality until the civil rights movement of the 1960’s. “The master says we are free” affirmed a South Carolina slave in 1865 “But it don’t mean we is white. And it doesn’t mean we is equal”. The fact was that African Americans were still viewed as unequal by the majority of white Americans and thus a biracial community could not be formed. This essay examines the extent of former slave integration into white society, the obstacles that hindered integration and considers evidence supporting a separate community and the fact that African Americans may have never wanted integration at all.
Former slave participation in politics and public office shows them seeking to belong in a white society. During the reconstruction era ‘black men held political office in every state of the former confederacy’. Increased political participation was a radical development for a group of people that had been previously been excluded from the political sphere. It permitted freedmen to confer terms of freedom from their new circumstances of strength and helped staunched the efforts of local elites to enforce new forms of Black submission. Black male suffrage was also an outcome of reconstruction outlined in the fifteenth amendment. This empowered male African Americans as they could now voice their opinions in society as they were now part of the electoral process. However, it can be argued that although some former slaves enjoyed new political freedom, freedom was dangerous and was only to be enjoyed for a limited time. During...