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Title A name given to the resource Emancipation and Citizenship Subject The topic of the resource The documents in this section remind us that emancipation was a process, not a moment. To approach it as such, this theme is broken down into Wartime, Immediate Postwar, and Reconstruction-era sections. Emancipation during the War: When President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863, it only freed enslaved peoples in Confederate held territory. But this seemingly limited document would revolutionize the United States in the years that followed. Starting in 1863, enslaved peoples, if they could escape to the Union Army, would no longer be returned to their owners, but rather could stay in what were known as contraband camps where some men joined the Army and women served as cooks and laundresses. The contraband camps were not a panacea of freedom — disease was rampant and bigotry did not end with escape — but 1863 marked a radical shift in Federal policy where Union forces were now directly threatening the institution of slavery in the Confederacy. If you're investigating the process of emancipation during the war, you might look at the June 1862 letter from <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/16">Isaac Applewhite</a> warning Governor Pettus of what Applewhite saw as three key threats to the Confederacy in Marion County: enslaved African-Americans who became "emboldened" by nearby Union forces, potentially disloyal civilians, and Confederate deserters. Site users may also want to examine the <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/51">November 1863 telegram</a> from Confederate President Jefferson Davis to MS Governor Charles Clark about U.S. forces recruiting (or "conscripting," in Davis's words) African-American men into the Union Army or Navy, and efforts Davis wanted the state to take to thwart this. See also the unusual November 1863 account of W. E. Montgomery, Captain of the Herndon Rangers, describing the destruction of white Mississippians' properties in Bolivar County by a former overseer and Confederate deserter named Milford Coe. He lived with escaped African-American men, women, and children on an island in the Mississippi River, from which, according to this document, they launched small raids on Confederate property and traded with Union forces. The CWRGM research team is investigating this story to see if it echoes the more famous wartime case of Newton Knight in Jones County or if it is about something else entirely. If you'd like to join our volunteers and dig through newspaper, census, and military records, we'd love to hear what you find about this case. Emancipation in the Immediate Postwar Period: Scholars often warn against reading history backwards. Just because we know Mississippi surrendered in May 1865 does not mean that Mississippians knew the war was about to end that spring. Individuals also did not know what changes would follow — How would emancipation unfold? What rights did free and freed Blacks have, would those be respected or protected, and by whom? What rights and freedoms did former Confederates and Unionists have as Mississippi rejoined the Union? Would slaveholders be compensated for their slaves? Would freed peoples receive land or funds in compensation for their years of unpaid labor? In the sample documents relating to emancipation and the immediate postwar period, several letters spotlights the speed with which some freed peoples asserted themselves as citizens and businessmen. See, for example, <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/87">the case of Lambert Moore</a>. The formerly enslaved man <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1865/08/07/archives/mississippi-taxes-imposed-by-gov-sharkey.html">challenged the idea that he should pay taxes on his wartime earnings</a> and argued, through his attorneys, that he earned that money while hiring himself out as an enslaved man. Since Moore paid a portion of his earnings to the man who owned him (who confirmed that in the same document), Moore had, in essence, already been taxed. You may want to explore a related case made by <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/80">Frank Spruell</a>, a formerly enslaved man who argued directly to Governor Sharkey that he made far too little selling melons to pay $25 in taxes. There are also a series of letters that reveal former slaveholders' questions about their rights and responsibilities under the emancipation policies that went into effect throughout the state with its surrender in May 1865. The following month, <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/69">George T. Swann wrote to Governor William Sharkey </a>from Jackson, MS, describing the lack of clear information he had received on emancipation, a concern echoed by <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/71">S. R. Frierson</a> in Columbus the following month who asked if it would be an immediate or gradual process. In late July, Methodist minister Alex J. Smith from Neshoba County asked for similar clarification for his campaign as a "Union" political candidate facing strong <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/79">"Secession party" opposition</a>. Racial Tensions: Racial tensions increased significantly between moderates and conservatives, blacks and whites, and military and civilian Mississippians in the summer and fall of 1865. As early as July, documents reveal white Mississippians' desire to handle cases in civilian courts, while most African-Americans and U.S. military occupiers saw the need for military oversight. One of these cases involved a <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/75">4th of July shooting</a> where Joseph L. Jackson killed an African-American man (frustratingly unnamed in the document) the Jackson family had once enslaved and who worked as a hired laborer on a Jackson plantation in Washington County. The CWRGM research team is investigating this case to see if Freedmen's Bureau Colonel Samuel Thomas succeeded in his desire to keep the case in military courts, if Governor Sharkey, per the document's authors' advice, contacted President Andrew Johnson to win his support for transfer to civilian court and what Johnson's reaction was (if any), the court's final decision, and what happened to the two families involved after the trial. Another case emerged that fall as Captain S. D. Cooper with the 50th United States Colored Infantry (USCI) investigated charges of theft <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/84">filed by a Rankin County man</a> against one of his former slaves (again unnamed in the record), while another document reveals a request by the <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/90">mayor of Clinton, Mississippi</a> for clarification on how to interpret and enforce labor contracts. Both documents reflect a sharp spike in labor disputes as white and black Mississippians asserted their power and independence. Site visitors may also want to explore the case of Captain Peck, Provost Marshal of the Freedmen's Bureau. He arrested the former sheriff of Copiah County, Colonel Drury Brown, in the fall of 1865 on charges of violence against a freedman. When Governor Sharkey lobbied to have Brown transferred to a civilian court, it appears that Brown won his case and then Peck went to jail rather than pay bail for his appearances in court (though this part is unclear). At that point, U.S. Maj. Gen. Peter J. Osterhaus intervened, sending 300 U.S. Colored Troops (USCTs) to force the release of Peck from a Copiah County jail. This document spells out some of that case, and this <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1865/11/04/archives/from-the-south-and-west-petition-for-the-pardon-of-jacob.html">New York Times article</a> and along with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1865/11/12/archives/southern-items-trouble-in-mississippi-a-county-under-military.html">this one</a> offers a bit more context. This is another case the CWRGM research team is investigating. We welcome help from the public. Emancipation and African-American Citizenship during Reconstruction: The Emancipation Proclamation led to the passage and ratification of three constitutional amendments: the 13th Amendment in 1865 (abolition of slavery throughout the U.S. and territories), followed by the 14th Amendment in 1868 (guaranteeing rights of citizenship) and the 15th Amendment in 1870 (extending the right to vote to adult African-American men). Despite this powerful legislation, military and civilian leaders varied greatly in their ability or willingness to enforce the laws that protected the rights of all Mississippians throughout Reconstruction. There is an 1870 document in this sample (also included under the "Civilian" theme) that exemplifies the significant increase in racial violence by the 1870s and efforts taken to combat this by Mississippi Governor James Lusk Alcorn as well as U.S. military forces. <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/94">This documen</a>t shares the report of J. J. Gainey, a Union Army veteran and agent of the Mississippi Secret Service established by Alcorn to investigate and prosecute Ku Klux Klan violence in the state. Gainey's investigation, detailed here, uncovered several assaults on African-Americans in Lafayette County, MS, including one shooting and possible murders in Arkansas. This is another case that the CWRGM research team is investigating. We welcome help from the public. (Written by Susannah J. Ural, Ph.D.) Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Page 1: Jackson Mississippi July 30th 1870 L. M Hall, Esq, Chief of Secret Service Bureau State of Mississippi Jackson Miss Sir I have the honor to submit for your information the follow-ing report together with the enclosed affadavits. On the night of the 18th of July I left Jackson, and arrived in Oxford, the County seat of Lafayette County [strikethrough]on[strikethrough] about noon of the 19th, next morning I went to the office of Mr C. N. Wilson, Circuit Clerk of the county and formerly Mayor of Oxford, from whom I recevied information which at once gave me clue as go ^whom were^ the perpetraters of the outrages mentioned in the inclosed affidavits [strikethrough][unclear][strikethrough] After remaining in Oxford for two days I left for the plantation of Mr Thomas Woods, about 14 miles from Oxford, where I remained for seven days, in the meantime I so worked into the confid-ence of Mr Woods, and his son a young man about twenty years old that I had every hope of being able to break Page 2: 2. the organization of the three Ks in said county had not a communication appeared ^in^ the Oxford Falcon to the following effect, Dame rumor has it that one of J. L. Alcorn's deliveries had been in town, from this I should judge what Mr Wilson the circuit clerk, or Mr Ford the chancery clerk, the only persons whom I [strikethrough]intrusted with[strikethrough] informed of my business there betrayed my confi dence, on the receipt of this news they appeared to get very shy of me, and although I done every thing ^in^ my power to make it appear that said [strikethrough]dective[strikethrough] detective was in search of me, they would not treat me as freely as before, seeing that my hopes of getting into the organization of the three K.'s would be a failure I deterimined to leave, although previous to this intelliengence in the paper Few Woods informed me that they would initiate [strikethrough]me on[strikethrough] ^me^ into the organization in a short time, and ^I^ had been introduced to leader of the organization who reside in that section of the County, in fact I had worked myself into their confidence so well that they even carried me to where a couple of them were running an illicit still, and endeavoured to persuade me to Page 3: 3 remain in the county, I still was on the best of terms with Few Woods, from whom I learned the names of the perpetrators of the outrages mentioned in enclosed affadavits after pumping the young scoundrel out of inform-ation I could, I asked him to accompany me to Oxford where we arrived about 9 Oclock P.M. after reaching town I gave him some money to go and buy some wine and other things in town telling ^him^ that as I was afraid of arrest I would not go in any place but told him to get those things and meet me on the road. after he left me I went to the house of Mr Wilson and requested him and Mr Mahon the former sheriff of the county to hide themselves under a certain bridge [strikethrough]and[strikethrough] on the road [strikethrough]and[strikethrough] so that they might hear the confession which I would draw out of young Woods. after seeing them I went up the road and met Woods returning we both went down the road and upon reaching the bridge we sat down and after plying him with the bottle I ^[strikethrough][unclear][strikethrough]drew^ him on to make the following statement, while on the bridge he acknowledged to being a memb^er^ of the three, K,s', and at the same Page 4: 4 ^time^ that he was in the gang that done the shooting on the Widow Watsons place and he named the following persons who were there with him, John Conkle, Mat Gouldsby and John & Kim Armstead he stated that when Mat Gouldsby was aiming his gun at one of the colored men he the colored man knocked him down and while struggling John Conkle shot him the colored in the back with a double barrelled shot gun, forty-seven buck shot entering into him, and that on the day preceeding the party who done the shooting went to Yokona about seven miles from the Widow Watsons place [strikethrough]so[strikethrough] thinking it would throw [strikethrough]persons[strikethrough] any person who would endeavor to investigate the matter of of their track, after drawing the above information from him we left the bridge and in going to the Raid Road Station I learned from him that N. B. Forrest, late Major General. C.S.A organized [strikethrough]that[strikethrough] the Klan in Lafayette County, they organized April 1867. The uniform or disguise of the Klan is white with exception of the mask which ^is black and^ adhering very tightly to the features—[strikethrough]nothing has been done in the above[strikethrough] Page 5: 5 Mr Wilson [strikethrough]on the former[strikethrough] on the 17th of May [strikethrough]endeavored to[strikethrough]endeavored to investigate the affray at the Widow Watson place and was compelled ^to^ go out to the Widow Boones[?] place about half a mile from the Widow Watsons, to get the parties to appear and then but one of the three who were summond appeared. Joe Westbrooks, and he it seems is not a member of the organ-ization nor was he in this affair. nevertheless he is a bad character and it is my impresion that he is the murderer of four colored men who were killed at a store in Pine Bluff Arkansas in the year of 1868 [strikethrough]and if[strikethrough] at least it seemed to strike me that I had seen his discription before, and from him I learned that he did at one time live in that state but where I could not learn. I would [strikethrough]advise the opening of that[strikethrough] suggest that the Governor of that state be applied to for information. Nothing more was done in this case by the civil authorities, I did not inform the Sheriff of my discoveries. Nothing has been done as yet, Would suggest that the Sheriff be instructed to arrest Few Woods— Page 6: 6 John Conkle, Mat Gouldsby, [strikethrough]and[strikethrough] John and Kim Armstead, Daniel McFarland, Edgar Kimmons, Sam Newell and Newt Lorantz Billy McFarland and William Brown, and that ^he^ be instructed to search the [strikethrough]premises[strikethrough] store of John Armstead well and there he will find some [strikethrough][unclear][strikethrough] disguises belonging to Few Woods, John & Kim Armstead, and others unknown, In conclusion I would state that affairs in Lafayette, Co. are truly Comen-table, almost every young man in the county is a member of the organization or in sympathy with those who are in it, colored men dare not go to see their friends in the county during the night except at the risk of their lives, the Klan fear not, they say that if one of their member is arrested they will take him out of the hands of the officers, and of the militia are organized they will have more than half members of the organization who are sworn to assist them I close with the request that action be taken on those cases at once Very Respt J. J. Gainey &c Blank Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data letter Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Letter from J. J. Gainey to L. M. Hall; July 30, 1870 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context mdah_786-971-1869March-09 Subject The topic of the resource Alcorn, J. L. (James Lusk), 1816-1894; Ku Klux Klan (19th century); Mississippi. Governor; Trials (Murder) Description An account of the resource From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Alcorn Collection. Letter from J. J. Gainey, agent of the Mississippi Secret Service, to L. M. Hall describing his investigation into attacks made by the Ku Klux Klan against African Americans in Lafayette County, Mississippi, including the confession of one of the Klansmen revealing the names of the perpetrators. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gainey, J. J. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mississippi Department of Archives and History. (electronic version); Mississippi Digital Library. (electronic version) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1870-07-30 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Funding for this project provided by The Dale Center for Study of War and Society-USM, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, the Mississippi Digital Library, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the University of Southern Mississippi, and the Watson-Brown Foundation Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource NO COPYRIGHT - UNITED STATES; http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/ Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1870