Psychology assignment.

HISTORICAL ANALYSIS BY CONTRASTING THE POLITICS THAT CREATED THE FREEDMEN’S BUREAU & THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN’S PENSION

! Question 4 from from Lectures and Williams (Introduction and Chapter 1)

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Question 4 Compare and contrast the politics that created the Freedman’s Bureau with the politics that created the Civil War veteran’s pensions. Be sure to emphasize how a segmented welfare state fused race and social policy in ways to benefit whites (white skin privilege) and adversely affecting people of color.

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Slavery and Black Poverty ■ Every effort blacks made to exercise their right to fully participate in the economic and

political processes in America was met with great resistance ■ Slavery is the foundation of poverty for African Americans ■ Rapidly expanding frontier, chromic labor shortage, and lack of tools and technology

made slavery inevitable ■ Ownership of their labor, land or the tools of the industry, slaves had not have control

over their life circumstances and accumulation of wealth ■ The contradictory forces of politics under-girding the Southern slave economy and

Northern industrialism would lead to civil war.

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Political Contradictions Lead to Civil War ■ Contradictions between the southern slave economy and the north’s industrial

revolution with a wage economy cause a national division ■ Constitutional declarations

– Slaves were property and 3/5 of a person o Counting slaves as people gave political domination for the south

– Slaves have no rights and did not own their labor. Free labor and wealth for planation owners

■ North could not defeat south unless slavery was abolished

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Aftermath of the Civil War ■ Freedom for the former slave was illusive

– Demand from ex-slaves and poor whites for land disruptions was ignored – Joining forces of the Southern and Northern elites that results in re-enslaving Blacks into

the harsh and unrewarding system of sharecropping – Low level technology in agricultural production which necessitated the use of Black labor

■ Blacks did not own resources before or after the Civil War ■ There was plenty of vacant and abandoned land but elites kept the freedman and poor whites

landless. – “40 acres and the mule” never happened – Needed to keep them landless in order to exploit their labor

■ American lacked tools to replace Black labor ■ Black suffrage and political participation was up to the states therefore blacks and other

minorities could be excluded from the political process

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Reconstruction Legislation ■ 13th Amendment- Abolished slavery ■ 14th Amendment- Granted citizenship ■ 15th Amendment- Guaranteed the right to vote for males

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Pre-History of the American Welfare State ■ Post-Civil war there was a displacement of thousands of civilians and soldiers and the

destructions of crops and farmlands. ■ There needed to be relief and formal support of former slaves and refugees. It was up to

the state and local government to provide aid, not federal government ■ Before the 1930s, private charities, not the government were the only sources of aid for

poor Americans ■ Two initiatives after the Civil War that were precursor for welfare were the Freedman’s

Bureau (officially the Bureau of Freemen, Refugees, and Abandoned Land) and Civil War Veteran Pension

– Both programs started out serving both races but became associated with a specific race

■ Civil War veterans pension was justified on the grounds that they earned these privileges because they fought for the country however blacks did deserve aid the Bureau provided

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Freedmen’s Bureau ■ General Howard was the Commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau ■ There was no money allotted to this agency- it was supported through taxing the

confiscated and taxed lands ■ The Bureau had limited power and were not unable to redistribute land ■ It was made to be temporary (lasted 7 years) and therefore was housed War Department ■ Accomplishments of Bureau: feeding the starving, building hospitals, schools/colleges

(i.e. HBCUs) ■ Was made to meet the needs of the recently freed person and white refugees

– Benefits from the agency were increasingly being associated with blacks o These benefits were seen as handouts to the lazy o Bureau was viewed as serving the undeserving poor

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Freedman’s Bureau ■ General Howard issued Circular 13

– Allowing agents to set aside 40 acres for freedmen – President Johnson replaced Circular 13 with Circular 15:

o Restored redistributed land amongst freedmen to their original owners o Left blacks without means of self sufficiency and dependent on whites for

work and government for aid ■ Williams: “elites were vigorous in seeking to restore southern white dominance and

impede Blacks’ attempt at autonomy through landownership” – Blacks were a source of cheap labor for southern planters and northern

industrialists ■ Bureau denied rations and aid to those who were incapable of supporting themselves

– Unmarried mothers were encouraged to work-wanted kids to work with old planation masters so mothers could work

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Racialized Social Policy ■ Set the precedent for negatively influenced social policy ■ Demonstrated the lack of willingness of the federal government to pursue social rights

for blacks ■ Advanced stereotypes for blacks as lazy, who preferred handouts over work ■ Aid should be short lived and welfare agencies should put themselves out of business as

quickly as possible – Provide the most meager aid for as little time as possible

■ Fiscal problems require cutting back programs for the poor ■ Blacks must be forced to work so they will learn the ‘work ethic’ like whites ■ Family caps-families could only have a certain amount of children can have aid ■ Because of the racist policies, Blacks were deemed underserving and thus induced

dependency

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Civil War Veteran Pension ■ “Provided monthly payments to men totally disabled and to the widows, orphans, and

other dependents for those who died for causes traceable to their union military service” ■ Soldier's pension was for the deserving poor and disproportionally distributed to white

soldiers and their families ■ Over the course of the pension, exclusionary requirements were dismantled and more

people where included. – Dependent Pension Act of 1890: did not require disability to be a result of

participation in the Civil War and included honorably discharged veterans ■ Provided higher levels of cash assistance and covered more people than the Bureau

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Black Soldiers ■ Soldier's pension was for the deserving poor and disproportionally distributed to white

soldiers and their families – Black soldiers were barred from receiving pensions

o They were unable to have witnesses or money to pay for lawyers o Birthdates were unknown o Marriage was not easy for black widows to prove because slave marriages

were not legally recognized and therefore not eligible for marriage licenses o Blacks were barred from serving as officers (the group that was paid the

highest) o Health of black soldiers were poorer than white soldiers

■ The ideological construction of the differences surrounding the two programs foreshadowed debates on social policy for more than a century

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