Dissertation Information for Paul Alan Cimbala NAME: - Paul Alan Cimbala
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- History
SCHOOL:
- Emory University (USA) (1983)
ADVISORS: - Dan T. Carter
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - None
MPACT Status: Incomplete - Inspected
Title: THE TERMS OF FREEDOM: THE FREEDMAN'S BUREAU AND RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA, 1865-1870 (SOUTH CAROLINA, FLORIDA)
Abstract: In March 1865 Congress created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, acknowledging the need to supervise the new relationship between southern whites and ex-slaves. General Oliver Otis Howard became the Bureau's commissioner in May 1865, and he began his tenure by appointing state assistant commissioners. Rufus Saxton received command of South Carolina, Georgia and, temporarily, Florida. His administration was ineffective, owing to his inability to secure the cooperation of the military and the resulting lack of adequate resources.
In September 1865 General Davis Tillson replaced Saxton as Georgia's assistant commissioner. Under Tillson, the Bureau provided emergency relief to the freedmen and assistance to northern educators. However, Tillson's primary goal was to establish economic security for blacks and whites by developing a Yankee-style free labor system administered by a state-wide network of agents, most of whom were Georgia natives. Unfortunately, contractual arrangements were foreign to Southerners; while blacks violated agreements, whites provided the Bureau with its greatest enforcement problem. Events on Georgia's sea islands, where black expectations clashed with white assumptions, Tillson's directives and Federal policy, foreshadowed the ultimate failure of the Bureau.
In January 1867, Colonel Caleb Sibley succeeded Tillson. During his tenure, Sibley reorganized the Bureau, dismissing Tillson's native Georgians to replace them with Yankees and loyal Southerners. His influential subordinate Major John R. Lewis accepted the need for a sound free labor system based on fair contracts but believed that economic self-sufficiency must be preceded by education. Nevertheless, Sibley's administration was no more successful than Tillson's, even during the period of Military Reconstruction. By late spring 1868, a lack of resources and violent opposition from whites had rendered the Bureau virtually powerless. The end of Military Reconstruction forced the Bureau to suspend all but its education and bounty activities. In October 1868 Lewis succeeded Sibley and supervised the reduced charge of the Bureau for all but the last few months of the agency's existence in Georgia during the summer of 1870.
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MPACT Scores for Paul Alan Cimbala A = 0
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calculated 2008-06-03 10:06:08
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