Reconstruction, the Freedpeople & Fugitive Literacies​ (September 3, 2025)

Welcome . . .

I. Name Game
​(Thank you, Katie, Natali, Omar, Rachel and Renee for already playing!)

---

More about the Course
II. Any Syllabus Q&A

• RRs should be the equivalent of 500 words
• You have a 2-week grace period (3 weeks for RR1) w/o penalty and then D2L turns the work to "0"
• No late RRs can be emailed because I can't manage the layers of paperwork (i.e., "grading" happens on the D2L platform where everything is stored an organized)
• Hype Panels start in two weeks​!
• Make sure you have signed up for hype panels and a YA book (make sure it is a book you like)

Sign-Up Sheet for Hype Panel Presentations

Sign-Up Sheet for Black YAL Book

PDF of Public-Facing Learning Guide

Link to Course Policies & Processes

Image Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/26/us/civil-war-black-troops.html

III. "That Great Gettin-Up Mornin": Spotswood Rice and the Black Union Soldier

Two Letters Written on September 3, 1864
​by Spotswood Rice (exactly 161 years ago)

(click image for full letter)

(click image for full letter)

1. What does the archival material show & prove? What is here ("factually speaking"?)​
2. What cultural practices & future norms of literacy & learning are the Freedmen inventing?
3. What ideas about a free education are the Freedmen designing?​
4. How and why is Black education-- in the context of the Freedmen (and slavery)-- a fugitive practice?

Image Source: https://scalar.usc.edu/works/james-lee-dickey-doctor-leader-mentor-hero/freedmans-schools

IV. Post-Reconstruction, Freedmen's Bureaus & Fugitive Literacies

1869 8th Semi-Annual Freedmen's Bureau Report: SCHOOLS FOR FREEDMEN (from the Library of Congress)

---

With a partner, choose one of the documents listed below from the Library of Congress.  Read the document and answer the questions in the gray box that are listed on your handout.  Submit your notes at the end of class for class activity credit. Be prepared to share with the class.

---

I) 1867 North Carolina Freedmen's Bureau Annual Report (from the Library of Congress)

• Read PDF pages 14-16, 23-26, 27-28: Your sections are called Apprentices, Results of Free Labor, Deceased Soldiers, Education & Schools

II) 1869 8th Semi-Annual Freedmen's Bureau Report: SCHOOLS FOR FREEDMEN (from the Library of Congress)

• Read PDF pages 10-17: Your sections are called Superintendent's Report, Schools Statistics, Statistical Summary, Irregular Schools, Expenditures

​III) 1869 8th Semi-Annual Freedmen's Bureau Report: SCHOOLS FOR FREEDMEN (from the Library of Congress)

• Read PDF pages 17-26: Your sections is called Educational Work in Full (stop when the reports starts on Virginia)

Reading the Archive for Filth

1. What does the archival material show & prove? What is here ("factually speaking"?)
2. What cultural practices & future norms of learning are the Freedmen inventing?
3. What ideas about a free education are the Freedmen designing?
4. How are Black teachers and Black communities (and HBCUs) inventing the idea of free education?
5. What do we see/learn here about Black education in the context of the Freedmen (and slavery) as a fugitive practice? What are implications for today?

​IV) 1869 8th Semi-Annual Freedmen's Bureau Report: SCHOOLS FOR FREEDMEN (from the Library of Congress)

• Read PDF pages 59-63: Your section is called TEXAS (stop at Arkansas)

​V) 1869 8th Semi-Annual Freedmen's Bureau Report: SCHOOLS FOR FREEDMEN (from the Library of Congress)

• Read PDF pages 82-88: Your section is called Miscellaneous Subjects: Normal and High Schools (HBCUs)

​VI) 1869 8th Semi-Annual Freedmen's Bureau Report: SCHOOLS FOR FREEDMEN (from the Library of Congress)

• Read PDF pages 89-93*: Your section is called Manhood Education, Evening Schools, Music, Temperance (*these sections are more offensive than the others)

Click Here for 1867 NC Freedman's Bureau Report

Click Here for 1869 Freedman's Bureau Report

HISTORICAL
​CONTEXTS

Important Terms
Freedmen: formerly enslaved and newly emancipated Black peoples
Emancipation Proclamation: speech delivered in 1863/Civil War ends in 1865
Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty: 1848 (Texas is a state in 1845)

Important Dates
1852: Compulsory education begins in Massachusetts (children are "only" allowed to work 10 hours per day)
1863-1877: Reconstruction
1918: All states have compulsory education
1930: Elementary education is a national mandate but not enforced
1938: Federal laws are designed against child labor (upheld by supreme court in 1941)
1965: The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) means federal government must sustain public K-12 school systems 

The prolific Black Studies theorist, Fred Moten, argues that fugitivity involves Black people’s refusal to accept unjust standards and oppression. He calls fugitivity a kind of desire and spirit that is always dreaming of escape and transgression even when not achievable. Fugitivity embraces living on the outer edges, plays with what is considered improper, and does not compromise with racist regimes by rendering them as inevitable. Fugitive success is not always about annihilation of anti-black regimes though; it is also about cleverly and joyfully thwarting them from moment to moment (click here for more).