Thread by @evalentin25

Time for some shameless self-promotion! Check out my article in Civil War History! It focuses on events that occur after the army arrived in Texas, specifically the relationships between freedpeople and army officers during Reconstruction. muse.jhu.edu/article/781111 /1
#Juneteenth

The last line in Gordon Granger's order on June 19, 1865, reads: "[Black people] are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.” /2

Gathering around military posts had nothing to do with "idleness" or any of the tropes that federal officials assigned to Black people. Freedpeople moved near army posts to seek protection from white southerners. /3

Ironically, federal officials quickly learned that if they wanted emancipation to actually mean anything, the military would need to be more accessible to freedpeople. That meant expanding the occupation beyond the Texas coast and into the interior. /4

When one officer returned from touring counties north of Houston in November 1865, he reported that "in some parts. . .the negroes are not yet free." In this letter, he mentions that enslavers continued to whip Black people, hunt them with bloodhounds, and other atrocities. /5

Federal officials often received this detailed information from freedpeople! /6

For example, a white unionist relayed information to the Texas Freedmen's Bureau HQ from a freedman named Ben that freedpeople in Madison County "absolutely required a bureau agent for their protection." /7

Black Texans had as much to offer the army as they stood to gain from it. They served as the eyes and ears of the army during its occupation of Texas, helping the army enforce Reconstruction policies and take on white insurgents. /8

Black Texans traveled miles (often on foot) to army posts to communicate with officers about violations of labor contracts, violence against freedpeople and white unionists in their communities, and other matters. /9

One army officer was unable to reach communities in the countryside and regularly depended on several Black delegates from those areas for information and provided them with information to circulate in their communities. /10

You can get a sense of how far some of these people are traveling in this letter from a Freedmen's Bureau agent in Houston. He lists 10 different counties from which Black Texans are traveling to communicate with him. /11

Freedpeople had very robust networks of communication! Ultimately, all of these reports showed that the army needed to expand its occupation deeper into the Texas interior. /12

As army officers entered new territory, they quickly realized that freedpeople were more familiar with these environments and continued to rely on them for information. /13

They were excellent sources of intelligence for taking on white insurgents in Texas. Some served as guides and helped U.S. troops conduct raids that led to the capture of white insurgents. /14

In Northeast Texas for example, a freedman led a detachment of troops to the residence of a white man who had assaulted a Black man. /15

In short, freedpeople played a direct role in the army's occupation of Texas and Reconstruction's intermittent successes in the state. /16

I hope readers get a sense of how everyday Black Texans risked everything to try to secure better futures for themselves and their loved ones. Hope y'all get a chance to give the article a read! Let me know if you have difficulty accessing it! /17