A Struggle for Sovereignty: National Consolidation, Emancipation, and Free Labor in Texas, 1865

Abstract

In June 1865, a Union army was sent to force Texans to accept national sovereignty and the abolition of slavery. The reunification of the nation and the status of the freedmen were linked together. Northerners brought two versions of free labor society with them, one based on waged employment, the other on independent farming in the Jeffersonian tradition. African Americans supported the latter view. In the interests of societal stability and harvesting the Texas cotton crop, however, the army enforced labor contracts that kept freedmen working on plantations.