Seizing the New Day

This study focuses on the means employed by former slaves in Charleston, South Carolina to adjust to their new status as a free people and to battle attempts by whites to regain control over them. Using autobiographies, slave narratives, Freedmen's Bureau letters and papers, traveler's accounts, journals, diaries, personal letters and newspapers, this study attempts to understand how the freedmen saw themselves in the new order and to shed light on their hopes and aspirations, as well as examine the conditions of life under Reconstruction.A common thread running through this study is the determination of Charleston's freedmen to seize control over all aspects of their lives. Charleston's black population expected full citizenship and equal economic, social, and educational opportunities. Upon realizing that these expectations were not shared by the white population, they carefully plotted their strategy to obtain these desired ends. Charleston's black population exhibited their intentions for the newly developing social order through changed social customs and interactions with whites, through purchases of land, efforts to reunite scattered family members, and through the creation of their own schools, churches, and social and political organizations.This study shows that any deficiency of economic progress by Charleston's freedmen was not due to lack of their own desire or efforts but rather due to the limits placed on their progress by the white-dominated society. Seizing the New Day emphasizes, not the defeat of their aspirations, but rather the victories they won against white resistance to their efforts to gain control over their own lives. Wilbert L. Jenkins is Assistant Professor of History at Temple University.