The Color-Line.
The Problem of the Centuries.

1/7 A City Enslaved 

A City Enslaved

On the eve of the Civil War, Atlanta’s Black population was less than 2,000—which was still 20% of the total inhabitants. The overwhelming majority were enslaved. Scattered throughout the city, their movement and activities were tightly controlled. 

A decade earlier in the summer of 1851, at least seven enslaved men were arrested for an attempted insurrection within the city. As a result, Atlanta City Council passed a wave of laws and restrictions on all Blacks in the city. The legal status of free Black persons—numbering perhaps 25 individuals—was only marginally above their enslaved brethren.

Heavily regulated, most Black individuals in Atlanta endured lifelong bondage, oppressive legal codes, and harsh racism. Despite the oppression of slavery, some Black residents conducted business, owned property, and founded churches.

Atlanta faced a monumental undertaking to rebuild after the destruction of war. It became essential to establish a social, political, and economic system without the institution of slavery.

When freedom came at war’s end, Black residents in Atlanta established a community of their own institutions while fighting for personal independence and civil rights within those new systems.  

Header Image: Escaped enslaved persons in Virginia, 1862. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

 
The abandoned store front of Crawford, Fraser & Company slave market on Whitehall Street in Atlanta.

The abandoned store front of Crawford, Fraser & Company slave market on Whitehall Street in Atlanta. This was one of approximately 20 slave markets in Atlanta before the end of the Civil War.

The sale of slaves was a source of revenue for Atlanta. A resolution in Atlanta City Council minutes calls for a city tax of two dollars for the sale of enslaved men, women, and children.

The sale of slaves was a source of revenue for Atlanta. A resolution in Atlanta City Council minutes calls for a city tax of two dollars for the sale of enslaved men, women, and children.

A notice in the 1851 minutes of Atlanta City Council of the arrest of slaves for planning an insurrection

A notice in the 1851 minutes of Atlanta City Council of the arrest of slaves for planning an insurrection.

Solomon Luckie

Solomon Luckie, a free Black businessman, maintained a barbershop and bathing room in the Atlanta Hotel. He and his wife, Nancy, were two of the approximately 25 free Black persons living in Atlanta in 1860. During the U.S. Army’s siege of Atlanta in 1864, shell fragments from the bombardment killed Luckie.  

pass signed by an authorized person

Enslaved people were barred from traveling unaccompanied by a white person or without a pass signed by an authorized person, usually their slaveholder. All whites were empowered by law to apprehend slaves traveling alone without a pass.  

Friendship Baptist Church

Founded in 1862, Friendship Baptist Church was Atlanta’s first autonomous Black congregation. After the Civil War, the church lacked facilities and was denied the privilege of buying land on which to build a church. Instead, a freight car was provided as a worship site by Ninth Street Baptist Church in Cincinnati. A more permanent sanctuary (seen here) was built in 1872.
Jefferson Long of Macon (standing at right), was the first African American elected to Congress from Georgia. Long was part of a wave of Black leaders elected in the South during Reconstruction. He was the first African American to speak on the floor of Congress when he rose to condemn measures to restore office-holding rights for former Confederates. Long, Rucker, and Aiken Family Photographs and Lithographs, Kenan Research Center at Atlanta History Center

Building a Black Community

With freedom, the formerly enslaved population created economic opportunity, establishing businesses as grocers, blacksmiths, and shoemakers. Such entrepreneurship helped build Black communities. Other newly freed Black residents gained employment as cooks, waiters, and personal servants.

The Black community had a long history of educating themselves and their children during enslavement. Free Black residents in Savannah and Augusta had founded private academies in 1829. In Atlanta, two former slaves, James Tate and Granithen Daniels had already opened a school for the Black community when the American Missionary Society opened Storrs School in 1865 and Atlanta University in 1867.

Atlanta’s Black residents organized politically both at the city and state level. The city’s 1868 charter allowed African Americans the right to vote, and two Black Republicans, William Finch and George Graham were elected to Atlanta City Council. Statewide, 33 Black men were elected to the state’s General Assembly the same year.

Outraged by Black electoral success, white state legislators voted to expel the newly elected lawmakers from state government. In Atlanta, city council negated the political power of Black voters by establishing city-wide elections in 1871, thus reducing the impact of that Black votes had within separate wards.

These efforts were just the beginning of the work of white supremacists to implement a system of laws to exclude the Black public from the voting booth and the halls of government.  
Festus Flipper

Festus Flipper started a successful shoemaking business after the war. He and his wife, Caroline, raised three sons, including Henry O. Flipper. Henry attended Atlanta University and later became the first Black graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Another son, Joseph, graduated from Atlanta Baptist Seminary and became pastor at Bethel AME Church in Atlanta.

Shermantown

In Atlanta, African American residents settled largely in two areas after the war, Jenningstown to the west and Shermantown in the east. Located in Atlanta’s Fourth Ward, Shermantown had a Black population of nearly 2,500.

Storrs School

Storrs School, the first schoolhouse built for formerly enslaved people in Georgia. The rear projection was a chapel that was used for school and religious purposes. 

Next: 2 After Reconstruction

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