Students in both PolS 356 and 358 may find chapter 3 particularly instructive.
In chapter 3 of this work, Dale Kretz, within a broader examination of The Freedman’s Bureau, details how “Black mothers and widows defied bureaucratic expectations in the pursuit of survivors’ pensions.”
Chapter three details how Black mothers and widows defied bureaucratic expectations in the pursuit of survivors’ pensions. Black women strategically evoked the language of fidelity, loyalty, and service to narrate their “dependency” on their deceased sons and husbands and not their former enslavers. In one claim, Nancy Dixon emphasized how she “took care” of her enslaver through the produce and proceeds of her and her son’s garden plot. When her son enlisted, he sent Dixon his wages and left her all the produce from his garden and cornfield. The community’s collective testimonies to Dixon’s independence from her enslaver convinced the special examiner but proved to the commissioner and the house committee that she was not dependent on her son. By carefully analyzing Dixon’s claim alongside the claims of Black mothers and widows, Kretz revealed the growing state apparatus of surveillance — the special examiners, commissioners, and committees — that came with documented citizenship. Black women’s strategic postures between dependency and autonomy not only challenged the paternalist logic of slavery to reveal collective systems of survival but also confounded state attempts to renounce slavery in a narrative of liberal progress. — Frances O’Shaughnessy
This reading shows how Black women were not just passive recipients of freedom after slavery, but were actively navigating and challenging the systems put in place by the government. What stands out here is the tension between how the state defined dependency and how Black women actually lived their lives. In order to receive pensions, they had to present themselves as dependent on their deceased husbands or sons, even though many of them had long histories of providing for themselves and their families.
The example of Nancy Dixon really highlights this contradiction. She describes how she supported her enslaver through her own labor, while also relying on her son’s wages and resources. But even with community testimony supporting her, the state ultimately used that same evidence to deny her claim. This shows how the system was set up in a way that made it difficult for Black women to succeed if they appeared too independent, they were denied, but if they emphasized dependency, they risked reinforcing the same logic used under slavery.
Another important point is how this reflects the expansion of government control. The presence of examiners, commissioners, and committees shows that gaining recognition from the state also meant being closely monitored and evaluated. So while these pensions were supposed to represent progress and support, they also introduced new forms of surveillance and control over Black lives.
This chapter highlights how Black women actively worked within the post-slavery bureaucratic system to assert their rights. They weren’t simply passive recipients; they carefully used the government’s language and expectations to turn claims of dependency into tools for survival and recognition. It’s remarkable how they leveraged a system designed for control to secure resources and challenge lingering paternalism. Their efforts show that freedom wasn’t just a legal declaration; it had to be actively claimed and negotiated.
This passage highlights how black mothers and widows navigated the post-slavery bureaucratic system to claim survivors’ pensions. By framing themselves as loyal and industrious while emphasizing their independence from both enslavers and family, women like Nancy Dixon strategically challenged the assumptions of dependency built into both slavery and the federal bureaucracy. Their stories reveal not only the persistence of systemic surveillance in documenting citizenship but also the ways Black women exercised agency and collective resistance within restrictive legal frameworks.
358 – Women like Nancy Dixon framed their claims to emphasize loyalty and service to their deceased husbands or sons rather than dependence on former enslavers. By negotiating between dependency and autonomy, Black women exposed the limits of liberal narratives of post-slavery progress and revealed how survival relied on community and strategic self-representation rather than just legal reforms.
Blacks collectively fought to attain their fundamental rights/pensions – they exchanged their labor and loyalty (faked/disguised their loyalty?) by faking it until they made it. They used the same system that made them nothing, not recognized as human beings, to turn them into something. And yet, “Kretz revealed the growing state apparatus of surveillance — the special examiners, commissioners, and committees — that came with documented citizenship.” Does this mean that although they may have traded their labor (i.e., fighting in wars) for rights, those rights were not applied equally to them as they would be to a white person? They were still considered untrustworthy; hence, the surveillance to keep a close eye on them. I know this text was concerned with mothers and widows; however, I was intrigued by the mention of reciprocity in the beginning – needing to exchange something, to gain what everyone else had inherently.
358 ~ Chapter 5 on how Black people were subjected to medical examinations that decided their worth and their fate (i.e., whether they were eligible to fight in the war) has an uncanny resemblance to the way slavery operated, where, during slave auctions, enslaved persons were examined to identify their best and worst characteristics. Medical examiners held more power over Black people, so whatever they decided was taken as fact. There were many discrepancies in the examinations, yet Black people relied on them to reach reasonable conclusions. Systemic injustice hindered their access to federal benefits (i.e., medical examiners minimized their health).
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