The Devoted Gideonites.

Works Cited:

1.  William C. Davis and Bell I. Willey, under the direction of the National Historical Society. “Photographic History of the Civil War. Fort Sumter to Gettysburg.” New York: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, Inc. 1981.
2.  Akiko Ochiai. The New England Quarterly. Brunswick: Mar 2001. Vol 74, Iss. 1; pg. 94, 24 pgs 

The Devoted Gideonintes.

For many years, the Giodeonites, called this way for their resemblance to the biblical Gideon's Band, were  presented as Yankee "missionaries" who helped freed African slaves to learn in new schools and churches.  However, there is a different point of view that refers that the real intentions of this group were more economically oriented than an act of  goodness.
During the American Civil war, the African slaves had very contrasting destinies. While many of them were brutally punished, the freed men and women in the Sea Islands had the chance to learn from the Gideonites, a group of idealistic teachers from the North. “Edward L. Pierce of Boston, in charge of Treasury Department enterprises, recruited scores of young men and women from the North to establish and operate schools for the freedmen and their families.” (Davis and Wiley 1093).
However, there is a different version of what their real intentions were. Ochiai, thinks that most of these white professionals not only looked for the African American 's education, but for a change that allows them to be the controllers in their plantations. "In March 1862, some fifty-three highly educated young teachers, ministers, and doctors left New England to reside in the Sea Islands, where they volunteered their time and expertise to operate schools and churches, to provide sanitary training for the African Americans, and to oversee their commercial plantings. The Sea Islands numbered among the first communities in the Civil War to make the transition from slavery to freedom, and the whole nation carefully followed the progress and travails of this "Port Royal Experiment," conducted under the watchful supervision of the volunteer band of "Gideonites."(Ochiai)

This event overwhelmed some slaves but it also gave hope and freedom to many others that for a first time were accepted to learn in this institution at any stage of their lives. “From the start of the Port Royal experiment (Rehearsal for Reconstruction), Negro men and women (as well as children) began to learn, besides reading and writing and the beginnings of arithmetic, their first lessons in freedom and responsibility, which were both new and frightening.” (1094).
Here is a story that supports Ochiai's argument: "William C. Gannett (1840-1923), like Saxton the son of a famous Boston Unitarian minister, joined the first group of Gideonites shortly after his graduation from Harvard College. The Port Royal Experiment offered him an attractive compromise that reconciled his desire to serve his country with his father's injunction against bearing arms, even to forward the Great Cause. Although he taught school and supervised government-controlled plantations in the Port Royal Experiment, Gannett was unable to purchase the tracts he wanted, for they had been reserved for public purposes by the tax commissioners. Judging Philbrick's experiment worth trying, he joined Charles P. Ware and other first-string Gideonites who resigned from their positions as government superintendents to manage Philbrick's plantations."(Ochiai)

The Giodeonites or the Gideon's band, the idealistic group of devoted teachers, educated slaves without prejudices and in many cases, entire families traveled thousand of miles dedicating themselves to the work. Above is a picture of the schoolteachers at Norfolk, Virginia, in 1865, taken from the Western Reserve Historical Society. (1112)

Here is another picture of a school in which we can see the teachers in the front door along with their students, including kids and adults. They were free to be educated at any age. (1112)

Acording to Ochiai, the Gideonites expected that African Americans would share their enthusiasm; however, they saw it differently. "To them, wage labor represented but a poor compromise between outright slavery and an independent status as yeoman farmers. From the outset, then, the Port Royal Experiment found itself caught between African Americans' desires to own their homelands, on which they expected to operate a sustainable subsistence economy, and Northern capitalists' visions of freedpeople's cheap wage labor on white-- controlled commercial plantations, with the prospects of trickle-down prosperity and education for citizenship."(Ochiai) 


Davis and Willey, collected and analyzed a big amount of  original pictures, giving detailed explanation of the US history from Fort Sumter in 1855 until Gettysburg, the largest battle of the American Civil War in 1863. At some point, they mention that the intentions of the Giodeonites were to teach and educate freemen for a waged labor. However, Ochiai argues that their real intentions, were to control their plantations and making  them dependents of a cheap waged labor.
Both books have different points of view over the same topic and it seems that they want to reach a wide audience. However, we should consider the dates of their publications. As Ochiai's research is  more  updated, she shows us a new point of view, something that we do not see in  old books.
Any of these authors do not seem to be dishonest with their audience; furthermore, they want to share their knowledge to them. I think that even if the Gideonites had hidden intentions or not, they helped voluntarily to many people to start their new lives.

Works Cited:

1.  William C. Davis and Bell I. Willey, under the direction of the National Historical Society. “Photographic History of the Civil War. Fort Sumter to Gettysburg.” New York: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, Inc. 1981.
2.  Akiko Ochiai. The New England Quarterly. Brunswick: Mar 2001. Vol 74, Iss. 1; pg. 94, 24 pgs