Slavery, Liberty, and the Right to Contract

19 N EV . L.J. 447, Z IETLOW

4/25/2019 8:51 PM

NEVADA LAW JOURNAL

472

[Vol. 19:2

workers. 248 To a large degree, Bureau officials were absorbed by their belief in the liberal theory of contract and often imposed contracts on freed slaves re gardless of whether the contracts were fair or equitable. 249 Freed men’s Bureaus “enforced the regime of contract,” demanding fidelity to contracts in labor and marriage. 250 Bureau Chief General O.O. Howard as signed assistant commissioners to encourage planters and hired hands to sign contracts with one another. 251 Howard initially assumed that planters would act in good faith and he sought to avoid paternalistic measures. 252 Howard believed in the market to “provide [] discipline, order, and direction.” 253 Un der Howard’s leadership, some Freedmen’s Bureau officials were conscienti ous about their jobs and rejected contracts that they viewed as unduly coercive. 254 Even before the war ended, however, many Freedmen’s Bureau officials coerced former slaves into signing and fulfilling annual contracts with planters in occupied are as of the confederacy, especially in the state of Louisiana. 255 Rather than pro tecting freed slaves from harm, many Bureau officials focused on teaching them how to be autonomous actors in the labor market. 256 Their goal was no more than a formal right to contract. 257 Fr eedmen’s Bureau of ficials knew that southern whites were prejudiced and would try to maintain slavery. 258 Nonethe less, they imposed contracts on freed slaves, often requiring them to sign con tracts with their former masters. 259 The formal right to contract that was key to Freed men’s Bureau officials had its roots in abolitionist ideology. However, forcing slaves to enter into con tracts clearly violates even the formal right to contract. 260 Moreover, the actions of Freedmen’s Bureau officials were inconsistent wit h the overall Reconstruc tion effort, which sought to protect the rights of newly freed slaves. The for malistic right to contract did little to help those freed slaves. 261 To the contrary, the Freedmen’s Bureau officials’ fetishistic adhesion to the ideology of contract without protective measures severely undermined the Reconstruction effort. 262

248 Id. at 123 – 24, 132, 177. 249 See id. at 156, 179. 250 S

TANLEY , supra note 15, at 36 – 37. IEMAN , supra note 203, at 60.

251 N

252 See id. at 60 – 61. 253 Id. at 55. 254 See id. at 65. 255 M 257 See id. at 56. 258 See id. at 57. 259 Id. at 60. 260 See id. at 156, 160. 261 See id. at 164. 262 See id. 256 See N

ONTGOMERY , supra note 29, at 85. IEMAN , supra note 203, at 55.