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Reevaluating The Pension System: The Struggles Of Black Widows Following The Civil War, Samantha E. Carney
Reevaluating The Pension System: The Struggles Of Black Widows Following The Civil War, Samantha E. Carney
Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal
Following the Civil War, the United States government invested heavily in the U.S. Pension Bureau: a government agency that distributed monetary aid to wounded veterans. This paper discusses the impact of race and gender with regards to pensions in black communities, as evidenced by the pension files of the 34th Regiment of the South Carolina United States Colored Troops. In particular, it addresses the lack of education and documentation amongst black widows which was largely due to their enslavement, in concert with the inherent racist and sexist prejudice of white Special Examiners hired by the Pension Bureau. This combination …