The U.S. State of Tennessee legislation makes slavery illegal

Tennessee was not as solidly pro-Confederate as the other states. Virginia depended on their slaves for plantation labor; in Tennessee they were domestic servants: important, certainly, but not critical. East Tennessee voted heavily against the secession, while West Tennessee voted heavily for. The decision came down to the “swing region” of Middle Tennessee, which only by the narrowest of margins voted to side with the Confederacy. Union Armies soon invaded, to stay in the state for the better part of the war, resulting in the breaking of the bonds that kept Tennessee blacks in slavery.

On this day, February 22, in 1865, Tennessee officially abolished slavery, enshrining the act in their constitution. The move was symbolic, since the 13th Amendment abolished slavery for all states, but it was an important recognition of the rights of the former slaves.

Not everyone in Tennessee was so sanguine about the freedoms of the slaves. That same year in Pulaski city, six former Confederate soldiers created a social club and rode around the the town in various guises. When they found out their nightly rides scared residents, particularly blacks, they quickly formed into a a real organization dedicated to terror. The called themselves the Ku Klux Klan.