My Civil War Family

By: Rebecca Schrenker

My Civil War Family

By: Rebecca Schrenker

Culbreth Family

• Lived in Dawson, Georgia • Mr. Culbreth was a planter and had large land

with slaves working on his land • Mr. Culbreth was married twice and had 17

boys and 2 girls

How I'm related to Mr. Culbreth

• Mr. Culbreth had 17 boys and 2 girls and one of his sons (Gabriel Alexander Culbreth) married Sarah Anne Butter who had Isaiah Culbreth around 1848

• Isaiah Culbreth married Eliza Rebecca McMillian who had a son named Isaiah Rodolph Culbreth (my great grandfather)

• Isaiah Rodolph Culbreth married Opal Emma Hendrix who had 5 girls and one of them being my grandmother, Helen Schrenker

• Helen married Donald Schrenker who had 3 boys one of them being my father, David Schrenker

• David married Belinda Ludwig, my mother and had me!

Life back in Georgia with Slaves

• Slavery provided a profitable market economy, provided a profitable sale of agricultural products (cotton, rice)

• 60% of whites owned slaves • Around 1808 there were about 50,000 slaves in the state

of Georgia • Slaves even served as domestic servants, carpenters,

masons, and construction laborers in the urban areas of Georgia

• Slaves were paid 50 cents to a dollar 1.50 during harvest time and were provided with the bare minimum for food from their masters

The Civil War • The beginning of the war started when South Carolina seceded and

then Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Kansas and Texas followed in 1861

• The south banned together and created a government (Confederate Constitution) with the president being Jefferson Davis

• This link shows the whole timeline of the Civil War http://www.history-timelines.org.uk/events-timelines/02-civil-war-timeline.htm

• January 31st, 1865: is when congress approves the 13th amendment to abolish slavery

• April 9th, 1865 is when General Robert E. Lee surrenders his Confederate Army

The Civil War Affecting my Family

• During the War Mr. Culbreth had to start growing crops from his land to give to the soldiers and lost profit because he wasn’t able to sell his crops to the market

• All of Mr. Culbreth’s sons served in the war for the confederate army

• Mr. Culbreth lost 7 sons at the First Battle of Manassas

• Many slaves left during the war and fled to the North

Life After the Civil War • Most slaves didn’t know what to do with their freedom, they were

so use to following their masters most still wanted to stay with them • The government did try to aid the freed slaves and created the

Freedman’s Bureau to help slaves receive food, housing and help the freed slaves seek job opportunities

• Black Codes were put into place to keep the African Americans from becoming equal

• Whites were unwilling to accept blacks as equal and would only accept them if they would accept the role of inferiority

• The 14th and 15th amendment were established that entitled all citizens were equal and no one could be denied the right to vote based off of race

Life After the War specifically for My Family

• Gabriel Culbreth (Mr. Culbreth’s son) sold the land and cattle to receive money but never received the full thousands that he was going to receive, my family became extremely poor after the war and lost their labor that helped them receive the income

• My family followed the Yellow River southward with an oxen covered wagon and travel to Northern Florida (Greenwood) to restart their life

• When Gabriel found work he was only working for 10 cents a day to provide for his family

Work Cited- Primary Sources

• Ancestry.com, search “Culbreth” census 1800• Culbreth, Isaiah Rodolph. “History of the

Culbreth Family” document.• Schrenker, Helen. “Isaiah Rodolph Culbreth

and Emma Hendrix Culbreth” document.

Works Cited- Secondary • American Civil War Timeline for Students, Children and Kids. “Civil

War Timeline” Accessed APRIL 28TH,2012. http://www.history-timelines.org.uk/events-timelines/02-civil-war-timeline.htm.

• Google Image. Flag and Civil War Picture. • Jewett, Clayton E., and John O. Allen. Slavery in the South: A state-

by-State History. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2004 (81-95)• Reconstruction in the South. “Reconstruction” Accessed May 1st,

2012 http://www.westga.edu/~hgoodson/Reconstruction.htm• Wood, Betty. Slavery In Colonial Georgia, 1730-1775. Athens: The

University of Georgia Press