Black people were new citizens, but they were also longtime Americans with typical American habits. Before the Civil War free blacks had begun to organize into voluntary societies, which ranged from churches to fraternal organizations with the usual accouterments of secret signs and rituals. The enthusiasm of antebellum Northern blacks for fraternal organizations had alarmed Douglass, who had denounced them as distractions from the fight against slavery. After the war, however, voluntary associations provided a foundation for political organization.
