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Social changes after the civil war and reconstruction
Cause and effects of reconstruction
Cause and effects of reconstruction
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Slaves gained their freedom, temporarily enjoyed the moment, but then found out they were eventually slaves again through economic systems prejudiced against them. Reconstruction allegedly emancipated all slaves and established citizenship to African Americans who had been perpetually controlled with the chains of captivity. However, they are still trapped because of the Jim Crow laws, poll taxes and literacy tests. Unemployed African Americans were treated as beggars, detained, and made to work without real income. Enormous statistics of ex-slaves could only labor as sharecroppers: tenant farmers are eternally in debt, and mandated to give a hefty cut of the reap to their property landlords, obligated to purchase food at inflated values from
Coates author of the article “Case for Reparations” says, “In the seven cotton states, on-third of all white income was derived from slavery. Also, slaves were used as a tool, plus all of the large projects were built in the country by African American people. He states that homeownership and slave ownership stayed similar because they were both properties, and black home owners struggled in the real estate market. Although, slavery was abolished white Americans found new ways to keep black African American population in poverty.
With the civil war coming to an end, the congressman of Illinois presented a fresh, new concept. This modern idea stated that the United States of America was a new nation and “for the first time, it had been wholly free.” Many of the white men from this time period were against the change and pursued their old way of life, which prevented the newly made amendments from going into full effect. Freedom in the south during the reconstruction era of America was very controversial. There were many different conceptions of what freedom was. It was thought to be land, others thought it had to do with money, and some even though it was not having a master/not being a slave. The definition of freedom swayed back and forth depending on whose point of
Reconstruction(1865-1877) was the time period in which the US rebuilt after the Civil War. During this time, the question the rights of freed slaves in the United States were highly debated. Freedom, in my terms, is the privilege of doing as you please without restriction as long as it stays within the law. However, in this sense, black Americans during the Reconstruction period were not truly free despite Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. While legally free, black Americans were still viewed through the lens of racism and deeply-rooted social biases/stigmas that prevented them from exercising their legal rights as citizens of the United States. For example, black Americans were unable to wholly participate in the government as a
While the formal abolition of slavery, on the 6th of December 1865 freed black Americans from their slave labour, they were still unequal to and discriminated by white Americans for the next century. This ‘freedom’, meant that black Americans ‘felt like a bird out of a cage’ , but this freedom from slavery did not equate to their complete liberty, rather they were kept in destitute through their economic, social, and political state.
After years of a cruel war that pitted brother against brother, the United States of America entered into a period of time called Reconstruction. Reconstruction was an act implemented by Congress to help rebuild the majorly devastated southern states. Another of its goals was help newly freed slaves successfully merge into life as a free people among many hostile whites.
For more than two hundred years, a certain group of people lived in misery; conditions so inhumane that the only simile that can compare to such, would be the image of a caged animal dying to live, yet whose live is perished by the awful chains that dragged him back into a dark world of torture and misfortune. Yes, I am referring to African Americans, whose beautiful heritage, one which is full of cultural beauty and extraordinary people, was stained by the privilege given to white men at one point in the history of the United States. Though slavery has been “abolished” for quite some years; or perhaps it is the ideal driven to us by our modern society and the lines that make up our constitution, there is a new kind of slavery. One which in
What role(s) did African Americans play in achieving the "rights" outlined in this document by the late 1870s?
In the words of President Abraham Lincoln during his Gettysburg Address (Doc. A), the Civil War itself, gave to our Nation, “a new birth of freedom”. The Civil War had ended and the South was in rack and ruin. Bodies of Confederate soldiers lay lifeless on the grounds they fought so hard to protect. Entire plantations that once graced the South were merely smoldering ash. The end of the Civil War and the abolishment of slavery, stirred together issues and dilemmas that Americans, in the North and South, had to process, in hopes of finding the true meaning of freedom.
By this time, the mindset of people who owned slaves, thought of ex-slaves as if they were still objects and property to be owned. The inequality and treatment of ex-slaves were ridiculous. Even some objects were more valuable than the life of an ex-slave, or any colored person. Leary, Hammond, and Davis stated in the “Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome” article, “Being reminded that our ancestors were treated as property and only as humans when it was profitable to their owners stirred our emotions… The author details how blacks were counted as 3/5 of a person… American slaves had no legal rights as property, but interestingly enough, slaves outside of the United States did have rights and could even buy themselves out of slavery under certain conditions” (Leary, Hammond, and Davis, “Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome”). This played a major role into Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome making a lasting effect throughout generations and generations to come. There were people who believed in the great plan of equality and fairness, but those people were very few. Even when President Lincoln passed the emancipation proclamation, people still did not want slaves to be free or even wanted to acknowledge them as people. This started to cause the Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome because there was no closure on the situation and the pain that came out of it. To this day,
The Americans of African and European Ancestry did not have a very good relationship during the Civil war. They were a major cause of the Civil War. But, did they fix or rebuild that relationship after the war from the years 1865 to 1900? My opinion would be no. I do not believe that the Americans of African and European ancestry successfully rebuilt their relationship right after the Civil war. Even though slavery was finally slowly getting abolished, there was still much discrimination against the African Americans. The Jim Crow laws and the black codes discriminated against black people. The Ku Klux Klan in particular discriminated against black people. Even though the United States government tried to put laws into the Constitution to protect black people, the African Americans were discriminated in every aspect of life from housing, working, educating, and even going to public restrooms!
Prior to the Civil War, African Americans were treated as second class individuals. They lacked the freedom and equality they sought for. To the African Americans, the Civil War was a war of liberation. Contrary to what African Americans perceived, Southerners viewed the war as an episode of their journey to salvation. Southern lands may have been destroyed and depleted, but the South was persistent that their racial order would not be disrupted. To most, the goals of the Reconstruction era were to fully restore the Union, and to some, grant emancipation and liberty to former slaves. Although the newly freedmen gained various rights and liberties, their naïve dreams of complete equality and liberation collapsed due to the immense resistance of the South.
The economy started collapsing promptly after the Civil War ended, however former slaves were the cause and effect of a growing nation. Though the nation was starting to boom, former slaves didn’t get their equality in their share, if they were lucky enough to have one. African Americans that made their money in sharecropping lived a rough life and faced many family hardships. Sharecropping was a system by white southerners where freed slaves were allowed to work on cotton farms and gain money for the owner with a little share for themselves, in return for a place to live, food, and medical aid. In spite of the hospitality, the freemen were required to pay for all of the equipment at the end of the year, but most sharecroppers didn’t gain enough
I would like to begin this assignment with a brief explanation of the points and reasons that relate to the topic of how and what the reasons were on why Southern whites were in favor of limiting rights and freedom to the black population of the United States , such reasons and ideas included the organized anti-black intimidating terrorist group The Ku Klux Klan , the introduction of the Black Codes formerly known as the Jim Crow laws and President Lincolns ideas such as the emancipation proclamation and the 10% loyalty oath and lastly sharecropping during the reconstruction era. To begin this essay first will be a brief explanation about the Reconstruction era .
Diversity, we define this term today as one of our nation’s most dynamic characteristics in American history. The United States thrives through the means of diversity. However, diversity has not always been a positive component in America; in fact, it took many years for our nation to become accustomed to this broad variety of mixed cultures and social groups. One of the leading groups that were most commonly affected by this, were African American citizens, who were victimized because of their color and race. It wasn’t easy being an African American, back then they had to fight in order to achieve where they are today, from slavery and discrimination, there was a very slim chance of hope for freedom or even citizenship. This longing for hope began to shift around the 1950’s during the Civil Rights Movement, where discrimination still took place yet, it is the time when African Americans started to defend their rights and honor to become freemen like every other citizen of the United States. African Americans were beginning to gain recognition after the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, which declared all people born natural in the United States and included the slaves that were previously declared free. However, this didn’t prevent the people from disputing against the constitutional law, especially the people in the South who continued to retaliate against African Americans and the idea of integration in white schools. Integration in white schools played a major role in the battle for Civil Rights in the South, upon the coming of independence for all African American people in the United States after a series of tribulations and loss of hope.
Slavery has been a part of human practices for centuries and dates back to the world’s ancient civilizations. In order for us to recognize modern day slavery we must take a look and understand slavery in the American south before the 1860’s, also known as antebellum slavery. Bouvier’s Law Dictionary defines a slave as, “a man who is by law deprived of his liberty for life, and becomes the property of another” (B.J.R, pg. 479). In the period of antebellum slavery, African Americans were enslaved on small farms, large plantations, in cities and towns, homes, out on fields, industries and transportation. By law, slaves were the perso...