Racism in the South

Many different groups existed during the Reconstruction era, but the groups disagreed on what was needed to move America forward.

Southern white conservatives did not want blacks to own property, have political power, or even have the opportunity to vote in elections. The white Southerners so strongly believed that whites were superior that they worked hard to make sure legal restrictions were in place to prevent the blacks from gaining any type of equality or power.

The freed slaves merely wanted the opportunity to continue the “family-based communal work methods” as opposed to having to accept the individual piecework structure. In addition, the former slaves wanted to be able to continue to live on the land their ancestors had farmed. The contract labor system was implemented in 1866 under the supervision of the Freedmen’s Bureau and provided fixed wages for workers for one year, with part of the pay held back until the crops were harvested. In Carl Schurz’s Report on Conditions in the South (1865), it stated that the freedmen were scared to sign contracts because they feared they would lose their freedom by signing them. Sharecropping replaced the contract labor system and allowed blacks the opportunity to individually work the land in exchange for half of the profits. Unfortunately, creditors charge high prices with huge interest rates—many times causing the workers to end the year with a deficit. The Freedpeople also desired to have black churches, organizations, and schools. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union worked to prevent the lynching of blacks.

President Lincoln and Congress disagreed on just what it would take to rebuild the Union, and no legal guidelines were in place, because America’s founding father...

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...The article Judge Albion Tourgee on the KKK details the beatings of the blacks by the KKK where men and women were issued “100 blows…, sometimes 200 and 300 blows…” The KKK was willing to terrorize not only the blacks, but also whites who were in support of the blacks. The Fifteenth Amendment was later used as an attempt to quell the violence by allowing the army to stop the Klan’s work.

The Compromise of 1877, which allowed for the election of President Hayes and the restoration of “home rule” to the South, finally allowed both sides to reach a compromise on the reconstruction of the Union.

I would like to read more about the KKK, not because I am interested in joining, but to make an attempt to learn its history and find out why so much hatred existed. To find that information, I would use the UA online library because the articles would be easier to find.