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“The Civil War and Reconstruction did not dramatically improve the social, political and economic situation of most African Americans in the South” is a particularly controversial argument that can be argued for or against. This notion is inaccurate because African Americans did improve socially, politically and economically. They were free, could take government positions, vote, receive an education, own property and even marry. If these are not good enough reasons that there was a dramatic improvement for African Americans, then what are? Politically the African Americans made a major improvement. They gained the right to vote and the right to hold a government position. The right to vote was a major improvement for African Americans. They …show more content…
In 1876, Edward A. Bouchet was the first African American man to graduate from Yale University with his doctorates degree. He later went on to become a college chemistry and physics professor. If it was not for the end of the Civil War and Reconstruction this could have not possible happened to Bouchet. He would never have become a professor, have his name known, get his doctorates degree or even go to Yale. He would not even have an education to begin with. African Americans felt that having education was essential for them to finally become free people. Along with education they were very excited to legally marry their loved ones. The first legal African American marriage was on April 19,1866 and it married two former slave, Benjamin Berry Mason and Sarah Ann Benton White. This is significant because African Americans were technically marrying the person that they loved but law did not marry them and now that they have this improvement they can officially be married to the person who they loved. This freedom to an education and marriage is something they were waiting for a extensive amount of time for and now they can be educated and marry whoever and whenever they …show more content…
Martin Luther King Jr.’s quote, “Free at last, Free at last, Thank God Almighty we are free at last”, would probably be their favorite quote for when they found out that they were free people. Freedom is something that generations upon generations had longed for since they were first brought to America from Africa. Freedom was the first thing that they wanted ultimately. Without freedom they would not have education, marriage, land, government positions or anything. It all starts with freedom. Land was something that they were pleased with as well. General William T. Sherman started it all when he began giving free people land after the war was over. This was called the “40 acres and a mule” policy. This policy gave them the independence and the feeling of autonomy that they had been waiting for their whole lives. They were able to do for themselves and not depend on anybody else for the first time in their entire life. Freedom and owning land ultimately meant independence and that is something that they had been wanting
Groups of people soon received new rights. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. It gave black Americans full citizenship and guaranteed them equal treatment. Also, it passed the Fourteenth Amendment to make sure that the Supreme Court couldn’t declare the Civil Rights Act unconstitutional. The amendment made blacks citizens of the United States and the states in which they lived. Also, states were forbidden to deprive blacks of life, liberty, or property without due process. Additionally, blacks could not be discriminated by the law. If a state would deprive blacks of their rights as citizens, it’s number of congressional representatives would be reduced. The Civil Rights Act as well as the Fourteenth Amendment affected both the North and the South.
Although many laws were passed that recognized African Americans as equals, the liberties they had been promised were not being upheld. Hoffman, Blum, and Gjerde state that “Union League members in a North Carolina county, upon learning of three or four black men who ‘didn’t mean to vote,’ threatened to ‘whip them’ and ‘made them go.’ In another country, ‘some few colored men who declined voting’ were, in the words of a white conservative, ‘bitterly persecute[ed]” (22). Black codes were also made to control African Americans. Norton et al. states that “the new black codes compelled former slaves to carry passes, observe a curfew, live in housing provided by a landowner, and give up hope of entering many desirable occupations” (476). The discrimination and violence towards African Americans during this era and the laws passed that were not being enforced were very disgraceful. However, Reconstruction was a huge stepping stone for the way our nation is shaped today. It wasn’t pretty but it was the step our nation needed to take. We now live in a country where no matter the race, everyone is considered equal. Reconstruction was a success. Without it, who knows where our nation would be today. African American may have never gained the freedoms they have today without the
Prior to the Civil War and Reconstruction, the main goal of the African American population was to be granted freedom. African Americans had been enslaved since 1619 in America, when the first slaves were sold on the auction block. However, their concepts of freedom were extremely romanticized and highly unrealistic as a direct result of the atrocities they witnessed and endured in the institution of slavery. They visualized the abolition of slavery to be comparable with the coming of Jesus Christ. Yet when politics made that day become reality on January 1, 1863, the newly freed men and women were utterly disappointed and in disarray. After living their lives under the institution of slavery, the former slaves were literally left to survive on their own without the proper tools such as opportunities, provisions, or education. This race of people, for whom it was illegal to learn to read or write and even to congregate in groups of three or more, was now released into the same society that had enslaved them, and which was now supposed to open its arms and accept them as equals. Along with this freedom came a sudden change in identity, a clinging to faith, and a supposed new placement within society.
There were many important battles the African Americans fought in and they really helped humongously. Some of these important battles were like the assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina by the 54th Massachusetts ...
They had the courage to cross unknown oceans and territories, sail miles and miles away from the comforts and familiarities of home, and set out to create a new lifestyle in a great land they had never known. This faith and courage kept their hopes alive, and helped them to survive even through sickness to the point of the death of their loved ones. They belived that freedom should lie in the hands of the people and they should use that freedom to make their land a better place. This belief, along with many other valuable principles, paved the way for the creation of a new nation and shaped our foundation that stands strong to this very day.
People believed that every free person should be allowed to vote for representation of their country. Lastly, The government stated that any slave that goes to the Northwest Ordinance are free people. There was a catch to this right though, if the owner found the slave, the slave would have to go back with its owner.
Prior to World War I there was much social, economic, and political inequality for African Americans. This made it difficult for African Americans to accept their own ethnicity and integrate with the rest of American society. By the end of World War II however African Americans had made great strides towards reaching complete equality, developing their culture, securing basic rights, and incorporating into American society.
...rding to document 3 there were 16 African Americans in the congress.This was a benefit because the African Americans were finally getting their rights. Finally, a benefit for the African Americans was when the 14th and 15th amendment was passed.The 14th amendment protected their rights and the 15th amendment allowed they to vote.This was a benefit for the African Americans because they were finally viewed as citizens and they were finally allowed to vote.
Social Stratification in the African American community has changed over the years. Social stratification is defined as a rigid subdivision of a society into a hierarchy of layers, differentiated on the basis of power, prestige, and wealth according to Webster’s dictionary. David Newman in Sociology Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life describes stratification as a ranking system for groups of people that perpetuates unequal rewards and life chances in society. From slavery to the present, the African American community has been seen to have lower status compared to white people. Today, the stratification or hierarchy difference between whites and black are not really noticeable, but it is still present. However, during slavery, the difference in social stratification was noticeable. Whites dominated over the blacks and mulattoes (offspring of a white and black parent). The mulattoes were seen to have a higher stratification than an offspring of black ancestry. Because the mulattoes were related to the whites, they were able to obtain higher education and better occupations than blacks. For example, most slaves of a lighter skin tone worked in the houses and darker slaves worked in the fields. As the people of light skin tone had children, they were able to have advantages too. The advantages have led into the society of today. In this paper I will discuss how stratification has been affected in the African American community over time by skin tone to make mulattoes more privileged than dark skin blacks.
Reconstruction failed to bring justice, social and economic equality to freed Blacks. Reconstruction may have bought freedom to slave but it only caused more horror in their life. Many of the trauma caused by reconstruction is shown in documents D, E, and F. Reconstruction was not all a failure to the African-American community it cause them to gain some type of equality in the American society. Example’s of the positive effect of the reconstruction is shown in documents A, B, and C. Reconstruction had both a negative and positive effect on the social class of African-American in the United States.
When considering the positives and negatives of reconstruction in the south, it resulted in more failures for the living conditions of African Americans. In theory, life for recently freed African Americans would have improved. However, a series of loopholes were found in the new Amendments that would create hindering complications and ultimately lead to little to no change of conditions. Despite no longer being slaves, African Americans were still not viewed as American citizens and had difficulty trying to utilize their new rights. Though there were plenty of positive attributes to it, it essentially wasn’t enough to label the Reconstruction a success for African Americans living in the south.
After the devastating Civil War, the nation had millions of freed slaves. Most former slaves were African Americans and the South were suffering a time of discrimination and living in horrible working and living conditions. The Union had a challenge in protecting the African American's rights of citizenship. This began the era of Reconstruction. Reconstruction’s goal was to protect and help African Americans get back on their feet and adapt them to this new society. Also, an attempt for the United States to become a unified country. Reconstruction wasn’t a success but it wasn’t a failure. It was a success by the thirteenth, fourteenth, and the fifteenth amendments being passed which abolished slavery for African Americans, becoming full citizens,
And for example, under a New Electorate, we surprisingly noticed that black Southerners outnumbered white voters by one hundred thousands. In other words, black Southerners led (or held) voting majorities in 5 states. Except the political equality mentioned above, black southerners were also now free in so many different areas of the society such as education, civil rights, they had the right to their own labor, had a sense of autonomy, could attend black churches and they could even seek lands. There were even blacks like Hiram Revels and Blanche K.Bruce from Mississippi serving in the U.S Senate. Even better than that, during that period, as one of major results of the improvement, large numbers of blacks participated in American government for the first time in the state constitutional conventions of 1867-1868. Property qualification for office holders was abolished and made more equitably redistricted state legislatures. My last point about the ways black were now free, is about the fact they were now able to attend schools because of the creation of public-school system (which was almost non-existent in the
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, it was 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....
African Americans fought until the Jim Crow laws were taken out of effect, and they received equality of all people regardless of race. Along the way there were many controversial court cases and important leaders who helped to take a stand against racial segregation.