Slavery Dbq Essay

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Recommended: Racism and discrimination during the reconstruction era

Saiba Haque Word Count: 1347 HUMANITIES 8 RECONSTRUCTION UNIT ESSAY Slavery was a problem that had been solved by the end of the Civil War . Slavery abused black people and forced them to work. The Northerners didn’t like this and constantly criticized Southerners causing a fight. On January 1, 1863 the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by Lincoln to free all the slaves in the border states . “...All persons held as slaves within said designated states, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free…” (Lincoln 1862). In 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment was passed which abolished slavery (Thirteenth Amendment 1865). After the Civil War there was a problem on how freed people would survive. The ex-slaves after the Civil War didn’t have a place to settle or money. They had no skills other than farming to procure jobs so they couldn’t earn money. Freedmen’s Bureau provided shelter, resources, an education, and taught necessary skills to get jobs (Jordan 386). Though the issue of slavery was solved, racism continues and Southerners that stayed after the war passed Black Codes which subverted the ideas of freedom including the actions of state legislatures (Hakim 19). Black Codes were a set of laws that discriminated blacks and limited their freedom (Jordan 388). Such restrictions included: “No negro shall be permitted to rent or keep a house within said parish...No public meetings or congregations of negroes shall be allowed within said parish after sunset…” (Louisiana Black Codes 1865). A solution to this was the 14th Amendment. It meant now all people born in America were citizens and it “Prohibited states from revoking one’s life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” This meant all states had to... ... middle of paper ... ...vitude” (Fifteenth Amendment 1870). If blacks had the ability to own land, there would have been more equality and they could have individual jobs working on their own land and living off it. Or if Jim Crow laws were decided unconstitutional by the Supreme Court judge then blacks would have been less segregated. If the new election of 1876 ended with consent of Southerners while voting, the KKK activity would still be suppressed. And the Reconstruction governments would have worked and blacks would have had little more equality. If Tilden was voted by democrats then Hayes wouldn’t have removed the Force Acts and the Reconstruction Legislatures had continued helping blacks gain equality.Either way, Reconstruction was a time period of drastic challenge and opportunity. Although slavery was abolished, there was a greater challenge on how to solve the remaining issues.

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