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African american history paper
African Americans and the reconstruction era
African American History Quialet
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The African-American Odyssey
The Promise of Reconstruction, 1865-1868
The emancipation of the African slave who was now disconnected from their traditions and way of life after nearly 300 years, is seemingly a great gush from the dam to the ebbs and flows of the struggle. The end of slavery as we know it, presented a ball of mixed emotions among the nation; North and SOUTH. Some slaves were grossly ecstatic to be free. For example, when a slave girl named Caddy, from Goodman, Mississippi found she was free, went to her mistress, flipped up her dress and told her "Kiss my ass!" On the contrary, some slaves were apprehensive of being free. For example, one elderly slave woman reportedly said, "I ain' no free nigger! I is got a marster and mistiss! Dee right dar in de great house. Ef you don' believe me, you go dar an' see." Though most slaves were detached from their families, many managed to regroup and find their love ones after their emancipation and constructed close knit families. Land was an viable means of survival in the minds of newly freedmen and the government was eager to deem lands to the ex-slaves . On January 16, 1865, General William T. Sherman told the freedmen that they will receive the land they were in search of. They were granted the head of each family would receive "possessory title" to forty acres of land. Sherman also gave the use of Army mules, thus giving rise to the slogan, "Forty acres and a mule." Similarly in 1862 the Union military set aside land in Port Royal, South Carolina, which became known as the Port Royal experiment. The freedmen bureau was created to aid newly freed slaves in the transition from bondage to freedom in 1865. After Lincoln's assassination the succession of his Vice president...
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...oad loans. As a result, the bank closed in 1874. The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was an act of good intentions, yet it was ruled unconstitutional by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Bradley who, "wrote that the Fourteenth Amendment protected black people from discrimination by states but not by private businesses." The end of Reconstruction was as brutal and contentious as the beginning. Blacks refused to vote in response to the terrorism inflicted upon them by the southern Democrats. The withdrawal of the federal troops that were to protect the rights of colored people left the black citizens with no means of defense and they therefore had to bow down to the numerous massacres that were to occur. The compromise of 1877, in which, Samuel J. Tilden and Rutherford B. Haynes, ran for the presidency, brought about more violence towards blacks and grew worse as time passed.
Even when the Amendment abolished slavery in 1865, and the black people embraced education, built their own churches, reunited with their broken families and worked very hard in the sharecropping system, nothing was enough for the Reconstruction to succeed. Whites never gave total freedom to African Americans. Blacks were forced to endure curfews, passes, and living on rented land, which put them in a similar situation as slaves. In
Many people were afraid of what would happen to society after the emancipation of the slaves and wondered if that emancipation was worth losing the lives of so many soldiers. Frederick Douglas gave what he believed to be a simple and obvious answer to the question of what should be done with the emancipated slaves once the war had ended in his article, “What Shall Be Done with the Slaves If Emancipated?” After emancipation, people were at a loss when it came to what to do with the black population, believing that “they would not work; they would become a burden upon the State, and a blot upon society” (Douglas 55). Douglas counters these fears by emphasizing the fact that black men will work for a living since work has been all they have known for their entire lives. Freed slaves were arguably the hardest working people of the time since they had no other choice than to do whatever work was thrown in front of their face, or else be severely punished. This is shown in this image as they work hard to do one of the most heart wrenching tasks possible: burying their fallen brothers. Douglas’ stance was clear- the freed black men and women were to be left alone to do what they felt they needed to do, without the interference of the white society. He argues that white people’s “doing with them [was] their great misfortune” and that “they have been undone by [their] doings” (Douglas 57). Douglas advocated that the answer to the question was obvious since the South needed black men to function. He states that the “black man as a freeman is a useful member of society. To drive him away, and thus deprive the South of his labor, would be… absurd and monstrous” (Douglas 59). This argument is shown through the picture- even though the men are free, they are still performing the hard work
Abraham Lincoln’s original views on slavery were formed through the way he was raised and the American customs of the period. Throughout Lincoln’s influential years, slavery was a recognized and a legal institution in the United States of America. Even though Lincoln began his career by declaring that he was “anti-slavery,” he was not likely to agree to instant emancipation. However, although Lincoln did not begin as a radical anti-slavery Republican, he eventually issued his Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves and in his last speech, even recommended extending voting to blacks. Although Lincoln’s feeling about blacks and slavery was quite constant over time, the evidence found between his debate with Stephen A. Douglas and his Gettysburg Address, proves that his political position and actions towards slavery have changed profoundly.
It is impossible for anyone to survive a horrible event in their life without a relationship to have to keep them alive. The connection and emotional bond between the person suffering and the other is sometimes all they need to survive. On the other hand, not having anyone to believe in can make death appear easier than life allowing the person to give up instead of fighting for survival. In The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, Aminata Diallo survives her course through slavery by remembering her family and the friends that she makes. Aminata is taught by her mother, Sira to deliver babies in the villages of her homeland. This skill proves to be very valuable to Aminata as it helps her deliver her friends babies and create a source of income. Aminata’s father taught Aminata to write small words in the dirt when she was small. Throughout the rest of the novel, Aminata carries this love for learning new things to the places that she travels and it inspires her to accept the opportunities given to her to learn how to write, read maps, and perform accounting duties. Early in the novel Aminata meets Chekura and they establish a strong relationship. Eventually they get married but they are separated numerous times after. Aminata continuously remembers and holds onto her times with Chekura amidst all of her troubles. CHILDREN. The only reason why Aminata Diallo does not die during her journey into and out of slavery is because she believes strongly in her parents, husband and children; therefore proving that people survive hardships only when they have relationships in which to believe.
...ights of blacks due to the inequitable laws such as the Black Codes, Jim Crow Laws, and sharecropping, and the fact that the Economic Depression of 1873 and the common acts of corruption distressed the economy. The southern states were reunified with the northern states through Lincoln and Johnson’s Reconstruction programs, even though Congress did not fully support them and created their own plan. Reconstruction was meant to truly give blacks the rights they deserved, but the southerners’ continuous acts of discrimination including the Black Codes, Jim Crow Laws, and sharecropping eventually denied them of those rights. Lastly, the negative effects of the corruption and the Panic of 1873 lead to economic failure during Reconstruction. These issues relate to our society because people do still face discrimination and corruption in our economy still exists today.
... The cause was forfeited not by Republicans, who welcomed the African-American votes, but to the elite North who had concluded that the formal end of slavery was all the freed man needed and their unpreparedness for the ex-slaves to participate in the Southern commonwealth was evident. Racism, severe economic depression, an exhausted North and troubled South, and a campaign of organized violence toward the freed man, overturned Reconstruction. The North withdrew the last of the federal troops with the passing of The Compromise of 1877. The freed slaves continued to practice few voting rights until 1890, but they were soon stripped of all political, social and economic powers. Not until the civil rights movement in the 1950’s and 1960’s were the freedoms that were fought for by our Republican forefathers nearly 100 years before, finally seen through to fruition.
It was 1865, black men were tasting freedom, the confederation was defeated, the south was defeated but the unchained blacks had no real freedom. "A man maybe free and yet not independent," Mississippi planter Sammuel Agnew observed in his diary (Foner 481). This same year General Sherman issued the Special Field Order 15, in attempt to provide land for the ex-slaves. There was 40 acres of land and a mule waiting for the emancipated slaves, this gave hope for an economic development among blacks' communities. The Special Field Order 15 put all the land under federal control acquired by the government during the war to use for the homestead of the blacks. Even thought the offer of land some slave fled ...
After the Civil War, the United States was torn on how to provide services to freed slaves, or freedmen. Eventually the Freedmen's Bureau emerged from the confusion. This bureau gave food, shelter, and education to freedmen, but also did one more very important service. The Freedmen's Bureau helped to get the emancipated slaves on their feet by providing land to each of them. "Forty acres and a mule"(Abbot, 52) was the amount of land and property that each family or single man in South Carolina was to get. To freedmen, freedom was only achieved when they were in control of some type of property. Unfortunately, three problem arose; the government needed to attain a sufficient amount of land to provide the expected forty acres, distribute that land properly, and later fight the original owners for that land.
The drive to end slavery in the United States was a long one, from being debated in the writing of the Declaration of Independence, to exposure of its ills in literature, from rebellions of slaves, to the efforts of people like Harriet Tubman to transport escaping slaves along the Underground Railroad. Abolitionists had urged President Abraham Lincoln to free the slaves in the Confederate states from the very outset of the Civil War. By mid-1862, Lincoln had become increasingly convinced of the moral imperative to end slavery, but he hesitated (History.com). As commander-in-chief of the Union Army, he had military objectives to consider (History.com). On one hand, emancipation might
... and slavery left millions of newly freed African Americans in the South without an education, a home, or a job. Before reconstruction was put in place, African Americans in the South were left roaming helplessly and hopelessly. During the reconstruction period, the African Americans’ situation did not get much better. Although helped by the government, African Americans were faced with a new problem. African Americans in the South were now being terrorized and violently discriminated by nativist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. Such groups formed in backlash to Reconstruction and canceled out all the positive factors of Reconstruction. At last, after the Compromise of 1877, the military was taken out of the South and all of the Reconstruction’s efforts were basically for nothing. African Americans in the South were back to the conditions they started with.
Reconstruction failed because of the North’s and South’s inability to come together on political, economic, and cultural issues during the rebuilding process in the post-war years. Though the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments abolished slavery and permitted rights for African Americans in the South, the establishment of such laws as the Black Codes by Southern State Governments inhibited African American’s freedom. Among regulating their right to vote, marry, and own property, the codes affected African American’s ability to earn jobs, which eliminated the black workforce, so it did not pose a threat of competing with white individuals who were seeking jobs. Economic progression in the South proved to be a failure during Reconstruction, due to the inability of the two sides’ coming together to an agreement on how the South should rebuild. Industrialization in the South only progressed as a stipulation from the Compromise of 1877, in which the Federal Government agreed to take the steps to help implement the
Another goal of African Americans was the ownership of land. To the freedmen, land ownership was equivalent to economic independency. However, they were mistaken. Economic independency was an unrealistic goal in the southern environment. As former slaves, African Americans were very familiar to the agricultural life style. As a result of Sherman's raids across the south, large plots of land were left uninhabited. Vast amounts of freedmen took the opportunity to occupy these lands. In 1866, Congress also passed the Southern Homestead Act giving African Americans access to public lands in five southern states. Contrary to what the freedmen believed, land ownership did not ensure financial success. Most land owned by African Americans was small and had an inferior value compared to white farms.
By the end of the Civil War, the economy had collapsed. Businesses and banks were ruined by inflation as well as the once fruitful cotton farms. The white aristocracy was poor but not humble; they stood defiant and shocked. Once the emancipation happened, there was a lot of confusion amongst slaves due to the fact that it happened unevenly across the country; at the end many of these slaves would have been freed more than once by the Union Army. Their freedom would last as long as the Union Army would stay in town, once the army left town they would found themselves re-enslaved by pockets of resistance. The slaves that were loyal to their owners were not willing to leave them, so they would oppose to be freed by the Union Army. Some slaves would lash back to their owners by having episodes of violent outburst. Others would joint the Union Army so they could pillage their former owner’s house. On the other hand, there were blacks that wanted to have the life that their masters had and for so long they were not allowed to have because of their status as slaves. Those slaves would acquire such fine clothes and jewelry and would demand for whites to address them as Mr. or Mrs.
...house of representaives in 1874. Radical reconstruction in the south stalled. The promising progress reconstruction brought to the lives of the black man educationally, socially and politically were also about to be ground to a halt. “One reads the truer deeper facts of Reconstruction with a great despair. It is at once so simple and human, and yet so futile. There is no villain, no idiot, no saint. There are just men; men who crave ease and power, men who know want and hunger, men who have crawled. They all dream and strive with ecstasy of fear and strain of effort, balked of hope and hate. Yet the rich world is wide enough for all, wants all, needs all. So slight a gesture, a word, might set the strife in order, not with full content, but with growing dawn of fulfillment. Instead roars the crash of hell...” W.E.B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880
After the Civil War was over and the Reconstruction-era began, changes were made such as the 13th amendment in 1865, which forbid slavery in the United States. Even though slavery was now prohibited, freed blacks were now left alone to struggle finding simple things like a roof to live in and a job to work for. Meanwhile, President Abraham Lincoln wanted to give the south humane conditions for them to be accepted back into the union and also wanted to give African Americans and former soldiers the right to vote, but that wasn’t very successful when put into the hands of Congress. Soon after Lincoln was killed in 1865, President Andrew Johnson came into presidency and changed the conditions giving African Americans a harder time adapting to their new lives as freedmen. Furthermore, the south became very violent against the blacks and came up with black codes, which put freed blacks as closely as possible back into a slave state. These black codes prohibited interracial marriages, the ownership of guns or liquor, congregation in large groups and had curfews for these freedmen. Furthermore, these black codes forced the freedmen to sign annual work contracts that were offensive and offered only in the agricultural f...