In Oskinsky’s book, Worse Than Slavery, he constructs a view of life of the post antebellum period after Reconstruction. He explains how in the deep south of Mississippi and the rest of the former Confederacy, both local and state governments instituted laws that were made to punish and oppress the black man back to a time when he would have been a slave. The end goal was to restore the “lost cause” of the Confederacy, and bring back social order of white supremacy to the South. During the Civil War, Mississippi lost a quarter of its white male population, leaving most of the work to the women and elderly. As the people became desperate, as an old man explained, “I must live. My sons fell in the war. All my servants have left me. I sell firewood …show more content…
to the steamboats passing by” (Oskinsky, 13). With people becoming desperate, they are more than likely to find a scapegoat. That scapegoat were the blacks. “Mississippi was moving to a formal-and violent-separation of the races. Deeply rooted customs were now being written into law” (Oskinsky, 13). Mississippians were determined to uproot the plans that the Freedmen's Bureau and the Republicans had put in place. The people of Mississippi came up with a plan to bring a Democratic “redemption”. This would be called the “Mississippi Plan”. The Mississippi Plan called for whatever means necessary to regain political control of the South. Oskinsky points out that “Blacks who challenged these rules faced arrest, humiliation, and sometimes worse” (Oskinsky, 13-14). By the end of 1875, the Democrats were back into political control and immediately embarked on a “crusade” to deal with several problems: the shortage of labor, and the revival of white supremacy.
The state government of Mississippi enacted many criminal statutes, one being the “Pig Law”, which defined that the theft of a farm animal that was worth ten dollars or more was punishable by up to five years in prison. With the Pig Law the Mississippi instituted the “Leasing Act”, a law that was aimed to target thousands of poor freed blacks. With the Leasing Act, the state would be able to send prisoners to farming camps for less than ten years. This act would only apply to newly freed blacks. As whites would usually be charged and, or convicted for more severe crimes. However, if they were sentenced, whites would be sent to the state penitentiary located in Jackson instead of being sent to Parchman Farm. As the Leasing and Pig Acts developed, convict leasing completely replaced slavery and recreated the racial and social constructs of the Confederacy, as well as building up the economic growth of a “redeemed South”. Convict leasing grew to be used for practically everything, from growing cotton, extracting turpentine gum, and to constructing rail lines. It also solved the issue of high labor costs, as nominal expenses for clothing, food and shelter were required. With convict leasing, creating a surplus of labor that was easily replace, mistreatment of the convict labor was normal and regular occurrence. Oskinsky explains the terrors that waited for a convict that was leased. From the ever-present whipping to the use of metallic spikes that would fastened to the convict’s feet to prevent escape. The death rate was extremely high and there was no leniency for the old or young, as the system took all ages. The penal codes of the state made no differentiation between juvenile and adult offenders, and by 1880, "at least one convict in four was an adolescent or a child- a
percentage that did not diminish over time." (Oskinsky, 46-47). A movement that tried to end the convict leasing, created an even worse form of punishment. The result of the movement was Parchman Farm, a 20,000 acre facility that held up to nearly five thousand inmates. The man who would become the warden, or the “White Chief” would be Governor James K. Vardaman. Vardaman used the people fear of black lawlessness to gain power, because he believed that Parchman Farm would provide education to young African-Americans with the "proper discipline, strong work habits, and respect for white authority" (Oskinsky, 110). Parchman Farm was set on 20,000 acres in the Mississippi Delta region, where there were fifteen work camps. Each camp was organized into an ante-bellum slave plantation filled with “slave drivers”, overseers, and “gunmen”. In the beginning of book, Oshinkey explains how Mississippi had a long tradition of violence and a justice system that tolerated the violence. Following World War I, the great migration of blacks to the north increased the percentage of white inmates at Parchman Farm. In the 1930’s, a number of mishandled hangings led people to call for reforms in the South. They called for a more humane form of dealing with for capital crimes. Mississippi came up with the electric chair mounted on the back of a pick-up truck. This form of mobile execution chamber continued until 1955, when Jimmy Thompson oversaw the execution of seventy-three people, fifty seven being black. Like the rest of segregation, the end of Parchman Farm did not go down without a fight. During the Civil Rights Era, Parchman was used to hold movement workers and several leaders, including some the Freedom Riders, James Farmer and Stokley Carmichael. Parchman Farm only fell when four inmates brought lawsuits to the federal courts to end the abuse and conditions of the camps at Parchman. In 1972, in the case of Gates vs. Collier, Judge William C. Keady ordered the immediate end to Parchman Farm practices. The officials at Parchman tried to abuse the ruling by putting a single black man into the “white area” and vice-versa. With the change of Parchman Farm, the society around it also changed. The segregation of inmates was terminated and would eventually be replaced with organized gangs and racial lines.
In his book Worse Than Slavery, Oshinsky graphically documents the story of the “farm with slaves” that turned an enormous profit to the state. Throughout the book one is continually confronted with the systematized degradation and humiliation of blacks. Before reading this book I thought I knew the extent of America’s racist past but Oshinsky proved me wrong. There are many dark truths and shameful skeletons I have not encountered before. Parchman Farm with its use of race-baiting techniques and capitalizing on racist fears of black lawlessness as a means to justify political control, violence, and murder is absolutely horrifying. At the heart of Oshinsky’s work, one can see the continual effort of whites to restore their supremacy at all
... and Social Care." Chap. III, In Slavery in Mississippi. 2nd ed., 45. Gloucester, Massachusetts: University of Mississippi.
The Mississippi Black Codes document of 1865 was presented to us by Walter L. Fleming, who was a historian who dealt with the south and more specifically the reconstruction era. He was targeting future historians who were studying this era. He nearly states the pros and cons of what the Mississippi Black Codes asked of their citizens. There were several things in the document that interested me in what history was at this time period. On the other hand, there were parts of the amendments to the government which I found very unethical with my present-day mindset. I realize such times were different, but it still made me sick to my stomach that “Freedmen, Free Negroes, and Mulattoes” were treated very differently than the ways such as whites were treated. The author breaks down the documents into different sections of the reconstruction plan. At first, he starts out talking about vagrant laws, which stated that the newly emancipated citizens had special laws that pertained to them. They were treated like animals that were forced to work if they did not have ownership of property. If they couldn’t hold down a job, on the second
The Civil War era divided the United States of America to a point that many Americans did not foresee as plausible throughout the antebellum period. Generating clear divisions in even the closest of homes, the era successfully turned businessmen, farmers, fathers, sons, and even brothers into enemies. Many historians would concur that the Reconstruction Era ushered in a monumental turning point in the nation’s history. The common rhetoric of what the Reconstruction Era was like according to historians is that it was a euphoric era. Those same historians often write about the Reconstruction Era as a time of optimism and prosperity for African Americans. Attempting to illustrate the era in a favorable light, they often emphasize the fact that African Americans had gotten the emancipation that they were fighting for and they were free to create a future for themselves. Jim Downs, author of Sick From Freedom African-American Illness and Suffering during the Civil War and Reconstruction, is not like those historians at all. Downs takes a completely different approach in his book. He asserts that both the Civil War Era and
Imagine that you are an escaped African slave. After years of being a slave you’ve finally done it, you escaped the terrors that is slavery. You are looking forward to the freedoms that you have heard are promised in the north. However, these “freedoms” are all what they were made out to be. Blacks in the north were to some extent free in the years before the Civil War. This can be shown by looking at four areas of society: political and judicial rights, social freedoms, education and job opportunities, and religious freedom.
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, 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 against blacks and limited their freedom (Jordan 388).
The second phase of the Civil War was a victory for the south, for their political ideas of former slave owners stayed far after the war. The south was dependent on slave labor and with the slave population now free they had to forcibly change tactics to control this population. Southern whites used legal, political, and violent means to whip the black population into submission. Laws like the black codes were in the south to restrict the black population from becoming a strong community. Common practices like sharecropping crippled the black community’s only field in which they had experience in.
America has gone through many hardships and struggles since coming together as a nation involving war and changes in the political system. Many highly regarded leaders in America have come bestowing their own ideas and foundation to provide a better life for “Americans”, but no other war or political change is more infamous than the civil war and reconstruction. Reconstruction started in 1865 and ended in 1877 and still to date one of the most debated issues in American history on whether reconstruction was a failure or success as well as a contest over the memory, meaning, and ending of the war. According to, “Major Problems in American History” David W. Blight of Yale University and Steven Hahn of the University of Pennsylvania take different stances on the meaning of reconstruction, and what caused its demise. David W. Blight argues that reconstruction was a conflict between two solely significant, but incompatible objectives that “vied” for attention both reconciliation and emancipation. On the other hand Steven Hahn argues that former slaves and confederates were willing and prepared to fight for what they believed in “reflecting a long tradition of southern violence that had previously undergirded slavery” Hahn also believes that reconstruction ended when the North grew tired of the 16 year freedom conflict. Although many people are unsure, Hahn’s arguments presents a more favorable appeal from support from his argument oppose to Blight. The inevitable end of reconstruction was the North pulling federal troops from the south allowing white rule to reign again and proving time travel exist as freed Africans in the south again had their civil, political, and economical position oppressed.
During the 1800s, the succeeding era following the American Civil War was sought to be a period of prosperity, privilege and freedom for those affected by the calamitous war and preceding period of oppression. This era of reconstruction made a genuine effort to; Readmit Confederate States to Union, establish and defend the rights to newly-freed African Americans, and integrate them into the United State's social, economic and political operations. However, the reality of this adverse situation was that southern, democratic radicals would institute new laws known as "Black Codes" (OI) which would set a nationwide precedent that they would go as far as they needed to maintain their confederate way of life. Other southern radicals had also created White Supremacy Organizations to combat opposing Republicans and freedmen. The severity of the situation synergized with Confederate hate established the grounds in which the efforts of Reconstruction ultimately failed.
In 1863 to 1877 Reconstruction brought an end to slavery, it paved the way for the former slaves to become citizens. The African Americans wanted complete freedom. However, that right became a setback and were seen as second class citizens. Before the end of the Reconstruction, a legislation was passed called the Jim Crow law. The law enforced the segregation of people of African descent. The legislation was a system to ensure the exclusion of racial groups in the Southern States. For example, separate transportation law, school division, different waiting rooms both at the bus terminals and hospitals, separate accommodations, marriage law and voting rights. The Jim Crow law was supposed to help in racial segregation in the South. Instead,
After the ending of the Civil War in 1865, slavery was, at last, formally abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment. Due to the freedom of these African Americans and the South’s ever-growing hatred towards this group, African Americans were left to suffer harsh discrimination and horrible conditions. Africans Americans were left without homes, education, jobs, or money. Reconstruction was the Radical Republicans’ attempt to try and bring the Confederate states back to normal and unite both the South and the North into a whole country once again. Reconstruction was also set to protect and help the newly freed African Americans assimilate to the new society and the foreign economy they were placed in. Conditions of the African Americans in the South before, during, and after the reconstruction period were no doubt harsh. African Americans, before the Reconstruction Era, struggled to assimilate with the hateful society they were thrown in, if not still slaves. Although their condition improved slightly, African Americans during the reconstruction period experienced extreme terrorism, discrimination, pressure, and hatred from the south, along with the struggle of keeping alive. After the military was taken out of the South, African Americans’ condition after the Reconstruction Era relapsed back as if Reconstruction never happened.
For most American’s especially African Americans, the abolition of slavery in 1865 was a significant point in history, but for African Americans, although slavery was abolished it gave root for a new form of slavery that showed to be equally as terrorizing for blacks. In the novel Slavery by Another Name, by Douglas Blackmon he examines the reconstruction era, which provided a form of coerced labor in a convict leasing system, where many African Americans were convicted on triumphed up charges for decades.
David M. Oshinsky’s book “Worse Than Slavery” brings to life the reality that faced slaves after the abolishment of slavery. It recounts the lives that these men faced daily and it made me question the humanity of all those who were involved and question how as a society we let this ever happen. From the convicts being leased out to people who didn’t care about their well-being to a life back on a state ran plantation, where life was worse than it was for them as slaves. It showed just how unfair the justice system was for a black prisoner compared to a white prisoner. Their lives were worthless and replaceable and only mattered when they were thought to be worth something to someone.
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slavery was cruelty at its best. Slavery is described as long work days, a lack of respect for a human being, and the inability for a man or a woman to have gainful employment. The slaves were victimized the most for obvious reasons. Next on the list would be the families of both the slave and slave owners. At the bottom of the list would be the slave owners. Slavery does in fact victimize slaves, slave owner and their families by repeating the same cycle every generation.
Before the Civil War, slavery was at its peak in the Southern states such as Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama. During this period life as a slave owner was luxurious, but life as a slave was excruciating. Numerous slaves during this time period were treated inhumanly in ways that normal people couldn’t even begin to comprehend. Slaves before the Civil War were whipped, raped, burned, and even branded. Many slaves in the Southern states during this era saw the torment to much and contemplated suicide such as Fountain Hughes who stated, “If I thought, had any idea, that I’d ever be a slave again, I’d take a gun an’ jus’ end it all right away because your nothing but a dog.” Just like the brutality seen in the South before the Civil War slaves