Reconstruction was the period of time after the Civil War of rebuilding the nation. After the war, south cities were destroyed and former slaves were left homeless, jobless, and overall had nothing due to how recent they had gained their freedom. Reconstruction laws and bills were placed to protect and expand the rights of those former slaves who recently gained their freedom. Secondly, the rebuilding process was placed to unite the nation without giving the South too much power or causing another uprising.
Reconstruction
The Reconstruction Amendments. Congress passed 3 very important amendments during this time in history. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States. The 14th Amendment gave citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and granted equal protection of the laws. Lastly, the 15th Amendment guaranteed African American men the right to vote. The phrase "Free Citizens Vote," was very important because it was 3 short words and each word helped to explain each of these 3 of amendments.
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16th President, Abraham Lincoln, (1861-1865), Not only did Lincoln lead the nation through the Civil War, he issued the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction to reunite the states before his assassination.
The sharecropper cycle lead to a cycle of poverty and slave like actions. When the landowner gave seed and land to the sharecropper, he is expecting half of the crop in return. The sharecropper can buy items such as food and clothing from the landowner, which adds to what he has to pay back. As the harvesting season comes to an end, the sharecropper gathers the crop and gives it to the landowner to sell. The sharecropper will get half the earnings minus the cost of his purchases for the year. If the sharecropper owes more than what he has, he will have to pay debt. He will pay his debt by being forced to stay on the land to work and harvest crops until he earns enough money to pay back the landowner. This will mean that the sharecropper has to make difficult decisions on how he spends his money especially if prices go up like the cost for rent. This cycle of debt can continue for a long time and the sharecropper would be stuck there until there is no more debt to pay off.
The Power Against the Blacks
During this time in history there were a lot of components that limited African Americans rights and freedom. Starting with voting, poll taxes required citizens to pay a fee to register to vote. These fees kept many African Americans, as well as poor whites, from voting. Another way that effected the right to vote were tests that were used to prove your ability to read, write, and understand English. This test was called a literacy test. This was a form to disqualify immigrants and the poor who had less education, the ability to vote. In the South, they were used to prevent African Americans from registering to vote. Whites were the ones with power but of course if you were white with no money, these laws would have canceled you from voting too. So, the grandfather clause law arose. Grandfather clause was used to allow poor whites to not have to pay poll taxes or take the tests on voting if they had an ancestor who voted before the Civil War. This allowed them to vote without trouble, but of course there were no exceptions for the African Americans.
17th President Andrew Johnson, (1865-1869), was the only Southern senator to remain loyal to the Union during the Civil War. When reconstruction was taken over by Johnson, he believed that Southern states should decide the course that was best for them. In terms of reconstruction his way proved lenient, or merciful. Later he became the first ever president to be impeached for breaking the law.
18th President, Ulysses S. Grant, (1869-1877), helped lead the Union armies to victory in the Civil War. Grant worked to unite the North and South while trying to protect the civil rights of freed blacks. He also did many other things such as using Union troops to fight KKK, and passed the enforcement acts that protected African Americans rights.
To continue along with the hatred of blacks, KKK, or the Ku Klux Klan was formed. The Klan was a powerful political force that fought Reconstruction reforms and intimidated African Americans. They spread hatred against African Americans, immigrants, Catholics, and Jews. Racial hatred intensified and power strengthened for white supremacists in many parts of the country. Other laws such as black codes left African Americans in the dust. Black codes were restrictive laws that limited African American freedom. These codes included no voting rights, no way to own property or guns, and if you had no job, you would be arrested and forced to work for no pay. The Jim Crow Laws were state and local laws and customs that aimed at segregating African Americans and whites. These laws were used to restrict social contact between whites and blacks and to limit the freedom and opportunity of people of color. Lastly, was convict leasing. This was a system of prison labor on private railways, mines, and large plantations that took place in the South. While the states profited, prisoners earned no pay and faced dangerous and often deadly work conditions.
19th President, Rutherford B Hayes, (1877-1881). With the Compromise of 1877, Hayes won to be the President of the U.S. but in exchange, all troops were removed from the South and the reconstruction project had ended.
To conclude these powerful laws and way of life African Americans had to deal with, they all were a form that increased disenfranchisement. Disfranchisement means limiting the right to vote. Voting was limited to the blacks due to the series of laws and new practices in the South. These new practices in the South, were used to prevent black citizens from voting and registering to vote. All of the laws and forces that the African Americans faced attempted to kept them under control of white southerns. These laws forced African Americans back into labor and intimidated them away from the political process.
Plessy is a black citizen who does not like how he is being treated. Ferguson is a white Judge who as you can see from the image to the right, is being treated like a king. When Plessy agreed to be arrested for refusing to move from a seat reserved for whites only, Judge Ferguson upheld the law, and the case of Plessy v Ferguson was slowly moved up to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court can to a decision and issued that segregation is made legal throughout the South and the US. An important phrase to remember when you think about this case that was used was "separate but equal." A result of this decision is segregation happened more and more throughout the South for almost another 100+ years.
Plessy v Ferguson court case
