Reconstruction Dbq

On the KKK Document, Reconstruction was a failure because it lead to white supremacy. Abram Colby, who was a former slave and a member of the Georgia legislature, was beaten in an effort to put an end to him being a Radical Republican. In the KKK document, it states, “they sent in and whipped me a thousand licks more, with sticks and straps that had buckles on the ends of them.” Members of the Ku Klux Klan had beaten Colby savagely in 1869 in an attempt to end his political activities as a Radical Republican, after prior efforts to bribe the black legislator had failed. Colby was kidnapped and beaten by the famous white supremacy group known as the Ku Klux Klan because he was a radical. Radicals wanted African Americans to be given full citizenship

Civil rights movements remained prevalent long after Reconstruction and continue to this day. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution were introduced during this era. The 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery. African American slaves, who were mostly from the South, were recognized as free men and no longer property of their slave owners. Despite being free, the former slaves did not enjoy many of the benefits of being an American. They were prohibited from owning land and from voting because they were not citizens. Additionally, freedmen had unfair wages and the unemployed were at risk of being arrested and fined. Meanwhile, former slave owners retained their huge plantations but no longer had a labor force to farm the land. This desperate situation resulted in a system called sharecropping, where the plantation owner divided their land and shared it with freedmen. The plantation owner was the landlord and the sharecroppers were the tenants. Quite often the freedmen returned to their former masters and worked as their sharecroppers, some poor whites also became sharecroppers. The

Prior to the emancipation of the slaves in the United States , there were several laws governing the identities and the relationships of people with slaves . These laws were prevalent in the states that allowed slavery , especially in the South . These codes stipulated the rights of masters toward their slaves and defined the status of slaves in the American society . These codes also gave white masters almost absolute power over their slaves . The rights of slaves were so minimal that they were considered as nothing more thanhuman properties who lives belong to their masters

During the reconstruction era, the women’s right was shaped. As explained in chapter 6 reconstruction period was a term that was use to describe the history after the civil war. America was in the process of building its nation back up from the war, which included the writing of the amendment, constitution and the rights for African American and women. In addition, the word reconstruction can also covers the period in U.S history, when the U.S economy was completely constituted on industrial capitalism. Even though the slave trade may have ended, there came to be a matter of workers being paid little for their hard labor. Yes, the U.S economy was building but it was not being shared equally. In fact, the gap between the rich and poor was so huge that it created tension between workers and owners. After slavery was eliminated, society could no longer ignore the division in class. It was during this time women started to reconstruct their lives as well. In 1865 up until 1866, women’s right activist called for the suffrage to be joined with African American and women.

The southern governments enacted a series of Black Codes that were purposefully meant to keep blacks “as near to a state of bondage as possible.” Blacks could not bear arms, be employed in

Opelousas, Louisianas’ Black Codes passed in 1865 stated that, no negro could come into town, live, rent, or use land in town, go to any public meeting in town without a pass from a government official or white boss, they also couldn’t carry a gun unless in the military (Doc. B) a white person could do these things by their own choice. Former slave Henry Adams said to the U.S. Senate in 1880 that, he once asked the madam “‘ where was the boss?”’ She said, “‘You should say ‘master’ You are not free... and you shall call every white lady ‘missus’ and every white man ‘master’.’” (Doc. C.), many would say African Americans weren’t free because whites didn’t think they

In 1865, Civil War was finally over and 4 million slaves in the southern boarding states had seized their freedom. Life as they knew would no longer exist which encompassed working long hours, extreme harsh conditions, no pay, being bought and sold by plantation owners, nor receiving the unfulfilled promise of 40 acres and a mule. President Andrew Johnson’s lenient policy toward white supremacists led to massive murders as freed slaves denied voting rights in the south. Black codes created in part by white southerners with the intent to make sure former slaves were not considered a free man. By the same token African-American men without evidence became falsely accused of raping white women in the south and convicted without trial or jury. Conditions worsened for African-Americans in the

The seventh section of these black codes allowed for the return of freed blacks to their employers if they were to quit “the service of his or her employer before the expiration of his or her term of service without good cause.” What a blacks’ term of service and what defined just cause for ending that term of service, would likely be left up to the employer, creating a system which virtually defined slavery itself. Since blacks were required to be employed, this meant that they could be held in slave-like conditions to white employers.

The Texas Black Codes were a set of laws that places blacks, legally, into society during the reconstruction era. During the 21st century we see that these laws show the resistance of white southerners to accept blacks as their equals. Today we often ask, what was the difference for the working African American to be a slave verses a free person in 1866?

Despite the fact that African Americans were currently free of slavery, they were still not regarded as free, especially in the south of America. They were isolated from the white community through laws known as the Jim Crow laws. These were both state and neighborhood laws in power mainly in Southern states of the United States somewhere around 1876 and 1965. They upheld the isolation and division of blacks and whites in all public facilities (public schools, public places, public transportation, restrooms, restaurants and so forth) and prompted the inferior treatment of Blacks, despire the fact that in principle they were intended to make things “separate but equal”

Laws made for slaves were known as “Slave Codes”. This was required in all southern states to have a set of Slave Codes. States either made up their own codes or copied from another state. Such laws as “The slaves owe to his master and all of his family total respect and absolute obedience. He must instantly obey all orders he receives from them.”, and “No slave can own anything of his own without consent of the master. No slave can sell anything he has made without the master’s consent.”. These laws being set in place insured for the whites that basically no African-American slave has rights.

Throughout history, African Americans both free and enslaved were not treated equally nor permitted with the same rights as white men. African Americans were enslaved and not allowed to vote or hold public office. Since the 15th century, African Americans have been treated less than human, some even experienced brutal punished for justifiable mistakes. The use of African American slave labor was an enormous contribution to agriculture and labor. It became a part of southern state’s economy within America. Additionally, African Americans were forced or born into slavery where they endured harsh working conditions with zero pay and often times were punished by their masters. Even slaves that became emancipated or paid for their freedom were also treated differently than whites. Notably, blacks did not have the same privileges as whites and were forced to carry a “freedom card” wherever they went. Failing to do so would lead to severe consequences, such as being forced back into slavery. Once African Americans were considered free, they faced additional discriminations such as not being able to vote or serve as a figure in public office. Due to this and additional factors, African Americans were almost entirely incapable of defending themselves against whites. Since the start of the 17th century, African Americans, free and enslaved were punished for their skin color and were considered the lowest scale by not being allowed to the same opportunities and rights and white men.

Slaves were not respected, nor considered citizens; therefore, absolute rights, i.e. the guarantee of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were denied to them (Holt & Brown, 2000). African Americans were deemed inferior. Laws were enacted to restrict their behaviors, control, and demean them, simply because of the color of their skin (PBS, n.d.). Slave codes were different for each colony, but all restricted slaves as property and of the black race (Olson-Raymer, 2014).

     Certain black codes pertained to whites as well. It was unlawful for a black to marry a white, or vice versa. Anyone found convicted of the crime could be sent to prison for life. Many contracts were drawn up as ‘permissions’ for certain blacks. If a freedman ever broke a work contract, he would be forced to forfeit his wages for one full year. Any civilian was permitted to capture and return freedmen who broke their contract. They were rewarded five dollars plus ten cents for every mile he was captured from his owner. However, if anyone was found attempting to persuade a black to break his contract, or give a deserting black any aid, he/she could be convicted of a misdemeanor and forced to pay a fine.

Belittled to a point where they were considered property, slaves possessed essentially no rights in the cruel world of the antebellum South. Prohibited from exercising numerous basic freedoms, slaves lacked the simple liberty of citizenship of the country in which they lived. The enforcement of harsh laws, such as the master's ability to kill their slaves, required colored people to endure substantial oppression. Mulatto children born to parents of two different statuses would assume the ranking of their mother, which justified masters’ practice of raping the enslaved women.Not being allowed to make a will especially enforced the fact that they were property in which everything they owned actually belonged to their owners (“Laws Pertaining to Slavery”). Even their basic right of marriage was stripped by their enslavement in which “marriages … were not considered legally binding” (“Slave Life and Slave Codes”). Any slave that deliberately set fire to a building, raped a white woman, or schemed a rebellion found themselves facing the punishment of death. As if slaves were not forbidden from enough, they were also prohibited from fundamental privileges, including an education, the right to assemble in the absence of a white person, and the possession of a gun. (“Slave Life and Slave Codes”). Colored people were viewed as such incapable human beings by Americans that the rights they so clearly deserved were invisible to their owners. Basic rights that white people took for