After the Civil War conditions were bad for both Southern blacks and Southern whites. There were 4

Many people will tell you that African Americans were free during the reconstruction after the civil war, which on paper may be the case. Life during this time was getting better, however, it still wasn’t good. African Americans faced multiple different forms of oppression that would make it seem that they were in prison. A few of these were the black codes, and the government's reaction to the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. However the amendments were not meant to have the states to poke holes in them, they were made to give freed African Americans the same right as everyone else.

Certainly, freedom was supposed to be “freer”” for those slaves that had fought for their rights after years of submissionn, but, unfortunately, many white Southern people continued to ignore the law by not showing any respect for Africans-Americans. Because of the radical reconstruction in the south, the African-Americans were a step closer from the same political

Following the Civil War, America was in shambles. There were many groups with strong, conflicting ideas of how things should be. However, most groups had one idea in common: reducing the rights of African Americans as much as possible. Freed slaves had very little freedom under the law, were treated like a lesser species by those around them, and faced dangerous environments everywhere they went. Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation may have legally freed slaves, but African Americans were barely more than paid slaves.

In 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation freed all African Americans that lived in rebel states. For years, only the rebel states had free African Americans, however, after the Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment freed all slaves, no matter where they were. Of course, after years of slavery, whites were not used to having free African Americans around them, creating a hostile environment. One former slave, Houston Holloway wrote, “For we colored people did not know how to be free and the white people did not know how to have a free colored person about them” (African American Odyssey 1).

The Freedmen of the United States weren’t truly free. Freedmen was a title only and did nothing to guarantee the treatment of former slaves when they stepped out into the world of a free man. African Americans were looked down upon, not property anymore but as less than human. The end of the civil war bought about the end of slavery and the beginning of “equality”. To properly integrate the freedmen jobs, homes, and small amounts of property should have been shared with them. Mixing African Americans and whites would have strengthened the presence of both, something that neither side should try to deny. With the end of the Civil War slaves were free but such an action was impossible to accept right away. Ex-slaves were overjoyed at their newfound freedom but were quickly shot down when they realized that freedom was something they didn’t yet have. Integration of blacks would take much more than a law against slavery, blacks being looked upon as property was deeply ingrained into society and was something they couldn’t just stop. Integration shouldn’t have been handled in such a passive manner but with actual effort that

African Americans living in the North, as well as those in the South, faced multiple challenges. In 1860, tension grew between the North and South. Most southern states still held onto slavery, because their slaves were worth money, while the North was trying to abolish it. The North had many free African Americans, but the question is, were they actually free? Free Africans Americans in the North before the civil war were not actually free because, they had little to none political right, they were not allowed to associate with whites, and making a living, no matter what, was hard.

“Sharecropping meant that they divided their work with the owner at the end of the year”. (1) The Black Codes also inhibited migration of free African Americans. Although the Union victory in the Civil War gave some four million slaves their freedom, most of them ended up right back on the plantations they had worked on before because they had nowhere else to

In the aftermath of the Civil War African Americans had gained a lot of rights politically but due to the little progress gained in the social and economic spheres their situation did not change much. So despite small gains socially, economically, and politically the lives of African Americans were not enhanced.

Southern americans showed extreme contempt for African Americans even after the end of the civil war. They believed that blacks were uncivilized and unworthy of american citizenship and voting rights. This distain for blacks became a learned behavior and continued into the 20th century. Beginning as early as 1865 a group of called the Ku Klux Klan sought out african americans and killed and tortured them in horrible ways. By 1870, the Ku Klux Klan had branches in nearly every southern state, the groups main object being an underground campaign of violence against Republican leaders and voters in an effort to change the laws of Radical Reconstruction and restore white supremacy in the South.(J.M. Bryant "Ku Klux Klan in the Reconstruction Era.") The KKK’s tactics of political terrorism were effective and set fear in the hearts of many. Black churches and schools were burned, citizens attacked, and people who refused proper submission were beaten and killed. This was a terrible time in American history and truly shows southern whites contempt for emancipation of their slaves, and the extremes circumstances whites would go to express that animosity.

Meanwhile, in the south, Free blacks were still at risk and lived under the shadow of slavery.Free blacks were at risk of being captured and sold as a slave to wealthy plantation owners. Their

African Americans were set free after the Civil War. After the Civil War the freedom of African American was really vague. Although they were set free they really weren't free. White people would say

The KKK, share cropping, riots, and societal expectations led to escalated racism violence in the 1920’s. The KKK, a popular anti-African American group, had a huge influence on the country with over four million members (Wright 6). The KKK intimidated the black population “with fiery crosses, tar and feathers, and other means [lynchings]. . .” (Kyvig 164) to warn them to not pursue their rights to vote. Another method used by the KKK was rape and torture during ‘kluxing’ raids (Blee 13).

The first reason they were not free during reconstruction was racism which is still a big problem today but was way worse back then. Picture yourself walking down a trail and then a group of people come up to you saying they are going to kill you and take all of your stuff why? Because you don't look like them. And this was all real in (Doc C) it states “I met four white men about six miles south of Keachie, De Soto Parish. One of them asked me who I belonged to. I told them no one. So he and two others struck me with a stick and told me they were going to kill me and every other Negro that told them that they belonged to no one”. Luckily one of his friends and stopped them from killing him but that wasn't the case for many. And if they were really free would they belong to anyone? Crazy right? Well, this isn't the end of it blacks still have to refer to whites as masters and they were referred to as servants. This shows me that whites still had the idea of slavery in there head by making them call whites masters and even worse they still beat blacks and in instances killing them from this. Yes, beatings, if whites got mad at them or blacks, did something rebellious as simple as calling you sir instead of master you could be

Even though blacks were free they still were separated from whites in a lot of things like: separate schools, drinking fountains, bathrooms, hotels, public libraries, restaurants, public transportation and sporting events. Also the military was segregated. They couldn’t even work with whites in the same office.

The blacks couldn't really do anything when they became free because a lot of blacks were slaves and didn't have jobs and businesses therefore the supply of food medicine and products we need to be healthy to help us live longer they didn't have because they were slaves and didn't make money to buy it and they couldn't go to a store because most stores were only for whites and those were the stores that had the supplies they did need and so they really didn't have no way of getting the materials needed to survive until people found jobs and not many could do that because people were slaves and blacks had to have money to create businesses therefore it was very, very, very hard on blacks coming out of