Life for Black People After 1865
The Civil war finally ended in 1865 but did life really improve for the Blacks there after? In this essay I am going to give evidence for and against to support whether or not life did improve. I will discuss the new organisations that arose such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Freedmen’s Bureau, As well as the blood and gore side of things. Why did they use such terrible methods of murder?
1865: 13th Amendment
Slavery Abolished
1868: 14th Amendment
Black people became US citizens protected by the Law
1870: 15th Amendment
Blacks were allowed to vote
The Freedmen’s Bureau was an organisation set up by the government in 1865. It organised
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Instead of constantly being paid with money the slaves would get given a third of the plantation owner’s crops, but only if enough crops were harvested. This meant that the slaves relied on a good harvest if they wanted to get paid. E.g. If there wasn’t enough rain then the crops wouldn’t grow properly; this would lead to the slaves having no food and without food they would not be able to survive.
Freedom did not seem that different from life before the Civil war for many workers in the south. The only thing different about working on the plantations now was that the slaves didn’t have to make their way home covered in scars and bruised backs.
Many organisations such as these were set up to improve the life of slaves after the Civil war, but when the Ku Klux Klan came along this made everything very different in fact just made things even worse for the Blacks…
The Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1865 and was made up of white extremists who wanted nothing more than to ensure that White people would be totally in control of society at present and in the future. They used methods like Lynching on black people. Lynching means to kill someone by hanging them or violently beating them.
The organisation was banned in 1872 but they didn’t let that stop them. By 1920 it had 5 million members. They would wear white robes with hoods so that members would not be
When the Civil War came to a close one hundred fifty years ago, the Union forces ended up victorious. The future seemed bright for the newly emancipated Blacks of the South; no longer bound in servitude, freed slaves must have felt indescribable joy. Sadly, what seemed like a dream come true quickly became a hellish nightmare. White Southerners were beside themselves with rage against Americans they considered property who were now their equals, at least in the eyes of the law. This fury fueled brutal and malicious racial violence in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Lynching, intimidation, destruction of property, and other acts of terrorism were quite prevalent throughout Texas. Yet, despite the multitude of physical and political
Freedmen’s lives were changing politically in many ways due to the 15th amendment and because they were allowed to become citizens. According to Document E, there was an amendment made called the 15th amendment that was allowing african americans to get to vote. Also in Document A it is showing a African American Freedmen voting, they made up most of the population that was voting. This started to change the Freedmen's life because they were getting the right to have a say in voting for who they wanted in charge of their country. Another way African Americans lives were changing politically was, they were getting a right to run for congress. As shown is Document B there were
In the Civil War in 1865, many slaves got their freedom but were still being controlled by the whites and government. Black codes were being passed by Southern states to control the labor and behavior of former slaves and African Americans. The Ku Klux Klan became a structure for white southern resistance to the Republican Party’s Reconstruction. The purpose of the Reconstruction was to bring the South together to be part of the Union. The success and failures of Reconstruction negatively impacted the political, social, and economic lives of newly freed African Americans in the south. It impacted them in a negative way politically because the government wasn’t fair with the newly freed African Americans. Many families were getting separated
In a speech to Congress, Benjamin Boyer said “… the Negroes are not the equals of white Americans, and are not entitled … to participate in the Government of this country.” While the 15th amendment ensured that African Americans could not be denied the right to vote just because they were black, the South came up with various ways to prevent them from doing so. The Ku Klux Klan terrorized African Americans and were only killed under their control. They prevented them from voting, which led to a democratic revival in the South (Doc.
Slavery was abolished in the 1800's in America. This gave freedom to many colored ethnic groups in America. Now, freedom was granted to these people, but from 1865 to the early 20th century, these colored Americans did not get the respect and rights they deserved. The right to vote for most was never given up until 1965. Segregation was a major thing for these people, and even the right to fight for their country in the world wars was discriminating.
Following the Civil War drew to an end, however the social, political and economic conditions did not, infact it only grew within the rebellious southern states fueled discussion about the reconstruction. Social, political and economic conditions impacted the reconstruction era. The KKK impacted socially in 1865, their reign of terror was felt throughout the south. Their organization spread fear using guerilla tactics, whipping, beating, and lynching. The Klan’s purpose was to destroy the republican party as revenge for the abolishment of slavery. They wanted to destroy the republican party infrastructure and end reconstruction control in southern black population. The era of Reconstruction there were massive changes in American culture, economy,
In the years 1863-1877, blacks were able to make their first successful efforts in terms of empowerment, creating the foundation for future African American movements. During reconstruction, African Americans, through collaboration and politics, began to work at equal rights. By empowering themselves politically, building communities and fighting against the lynching efforts of the KKK and other anti-black terrorist groups, African Americans began a movement to combat racism in the United States.
The newly freed slaves were gaining rights that were always only a dream with legal marriage, education, and power over their children’s lives. However, Black Codes were being used to recreate slavery and were making it hard for African Americans to own property and function in society. (Lecture 1/29/16) Their rights were not given without many exceptions including that African Americans who were convicted of felonies were being put back to work on farms that they were just given the freedom to leave, and all of a sudden it was much easier to get a felony charge for being black and not having a job were considered committing a crime. President Johnson’s neglect of action in southern states was making it nearly impossible for the former slaves to function in society, even after The Civil Rights Act of 1866, and leads into the creation of the Ku Klux Klan
Considering the Civil War was the first time that a large group of people were fighting for the freedom of African Americans, it would be true to state that the Civil War dramatically changed the lives of African Americans throughout the nation. This remark is accurate because, after the Union’s win, African Americans were given basic rights such as the right to vote, own property, and marry whites. However, because many Southerners continued to oppose these decisions, they created organizations such as the KKK that opposed these ideas and threatened the well being of African Americans. So, as a result of the African American lifestyle changing, many individuals in the South, mostly slave owners, lives change due to the major decrease in free-labor.
As much as Reconstruction had initially tried to help the South, it was the sole goal of this movement to, “undo as much as possible of Reconstruction.” State facilities originally that were supposed to help everyone were closed down, and the gap between black and white expenditures on schooling increased. Due to the depression in the 1890’s this worsened the situation for black families trying to make a living in the South couldn’t keep up their farms or the places that their children would learn. “In 1900, no public high schools for blacks existed in the South. Black elementary schools, one observer reported, occupied buildings “as bad as stables””. New laws about segregation also affected blacks in more ways than just demoralization, it also showed what kind of jobs were considered good work for them. In the instance of segregation on railroads, “many blacks could be found in “whites only” railroad cars. But they entered as servants and nurses, not as paying customers entitled to equal treatment. The rise of lynching also affected the way blacks lived their lives, by controlling the way they vote, how they treated whites, and how they couldn’t rely on the justice system to address their grievances. An example of the reduced number of voters is best seen in Louisiana, where the number of voters dropped from 130, 000 to 1, 342, which is directly linked to the use of violence as a way to intimidate black voters. Blacks also had to be careful how they acted around white, since murder wasn’t a federal crime and was handled by the state, many blacks were lynched without fair trials and accused of crimes like raping white women, murder, and theft. A majority of the accused never when to trial. All in all blacks in the South were largely affected negatively as a result in policy changes, social factors, and widespread violence. This injustice carried on
While life was progressively getting better for newly freed African Americans many whites established black codes in an attempt to keep them from learning. They feared African Americans getting educated and wanted to stop it. Even though it was passed that African Americans were allowed to vote in the 15th Amendment many polling places wouldn’t allow it. African Americans faced tremendous backlash.
During reconstruction the United States was divided on social issues, presidential campaigns were won and loss on these issues during this period. The struggle for development of African Americans and how they initiated change in political, economic, educational, and social conditions to shape their future and that of the United States. (Dixon, 2000) The South’s attempts to recover from the Civil war included determining what to do with newly freed slaves and finding labor to replace them. The task of elevating the Negro from slave to citizen was the most enormous one which had ever confronted the country. Local governments implemented mechanisms of discrimination to combat citizenship
In 1867, Congress passed a new Reconstruction Act, that threw out the state governments of states that refused to ratify the 14th amendment. The 15th amendment was ratified in 1870, providing a constitutional guarantee of voting rights for African American males.
The Passing of the 15th amendment in 1868 did give black men the right to vote. They were able to vote but were not permitted because they were blocked at the poles with threats of violence and death. The violence and intimidation of the Ku Klux Klan had a lot to do with the blocking of the blacks at the voting polls.
After the following victory of the Northern Unionist over the Confederate forces in the Civil War, the current president of USA Abraham Lincoln had followed through with his Emancipation Proclamation this time of period was soon to be known as the Reconstruction era. Through these actions of Abraham Lincoln this had resulted in the passing of amendments to the constitution in which where 13th,14th, 15th these amendments had given African Americans the one thing they had been long aching for and worked hard for which was they rights. These Amendments also gave the ability for organisations such as Freedmen`s Bureau to be created in which they would seek the progress of black rights and reduce discrimination. However with the progress came resistance which had slowed down the progress due to the lack of change in society. Even though they had been little improvement there had been acts which held back the black community such as the Black codes these were invented to stop any progression for black it also meant that former salves where tied to the former owner this was called sharecropping. This also lead to the change of discrimination to being racist such as the creations of organisations such as Ku Klux Klan had been set up which had gone around brutally attacking and even killing former slaves this was done to create fear and show the black slaves there place. On the other had there had been some aspects of black lives which improved but these where small changes of