Prisons After Civil War

After the Civil War, the southern soldiers were going back to devastated cities, destroyed railroads, and many cities were burned to the ground as a result of Sherman’s march from sea to sea. After the Civil War occurred, the slaves were given freedom from their owners, and slavery was banned. That attempt at reconstruction was not a complete fail, but it took a little bit of time for America to give social and economic equality to slaves. There were many attempts made by several different presidents, but not all seemed to work due to the South’s stubbornness. The failure of reconstruction later did not bring social and economic equality to former slaves in the south because of things like the Jim Crow laws and the South’s strong disproval

It is widely assumed that the Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery in the United States. Though the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865 abolished slavery in the United States, remnants of it persisted. During the Reconstruction era, the federal government attempted to reconcile grievances among African-Americans. In particular, aiding former slaves who were once property in the South and now citizen protected but citizens who had inalienable rights codified in the U.S Constitution. Both the convict lease program, debt peonage system in the United States are exampled which exemplify the existence of slavery by another name. Employed readily in the American Deep South, but not exclusively as there instances in both the North and the West, numerous African-Americans found themselves in a system eerily mirroring slavery. By exploring the Gilded Age era of America, a harrowing story emerges involving African-Americans. In disenfranchising Blacks through the legal system, the American Deep South, White Southerners used forced labor to boost their states finances, aid their industrialization, and to assuage their fears concerning racial integration leading to re-subjuagation of Black Americans.

With each year that passes, news stories of crime come and go and continue to thrill the media, but one constant is where the offenders will go if or after they have been convicted: prison. As the years go on, it seems that the prison and criminal justice system are capturing more and more lives and increasing the capacity of ever overcrowding prisons. In Michigan, the rise is especially prevalent due to the presence of the Cooper Street Correctional Facility, which currently houses minimum security male inmates, and the infamous Prison of Southern Michigan, which was once the largest walled prison in the world. “Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers” signs are an ever present reminder of the community impacted in more than one way.

The American Civil War claimed the lives of over 700,000 people. The war was fought from 1861-1865. The results of the war were described as; a union victory, abolishment of slavery, territorial integrity preserved and the destruction and dissolution of the Confederate States. The twelve years that followed were called the Reconstruction Era, 1865-1877. The purpose of the Reconstruction Era was to restore National Unity, strengthen the government, and guarantee rights to freed slaves. The reality of reconstruction though was; violence (260,000 dead), newly freed slaves suffered the most, and Lincoln's hopes of trust and rededication to peace were lost when he was assassinated on April 15th, 1865. It is these realities of the Reconstruction Era and beyond that this paper will address and how those realities affected the newly freed slaves. Life in post-bellum America for African - Americans was violent and filled with fear because of white supremacy, lynching, and the brutal mutilations of blacks.

After the Civil War, the southern economy was in shambles because it so heavily relied on slavery. Southerners begged the question as to how should we rebuild our economy with the 4 million people who are now free? The answer was simple because with the 13th Amendment loophole, African Americans could be treated as slaves again if they were criminals. This lead to a massive incarceration of African Americans who were arrested for minor crimes like loitering and vagrancy(INSERT XIII). They were prisoners who had to rebuild the southern

Between 1700 and 1900 a system familiar to our eyes emerged as a result of important changes. The 1800s very harsh and a lot of crime was done in that time. The laws, punishment and jail were similar, also very different from today's. In the 1800s the punishment was much more survivor and stick to it more than now. If you lived back in that time, it was usual to walk the streets and you see a hanging happening. This showing the cruelty and none caring of the people and how harsh the punishment was.

Jails and prisons lay at the heart of the Criminal Justice System. These facilities helped forge the concept of rehabilitation. These institutions have changed over time and now reflect the modern methods of housing convicted individuals who need to be reformed or punished.

The long Gilded Age of America started in 1870 and lasted until 1930. It started right after the Civil War and was a period of extreme economic and industrial growth. After the war, a period known as Reconstruction started. The Reconstruction was meant to rebuild the economy of the South. However, the Reconstruction not only didn’t help the South that much, it also didn’t help the newly freed African Americans. According to Eric Foner’s book Give Me Liberty Volume 2, “African-Americans’ understanding of freedom was shaped by their experience as slaves and their observation of the free society around them.” Even after the Civil War, life was still not good for African Americans. One deadly system that was very similar to slavery was the convict leasing system. According to the Reconstruction Amendments, the 13th Amendment outlawed all slavery except ones “ except as a punishment for crime”. Those few words were enough for many people to exploit this by falsely accusing people(many of them African American) of crime and forcing them to work in horrific conditions such as mines and factories. In the Slavery By Another Name video, it told of situations when convicts were through with their time and yet would be forced to stay by the harsh rule of the place they were working at. Many blacks would get sent to prison and then leased for minor misdemeanors or idiotic actions such as stealing a pig or the “Vagrancy Statutes”(from Slavery By Another Name). These statutes basically

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

Blackmon, Matthew J. Mancini, Christopher R. Adamson, and William Cohen explored the issues faced by African-Americans throughout the South post-Civil War. Refuting the common narratives propagated by some historians, each author brings a unique perspective to the discussion. In combining numerous documents and personal accounts, Blackmon effectively examines the tactics utilized by states in the South that resulted in conditions mirroring slavery. Countless businesses and persons benefited handsomely from convict laborers as Southern States seemingly had an endless supply of labor. Mancini explored the origin of convict leasing in the American South, noting that it is difficult, but not impossible to explain its existence. Different from others beliefs, he explained the heavy economic incentives resulting from convict labor and it differences from slavery. By his estimation, equating the two systems misrepresents them. Adamson examines the dilemma of ex-slaves living in the South and their precarious situation as they sought to exercise their newly secured rights. Cohen plainly states the issues percolating in the South with respect to labor control. Southerners needed labor and recently freed slaves provided the opportunity for them to exploit them once more under the pretense of legal

Looking at the social order at the time is important to understanding what is to come. While the slaves were now free and able to do as they pleased, there was still a deeply embedded racism within the minds of Southern whites. Just because blacks had fought in the Civil War did not suddenly mean that the perception of blacks had changed; rather to the Southern elites, they still viewed blacks as inferior and only good for labor, longing to perpetuate the slave system but within a new industrial framework seeing as how the agricultural framework had been destroyed. This new system was to be found in through convict leasing.

Racism exists in America before early 1965 through late 1970 and continues to exist. Glenn Omatsu author of “The Four Prisons and the Movements of Liberation” describes the history of the struggle of racism as if it was a roller coaster ride for neoconservative Asian Americans with so many changes all throughout that social movement. Omatsu mentions Japans who overcame racism with political activism. Activists are good political examples from the past through history by creating a social movement with activism and individuals who fight for all equal rights. Asian Americans made a path through history to end racism through political activism that initially led to a better life for everyone during the 1980’s. Omatsu describes the struggle, “… racism lies in the realm of attitudes and “culture” and not institutions of power.” Omatsu makes the point of Asian Americans overcame racism through the way they were brought up. “ he believes

With no navy to mount a defense, the Southern government was forced to control production of cotton and raise taxes, which only furthered the disillusionment of its population (Perman, 224). Poor Southerners in particular began to see the war as benefiting a section of society that did not include them, as they were not slave owners. They were the very people forced to make the most sacrifices for the war and the government's control of their ability to produce led to bread riots (Perman, 219). Moreover, as enlistment numbers in the Confederate army dwindled, the government had no option but to turn to forced conscription and impressments of slaves, which Southerners viewed as the impounding of personal property (Perman, 221). The realities of war created a conflict that Southerners did not foresee when they had created an aloof central government.

When people think of reform movements, they often look for one key sign, and ask one key question of whether that the reform was a success. Did the reform create a lasting change in the way people view the institution that was reformed? All the great reformation movements, from Horace Mann and his education reforms, to Martin Luther, and the Protestant Reformation, to the civil rights movement, all created lasting change in the minds of the average person. One other reform, often overlooked historically is the Prison Reform movement. As the world shifted from 18th to 19th century ways of life, many key aspects of life underwent tremendous change. As the United States gained their independence from Britain and began to shape their own

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