preview

Reconstruction Dbq Essay

Decent Essays
Open Document

DBQ: Reconstruction Essay Reconstruction was an era of time after the Civil War to rebuild America. It lasted from 1865-1877. After the Civil War, the nation was still divided over many issues. This period was to reinstate the Southern States after the Civil War. Reconstruction focused on improving tensions between the people and the country. A group called the Radical Republicans were people who believed that the South should be punished for causing the war and taking away their property. They also believed Reconstruction was the best opportunity to give African Americans civil rights under the Constitution. Many rights were denied to African Americans before the Civil War, and Radical Republicans believed they could protect these rights. …show more content…

Along with literacy tests, African Americans had to pay to vote in the form of poll taxes. Poll taxes go in conjunction with the grandfather clause. The grandfather clause says that if people’s grandfathers could vote before 1867, then their descendants could avoid poll taxes or literacy tests. African Americans could not avoid poll taxes or literacy tests because they were not able to vote before 1867. They do not say that these literacy tests or poll taxes are targeted towards African Americans, but it is generally affecting them the most because any white man who was born before 1867 was able to vote without an issue. Document I shows literacy tests from the state of Louisiana and a Texas poll tax receipt. The literacy tests are designed to be confusing and unfair because some questions do not make sense. For example, one of the questions states, “Draw a line around the number or letter of this sentence.” This could mean many things. But, these tests were designed for people, mostly African Americans, to fail. When African Americans are unable to pass literacy tests or pay poll taxes, then they are not able to …show more content…

Newly freed African Americans and whites could be sharecroppers. Document F shows a diagram of sharecropping and how it is similar to being enslaved. At first, African Americans started with land and seed provided for them in exchange for the land owner getting half the crop. After that, the sharecropper buys food, clothing, and necessities on credit from the landowner's store. Throughout the season, the sharecropper plants and harvests the crop. When the sharecropper has reached the end of the crop season, he gives the landowner the crop to sell. The sharecropper will get half of the earnings, subtracting the cost of his purchases made throughout the year. The landowner will then tell the sharecropper he owes more than he has earned. The sharecropper would be in debt, and to pay off that debt, the sharecropper must promise the landowner a greater share of next year’s crop. This was generally forced slavery because African Americans were uneducated and could not argue with landowners or merchants who had cheated them. This made sharecroppers tied to one plantation and had no choice but to work until all their debts were paid

Get Access