In the 20th century, the United States had two great events that brought changes to American society in social, political and economic were the Civil War and Reconstruction. After the end of the Civil War, the slavery was abolished as part of the 13th amendment during the Reconstruction era throughout the United States, however the Southern States continue the hatred against the African American as a result of amounts of factors such as Black Codes, Jim Crow laws, white supremacist violence, and the enforcement of involuntary labor affected in the utmost indignation of the whole history of the United States.
During Reconstruction, a social change left a big impact in the life of American society. The 14th amendment (document 1) was ratified
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Afterward the emancipation proclamation during the Civil War, The U.S government cause a big problem in the way of the emancipation of the slaves. Frederick Douglass identifies in “Life and Times of Frederick Douglass”, 1881 (document 2): “the heads of the freedmen the bitterest hostility of race and class”[...]“they were sent empty-handed, without money, without friends, and without a foot of land to stand upon”. The government didn't gave to the people that have been slaves any piece of money and land. In addition, the unfriendly and hostility treaty which they received remains yet. Furthermore, another political problem came up, the right to vote or the suffrage. A statement of an Afro-American Council, 1898 mentioned: “Since 1868 there has been a steady and persistent determination to eliminate us from the politics of the Southern States” [...] “we insist that restrictions shall apply alike to all citizens of all states”. The suffrage is a federal guaranty which Afro-Americans fought for a long time (3 decades to be exactly). Although, the Southern States persistently wanted to deprive their right to vote. As a result this struggle it will continues for the next decades until a big change will come to put an end of this political …show more content…
The role of African Americans changes in a positive way between 1860 and 1880. According to the illustrations of “A Georgia Plantation” April 1881 adapted in 2001 by McGraw Hill in “The American Record” (document 4) it shows a map of Barrow Plantation between 1860 and 1880, the differences are significant because the houses of tenant farmers who were former slaves of the Barrow family increased in a high number. The meaning of the images is that former slaves could become landlords. Also, this was just the start . Charles Dudley Warner with “The South Revisited”, 1887 (document 5), states “Instead of a South devoted to agriculture and politics, we find a South wide-awake to business… The South is manufacturing a great variety of things needed in the house, on the farm, and in the shops, for home consumption, and already sends to the North and West several manufactured products.” [...] “the more encouraging for the self-sustaining life of the Southern people is the multiplication of small industries in nearly every city I visited…”. According to what Charles Warner talked about, the economic change that had occurred in the South by 1887, literally went a big step forward the increase of more manufactured products and the amount of many new industries, everything
There was hardly any change in black social status between being a slave and being a sharecropper. Another example lies with the 14th and 15th amendments. Both amendments secure certain rights of freedmen, but these rights were barely taken advantage of by African-Americans. They were constantly in fear of exerting their civil rights due to angry, racist southerners (Doc. D), and the extreme terror white supremacy groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the White League left in them, so they did not vote in order to preserve their lives and families (Doc. I). Plus the government didn’t enforce these amendments and protect the civil rights of African-Americans that way that it should have (Doc. H). Ultimately, although there were many constitutional changes between 1860 and 1877, none of them were effective enough to be looked at as a revolutionary change in the United States.
During the time period of 1860 and 1877 many major changes occurred. From the beginning of the civil war to the fall of the reconstruction, the United States changed dramatically. Nearly one hundred years after the Declaration of Independence which declared all men equal, many social and constitutional alterations were necessary to protect the rights of all people, no matter their race. These social and constitutional developments that were made during 1860 to 1877 were so drastic it could be called a revolution.
A bloody war in which tore America apart, North vs South fighting to determine not only the future of slavery, yet also the future of America. The Civil War began in 1861 at the battle of Fort Sumpter and concluded in 1865 at the battle of Appomattox Court House. After four years of American blood shed on American soil, the Union won and the Reconstruction Era began. How well did reconstruction address the issue of equality towards African Americans in terms of political, economic, and social measures?The period rebuilding the South and readmitting southern states into the union was known as Reconstruction, in which moderate success was established economically, substantial success was found politically, yet limited success was found socially
The period between 1865 and 1877 became known as the reconstruction. It was the years after the Civil War and rebuilding the United States was a priority. Though the war had ended the fighting was nowhere near done. This struggle was between radical northerners who wanted to punish the South and Southerners who wanted to keep their way of life. So the real question is was the reconstruction effective after the war?
In Document B, by Dr. W.E.B. DuBois said “In order to earn a living, the American Negro was compelled to give up his political power”. The African Americans were struggling because they had to pick between voting or having a job to survive. Even though, African Americans were told that they had gained their freedom they would still get punished by the government. They were being punished by putting them in jail, making them work in public, and were being whipped. “If the government does so we are left in a more unpleasant condition than our former” (Document M). Having freedom didn’t make any difference to the African Americans because the government made their lives even more difficult. Their lives became more difficult because if some of the African Americans voted they wouldn’t have a chance to have a job and would end up
This Paper will examine the Impact of the 14th and 15th Amendment in America. These Amendments were known as reconstruction amendments, including the 13th amendment in the Unites States. Both amendments took a big role in America, and its people. This paper will also show the people that helped take these amendments into place and also the changes.
The Reconstruction Amendments, referring to the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, were controversial additions to The Constitution after the Civil War (Schweikart & Allen, 2004). The intention of this paper is to define each amendment, define each section of these amendments, and explain how they changed society from before they were put into effect. This paper will also explain how the Reconstruction Amendments changed the relationship between people and their government, both state and federal.
A major goal of the New South was to improve the region's industrial economy. This objective helped the South increase its number of textile factories dramatically. Since cotton planters had to transport their shipments to northern factories in the past, these new factories helped the southern farmers tremendously. Other industries that experienced an increase in production after Reconstruction were the tobacco-processing industry (James B. Duke founded the American Tobacco Company), the iron plus steel industry that boomed out of Birmingham, Alabama, and the railroad companies that helped the South double its amount of trackage from 1880-1890. Despite these industrial advancements, the South would never reach the impact industrialization had on the Northern economy. Also, in those areas of improvement, such as textiles and railroads, a large amount of the financial resources came from the North. The South's major economic source was still agriculture and this was in bad shape too. Tenant farmers, including debt peonage and the crop-lien system, made up 70% of the Southern planters by 1900. Many African Americans who had just been freed from slavery made up this percentage. They now were apart of a binding economic slavery. Although the South had improved its industry, it had not accumulated its goal of becoming an industrial region like the North. This fact, along with the agricultural hardships, had pushed the
Andrew Johnson took office after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865. He was a Southern Democrat from Tennessee, when he became president, the Civil War had ended and reconstruction was in its beginning stages. Johnson was then faced with the same problems Lincoln had -- the challenge of mending a broken nation, yet there was a definite difference in the ways Johnson and Lincoln approached the problems of Reconstruction. Johnson was not one of our best or brightest presidents, he did not care about his public appearance and he was not good at making decisions. One of the most illogical decisions Johnson made as president was to start a new reconstruction plan, before his death Lincoln already had a plan set out. Yet Johnson
This Paper will examine the Impact of the 14th and 15th Amendment in America. These Amendments were known as reconstruction amendments, including the 13th amendment in the Unites States. Both amendments took a big role in America, and its people. This paper will also show the people that helped take these amendments into place and also the changes.
After the American Civil War (1861-1865), major changes which were crucial to the establishment of African Americans in the American society took place. Before the bloody war, slaves were comprised of thirteen percent of the total population of the United States. The treatments they receive from their masters ranged from generous to abusive. The issue of slavery was becoming more and more apparent in social, economic, and most importantly political aspects of the country. In fact, even before the war started, slavery was determined to be one of the main points of conflict between the Northern and the Southern states. After the war ended, various constitutional amendments were passed to end slavery and guaranteed the status of American citizenship to the former slaves and any other free African Americans. The amendments, which were accepted largely due to the influence of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on both the Northern and Southern states, would be the motivational catalyst for the Civil Rights movements and the African American’s rise to their deserved status in the United States.
Racism, inequality, discrimination, and death occurred in all southern territories during the early 1900’s even after the end of slavery in 1865. Although African Americans were freed from slavery, they still were treated as though they were slaves: “African Americans were discriminated in everything they did, Landlords could refuse to allow them to rent from them, Blacks and Whites lived in separate neighborhoods, and often times people would
for thousands of people slavery in Europe in the 1800’s blacks hoped for a better chance of life, however, America is a different story. Since early 1600’s, Millions of black Africans had been taken from their homes, and carried across the ocean to be treated as lower class beings, as if animals that could do human labor, families were separated and they belonged to whoever owned them. Slaves had no freedom or choice, and sometimes beaten to death. In the beginning of the 19th century some whites started to speak out against slavery, these people believed it was wrong. So the Northern states of america Abolished slavery early in the 19th century, but the southern slavery continued. In 1861, eleven of the Southern states broke of from the United
During the nineteen hundreds the United States of America was still a newborn in the world compared to surrounding countries. After World War One and Two the United States proved themselves to be strong and capable. However, through these wars there were other social struggles. The country was formed upon slavery. In the south the main way of life was agriculture. Farmers had large plantations and there weren't modern machines to make the job easier. People had to harvest by hand or use hand tools. With such large plantations this was nearly impossible for a few men alone. So they began importing, buying, and selling slaves. The slaves were African-Americans. However, the Civil War, while it wasn't originally due to slavery, became the moment that slavery was fought against. People's view began to change about the African people. After the Civil War blacks were freed and able to make their own living in the country. Except, not everyone liked this
Considering the 19th century and what it had occurred within it, the United States made progress towards equality with the release of President Lincoln’s “Emancipation Proclamation”, taking one step towards becoming the country it is now. In the 19th century, African Americans were still held captive as slaves and were denied even the most basic human rights. These African Americans were mistreated, abused and freed without a warning. The “Emancipation Proclamation”, issued on January 1, 1863, not only granted them freedom but the rights to purse military and political positions. Imagine that, one day your working in the fields and the next you are told you are free and everything that you once endured was no longer applied to you. The African Americans must have been confused and relieved. However, this decision was long overdue and can be seen as a last resort. During the civil war, the divided nation (The Confederates and Union) suffered great amounts of loss.