Were Slaves Free After the Civil War?

Given the before information I can conclude that Lincoln helped, but all in all the slaves freed themselves. They conducted and underground railroad (with some help but none from the government), they went back for family and friends, and they made very detailed plans to escape. If it weren’t for Harriett Tubman 300 more slaves would have resided as slaves until finally they were set free, which could have been years. Even after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves remained in the borderline states and some Southern states. Ultimately, the slaves freed

Despite the black codes had provided rights such as the marriage legalization and the ownership of property, they violated the free labor principle and denied the African-Americans the right to vote, and sue any white man. Foner (2014) found “In response to planter’s demands that freed people be required to work on the plantations, the Black Codes declared that those who failed to sign yearly labor contracts could be arrested and hired out to white landowners” (p. 570) . In fact, it was a totally failure of what freedom was supposed to be.

Were African Americans free during Reconstruction? After the Civil War in 1865 and for the next 17 years America was in Reconstruction, during this time period African Americans were referred to as freedmen and women or negroes. Many important things happened during these 15 years, one of them being the 13th Amendment being passed stating that all men were free (Doc. A). The definition of freedom is, the ability to do whatever you want and control your own actions, without external pressure. So were African Americans really free?

The Civil War was fought over the “race problem,” to determine the place of African-Americans in America. The Union won the war and freed the slaves. However, when President Lincoln declared the Emancipation Proclamation, a hopeful promise for freedom from oppression and slavery for African-Americans, he refrained from announcing the decades of hardship that would follow to obtaining the new won “freedom”. Over the course of nearly a century, African-Americans would be deprived and face adversity to their rights. They faced something perhaps worse than slavery; plagued with the threat of being lynched or beat for walking at the wrong place at the wrong time. Despite the addition of the 14th and

This law gave blacks more power politically and gave them a say in powerful

To be free means you have freedom and certain rights without anyone interfering with you. You can also do things at your own will. However, during Reconstruction African Americans were not free because whites abused the fact that they had rights and would overpower them. One example is the Ku Klux Klan.

As a result of the North’s victory in the civil war and the reconstruction period that followed, African-Americans were seemingly on the verge of being able to enjoy the freedom of no longer being slaves. During the reconstruction era, important pieces of legislature were written in order to protect the rights of the newly freed men. Those pieces of legislature were essentially trying to somehow transform former slave into free productive members of society. However, a number of disgruntled southerners took it as their duty to prevent African-American from being free of their former masters. They saw the northerners demand as an infringement of the South traditional values. Although the

The newly passed laws became known as “Black Codes” and socially, they directly impacted the lives of all freedmen and indirectly benefited the white race. These laws restricted the rights of free African-American men and women (Doc A). In Opelousas, Louisiana, some of these restrictions were the denied right to keep or own a house in the town, the denied right to enter the town without special permission, the denied right to hold public meetings, the denied right to carry firearms or any kind of weapon, and a requirement that every negro must be in service of some white person (Doc A). The elite members in the South did everything they could to prevent blacks from gaining civic power, and the reasoning for supporting these codes ranged from fearing black political influence to the comfort of knowing farmers still had a stable and reliable work force. Even in the post civil war North, people believed blacks were unfit to be government officials (Doc E). Pro-freedman presses ran racist letters arguing blacks were not fit for the proper exercise of political duties, and their generation needed a period of probation and instruction in order to learn the ways in which society ran (Doc E). Many northerners felt blacks were incompetent to hold important jobs; therefore, the government was in no way aiding the reconstruction efforts to provide equality to all people in America.

As the need for more crops and other products increased, the production in the North also increased, but the South could not do so without slaves. The slaves in the South were essential to their economy. Almost all of the individuals that could afford slaves, owned them. However, in the northern states, slavery was not as apparent because the political leaders thought it was morally wrong and felt as though the slaves would take away jobs from the whites. Also, with all of the factories and inventions that the North had that the South did not have, the North was far more successful in their levels of production, without the aid of slaves. Throughout history, the differences of opinions over whether slavery should be allowed or abolished in the Unite States has brought many debates and controversies which eventually led to wars. There were many causes that led to the Civil War, and many of them led were started over disputes over free or slave states in the South.

About a hundred years after the Civil War, almost all American lived under the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow Laws actually legalized segregation. These racially enforced rules dominated almost every aspect of life, not to mention directed the punishments for any infraction. The key reason for the Jim Crow Laws was to keep African Americans as close to their former status as slaves as was possible. The following paper will show you the trials and tribulations of African Americans from the beginning through to the 1940’s where segregation was at its peak.

The Black Codes were “ modeled on former slave laws” with the sole intention to “ limit the new freedom of emancipated African Americans by restricting their movement and by forcing them into a labor economy based on low wages and debt”(Virginia Commonwealth University). People of color were kept line through the law and public lynchings. Acts violence kept the Black population in fear and with federal laws infected in Jim Crow ideologies, Black people were subjected to brutal violence. Lynchings were “a common occurance”(Du Bois) with people able to clearly see “Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze… Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees”(Holiday).

at face value the laws were to create " separate but equal" conditions for the people but it was truly a disgusting system of laws meant to control blacks . All of which, was a reenactment of slavery reproduced by the white southerners to hinder the blacks advancements made during the reconstruction the absurdity of these laws still puts me in shock , blacks were stripped of any kind of dignity they had left, and were treated like animals . They could not segregate in public places, worked the most despicable of jobs, and they even went as far as to undermine their right to vote.

The civil war couldn't have been evaded. If slavery wasn’t a problem the Civil War would have still happened due to tensions between the states. Slavery was only one of the issues before the civil war. There were more issues such as economic changes, and fundamental disagreement on constitutional principles. Cotton production was one of the things slaves did. Therefore if slavery was ended cotton production would go down and the country would become poor. The north wanted to end slavery, but the south thought it was necessary for the economy to stay up. In saying so slavery was fueling the economy. Eventually, the cotton gin was invented which made work somewhat easier. Instead of slavery decreasing it increased even more as cotton production

America has always been proud to be labeled as a land that nurtured the revolutionary spirit of freedom. However, as land where slavery arose during the birth of the nation, the question comes up on how slavery and freedom could coexist. After all, they are words that practically preach the opposite message of each other. In colonial Chesapeake, the rise of slavery and democracy was due to the growing number of impoverished Virginians, as well as the footprints of human liberty exemplified by the leaders of the American Revolution.

Many claimed laws were “separate and equal”, when in reality this was rarely true. These laws kept African Americans from having the same rights as a white person, such as jobs, loans, and testifying against white people . Whites might not be physically punished, but they'd be chastised. Often entire families would be shamed, warned, and even shunned. Many blacks were arrested, beaten or killed. If a white person broke this law, they would be chastised. Nothing compared to what black people could have to deal with.