At first, most Republicans supported Johnson’s reconstruction policies. The goal was to restore the South and bring the states back to the Union. The new president would strive towards a speedy restoration of the states that seceded. It was as if they “had never truly ‘left’ the United States of America.” To start off, the new president had the former Confederate states acknowledge and ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, which officially abolished the institution of slavery. The end of slavery saw the rise of the Black Codes in the South.
(Source B2) Lincoln’s proclamation was one of strategy as it aimed to abolish slavery as well as recruit those previously enslaved to help the North win the civil war. The freeing of slaves would also result in the weakening of the South’s economy since “The South’s economy was based on slavery.” (Source A). Thus the South’s ability to effectively wage a war against the Union North would have been depleted and the slaves in those areas would be freed from years of slavery, both being a dual victory for Lincoln. “Slaves, as the property of individuals and businesses, represented the largest portion of the region’s personal and corporate wealth, as cotton and land prices declined and the price of slaves soared.” (Source H). Slavery was becoming a growing concern in the initial stages of the war and Lincoln soon realized that by ending slavery he could help end the Civil war.
This lead to black codes which were laws passed by southern states in 1865 and 1866 in the United States after the American civil war with the intent and the effect of restricting African Americans’ freedom ,and of compelling them to work in the labor economy based on low wages or debts.On February 3, 1870 the 15th Amendment granted African Americans the right to vote. Blacks were scared of the Ku Klux Klan, which used violence, such as lynchings to scare African Americans from voting. This was a hate group in the southern U.S. who was active for several years after the civil war, which aimed to suppress the newly acquired rights of black people and to oppose carpetbaggers from the North, and which was responsible for many lawless and violent
They did so by passing laws that helped protect those who used to be slaves, also known as “freedmen”, as well as to those who were already free before the war in the South. Although some African-Americans still faced some discrimination, the Reconstruction Era marked progress — African-Americans were even granted the right to vote. However, in the 1870s, with the help of rebel groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the White League, who intimated African-Americans from voting, the Democrats gradually regained power in the Southern states. These Southern Democrat governments, who were very angered by their defeat in the Civil War, and who held White supremacism beliefs, then scraped the freedmen protection laws and legislated Jim Crow laws, segregating the population in an attempt to disenfranchise and maltreat African-Americans. The segregation laws were named after the fictional blackface character Jim Crow played by Thomas Dartmouth
After these white killings, slave codes were implemented to end rebellion and restrict mobility. Slave codes were a series of laws and regulations that slave owners used to control slaves more efficiently. Louisiana Code Noir of 1724 and South Carolina Slave Code of 1740 are examples of slave codes. These two slave
The Union’s victory in the Civil War had given African Americans a new sense of hope, devastated the southern economy, and eased the history of disunity in American political life. Reconstruction was a program used to help the south rebuild and join the union again, which could only be possible if the confederacy was destroyed. Reconstruction successfully united the southern states with the Union improving the economy for the whole country, creating a legally just racial society, and helping southerners in need get back on their feet. The Union’s reconstruction plan improved the southern economy by shifting the dynamics from a landownership economy to a sharecropping system. The aftermath of the Civil War the southern economy in shambles; the southern states lost two thirds of their wealth that left their industry crippled as a result of many southern farms, factories, and railroads being destroyed.
In 1830, encouraged by President Andrew Jackson, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act which gave the federal government the power to relocate any Native Americans in the east to territory that was west of the Mississippi River. Though the Native Americans were to be recompensed, this was not done fairly, and in some cases led to the further destruction of many of the eastern tribes. By early 1800’s, the white Americans established settlements further west for their own benefit, and later discovered gold. Furthermore, Georgia's attempt to regain this land resulted in the Cherokee protesting and taking this case to the United States Supreme Court. Even though the court came to the decision of favoring the Cherokee, Jackson ignored it and with
Eventually, America fought the Civil War in order to abolish slavery once and for all throughout the states. Many people believe that with slavery finally being abolished in America the people of color could finally live happily. Unfortunately, those people were wrong and people of color continued to be treated as if they were less than human. Even to this day, about two hundred and fifty years since America had gained independence, many people of color in American society still feel that they are treated unequally. In today’s society, the discussion of racial privilege has been a big discussion within society and politics in America.
In Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, an African American family known as the Youngers experience “societal implications” of segregation in Chicago, Illinois, and the threats as well as harassments that followed. Unlike the Jim Crow Laws that were enforced legally in the South during this time period, the segregation in Chicago was implied and enforced by society rather than law. When the American Civil War ended and the Union found their victory, about four million slaves were granted their freedom. The United States entered a period of Reconstruction (1865-1877) when the northern states attempted to reunite with the south. President Andrew Johnson publicized his proposals for the Reconstruction.
Douglass claimed that although slavery was abolished, blacks were living under a different kind of slavery after the Civil war. Discrimination and racism was prominent and there were few laws enforced. “So long as discriminatory laws ensured defacto white control over Southern blacks, then ‘slavery by yet another name’ persisted. ‘Slavery is not abolished,’ he contended, ‘until the black man has the ballot’ with which to defend his interests and freedom.” (Howard-Pitney 485). Here we see Douglass using logic in order to reach his audience.