Freedom is the right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Everyone in the world has the right to do whatever they want whenever they want, without having to answer to nobody. Unfortunately there was a time when African Americans were enslaved to work fields by the white man. But thanks to the civil war freedom was blessed onto them. The Reconstruction Era was a time of rebuilding the aftermath of the civil war. The war that was fought for the freedom of the slaves and for them to gain rights was a brutal war that lasted four long years. Even though the war was won and over, the African Americans still felt like their freedom was not fully there. They were free but had no way to start their own lifestyle. Without
The Constitution of the United States and the amendments that follow established the founding principles of our country. After the north won the civil war, Reconstruction began in the south and several new laws and amendments were passed to support racial equality. In 1865, the 13th Amendment was passed, which resulted in slavery being abolished. These newly freed men were made many promises. Among them were the promises of political, social, and economic justice. It seemed as though these promises would be kept as violating them was deemed illegal and unconstitutional. For example, the 14th Amendment granted social justice for all men, which was not allowed to be abridged by a state. Also, the 15th Amendment was passed, which gave African
They were now able to reestablish their families, become wage laborers or sharecroppers, establish schools to learn how to read and write. The best part about their rights was having the opportunity to participate in in politics. After the war, many African Americans were either political leaders or served as state legislator while several of them were delegates who participated in political conventions. The outcome to all of this? Prejudice and discrimination. For example, many white Americans in the South were against the idea that slavery was over. They couldn’t believe that they weren’t superior anymore and that Africans Americans had the same rights as them. So, many white Americans did their best to limit many African Americans rights. For example, new Southern States legislatures used “black codes” to limit many African Americans voting right. Besides that, the Ku Klux Klan intimidated many blacks and they either harassed them or caused violence and destruction. At the end, no matter what white Americans would do to belittle African Americans, it still doesn’t change the fact that many African Americans roles after the Civil War changed because they were now
African Americans weren’t actually free during Reconstruction because they were initially not accorded the full rights of citizenship under the constitution, they were forced into submission by violence and intimidation, and were abridged the rights they had later gained by Black Codes.
According to document 3, digital history, growth of the African-American population in 2016 the claim shows that when the population of African-Americans have increased so have the number of slaves that are African Americans over 40 years, this shows that this group of people were treated unfairly because more and more people have became slaves other that free men. The number has increased by over 2 million African-American slaves over 40 years This is just one way to show that they did not have equal political, social, or economical rights as free men. Also according to document 4 Charles Mackay, life and Liberty in America: or sketches of a tour in the United States and Canada in 1857-1858 London 1859. ”We shall not make the black man a slave; we shall not buy him or sell him; but we shall not associate with him.” Through his observation he was able to see that even free men were not treated equally like the Declaration was meant to do. they had no social rights and no one in the north would talk to them even if they were free men their political, social, and economical rights were threatened in the North. Finally according to document 5 anti-slavery Almanac, a northern free man enslaved by Northern hands 1839, this picture depicts how free free black man was attacked and brought into slavery when he shouldn't have been. “Peter John
African Americans played a major role in the causes and effects of the Civil War. Between 1861 and 1870, African American slaves went from being the reason why the war started to changing the nation to allow more rights for blacks.
An increase of freedom for slaves took place during the Reconstruction era which occurred twelve years after the Civil War. There was attempt to reconstruct the South which was ended in 1877 by the South. The South was filled with white supremacist, known as the Klu Klux Klan, that opposed Reconstruction and rights toward Freedmen. A Military Reconstruction Act passed to make sure African American’s new rights were protected. The 13th Amendment ended slavery and the 14th Amendment gave African Americans citizenship and civil rights. The South killed reconstruction by killing the ones who were in favor and in charge of reconstruction.
“Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth” (Abraham). The United States of America went through many changes at the conclusion of the Civil War. The never ending evolution of our nation was certainly moving at a very fast pace. During the years of 1861 - 1865 the Civil War was taking place on the grounds of the United States. The war was a battle between the north and south, due to the controversial topic of slavery. As we know, the concluding factor of the war, left the north in victory. This created a massive amount of changes to be made in American society. Although slavery was abolished during this time, other challenges arose during the reconstruction era in the south. I strongly argue that, through the result of the
“I saw over twelve colored men and women, beat, shot and hung between there and Shreveport,” former slave Henry Adams writes. After the Civil War, the legal institution of slavery was abolished unless used as a just punishment. Additionally, these “freedmen” were naturalized and made citizens of the United States which allegedly granted them equal protections, whatever color or race, would have; and, they were granted black male suffrage. Some may argue that African Americans were free after the Civil War for the obvious reasons of a document stating so. However, African Americans were not free post-Antebellum era because they were deprived of their rights as “Americans citizens” through the institution Black Codes and the continuation of
The Civil War had also been fought over what should the states that should be able to own slaves or not to own slaves that were in slavery. In which it had also been in the time that was when Abraham Lincoln had been trying to create the Reconstruction. The Reconstruction also had made to be redressed in the inequities of slavery, which had made the eleven southern states wanting to secede from the Union. At the Union level it had hoped to be creating new laws and new constitutional amendments that would be altering the federal system and the American citizenship. Which had made the Republicans being able to convince that of former slaves should be earned the equal rights that had been required in the south readmission to the Union. In Abraham Lincoln's last speech that had been before his assassination was that of him expressing the views of the african americans of how they had fought with the Union and should have had the right to vote. The Reconstruction also had the government being able to manage the african americans affairs of the expunging from enacting the black codes from Andrew Johnson's policies. Soon in the year of 1866, the southern states electors passed the Freedmen's Bureau and the Civil Rights Bill. The Freedmen’s Bureau was to be able to extend the agency Congress to oversee the
A common misconception of the Civil War is that when it was finally over, people think that all the African Americans were immediately freed and they lived happily for the rest of their lives. Well, that is not quite accurate, as there were many things that had occurred during the time right after the American Civil War, known as the Reconstruction Era. This includes the the numerous laws and institutions that were put forth to help African Americans, such as the Reconstruction amendments. Many white Americans, especially those from the south, had opposed the idea of giving blacks the same opportunities and rights as they were given.
Thus all slave owners were obligated to let their slaves go or provide a salary for working on the plantations. Because this meant no free labor, Southern states passed laws known as the Black Codes. Their intended purpose was to restrict the freedom of African Americans and scam to compel jobless former slaves to work for former slave owners for low wages or to pay off debt. Southerners used a system called “sharecropping” where African Americans were forced to sign yearly contracts and pay rent for a chunk of land that cost more than what they received from the products produced. This caused a large amount of African Americans to work for free in order to pay off these debts. This basically took that sense of freedom from the African American man because they were still treated like slaves, except it was legal. So African Americans are still viewed the same way as before and not free men and they knew that. Nothing had really changed for African
Reconstruction was when the federal government was setting the rules that would let the rebellious Southerners back into the union. The goal of Reconstruction was to restore the union so the South would not secede again. In order for Lincoln to do that, he 'd have to make a few new and changes to the laws so that the South would want to come back serenely. One of the biggest things he and Congress created was the 13th amendment which would completely abolish slavery and that was the beginning of restoration. But were African Americans really free?
The founding fathers of the United States built America on the ideals of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, and this applied to each and every person living in the country- not only to a specific racial group. Slavery was abolished with the defeat of the Southern Confederacy in the Civil War, leading to the Era of Reconstruction, in which the primary focus was to reunite the nation and promote of rights of former slaves. Africans Americans were not as free as Whites during this period. Although African Americans were free individuals during the reconstruction period, they did not have complete freedom as their rights were extremely limited due to mistreatment from punishment, segregation, and racism by white supremacists.
The Reconstruction period was terrible for many people, but most of all the freedmen had it worse than anyone else. The freedmen had multiple different laws, first before the civil war there was the Slave Codes, then during Reconstruction there was the Black Codes and after that came the Jim Crow Laws. All three set of laws were terrible but the Black codes were worse than the Slave Codes and the Jim Crow Laws.