Sharecropping Thesis

The first African American leaders in the South Came from the ranks of antebellum free blacks who were joint by norther blacks to support Reconstruction. Blanche K Bruce an ex slave established a school for freedmen and in 1874 he became Mississippi’s second black U.S. senator.

The American historian Nell Painter made several comments regarding the importance of land for the freed slaves. For example: “So they (sharecroppers) saw their own land as a means of having a stake in society” (Painter para. 4). Some more proof of this is the fact that it’s also stated that due to most southerners being rural, owning land was crucial to their way of life (para. 4). The evidence shows that white farmers who formerly owned slaves felt that by allowing the slaves to own land made them independent took away a resource the farmers heavily relied upon: slave labor. To keep this from happening farmers made the sharecroppers indebted to them keeping the sharecroppers from having any money to support themselves.

Following the ending of the Civil War in 1865, America was in an era known as the Reconstruction. The Reconstruction lasted until 1877. Citizens were attempting to rebuild our nation following one of the deadliest war in American History. In this time, the Fourteenth Amendment and Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution were ratified. Although slaves were freed, African Americans still faced intense racial prejudice and discrimination. This led to continued to tensions between not only the north and south but also the blacks and the whites in America. According to The Unfinished Nation, the per capita income of African Americans increase from about one-quarter to about one-half of the per capita income of White citizens (365). Sadly certain

Although slavery was declared over after the passing of the thirteenth amendment, African Americans were not being treated with the respect or equality they deserved. Socially, politically and economically, African American people were not being given equal opportunities as white people. They had certain laws directed at them, which held them back from being equal to their white peers. They also had certain requirements, making it difficult for many African Americans to participate in the opportunity to vote for government leaders. Although they were freed from slavery, there was still a long way to go for equality through America’s reconstruction plan.

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

During the 1860s, 46% of all free blacks lived in the North. Based on that, many would have reason to believe that the North would be a safe-haven for the free black population. That would be partially true because the abolition of slavery in the North provided some protection. But even though free blacks in the North had some freedoms, blacks lived a very restricted life with little suffrage, discrimination, limits on economic opportunities, and segregation.

During the nineteenth century, the abolition of slavery did not lead to many positive changes for former slaves. This was due the fact that a majority of newly freed slaves did not achieve anything close to political equality. An example can be seen in the period of “radical reconstruction” in the southern of United States, where freed blacks were able to gain full political rights and power but it came with the harsh price of segregation laws, virulent racism, denial of voting rights along with a wave of lynching that continued into the twentieth century. The economic lives of slaves also did not improve dramatically either. With the rise of the highly dependent labor like sharecropping, it had soon replace slavery and the reluctance

the Power of the U.S Branch's Changed Depend on the President and Their Works Between 1789-1889

African-American historian W.E.B Dubois illustrated how the Civil War brought the problems of African-American experiences into the spotlight. As a socialist, he argued against the traditional Dunning interpretations and voiced opinions about the failures and benefits of the Civil War era, which he branded as a ‘splendid failure’. The impacts of Civil War era enabled African-Americans to “form their own fraternal organizations, worship in their own churches and embrace the notion of an activist government that promoted and safeguarded the welfare of its citizens.” Thus black people developed a social consensus and reached levels of social integration once hindered by the horrors of slavery. However, in his book Black Reconstruction in America (1935), Dubois observed how racial divisions amongst white and black laborers prevented them uniting against the white property-owning individuals. Ultimately, he argues

Dr. W.E.B Du Bois uses this essay to sway the audience of the insufficiency of the statements that Mr. Booker T. Washington has made about African Americans being submissive of rights and the creation of wealth. Mr. Washington believes that the black race should give up and give into what the society norms were at that time sequentially just to have a certain right. Dr. Du Bois refused to believe that the black race should give up one right to get another right. Especially, when the white South had all rights without expecting to give up anything to have those rights.

The reconstruction was said to have brought a change. However, Newly free slaves faced many challenges, and whites in the south saw blacks as way less than they did before. Black codes were introduced as a way to give people of color freedom in a constitutional form. They were unique to southern states and they each had their own variation of them. It was a way to restrict the black labor force and freed people as much of slave status as possible. The codes stated that even though people of color have some rights, they are not entitled to the same political or social equality of white people. The code stated that if a person of color made a contract for labor /service or such thing, they would be known as servants, and the one with the contract

Pertaining to the rights of African Americans a new south did not appear after the reconstruction. While they were “free” they were often treated harshly and kept in a version of economic slavery by either their former masters or other white people in power. Sharecropping and the crop-lien system often had a negative impact on both the black and white tenants keeping them in debt with the owner. Jim Crow laws, vigilantes and various means of disfranchisement became the normal way of life in the South. It was believed that white people were superior to black people and when they moved up in politics or socially they were harassed and threatened. There were various activists that held different beliefs on how to obtain equality some of which

The wrinkled old woman looked up from her pea shelling and gave me a searching look. I had asked if she knew anything about sharecropping. Our class was studying Alabama History and the teacher had instructed us to each write an essay covering one of the topics we discussed. One of the topics we discussed was sharecropping during the Great Depression. I remembered my great-grandmother saying that when she was a child her father was a sharecropper. It stirred my curiosity about them as a society, what they were like and such as that, so I chose to write my essay about Sharecropping.

The thirteenth amendment made all slaves free and made the act of owning or forcing people to work for no pay illegal, expect for criminals. This loophole was immediately exploited by the South states, whom economy was devastated due to the Civil War and the banning of slavery. Many people of color were exploited by this system and forced into prisons, where they would work to benefit southern economies, while earning little pay in the process. A rhetoric in the south that people of color were "soulless monsters out for the blood of civilized society" swept across the nation. Even people such as President Woodrow Wilson were impacted by this rhetoric, which influenced him to make segregation legal in the government. He has known as quoting "segregation is not a disadvantage, but a benefit." This idea allowed people of color to be oppressed by the US government and the future administrations Truman, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, and Bush (Sr. and Jr.) did not help. All in all, most issues with modern American society

At the time of the Civil War, land was destroyed in the south due to the war being fought in the area. So, there came the Reconstruction era were the government worked on getting the land back to a working economy. Land was hard to come by in the south around this time, so the newly freed people were left without land to live off of. To provide for themselves, many had to work as laborers on white-owned land to earn a living. In a sense they were basically already doing this, tending to the farm land when they were slaves, though now they are actually collecting an earning for their hard work. While some of them worked for wages, others felt that it was best for them to rent out the land.