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Successes And Failures Of The Reconstruction Era

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The Reconstruction era was a historical time period that followed after the Civil War (Dec 8, 1863-Mar 31, 1877), in which the United States grappled with how to reconstruct society, particularly in the southern states, while integrating the newly freedmen into sociopolitical and labor systems. Although Reconstruction granted African Americans the right to certain freedoms, including the right to buy and own property, marry, make contracts, etc., it also enforced segregationist laws. The laws at the time, (those being the Jim Crow laws and Black Codes) contradicted the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments through loopholes in order to retain white supremacy. Legislators were keen on making separate arrangements for African Americans and white people that were overall inherently unequal. …show more content…

Legal arrangements that included sharecropping, essentially delivered a slavery-like structure. Landowners would rent out a plot of their land to tenants in exchange for a share of the crop, which would unknowingly trap said tenants into accumulating debt and winding up in poverty for generations to come. Without enslaved laborers, landowners were unable to farm their land, thus creating sharecropping. This labor system began declining after The Great Depression, and mechanization in the late 1930’s. The Jim Crow Era was a racial system, operating between 1877 to the mid 1960’s. Named after a black minstrel character, the set of repressive laws enforced racial segregation in southern states and legalized it. Under Jim Crow, African Americans were classified as being “inferior“ to white people, who feared

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