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Black Americans Post-Civil War

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It is discussed that the lives of black American did not improve significantly as racism was entrenched in governments and white Americans, especially southerners. Although amendments and acts sought out to better the lives of black Americans, it did not mean they were immediately treated as equal and given rights. Black Americans had a very difficult life post-Civil War as the rest of America was not prepared to stop depriving them of their civil rights as it was beneficial to them to have black Americans kept under oppression. The abolition of slavery cost slave owners over $2 billion in property only. This severely impacted the economy as it was in crisis and white slave owners did not have any slaves to serve them on plantations. It is …show more content…

With the rise of white supremacist groups and the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) the persecution of black Americans increased as their freedom was seen as a threat to white Americans. When ex-slaves would try to flee plantations and set up their own farms, they would be lynched or murdered. In 1867, a former slave owner in Tennessee said that they continued to whip, maim and kill black Americans as if slavery still existed. The amendments and acts did not make the perception of black Americans change, by law they were regarded as equal individuals who deserved equal treatment everywhere, but in society they were still regarded as inferior and animalistic, and laws and legislation in southern states were set up to continue that ideology. The ‘Plessy vs. Ferguson’ Supreme Court case approved the ‘separate but equal’ legal segregation. There was a lack of equality in education which served as an advantage for white Americans as it meant black Americans could not pass their literacy tests to be able to vote. Family, church, and school became the centre of black Americans lives after slavery. With slavery’s abolition, black women often preferred to be homemakers, though poverty forced many back into the …show more content…

To further suppress black Americans, they would be arrested and imprisoned for the most trivial crimes or misdemeanours with very lengthy sentences, this was beneficial as the prison system in America was legalized slavery, due to the 13th Amendment. And hence the argument that their lives were not enriched, in spite of the acts and amendments put in

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