“Reconstruction was a complete bust,” declared an enraged and overworked historian. “African Americans were no better off in late nineteenth-century America than they had been as slaves before the Civil War, and white southerners simply ignored federal laws and retained full control of the region.”
Analyze this claim by examining the effects of Emancipation and Reconstruction on former African American slaves and the South as a whole from 1860-1877. Were any southern residents better off in 1877 than in 1860?
Many slaves had a difficult time adjusting to life after the war. The end of slavery in the South was often followed by sharecropping, violence and discrimination.
World War I had a negative effect on African-American workers who were removed from their jobs and replaced with white soldiers.
The duration of segregation remained long past Reconstruction.
In 1877, southern residents were better off than in 1860 because there was no more slavery and because some southern Americans were able to vote for the first time (Mauldin, 2018).
The Freedman’s Bureau, the federal agency that helped African American veterans, helped some former slaves find work and housing. It also taught them how to read and write.
The Bureau also registered voters (who were mostly former slaves) so that they could vote for the first time. Many problems remained for southern residents in 1877, but if a person was black, he or she had a better chance of getting ahead than in 1860.
Attitudes towards blacks in the South changed during Reconstruction. Confederates, who supported slavery and the Confederacy, feared that former slaves would not accept class distinctions like white people.
During Reconstruction, these fears were realized. Former slaves were often treated as second-class citizens. In some southern towns and villages, blacks lived in separate neighborhoods. Many prominent whites in the South disliked Reconstruction and considered it a threat to their society (Darity , 2020).
The South lost most of its political power during the war. All Southern states except Tennessee and Virginia were occupied by Union troops, and the states had to form provisional governments that could not levy taxes.
Reconstruction lasted from 1865 to 1877, when a compromise ended the federal occupation of the South.
During this period, the Republican Party controlled Congress. Republicans wanted to help the former slaves and believed that blacks should have a political voice in the South.
They also believed that former Confederate leaders, who had led the South into rebellion and kept Africans in a state of slavery, should not control the region.
The Southern states created new constitutions that protected basic civil rights for African Americans. The new constitutions provided equal education for all races and equal treatment under the law.
They set up public schools so that African-American children could get an education outside of the home.
The constitutions also established new governments that required all citizens to register with local officials.
The leaders of the new governments were African Americans who had been elected to office in the South during Reconstruction. Republicans believed that these public officials had better moral judgment than Confederate leaders, and they appointed many blacks to high-ranking positions.
Some blacks were appointed as sheriffs, state governors, and military officers. Many white southerners objected to black leaders being put in such positions of authority, and they wanted them removed from office.
The South struggled under Republican control, and it became increasingly violent.
White southerners believed that African Americans did not deserve any rights at all, and they opposed black political leaders. They also resented the way that congressional Republicans and the federal army treated white southerners (Ekama, et al., 2021).
White citizens of the South still wanted to keep black slaves and refused to allow them to vote or hold office. In 1877, whites were able to get their way when a compromise ended Reconstruction in the South.
By 1860, most slaves in the South were living in urban areas. During the Civil War, most of these African Americans were forced to live in areas that had been restricted by the Confederate government.
After Emancipation, many freed slaves settled in towns and on plantations near their former owners. Some chose to follow families who had moved to other locations before the war or choose the land of their own.
African-American men did not fight for the Confederacy during the Civil War, so they received no benefits from this period of violence. Some African-American women did help their families by taking care of children and doing chores in the homes.
Many fought on the other side during the Civil War and received benefits from this period of violence. Many former slaves had relatives who were Confederate soldiers and they also received benefits from this period of violence.
Between 1860 and 1877, many former slaves in the South were able to find good jobs as laborers, farmhands, servants, or housewives. Some even had successful businesses.
Others struggled to get by and often lived in poverty. African Americans were included in the workforce at the beginning of Reconstruction, but they found that they were paid less than white workers. Some blacks became sharecroppers, which means that they were given land to farm in exchange for a share of the produce each year.
Sharecropping became more common after 1865 as well as it offered jobs for former slaves who lacked skills and education.
African Americans also were hired by railroads, which hired many workers during the late 1860s. Families of former slaves quickly moved to towns and cities, where they became part of a growing African-American middle class.
In the 1870s, blacks worked in all areas of the South, including as doctors, teachers, and musicians. Some African Americans owned businesses and land in the South.
African-American women continued to work as laborers and domestic servants after Emancipation. During the late 1860s, African-American women started working as teachers and nurses.
By the 1870s, many black women were working as seamstresses and domestic servants. Some had skills that gave them a higher status than other blacks.
Life for black men also improved after Emancipation. During the Civil War, many black men became soldiers for the Confederacy.
This was a very dangerous job for black men during this time period because neither side respected their rights as soldiers or kept them away from danger.
References
Mauldin E. S. (2018). Unredeemed land : an environmental history of civil war and emancipation in the cotton south. Oxford University Press.
Darity W. A. & Mullen A. K. (2020). From here to equality : reparations for black americans in the twenty-first century. University of North Carolina Press. Retrieved October 24 2022 from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=2384838.
Ekama, K., Fourie, J., Heese, H., & Martin, L. C. (2021). When cape slavery ended: introducing a new slave emancipation dataset. Explorations in Economic History, 81, 101390.