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The Position of African Americans in 1865 (White Reaction and…
The Position of African Americans in 1865
Position in 1865
13th Amendment
wrote emancipation into the constitution,
4 million
African American slaves turned into
freedmen
Free, but far from equal
Could move from the plantations and farms of previous owners but had no resources and faced white hostility
Share Cropping
Struggled to work out how to make their living
Turned to
sharecropping
where previous owners allowed slaves to work the land for a share of the produce.
Although free from punishment, they often had to work long hours for little reward
Reconstruction
President
Andrew Johnson
was unsympathetic to improving conditions for African Americans
Congress
however was full of
Republicans
who wanted to carry out reforms in the South to help
Congress
Annoyed at Southern States for passing discriminatory
Black Codes
once readmitted to the Union. The codes restricted rights (like voting) and allowed attacks on African Americans
Set up the
Freedmen's Bureau
Promoted welfare and education amongst African Americans throughout America, especially directed at the South
Also helped develop businesses for African Americans
14th
and the
15th
Amendment
14th
Amendment gave equal protection from the law
15th
Amendment gave African American's the right to vote
1866
Civil Rights Act
Declared that
all persons
born in the US
were citizens
. Race, religion or previous servitude (slave or not) did not matter
More
radical changes in this period than
any other
period up to the
1960s
White Reaction and Discrimination
Increasingly hostile and extreme
Joined groups such as the
KKK
(Ku Klux Klan)
Local groups terrorised African Americans,
lynching
and
murdering
them to stop them
exercising their rights
1868,
2,000
deaths and injuries in Louisiana alone
US govt had to deploy troops to suppress disorder, but a precedent was set that carried on well into the 20th Century
White violence became acceptable in the South and a part of life
No
acceptance of African American's as citizens
despite
the 1866 Civil Rights Act
Little economic equality between white and blacks
Violence and punishment enforced to
prevent
sexual interactions between
white and blacks
Civil Rights
theoretically
established, the only time the rights were enforced however was under strong military presence and federal determination
Hayes-Tilden Compromise 1877
Federal Government pull troops from the South.
African American rights were eroded by poor economic conditions
Situation became pre-Civil War, South regulated its own affairs