Post-Civil War Reconstruction: African American Journey to Freedom

After the abolishment of slavery at the conclusion of the Civil War in April of 1865, the United States saw an influx of new laws and policies that were meant to ensure the easy settlement of the freed slave. From earning the right to have full citizenship to gaining the right to vote, the decades after the Civil War proved to be essential for the African American especially for the men. Although there were many obstacles originated from deep rooted racism and classicism, a new legal race still managed to emerge. Yet, in order to fully understand how the African American race went from slave to a successful and free race, one must look at the political and social climate that was occurring after the Civil War. What laws were at the forefront

A large population of people had just become free but the real matter at hand centered on survival. Since they were not yet legal citizens, the freed slaves still had to rely heavily on those around them and such solution to their economic plight was sharecropping. At first, this concept would have been beneficial to freed slaves and their quest for freedom but it quickly became an obstacle. From the textbook The Enduring Vision, sharecropping is “the most widespread arrangement, evolved as a compromise. Under the sharecropping system, landowners’ subdivided large plantations into farms of thirty to fifty acres, which they rented to freedmen….Freedmen preferred sharecropping to wage labor because it represented a step toward independence…Planters often spoke of sharecropping as a concession, but they benefitted, too. They retained power over tenants” (Boyer, pg. 485, The Crises of Reconstruction). In spite of this feeling of independence, tenants were still at the mercy of the landlords because they could be evicted at a moment’s notice. In addition to the possibility of expulsion, many farmers became trapped within their contracts with the landowner demanding more each year. In some cases, the farmers never were able to get of debt. Such unfairness in modern times could be avoided but with little legislation in place to protect freedmen, many suffered. In spite of programs like the Freedmen’s Bureau (program dedicated to helping freed blacks become established) and guaranteed wages through black codes, there was not much impact on the free man’s everyday life until the latter half of the 1860’s with the passage of the fourteenth