Reconstruction Era: Free But Not Equal

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The Reconstruction era was a time of enormous political complications with expansive results. We learn that it was the end of the suffering of an entire people. So much was promised to African Americans after the civil war. For formerly enslaved people, freedom meant an end to the whip, to the sale of family members, and to white masters. The promise of freedom held out the hope of self-determination, educational opportunities, and full rights of citizenship. But it was not so simple.

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Reconstruction was a period when Americans waged a sustained debate over who was an American, what rights should all Americans enjoy, and what rights would only some Americans possess. In short, Americans engaged in a strenuous debate about the nature of freedom and equality. And the promise was sold short. The main rationale of the reconstruction era had been to guarantee the freedmen their rights and fabricate another South out of the ashes. Although the immediate effect of these provisions was quite profound, such rights were violated which made African Americans free but not equal.

There was an arrangement of laws that were expected to lift African Americans.

However, politicians and people alike from the south disregarded these laws. There was no uniformity enacted because there was no risk of punishment. The federal enactment was lost, the inescapable truth is that government policy at state and local levels violated federal laws mandating equal protection with the purpose of establishing a pernicious racial system. Take the black laws of 1865 which targeted “negros” They were a series of legal codes that had hindered the freedom of any African Americans.

Codes that had later developed to the Jim Crow Laws that prohibited the freedom of African Americans even after the Emancipation Proclamation. The laws were a way of regulating the lives of free slaves. Codes included barring African Americans from voting or holding elected office, limiting property rights and job opportunities, and restricting movement from small towns and farms into cities. Free People could not assert themselves and gain independence because these codes were so restricting.

The existence of black codes can be taken as evidence that African Americans remained slaves despite the emancipation. Although these black codes were to be extinguished after the 14th amendment had passed, its effects and harsh followings continued. white southerners were committed to ensuring their supremacy and the survival of plantation agriculture in the postwar years. African Americans were stripped from their ‘lawfully’ given voice. Despite the 15th amendment being passed which stated that the " right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." which granted them political equality. African Americans were silenced. There was a continuous push so African Americans would not vote. Robert Gleeds, an African American candidate for sheriff in Lowndes County, Mississippi, described goes over a traumatic experience “In the latter part of the canvas the young men had a cannon and pistols, very much like an army.

The election was wound up on the 2nd of November and on the night before in our city three buildings were set on fire and four men killed. Most of the colored people were run out of their houses during the night. It was the worst time we have ever had as far as an election was concerned.” Many alike Rober Gleeds faced the wrath of the KKK as well as other southern forgeries. Black civil rights leaders faced struggles overcoming legal and economic limits to equality because they were faced with violence that persisted. Despite the fact that financial changes, redistribution of land, and implementation of laws would have aided the development and quality of the African Americans that change could never be acknowledged by a lot of the south. After the war whites recaptured political power and guaranteed their authority over blacks, whom they saw to be inferior. They utilized laws to escape clauses and demonstrations of violence to deny blacks equality e.Federal laws objective was to stifle blacks, who they felt had gotten too much, and recover what they accepted to be a white-only government. The restoration of state-level legislative permitted state governments to execute and mutilated justice. “

Southern Planters along the coast of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida and give it to freedpeople in Forty Acre plots. Under President Johnson's reconstruction policies most of that land was taken from freedpeople and returned to its original owners later that year” Henry Bram a man from South Carolina land which was rightfully his. Eric Foner the author of Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 goes over the basics of what rights to consider and what rights were granted by the Reconstruction era. Foner says “There's political equality, which is the right to vote. There's civil equality, which is equality before the law. And then there's this kind of realm, this vague realm called social equality.” what was given to Freed People. The 15th amendment gives Freedpeople the right to vote. The 14th gave the rights of a citizen and granted them equality.

Were the promises given enough did it mean that Freedpeople were equal because it was stated in a paper? As a citizen you are guaranteeing life, liberty, equality, and security, human rights protect people against abuse by those who are more powerful. Freedpeople were not given this political, civil, or social equality. The unpreventable truth is that it wasn't so easy. Racial Tension still existed in the south. The government strategized at a state level to disregarded federal laws with the reason for setting up a vindictive racial framework. Although the emancipation of proclamation was in place freedpeople were fugitives of laws set in place and of violent south which often did not permit them of living their rightfully given rights.

Reconstruction Era: Free But Not Equal

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