After the Civil War, America was in shambles. The country needed to be rebuilt and become united. Southern states who seceded before the war would now have to come back to the Union. The period of Reconstruction lasted from 1863 to 1877. During this time, slavery was abolished and Amendments were added to the Constitution to ensure that African-Americans had rights. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments attempted to give African-Americans the rights they deserved, however these Amendments created hostility amongst white southerners. This hostility caused a major social divide between white southerners and African-Americans.
Reconstruction proved to be a difficult transition for newly freed slaves. These freedmen needed to find work to support their families. It was hard for former slaves and their families to assimilate into society because hatred surrounded them. They did not have many skills, in fact the only thing they knew how to do was farm and harvest crops. In order to support their families, these freedmen became sharecroppers. Landowners gave sharecroppers land, a house, and supplies for harvesting crops. Because they had no money, the only payment sharecroppers could offer was their labor. Sharecroppers hoped that enough of their crops would be sold so there would be no outstanding debt. Often times, sharecroppers worked on the same land in which they were enslaved. This led to tensions between ex-masters and former slaves since the former slaves used to be property, but now they had to learn coexist. It was hard for the ex-masters to see these freedmen as anything other than property.
The 13th amendment infuriated slave owners as it stated the abolishment of all enslaved persons. Because of their hatred, landowners would use cunning tactics to ensure they kept control of their former slaves for a longer time. For example, these landowners would adjust the numbers to keep to the sharecropper indebted to them as they had control of selling the crops and keeping records of who owed debt. This would turn into never ending cycle of which the freedman and their families could never escape. Sharecroppers who tried to escape the tyranny of landowners would be caught and jailed for failing to pay their debts. This was a faulty system because the 14th Amendment allowed equal protection and rights for African-Americans so that they wouldn’t be taken advantage of. Clearly, sharecropping became an unjust cycle that needed to broken.
Hatred continued to grow among bitter southerners which resulted in the formation of hate groups. An organization known as the Ku Klux Klan, established in 1865, consisted of white southerners who loathed the fact that African-Americans were now free. This group frequently terrorized African-Americans, “…the Ku Klux Klan riding nightly…. going from county to county…. spreading terror wherever they go by robbing, whipping, ravishing, and killing our people….”. The Ku Klux Klan ignored the 14th Amendment rights of African-Americans. This amendment provided equal protection under the law to all citizens. Southern states did not acknowledge the 14th Amendment since African-Americans were once considered property. White southerners felt outraged they should have to coexist with freedmen that were once their slaves.
African-Americans made their best efforts to coexist with the bigoted white southerners, “…. We would state that we have been law-abiding citizens, pay our taxes, and in many parts of the state people have been driven from the polls, refused the right to vote….”. According to the 15th Amendment, freedmen were given the privilege to vote, however the KKK and other hate groups wanted to take away this right.
The Freedman’s Bureau was designed to protect African-Americans during this time of reconstruction. It offered assistance to former slaves and aimed protect their new citizenship. This bureau was established by Congress in 1865, a few months before Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant. The Freedman’s Bureau was the only agency that freedman and their families could rely on for assistance as it provided medical care and an education system.Although the concept of the bureau was positive, it lasted only four years. The Freedman’s Bureau failed for many reasons. The 14th amendment insured free slaves had equal protection and rights under the law. However, African-Americans were taken advantage of as sharecropping became inevitably oppressive. Sharecropping became a toxic cycle because landowners could never accept that African-Americans were equal to them.
The 14th Amendment attempted to force plantation owners and former slaves to coexist, however this was not possible if white southerners treated freedman unfairly, “….it failed to establish good will between ex-masters and freedman; to guard its work wholly from paternalistic methods that discouraged self-reliance; to make Negroes landholders in any considerable numbers….”. The Freedman’s Bureau was the only agency that could help to enforce freedman’s civil rights. However, due to corrupt local agents freedmen never stood a chance. Thus, The Freedman’s Bureau did not offer the assistance needed.
Therefore, the rift between African-Americans and white southerners became intensified through the creation of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. After the introduction of these Amendments, African-Americans suffered fierce racial prejudice. This intense hatred led to the negative social treatment of these people for many years. In addition, the message of “separate but equal” created inescapable social scorn for African-Americans. African-Americans would never be truly equal until the Brown v. Board of Ed court case which deemed separate schools for blacks and whites to be unconstitutional.
