Civil Rights - FP1 - 13th Amendment

Question 1

The 13th Amendment

Answer 1

‘slavery illegal’ - passed senate apr 1864, HoR Jan 1865, Ratified Dec 1865 with bribery and pressure from supporters (despite unpop with white voters)

Question 2

13th: Why?

Answer 2

-Black soldiers crutial in civil war
-Slavery already gone with proclaimation
June 1864 convention Lincoln = amendment, Nov 1864 did well in elections - percieved as support for amendment so it was pushed
Needed to constitutionally establish illegality of slavery
Many slaves had run away so would be logistically hard to recover slavery

Question 3

Why important?

Answer 3

Transformed cotton dominated economy of south - dependent on labour
AA now had freedom of movement, control over lives
4m freedmen - legistation to improve lives began

Question 4

Effects: Abolished Slavery

Answer 4

To the South, it interfered with state powers to regulate rights
Nullified the Fugitive Slave Act Clause and the Three-Fifths Comprimise

Question 5

Effects: Transformation of economic position and sharecropping

Answer 5

$2bn worth of property (slaves) wiped from south - social tensions as slaveowners now had to negotiate contracts with ex slaves
Sharecropping - landowners provide food, tools etc and blacks labour
Land redistrubition failed and obstacles such as illeracy and lack of skills prevented AA from getting jobs other than labourer - plantation owners wanted cheap labour to replace slavery

Question 6

13th: AA Freedom

Answer 6

New freedom and mobility to search for children and family
Autonomy - to own land, to be paid, to have meetings and services
Black troops among the occupying union army
Influx to south 1865-70 doubling of black pop in big Southern cities

Question 7

AA freedoms: White Reaction

Answer 7

Violence at black people using their new fredoms - Texas indicted 500 whites for murder of AA 1865-6 none convicted
Slave owners fearful stoked by happenings abroad (Oct 1865 - governer of Jamaica killed 400 ‘rebels’)
Whites unwilling to accept equality -resentful at black confidence, the destroyed economy, union control and loss of life (13% of men military age in South had died)

Question 8

Reconstruction: Political Divisions

Answer 8

Divisions - radical Repub want vote for ex-slaves and resistance of Southern elite
Southerners believed such legeslation was against the consitution and state rights - interpretations added to ratifications of 13th undermining it

Question 9

Reconstruction: Beginnings to Johnson

Answer 9

Began Dec 1863 - proclaimation of Amnesty and reconstruction- wanted quick reconstruction - so only 10% in 1860 elections had to pledge allegiance to USA and union
Lincoln assasinated Apr 1865
Lenient Johnson means that South acted as though they hadn’t been defeated - ie Black Codes 1865-6 - to keep freedmen subordinate
Missisipi - AA could not own land, and had to have a contract to avoid punishment (also harsh in South Carolina)
Vagrancy laws - unemployed AA apprehended who could not pay a fine would be hired out to a white employer eg 74th Coloured Infrantry subject to this