How far did black people acquire rights during the Reconstruction period? Flashcards
What was Sharecropping?
-tenant farming->a system where the landlord allows a tenant to use the land in exchange for a share of the crop
What did Sharecropping encourage?
-encouraged tenants to work to produce the biggest harvest that they could and ensured they would remain tied to the land and unlikely to leave for other opportunities
What happened with Sharecropping?
-in the South, after the Civil War, many black families rented land from white owners and raised cash crops e.g. cotton
-landlords would lease equipment and offer seed, fertiliser, food, and other items on credit until the harvest season
What were the impacts of Sharecropping?
-high interest rates & unpredictable harvests often kept tenant farm families indebted, requiring the debt to be carried over until the next year or the next>can’t break free->keeping African Americans in poverty
-politically they have their rights but economically they don’t->being held back by politicians
When was Sharecropping?
-around 1865–1877
When was the Freedmen’s Bureau set up?
1865
Who was the Freedmen’s Bureau set up by? To help what?
-set up by radical republicans in congress
-to help emancipated slaves
What was the Freedmen’s Burau set up to do?
-to improve the social status of African Americans
-was to provide food, shelter, clothing, medical services, and land to displaced Southerners
-it established schools, supervised contracts between freedmen and employers, and managed confiscated or abandoned lands
What was a negative about the Freedmen’s Bureau?
-it was limited to 1 agent per 10,000-20,000 men
-education was the key priority
When the newly elected assemblies in the Southern States met, what conditions meant most went back?
-on conditions for re-entry to the Union
Who refused to ratify in the Southern states and what else did they refuse??
-almost all refused to ratify (agree to) 13th Amendment and refused to given vote to at least a proportion of the freed slaves as requested
What was the impact of the refusal to ratify the 13th Amendment?
-violence and murder was rife (widespread)->1,000 Black people killed in Texas alone between 1865-1868->500 white men indicted (accused of the murders) but none were convicted
What were the ‘Black Codes’ a precursor to?
the Jim Crow Laws
What did the ‘Black Codes’ allow?
-allowed African Americans to own property, draw up contracts, sue, attend school and marry
What did the ‘Black Codes’ forbid?
-forbade voting
-serving on a jury (meant they couldn’t stand up for themselves)
-giving evidence against a white person
-carrying arms and marrying a white person
