Reconstruction: A Rebuilding of the People
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Reconstruction: A Rebuilding of the People
Reconstruction was a very murky era in American history. Fredrick Douglass claimed that “to change the character of the government is neither possible nor desirable” (Douglass). America was changing, and had to account for its entire new freed people. After the Civil War, and the signing of the 13th amendment, America suddenly had four million more Americans although the citizenship of these former slaves was questioned. The freedom of these former slaves was shaped by the slaves themselves but also by the other people of the nation. The newly freed African Americans expected a great deal of freedom. During Reconstruction, southern whites were agitated by the freedom of the slaves and lashed out against them. The federal government had to step up in some cases and try to protect these former slaves. The concept of freedom changed many times for the former slaves but one thing remained the same, they were free people after generations of oppression in America.
The expectations of freedom from former slaves had no radical views or dreams; they simply wanted the same rights and privileges that were bestowed upon the white men of the society. These people wanted simply to go to public parks and ride on public steamboats and things of the sort. Gaining their freedom had the African Americans expecting that any establishment with the word public, they would be welcomed. They wanted no special rights; they only wanted the same rights as everyone else in the country. For many blacks, it was a priority to land industrial or clerical work. They believed this was a way to achieve a greater social and economic status. When it came down to it, the blacks wanted a chance to prove themselves to the white people. It was often a priority of the people to enter this type of employment to disregard the myth that black people could only do menial jobs (Williams 328). When thinking of freedom, most African Americans thought they would have their own land. This happened for a number of former slaves, but to say every freed slave bought land would be incorrect. Many freed slaves were forced to still work on former slaveholders land, but under a labor contract. The most important aspect of freedom to the former slaves was the institution of slavery. Education was the number one priority of the former slaves; they wanted their children to be educated. Many of these schools were constructed in the black churches basement. There were soon black schools being run successfully by the black people themselves. The former slaves were able to successfully reach this goal of education by the aid of the North, but ultimately by their own will to have their children educated (Williams 377).
Obviously with the recent freeing of the slaves, some backlash would appear upon the freedmen. Southern whites did it all up to murder, mugging, fighting, arson, etc. Southern whites did not want to see the black man rise up to equal power of that of the white man. The only things southern whites could do were to try to beat the black men back down into what the whites thought were their rightful spots. The southern whites truly believed that “slaves were unprepared for freedom” and that they would not know what to do with it when they obtained it (Foner 81). A quote by Alabama politician Henry Clayton, “We are the only people in the world who understand his character, and hence, the only people in the world of managing him” (Williams 472). To begin with, some slaveholders never even told their slaves that they were freed. Many of the slaves had no idea they were legally free until a government agent read the doctrine to them face to face several months later. Many of the slaveholders conned their slaves into signing contracts for many more years after the war had passed. A way southern whites kept down the freedmen was by passing the Black Codes which greatly resembled the old slave codes. The Black Codes basically granted the free blacks nothing at all. They could not participate in juries or the running of offices. They also could not quit jobs voluntarily, sounds a lot like slavery. Worst of all were the vagrancy laws which were just absurd. A black man could be arrested for simply wandering around when “he is able to do work”. This harsh treatment of the freedmen caught the attention of the federal government.
The Republicans ran the government during this era in American history, and they were the ones who freed to slaves. Obviously with southern whites being agitated by the 13th amendment, the federal government would have to try to protect these former slaves. Some freedmen emigrated north, but every freedman from the south simply could not make it to the north. This put the former slaves in a hostile environment when legally they were free.