Slavery Beyond the Civil War On December 18, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment went into effect and became part of the constitution of the United States. Newly freed slaves felt the negative effects of the amendment with harsher conditions than previously under slavery. Post-Civil War had a vision of freed slaves, but in reality, the enslavement of the black population still existed after the Thirteenth Amendment because former slave owners and politicians wanted to suppress the previously enslaved population ambitions and rights. While former slaves had the name of “freedmen”, the conditions they faced would only get worse before they would get better in the Post-Civil War “Reconstruction Period”. The vision of a society free from enslavement
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The Black Codes aimed directly at regulating the activities and behavior of blacks in the southern white society that forbade blacks from owning firearms, buying liquor, or engaging in any other trade except farming. One of the main principles behind the Black Codes was to get blacks arrested on minor infractions to convict them and have them serve time with the punishment of forced labor. This gave way to slave conditions in prisons with the start of the “convict lease system” which provided prison labor to private parties who were responsible for food, shelter, and clothing. Another tactic is the legalized beatings of blacks by many states that many former masters used this fear to their advantage to keep the newly freed slaves in line (Padrusch 2006). Former politicians from the Confederate States managed to get their prominent positions back in government and were determined to see things back the way they were. This inherently drove white supremacy to the states with terrorism, beatings, and killings by rogue white gangs in the …show more content…
Southerners took the defeat in the Civil War personally; additionally the social and economic loss of slavery only compounded the resentment. The resentment noted by a Nashville newspaper, which reported that white gangs were “riding about whipping, maiming, and killing all Negros who do not obey the orders of former masters (Henretta, Edwards and Self, 446).” Many Ex-Confederate politicians’ receive prominent positions in state governments. An example is the appointment of Andrew Stephens, the former vice president of the Confederacy, to represent Georgia in Congress. These pro-slavery politicians circumvented the Emancipation Proclamation and Thirteenth Amendment with the Black Codes that aimed at oppressing the newly freed status given to blacks (Henretta, Edwards and Self 2012, 448). An example of this is when blacks found themselves fighting for their freedom of the right to vote. In New Orleans on July 30th, 1866 two hundred Black Union Army veterans marched for the right to vote towards the Mechanics Institute where a Union of delegates where convened to debate the fate of Black suffrage. Local Ex-Confederate leaders opposed the march with an ex-rebel police force. The police force clashes with the black veterans along with the delegates resulting with an estimated fifty people killed and two hundred severely wounded when it is over. Not one arrest
The Black Codes aimed directly at regulating the activities and behavior of blacks in the southern white society that forbade blacks from owning firearms, buying liquor, or engaging in any other trade except farming. One of the main principles behind the Black Codes was to get blacks arrested on minor infractions to convict them and have them serve time with the punishment of forced labor. This gave way to slave conditions in prisons with the start of the “convict lease system” which provided prison labor to private parties who were responsible for food, shelter, and clothing. Another tactic is the legalized beatings of blacks by many states that many former masters used this fear to their advantage to keep the newly freed slaves in line (Padrusch 2006). Former politicians from the Confederate States managed to get their prominent positions back in government and were determined to see things back the way they were. This inherently drove white supremacy to the states with terrorism, beatings, and killings by rogue white gangs in the …show more content…
Southerners took the defeat in the Civil War personally; additionally the social and economic loss of slavery only compounded the resentment. The resentment noted by a Nashville newspaper, which reported that white gangs were “riding about whipping, maiming, and killing all Negros who do not obey the orders of former masters (Henretta, Edwards and Self, 446).” Many Ex-Confederate politicians’ receive prominent positions in state governments. An example is the appointment of Andrew Stephens, the former vice president of the Confederacy, to represent Georgia in Congress. These pro-slavery politicians circumvented the Emancipation Proclamation and Thirteenth Amendment with the Black Codes that aimed at oppressing the newly freed status given to blacks (Henretta, Edwards and Self 2012, 448). An example of this is when blacks found themselves fighting for their freedom of the right to vote. In New Orleans on July 30th, 1866 two hundred Black Union Army veterans marched for the right to vote towards the Mechanics Institute where a Union of delegates where convened to debate the fate of Black suffrage. Local Ex-Confederate leaders opposed the march with an ex-rebel police force. The police force clashes with the black veterans along with the delegates resulting with an estimated fifty people killed and two hundred severely wounded when it is over. Not one arrest