The Civil War was over by 1865, however, this four year long battle between the North and South left the country in ruins. To mend the broken ties, political parties proposed numerous ideas as plans to solve the issues, mainly regarding how to incorporate former slaves to society. Nonetheless, the Reconstruction Era was mostly negative for African Americans. For example, according to Document 1 it states, “...before they whipped me they offered me $5000 if I would let another man go to legislature in my place.” In other words, the group of white people bribed Abram Colby to give up his spot in Congress. After rejecting the offer, they whipped and beat Colby. Moreover, this proves that African Americans did not benefit from the Reconstruction
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On the contrary, the argument is completely invalid because although they were granted this freedom the Southerners found loopholes to the amendments thus creating the Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws, These laws restricted almost every aspect of their lives; they controlled their living conditions, marital status, seating, and much more. In addition, these laws promoted segregation; for instance, there was a separate water fountain, one for colored people and another for white people. The Southerners claimed this was “separate but equal”, but it was unequal because the white people had a better functioning, more polished water fountain than that of colored people. The Southerners wanted an excuse for being able to mistreat the African Americans because technically the government still placed a water fountain for both races, however the white water fountain was better. This situation not only applied to water fountains, it also went into voting conditions. According to the Southerners, one had to take a reading test before voting. This was entirely unfair towards the black people because they, former slaves, were illiterate. Logically, there was almost no possibility of them being able to vote. Therefore, the Reconstruction Era had a more negative impact on black people because the creation of the 13th through 15th amendments meant nothing since they were negated by the Black Codes/Jim Crow
On the contrary, the argument is completely invalid because although they were granted this freedom the Southerners found loopholes to the amendments thus creating the Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws, These laws restricted almost every aspect of their lives; they controlled their living conditions, marital status, seating, and much more. In addition, these laws promoted segregation; for instance, there was a separate water fountain, one for colored people and another for white people. The Southerners claimed this was “separate but equal”, but it was unequal because the white people had a better functioning, more polished water fountain than that of colored people. The Southerners wanted an excuse for being able to mistreat the African Americans because technically the government still placed a water fountain for both races, however the white water fountain was better. This situation not only applied to water fountains, it also went into voting conditions. According to the Southerners, one had to take a reading test before voting. This was entirely unfair towards the black people because they, former slaves, were illiterate. Logically, there was almost no possibility of them being able to vote. Therefore, the Reconstruction Era had a more negative impact on black people because the creation of the 13th through 15th amendments meant nothing since they were negated by the Black Codes/Jim Crow