Reconstruction: White Men Vs. African-Americans

Baseline Document Based Essay During Reconstruction, there were arguments between both Southern groups. It has been argued that the white men were victims rather than the African-Americans, however, that is not the case. Upon the abolition of slavery, African-Americans were deemed “free men,” but were not treated in that manner. They were deprived of representation in government, they were paid less than white men, they were given “inferior supplies and weapons” while going to war, and they were expected to all have consistent jobs or else they would be fined and imprisoned for no more than ten days. The African-Americans of the South were victimized by white men during Reconstruction. After the Civil War, freed African-Americans were left with absolutely nothing. They were sent out from their old plantations without a roof over their head or food in their mouths. Freed slaves resolved to poking holes into the ground to plant crops that …show more content…
However, their expectations were not met. Aside from not being able to take part in government, as of November 1865, any “freedmen, freed negroes, and mulattoes in this state [Mississippi], over the age of eighteen years, found on the second of Monday in January 1866, or thereafter, with no lawful employment or business, or found unlawfully assembling themselves together, either in the day or night time shall be deemed vagrants, and on conviction thereof shall be fined a sum not exceeding fifty dollars and imprisonment at the discretion of the court not exceeding ten days.” The state of Mississippi had passed a law saying that any newly freed man found without a job or some sort of business would be fined and imprisoned for no longer than ten