Sectionalism After Reconstruction

During the period of antebellum, the driving force between sectionalism in the north and south was slavery, or the ownership by whites of blacks who did their work for them and were treated like animals rather than humans. After the civil war, blacks were emancipated, or freed, and were also granted citizenship in the 14th Amendment. During the time in American history known as Reconstruction, the south was being rebuilt after the damage it took during the Civil War, and blacks were beginning to gain more legal rights and equalities that they were previously denied. Reconstruction came to an end because once African Americans were considered citizens and were no longer considered slaves people began to believe that the issue over blacks was done, so the white discrimination continued, only now legalized. After Reconstruction, the social status of African Americans fell back into the lowliness that it was before the Civil War broke out. In 1883, The Civil Rights Act of 1875 would be ruled unconstitutional, and Chief Justice Joseph Bradley held that the 14th Amendment didn’t protect African Americans from discrimination by any privately operated businesses or operations, but only from discrimination by states. In another court case, Plessy vs. Ferguson established the idea of separate but equal. While …show more content…
What happened after was the “short memory” of southerners that they went back the pre Civil War habits in their treatment of blacks, only now legal as the white population once again dominated the southern states. Even the Supreme Court began ruling in the south’s favor since they had also managed to regain political control in the country, so there was no way of stopping the tyranny that was going on against the African American population that started in