Sharecropping Vs Reconstruction

During the Reconstruction Period following the Civil War, Radical Republicans dominated the American political sphere. Radical Republicans occupied the majority of seats in Congress, the presidency, and even state legislatures throughout the former Confederate states excluding Tennessee. With almost unchecked power in their grasps, the Radical Republicans strove to completely reconstruct the South by eliminating the differences between the South and the North. However, the Radical Republican attempts at reconstruction did not succeed. Life did not improve for the freedmen in the South, North-South tensions increased, and the Reconstruction proved to be very ephemeral. Though the Radical Republicans passed several acts aimed at protecting …show more content…
However, during the period of the radical reconstruction, a system called sharecropping became prevalent in the South. In this system, the freedmen were tied to the land until all apparent debts had been paid off, often through manual labor. The freedmen did not have many liberties, due to the fact that if they were to stop working or be fired, they would have no means to feed themselves. This was a major issue because though the Radical Republicans aimed to radically change the lifestyle in the South, the practice of sharecropping proved to be very similar to the practice of slavery, the difference being the mere title of being free or restricted. While the Republican party dominated the state legislatures in the South largely due to the votes from the freedmen, controversial acts in the process of Radical Reconstruction gave rise to resistance groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. The whippings, beatings, lynchings, intimidation, and the shootings inflicted on the …show more content…
After the Democrats obtained the majority in the state legislatures of the Southern states, many of the acts that were enacted by the Radical Republicans during the reconstruction had been repealed or modified. The strenuous efforts that the Radical Republicans put in had been reverted back to its initial stages. Several Supreme Court Decisions in 1876 deemed many of the Reconstruction Acts as unconstitutional, and even the Civil Rights Act of 1875 had been deemed unconstitutional. For many years the freedmen benefited some from the rule of the Radical Republicans in the South. They were relatively well taken care of, and it was possible to obtain a job. However, with the change in regimes from the Radical Republican party to the Democratic party, the freedmen had lost that source of nourishment. They had to protect themselves from the Democrats who regarded the freedmen very poorly. Consequently thousands of freedmen migrated to Western territories to look for more opportunities with limited restrictions. If the Radical Reconstruction did remake the South, then its effects should have remained long after the end of the reconstruction, yet a majority of its works were replaced by other enactments within a very short time. Its unsustainability is one of the most significant reasons why Radical Reconstruction failed in its objective to remake the