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Ku Klux Klan in the Reconstruction Era

Ku Klux Klan in the Reconstruction Era

14th Amendment | Constitution | US Law Amendment XIV Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. Section 4. Section 5.

Reconstruction - American Civil War At the outset of the Civil War, to the dismay of the more radical abolitionists in the North, President Abraham Lincoln did not make abolition of slavery a goal of the Union war effort. To do so, he feared, would drive the border slave states still loyal to the Union into the Confederacy and anger more conservative northerners. By the summer of 1862, however, the slaves themselves had pushed the issue, heading by the thousands to the Union lines as Lincoln’s troops marched through the South. Emancipation changed the stakes of the Civil War, ensuring that a Union victory would mean large-scale social revolution in the South.

Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877) The Civil War (1861-65) was perhaps the most momentous event in American history. The survival of the United States as one nation was at risk, and on the outcome of the war depended the nation's ability to bring to reality the ideals of liberty, equality, human dignity, and justice. Abraham Lincoln's election to the presidency in 1860 brought to a climax the long festering debate about the relative powers of the federal and the state governments. By the time of his inauguration, six Southern states had seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, soon to be followed by five more. The war that followed between North and South put constitutional government to its severest test. After four bloody years of war, the Union was preserved, four million African American slaves were freed, and an entire nation was released from the oppressive weight of slavery. As important as the war itself was the tangled problem of how to reconstruct the defeated South.

Carpetbaggers & Scalawags - American Civil War In general, the term “carpetbagger” refers to a traveler who arrives in a new region with only a satchel (or carpetbag) of possessions, and who attempts to profit from or gain control over his new surroundings, often against the will or consent of the original inhabitants. After 1865, a number of northerners moved to the South to purchase land, lease plantations or partner with down-and-out planters in the hopes of making money from cotton. At first they were welcomed, as southerners saw the need for northern capital and investment to get the devastated region back on its feet. They later became an object of much scorn, as many southerners saw them as low-class and opportunistic newcomers seeking to get rich on their misfortune.

The Civil Rights Bill of 1866 | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives Image courtesy of Library of CongressA New York state politician for more than a decade, Representative Henry Raymond served only one term in the House of Representatives.

The Carpetbagger - Civil War - Brief History of Carpetbags and Carpetbaggers With the rapid expansion of railroads in the 1840’s and 1850’s . Ordinary people were traveling in large numbers, and there was an need for cheap luggage ,so thousands of carpetbags were manufactured. They were made by saddle makers in many town and cities and were many sizes and shape. By the 1860’s carpetbags were carried by all most everyone, Men, Women, well to do , middle class and not so well to do. During the civil war Reconstruction Period (1865-1870) many people for the Northern States went South because it was so poor that there many opportunities for a person with money even a little money.

TENANT FARMING AND SHARECROPPING When the Civil War ended, the big question concerned the state of the freed slaves of the South. Recovery of the southern economy depended on getting the freedmen back into the cotton fields. During the period of Reconstruction the Radical Republicans in Congress tried to convert the freedmen into small free-holding farmers, but the former slaves were simply not ready to manage their own farms. What emerged out of necessity was southern farm tenancy, a system of near slavery without legal sanctions. Instead of working in gangs as they had on antebellum plantations, the freedmen became tenants. The planter or landowner assigned each family a small tract of land to farm and provided food, shelter, clothing, and the necessary seeds and farm equipment. In the decades after Reconstruction tenancy and sharecropping became the way of life in the Cotton Belt. As farm tenancy grew, a tenancy ladder evolved. Between 1900 and 1910 the numbers of white tenants doubled. BIBLIOGRAPHY: David E.

Sharecropping | Slavery By Another Name Bento After the Civil War, former slaves sought jobs, and planters sought laborers. The absence of cash or an independent credit system led to the creation of sharecropping. Sharecropping is a system where the landlord/planter allows a tenant to use the land in exchange for a share of the crop. This encouraged tenants to work to produce the biggest harvest that they could, and ensured they would remain tied to the land and unlikely to leave for other opportunities. In the South, after the Civil War, many black families rented land from white owners and raised cash crops such as cotton, tobacco, and rice. High interest rates, unpredictable harvests, and unscrupulous landlords and merchants often kept tenant farm families severely indebted, requiring the debt to be carried over until the next year or the next. Approximately two-thirds of all sharecroppers were white, and one third were black.

Definition of Sharecropping - 19th Century History Sharecropping was a system of agriculture instituted in the American South in the period of Reconstruction after the Civil War. It essentially replaced the plantation system which had existed, with slave labor, in the years before the war. In sharecropping, a poor farmer who did not own land would work a plot belonging to a landowner. Generally speaking, sharecropping doomed freed slaves to a life of poverty. Beginning of the Sharecropping System Following the elimination of slavery, the plantation system in the South could no longer exist. The millions of freed slaves also had to face a new way of life. Many freed slaves were illiterate, and all they knew was farm work. Indeed, with freedom, many former slaves aspired to become independent farmers owning land. In reality, former slaves were seldom able to establish themselves as independent farmers. How Sharecropping Worked The landowner would also supply seeds, farming tools, and other necessary materials.

Liberal Republicans—They're Alive! Until not long ago, we tended to think of Republicans as unified and focused, and Democrats as inherently fractious (see, for instance, the evergreen "Dems In Disarray" headline). These days the opposite is true—or at least it's the case that Republicans have become just as divided as Democrats. But how much of that is about Washington infighting and intraparty struggles for power, and how much is actually substantive and matters to voters? This post from The Upshot at the New York Times has some provocative hints. Using polling data from February that tested opinions on a range of issues, they found that Republicans are much less unified than Democrats when it comes to their opinions on policy: On these seven issues, 47 percent of self-identified Democrats agree with the party’s stance on at least six of them. Even though you have a relatively large number of issues being tested, it could be a function of the particular ones we're talking about.

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