How the novel "Jubilee" shows the changes in southern society caused by the American Civil War. Essay

        When slavery was still happening, African American men were to work in the plantations growing crops while white soldiers were fighting in the war. At one point when war was heavy, a big percent of males including African American men were sent to fight leaving the male population at a lower percent after because of so many deaths. Since now there were no men left to work on plantations or to work on hard labor, women were the ones working on the plantations and on factories producing weapons for the war. In other words they were the ones taking the men’s spot and running the South life. This change is important because at one point slave women were to be nothing more than a master’s animal and white women didn‘t do much. Later, everything changed and the women were doing everything a man would usually do. It impacted lives in the way that families were incomplete and the strong affinity of a man was faded away. Deaths of soldiers leaving women running the big things are seen in Jubilee. For example, when all men had died in Dutton family there was nobody else left to run the house but the women meaning Big Missy and later Lillian. This proves how there was a time where women had to do something to stand up and stand out to win their rights when before they were nothing really important. Although women weren’t being treated very equally as men from the 1860’s through the end of reconstruction, the government did help them and their families in other ways.

        As seeing how in the beginning of the Civil War most African Americans were slaves and nothing more. Their lives were very rough as mentioned in Jubilee and even some died in the plantations because of illnesses or tiredness. There were certainly no predictions that slavery was ever going to end. By December of 1865, the thirteenth amendment was passed articulating the end of slavery. Some of the largest changes to southern society were due to the changing role of slaves. The government from the North had created the Freedman's Bureau to help the slaves who were now free in the South. This allowed the freed slaves to choose their own homes and own land while also giving them a chance to have some political power. This change was of very big importance because after so many years of suffrage, now the government took some change and applied it towards the freed slaves to help them out. For the African Americans, government help was an opportunity to achieve more. For the whites, what the government was doing gave them rage and led them to create racial groups called the Black Codes and the Ku Klux Klan. Both  were in opposition of the freed slaves in having opportunities as well in mentioned in Jubilee. Once the KKK was created, this racial group had attacked an African American lady while Vyry and her neighbors watched her being taken away by the KKK. Sometimes hard times lead to hard measures and risks have to be taken.

        There were many changes in southern society and culture from early 1860’s through reconstruction. All the changes made created a huge impact on not only lives but also on the way many people think. It created new paths and opportunities for some while new problems arose for others. When there was the least possible thought that the South could ever be restored, it actually brought money up and new things were built. When nobody ever thought women were going to be much more than slaves and servants, most took charge while men were at war. When the government wanted the least for the slaves at one point, after the changes in southern society, there they were helping the freed slaves find their way slowly. These ideas were very important that throughout the years, it helped in creating on what is today, equality.