However, many political aspects also set the African-Americans back. A big issue was the remaining racial views towards them. I’ve already stated that for the African-Americans to gain equality southern (and northern) opinions towards them had to change. By the end of Reconstruction this had not happened because they were still seen as substandard compared to white Americans. Many southern states, still believing that Blacks were not ‘fit to perform the supreme function of citizenship’, did not ratify the 14th and 15th Amendments. State Governments found loopholes in the 14th Amendment and introduced voting qualifications such as grandfather clauses. This meant that only men who had had the vote in their family for two generations before themselves could have the vote. This prevented many ex-slaves from voting because they had only been freed a few years previous. Also literacy tests were often used but numerous African-Americans were still illiterate. The tests were also often manipulated so even if you did pass you still didn’t get the vote. Not only was the attitude towards the ex-slaves a set back, the attitudes of the Democrats towards the Republicans and, more specifically, Andrew Johnson’s attitude towards Reconstruction was a major problem. By the end of 1865 all the Plantation owners Johnson was supposed to punish and take away their land had been pardoned and were back in state government. There were no Black Governors during Reconstruction and Blanche K. Bruce who had been elected into local and state office was shot dead. When he asked to be taken outside to see the sun one last time they took him out and shot him 30 extra times. This is how terrorists groups treated political figures; there was no telling what they’d do to normal African-Americans with no class or political status. The Judicial System also seemed to be against them. The Supreme Court, by 1877, had overturned all the Enforcement and Civil Rights Acts. This left the African-Americans without any protection from the law against terrorists groups i.e. the Ku Klux Klan. If that wasn’t bad enough the Republicans were slowly losing power in Congress. Up until 1870, the Republican Government in the south had been predominating, but the rise of the white revolutionary movements in the south caused them to collapse so that by 1877 nearly all of them were Democratic. This led to the Compromise of 1877 when the Republican President Rutherford B. Hayes faced an almost entire Democratic Congress. They were keen to end Reconstruction and the President needed Congress on his side if he was to succeed so the only thing left to do was abandon Reconstruction completely and, in the process, leaving the African-Americans entirely on their own.
With the 13th Amendment now a part of the constitution, this gave Blacks a new hope. They now had the confidence and opportunity to benefit from life as best they could. What's more, the Freedman’s Bureau (an institution set up to help the African-Americans make the change from slave to freedman) was set up in 1865 and provided $5 million for education. If education is available, it gives the African-American population a big step forward socially. More Black political leaders, businessmen, teachers, lawyers and doctors are nurtured and become available with the community. Also, if the African-American population learns to read and write, it gives them an advantage to passing literacy tests so that they can have the vote. Higher education colleges began to come about, most famously Howard University which opened in 1867. By 1870, most of these establishments, including Howard, were run and staffed by African-Americans. Finally the ex-slaves were gaining something good out of Reconstruction because, even though gaining the vote and equality was important, many African-Americans main priority was just to survive in life. If they could build a life whilst being segregated from the white Americans it would be far better than slavery at least! It wouldn’t be ideal, but the opinion that Blacks were savage and could not be trusted in civilisation was not going to change over night. As long as the Black schools could produce more teachers who would, in turn, run further schools the African-Americans would finally have the chance to become ‘civilised’. Another institution which enhanced the African-Americans socially in life was the Black Churches. They brought communities together and helped build friendships. Apart from that, they also developed their own electoral networks which progressed the African-Americans politically as well as socially.
The Ku Klux Klan were a mainly WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) terrorist group whom were extremely racial. They believed African-Americans to be substandard compared to themselves and were against them having any kind of equality. As well as performing violent acts of intimidation at general elections, they prevented any inter-racial friendships from occurring because many white people who associated with Blacks or tried to help them were also attacked. Tarring and feathering, burning buildings, severe beatings and lynching people were just a few of the things the group did to make sure the Black community were both segregated and frightened into not voicing their rights. Black Codes also made the racial barrier even more prominent by forbidding inter-racial marriages in many states and excluding Blacks from jury service and bearing arms. Even the Democratic Party found a way to segregate Blacks even further. Their propaganda was very successful that they turned the poorer whites against the Black population. They were competition for the lower paid jobs and so the poorer whites decided to side with the Planter classes; this gave the Democratic Party more votes. Racial tension was growing. If the poorer whites and the Black community had joined forces they could have eventually driven out the rich whites in the south out of Government. This was not to be the case and a bigger wedge was driven between the two races. However, this was not the only divide that occurred during Reconstruction. The free-born slaves considered themselves to be of higher class than the slaves made free by the Emancipation Proclamation because they had to buy their freedom. They, like the Democrats and Moderate Republicans, thought that now the ex-slaves had their freedom they could build their own lives without any help from the Government because that is what they had done. This meant that a social status was forming within the Black community and, instead of all African-American born citizens working together, they were turning on each other. Many African-Americans, after the Emancipation Proclamation, had nowhere to go. They ended up on the streets begging. In some states this was against the law and the ex-slaves were put in Forced Labour contracts which they had to stay in until the contract ran out. This meant the slave, who had just gained his freedom, was put back into the same conditions as slavery to be punished for living on the streets. It was a catch 22 situation and was a set back towards the ‘Peculiar Institution’. Finally, one of the biggest social set backs was the Freedman’s Bureau’s closure in 1872. The institute which had helped progress the Blacks immensely had been closed leaving the Blacks with little help. Also, by the time the Compromise of 1877 had happened, 80% of the African-American population were still illiterate. This meant that even though all that money and effort went into education, progression was moving very, very slowly.
As well as progressing Blacks socially, the Freedman’s Bureau helped progress them economically as well. It rationed out abandoned and after the Civil War accordingly and tried as best it could to give the African-Americans the ‘40 acres of land and a mule’ that they were promised by the Government. Also, because it provided $5 million for education, Blacks were able to become literate and get jobs to earn an income. In addition, if an African-American worked for himself (i.e. on a farm) then he could choose to some extent what hours he works and how hard he works. This is a big step away from slavery and towards independence. Finally, sharecropping provided a good answer in 1865 to many ex-slaves’ finance problems. It meant that they could rent a part of a plantation owners farm in return for half the profits of the produce that the African-Americans farm.
The biggest problem post-Civil War was that the newly ‘freedmen’ had no land, therefore no income. With no money to travel and racial prejudice stopping them getting a job in the north, the only other option for the African-Americans was to stay in the ruins of the south. Here, all they could do was farm. However, as I have just stated, they have no land. This leaves them with the only option to rent farm land from whites (i.e. sharecropping). This idea works well at first, but then comes the depression of 1872 when the cotton prices drop. As most farmers in the south were cotton farmers, this affected the economy quite bad. If the demand for cotton is lower than the amount being made, the prices drop. This is what happened in 1872 and left the African-Americans spiralling into debt. They are then put into Forced Labour Contracts to pay off the debt and they are back at the point they were at before the Emancipation Proclamation. In some state i.e. Mississippi, Black Codes wouldn’t allow the ex-slaves to even rent land. This caused a major problem and those living in Mississippi ended up in Forced Labour Contracts because every other choice had been cut off. The industry in the south was not about to change over night. It had always prided itself on its old fashioned economy (this was even one of the reasons why the Civil War occurred!). $15 million went on rebuilding houses and farms that had been destroyed during the war and not on improving the southern industry. This meant no new job opportunities would be occurring other than farming for the African-Americans. This leads back to the problem of having no land. But what about the 40 acres of land that the ex-slaves were promised? The Constitution says that, in short, it was not Congress’s authority to distribute other people’s lands as a punishment. The Radical Republicans were the one’s who pushed Lincoln to give out the land of the Plantation owners fighting against the Union to the ex-slaves. However, this was denied by the Constitution so the Blacks never did get their ’40 acres and a mule’. The way the African-Americans would have got their land would have been through the Freedman’s Bureau but it closed down in 1872. This was and economic set back as well as a social one.
In conclusion, many things contributed to the advancements and the set backs of the African-Americans as they fight for equality during the Reconstruction period. However, were they substantially better off in 1877 than 1863? In my opinion, they were not. By 1877 the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments were part of the Constitution (although nobody really stuck to what they stated), higher education schools had been opened and Black Churches were available. This had taken 13 years to accomplish. They are the only good aspects that came out of Reconstruction because any other attempt at gaining equality politically, socially and economically for the Blacks had failed mainly due to views of the African-Americans which were still indifferent to what they had been in 1863. I have always maintained the opinion that to change a way of life permanently, you need to change the attitudes of the people involved. Many white Americans still believed African-Americans to be second class to them and terrorists groups like the Ku Klux Klan were evidence of blatant racial attack. For all of the African-Americans suffering during these 13 years of supposed Reconstruction, they have gained three Amendments which are, admittedly, always going to be part of the Constitution so the Blacks can use them if needs be. However, many states failed to ratify the 14th and 15th Amendments and found ways around them in the form of voting qualifications. The Blacks had their own churches which they set up themselves without any help from Reconstruction but these still showed the signs of segregation. The same goes for the Black schools. The African-Americans were constantly being segregated even though the main aim of Reconstruction was to ‘integrate them into society’. For this reason I believe Reconstruction to be a failure and think that the real fight for equality begins in 1877, when the African-Americans do not have a Republican Government supporting them.