Reconstruction
The time following the Emancipation Proclamation was at first a time when the color line was blurred. Blacks and whites intermingled freely, more so then ever before, yet these interactions were not representative of the South accepting the freedman into society. The Black Codes were enacted so that the former enslaved was not treated as equals in social and political relations. During the Reconstruction the freedman was searching for the meaning of his freedom and the responsibility it brought. The emergence of people trying to profit off the instability of the South added upon the troubles. Groups rose up in the South speaking out against the blacks and Northern influence. The freedom which the freedman sought was not truly found until he gained his enfranchisement. The new voters became a point of debate between the Republicans and the Democrats. The most significant strides toward equality came through education which was previously unavailable to the blacks. The growing division of whites and blacks became evident but it was always present. Immediately following their emancipation the blacks of the South made an effort to take part in every thing kept for them in slavery. The freedman took active roles in politics
Likewise the Democrats fed the notion that the carpetbaggers and scalawags were evil and should be driven out of the South. 6 The Democrats used this issue to rally the people of the South against the Northern interest. In the end it comes down to people having the need to categorize and physical features are often the easiest to pick out. Southern planters relied on a disciplined labor force in order to profit with their plantations and likewise needed this labor force to remain intact in order for their dominance in politics to remain. Unfortunately many of the former slaves were uneducated and illiterate and unable to fully partake in the democratic system. 9 Every where an observer looked there was evidence on the growing divide that was the color line. The system of sharecropping grew out of this search for new identity, though it was a small step forward, for it emulated the system of slavery from which the blacks had just been freed. from the World Wide Web: http://eserver. 7 Violence and intimidation were the methods used by the Klan and similar groups in order to reestablish white supremacy in the South. The republicans therefore pushed bills such as the Freedman's Bureau, Civil Rights Act, and the 13th-15th Amendments. In the newly written constitutions the Southern states had to allow for public education. Even those later seeking to help slaves and later freedman often did so for reasons of their own. Henery Steele Commager and Richard B.
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Acceptance Essays
