African Americans - position in 1865
- Created by: Alasdair
- Created on: 11-04-17 16:24
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- African Americans in 1865
- Evidence of change
- Thirteenth Amendment
- Signed a few months after end of Civil War
- Started: "Neither slavery nor voluntary servitude...shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction"
- April 1865 - Whole South fell under Union's jurisdiction - all slaves freed (4m before war in 1861)
- Thirteenth Amendment
- Freedmen - new status of AA slaves once freed
- Did not mean they immediately gained same rights as former white owners
- War left unresolved what position AAs had in US
- One suggestion was former slaves left USA - Pres. Lincoln ruled out as impractical
- Ensure AAs had same rights and status as white people
- Would meet formidable problems in South - given resentment by defeated white population - accustomed to considering AAs in terms more akin to property rather than citizens
- Even in N - minority of Americans saw total political and social equality between races as undesirable
- Issues around what they were free to do - no means to make a living
- Lack of change
- Sharecropping
- Practical solution
- White landowners allowed former slaves to work land in return for considerable share of what produced
- In many cases, not very different from slavery
- While true former slaves now allowed freedom to move, to enjoy personal liberty and to no longer be separated from partners and children, still faced considerable limitations to liberty
- AAs suffered huge amount of violence in aftermath of war for any supposed lack of respect to white people and any attempts to make use of rights given to them
- Amount of segregation increased markedly
- Old South,confident of legal difference between black and white, did not always segregate races socially
- Fear of AAs increased, particularly in some areas where there were more numerous than white people - violence and segregation intensified
- Sharecropping
- Evidence of change
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