13th Amendment Dbq

Cynthia
Ms. Conboy
AP U.S. History
25 January 2012

After the 13th Amendment was passed, African American slaves were freed from their lifetime involuntary servitude, and life for them seemed to be on the way to happiness (Document A). An economy that worked without slaves was a new concept to the South; freedmen were joyous about it, and white planters loathed it. The United States underwent a sort of revolution in its economy and its social hierarchy (Document D). After the Civil War ended, numerous changes had to be made to the South including rebuilding the infrastructure, maintaining hostility towards blacks, punishing or relieving Confederate leader, and determining the rights of newly freed slaves. Many of the South’s political, social, and economic difficulties link with the issues of freed slaves.
Of the political difficulties, voting became a new right to Black men. Black males felt a surge of pride, and Grant’s election in 1868 was due to the increased amounts of black voters. Union Leagues originally run by the Republican Party helped to gain a political
voice for new freedmen. Many white southerners did not want Blacks to participate in politics, so black suffrage was brought up in court cases like United States vs. Cruikshank and States vs. Reese. After these cases, the 15th Amendment was rendered almost void because they allowed states to prohibit the voting of blacks based on requirements other than race. Congress also had to pass law to protect the newly gained rights of freedmen like the KKK Act to stop acts of cruelty towards blacks ( Document E). The Freedman’s Bureau and Field Order 15 were also created to help blacks gain land and other necessities in order to live on their own. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 became a major issue when President vetoed it even though it would grant citizenship to all people born in the United States. After he veto, Congress passed the 14th Amendment to ensure that African Americans would gain the rights of whites without being able to be overturned by anyone (Document B). Johnson was angry at the Radical Republicans for making his attempts at restoring the Union quickly difficult. The Tenure of Office Act was passed in repose to limit Johnson’s power by making him consult the Senate before replacing an office member.
Socially, racism still existed.
The KKK made racism a physical thing by torturing and killing blacks. Susie King says the war did almost nothing for her people in terms of social equality. She says the nation is still divided if one race wants to kill another (Document F). Black codes, laws passed by Southern states to limit the rights of freedmen, still were prominent in the South at this time. Blacks also still worked on farms as sharecroppers to earn money. Sharecropping spread as more and more African Americans needed ways to find income (Document G). The freedmen still worked hard labor for white land owners, only instead of being called slaves, they were sharecroppers. Many African Americans agreed that his new found “freedom” was more of a burden than slavery (Document H). Because of the harsher treatment from whites and the KKK, slaves felt trapped into their former slavery
days.
Most African Americans wanted an education, but even the schools were segregated into black schools and white schools. Even if the state needed schools, they couldn’t build them because the funds of the state paid for the building of the railroads. The states went virtually bankrupt, and the panic of 1873 began. The South’s economy began to decline because it was still based on cotton, and without slaves the cotton could not be gathered and harvested in mass amounts. The 13th Amendment indirectly made the South’s economy turn downward (Document A). Many blacks couldn’t find jobs unless it was labor, so to earn a living many settled for more labor and less power (Document C).
The freedmen were not the cause of these political, social, and economic issues, but their issues were directly related to the ones previously mentioned. After the Civil War, the South faced many difficulties as well as the African Americans all over America. The Union was back together, but many separations still existed between regions and races.