Before the Civil War and the freedom of slaves, male African Americans were forced …show more content…
The Thirteenth Amendment banned slavery and involuntary servitude, except if used for punishments. America entered a period of time called reconstruction. At first African Americans began gaining rights such as the right to have black males vote, and that all African Americans were citizens. Things soon got worse and white supremacy groups started attacking freedmen (slaves that were freed) and racial equality supporters. Also federal support started to fail. After 1874 federal presence in the Southern states started disappearing, hence things got violent. Blacks soon lost most of their earned rights and started getting arrested eisley for things like being intoxicated in public and speaking loudly in front of a woman. The Southern prison holders would rent black prisoners to private industries for manual labor; this was known as convict leasing. Southerners were ecstatic, they had found a way to put African Americans back to a lower position and they would get extremely cheap labor being able to profit majorly. The conditions blacks faced were terrible, they would face brutal and limit pushing challenges and some were treated worse than they were during slavery. They would be rented to private companies and would work in mines and at clay yards and forests cutting down