Reconstruction Era

The era between 1865 and 1877 is known as the Reconstruction Era. During the civil war the southern economy was destroyed. Plantations, crops, houses and railroads were ruined. They were ruined because the slaves were forced to work. The north consists of factories while the south consists of farming. The North and the South wanted to be their own part of land because they didn’t agree with each other. The South was most responsible for the shape of the New South due to social, economic, political. The New South was shaped socially by lynching, black codes, voting rights, and raising a child. Lynching was a way of executing a mob, often by hanging, including burning or shooting. It sent out a message to the Negros to show them if they crossed the border they would be subjected to death. “Four days later, deputies removed the three owners from jail, took them to a deserted area, and shot them dead” (Goldfield, America’s 39). Black Codes were consisting of restriction and laws for the Negros. The Black Code extended to racist doctrines of pre-Civil War slavery and demanded freedom from slaves. Any black men that tried to marry a white person were penalized. “That it shall not be lawful for any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto to intermarry with any white person; nor for any white person to intermarry with an freedman, free Negro, or mulatto; any person who shall so intermarry shall be deemed guilty of felony and, on conviction thereof, shall be confined in the state penitentiary for life…” (Goldfield, United 414). Many southerners state passed the pull tax in the effort to keep the African Americans from voting. Many Blacks were being bribed and threatened by the white men. “About 2 days before they whipped me they offered me $5,000 to go with them and said they would pay me $2,500 in cash if I would let another man go to the legislature in my place” (Brady 339). The old confederate soldier raised their child in social clubs that supported white supremacy. “Organization such as the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of the Confederate Veterans strove to educate a new generation of white Southerners on the meaning of the sacrifices of the war generation, bolstering the imposition of the white supremacy through racial segregation and disfranchisement” (Goldfield, America’s 46). The New South was shaped politically by the literacy test, grandfather clause, and Jim Crow Law. Southerners prevented Negros from voting by setting up literacy test. “When a journalist asked an Alabama law-maker if Jesus Christ could pass his state’s ‘understanding’ test, the legislator replied, ‘That would depend entirely on which way he was going to vote” (Goldfield, America’s 41). When the Southerners made the literacy test, they also made Grandfather clause in order to let the illiterate whites to vote. “To avoid disenfranchising poor illiterate white voters with these measures, states enacted grandfather clauses granting the vote automatically to anyone whose grandfathers could have voted prior to 1867… grandfathers of most black men… had been slaves, ineligible to vote” (Goldfield, America’s 41). Southerners placed the Jim Crow law that limited the Negros. “By the 1900’s, segregation by the law extended to public conveyances, theaters, hotels, restaurants, parks, and schools” (Goldfield, America’s 41). The Southern states economically restricted blacks by forcing them to labor, share their profits, and work one job. Sharecroppers were forced to build hundreds of yards of fence that was necessary to their job. “For every mule or horse furnished by me, there must be 1000 good sized rails… hauled and the fence repair as far as they will go…” (Goldfield, United 435). Black sharecroppers could on keep an maximum revenue of half the crops they farmed. “The croppers are to have half of the cotton, corn, and fodder… if the following conditions are complied with, but-if not-they are to have two-fifths…” (Goldfield, United 435). Sharecroppers couldn’t get any other jobs to pay off their debts. “No cropper is to work of the plantation when the us any work too be done on the land he has rented, or when his work is needed by me or other croppers,” (Goldfield, United 435).
The South was held most responsible for the new shapes of the New South. Factors that lead the New South new shapes are social, political, and economic. The New South was shaped socially by lynching, black codes, voting rights, and child raising. The New South was shaped by politically by the literacy test, grandfather clause, and Jim Crow Law. Southerners prevented Negros from voting by setting up literacy test. Economically, the New South was shaped by forcing them to labor, share their profits, and work one job. Those were the factors that lead to the new Shapes of the New South.