The Rights Of Freedmen During Reconstruction

Many people don’t realize that after the Civil War, another war was fought during Reconstruction, a “Cold War” regarding the rights of the freedmen. Following the Civil War, the slaves were set free in a conflicted world where people couldn’t decide on their fate; they were caught in the crossfire between Congress and the civilians on the amount of rights they could have. The Congress, wishing to grant the freed slaves rights, failed to ensure the rights to the freedmen because of many reasons.
At first, the future looked bright. The 14th and 15th Amendments stated: “All persons born or naturalized in the US are citizens of the US.. no state shall deprive any person of life liberty or happiness… the right of citizens of the US to vote shall not be denied.” (Document A) The slaves were granted citizenship and the right to
However, soon the Black codes were instigated, and they soon began to limit the rights of the slaves. One version in a town called Opelousas stated: “No negro shall be allowed to come within the limits of the town.” (Document B) This severely limited the rights of the freedmen and actively ostracized them from society. Despite this, “thousands of Africans were elected to local governments and state governments throughout the Southern States” (Document D) since many Southern officials were not allowed to vote. However, when the Southerners were granted the right to vote again, they made it their goal to oppress the Blacks in every way possible.
Several different methods of oppression were used to keep the Blacks on the bottom. When “Southern Democrats gained strength when Congress finally removed the political disabilities from most of the prewar leadership.”(Document 3), they saw