Sharecropping During The Reconstruction Era

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“If I cannot do like a white man, I am not free” (Foner, p. 557). Henry Adams, an emancipated slave from Louisiana told his master this in 1865. Many African Americans faced reality during the Reconstruction Era. Freedom to African Americans was more than just laws passed, freedom to them was being able to do what they want without hindrance; to escape from numerous injustices of slavery. The main reason for this failed era was because of white resistance. The Reconstruction Era was a failure because it didn’t achieve the goal of a unified country. Even though the African Americans had a chance to be politically active, the only thing they truly knew how to do was farming or serving since they lacked formal education. Since slavery became illegal, sharecropping was the alternative to slavery. Sharecropping is a system of agriculture in which the owner of the land allows an African American to rent a part…show more content…
The most famous notorious group was the Ku Klux Klan, also known as the KKK, which was founded in 1866 in Pulaski, Tennessee by a group of young ex-Confederate officers that supported terrorist activities against guiltless people. (Dickerson, p. 251). The KKK was a terrorist organization that had night meetings, secret oaths, and mysterious rituals who wore white robes and masks to protect their identities. Their goal was to end Reconstruction and to get the military out of the five districts. KKK also would rose to continue white supremacy over any other race, primarily the blacks. They would terrorize and kill innocent African Americans and other whites who supported them like the Scalawags, Southerners who also supported Reconstruction, and Carpetbaggers, Northerners who traveled down South to help rebuild (Foner, p. 581). Although the Civil War has ended, violence still remained because of these vicious

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