Thesis/Argument: After the abolition of slavery, egalitarianism in American societies remained theoretical because while the federal law recognized African Americans as free persons with the same privileges as the Caucasians, cultural norms were not easy to erase especially in the South.
Background: The American Civil War and the Thirteenth Amendment
Disparities over the issue of slavery encouraged the Southern States to secede and form the Confederacy.
The Union’s victory in the American Civil War and the subsequent abolitionism of the slavery system through the Thirteenth Amendment forced pro-slavery Southerners to co-exist with their previous slaves as equals.
Still, the South was not for the idea of equality between blacks and whites; hence, new efforts to protect the color line in the territories emerged as whites enacted laws to intimidate colored persons.
Freedom: African Americans understood democracy as a concept that entailed escaping “the numerous injustices” of slavery such as whippings and the exploitation of their women (Foner GML, 443). The Southern whites “defined black freedom in the narrowest manner” as they refused to embrace liberty for their numbers on the same foundations as those the ex-slaves enjoyed (Foner GML, 446).
Politics in the South: Caucasians should not be answerable to the same laws that the government imposed on African Americans.
President Andrew Johnson, Abraham Lincoln’s successor, “held deeply racist views” and refuted the understanding of African-Americans as key players in the reconstruction efforts (Foner GML, 454).
In the period of Presidential Reconstruction (1865-1867), Johnson appointed temporary governors in the South and encouraged the elections of leaders, who would set up loyal governments in the regions. The election processes were subject to white voters only (Foner GML, 455).
Expectedly, the Caucasians passed laws that upheld white supremacy by limiting the rights of blacks who were yet to earn "the rights of citizenship” (Foner GML, 457).
Robert B. Elliot on Civil Rights (1874): “[The Civil Rights Bill] is to decide upon the civil status of the colored American citizen; a point disputed at the very formation of our present government, when by a short-sighted policyone Negro counted as three-fifths of a man.” (Foner VOF, 26).
The Southern Economy: According to the Caucasians, black people were eligible for slavery only and paid labor was for the white workers.
Apparently, former slaves were “lazy and lacking in ambition” because to them, freedom meant the total lack of any form of labor (Foner GML, 453).
Therefore, unless there were laws to ensure that ex-slaves worked to cater for themselves, then the African Americans would inevitably turn to stealing from the more prosperous whites.
In the guise of helping African-Americans find sustainable income, the Southern government endorsed Black Codes that required blacks to sign yearly labor contracts.
The Mississippi Black Code (1865): “Every civil officer shall, and every person may, arrest and carry back to his or her legal employer any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto who shall have quit the service of his or her employer before the expiration of his or her term of service” (Foner VOF, 10).
In an evolved form of bondage, a Caucasian would pay the taxes and fines imposed on a black person by the local government and as a result, have him or her work in the plantations without a salary.
The Southern societies: Ideologies of white supremacy formed the foundations on which the region grounded its social norms.
At the forefront of the social reformation efforts, were the Freedmen’s Bureau that Congress enacted in 1865.
On one hand, the ex-slaves demanded lands and economic autonomy away from the influences of their previous masters.
For the African Americans, their role in the Union’s victory was enough to warrant their freedom in all spheres of society.
In Robert Elliot’s words, despite “their inhuman and brutalizing servitude in the South [and] their degradation and ostracism at the North,” people of color supported the Union government during the civil war (Foner VOF, 26). Hence, it was only right to have Congress listen to their pleas for self-autonomy and legal rights.
On the other hand, planters desired a labor system that was “as close to slavery as possible” to maintain the pre-civil war economy (Foner GML, 447).
For instance, according to The Mississippi Black Code (1865), as per the Vagrant Law, “all freedmen, free Negroes, or mulattoes over the age of eighteen years, found on the second Monday in January 1866 [or after that], with no lawful employment or business[were] deemed vagrants” (Foner VOF, 8).
Hence, just as in the case of antebellum America, social hierarchies dominated the Southern States, and while only one race could claim superiority, blacks could not be equal to the whites.
Conclusion: Reconstruction efforts failed because they sought to change every aspect of the American societies while threatening to uproot traditions based on the ideologies of all persons of color being inferior to the whites.
Works Cited
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!: An American History. 4th. Vol. II. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2013. Print.
—. Voices of Freedom: A Documentary History. 4th. Vol. II. New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc, 2013. Print.
