The war had finally ended, and the real United States needed to get back on its feet. Hundreds of miles of farmland had been destroyed, and the south was in need of some help after almost four million slaves had been freed since the end of the Civil War. Sharecropping had developed from the Freedman's Bureau and was designed for blacks to be able to talk about deals with their former owners about land and such, but blacks did not like the system and refused to participate. So sharecropping was a good alternative. Sharecropping was good because after the war many plantation owners land had been returned back to them. The only problem was that they had no one to farm their crops. Likewise, the former slaves had nowhere to work, so they were open to the idea of sharecropping as well. Land owners would hire people to grow agriculture and the people would come and work. The owners did not have to pay the workers, but the workers would have a place to stay and food to eat. Sharecropping life was not a great one, although the workers did learn how to grow crops and were able to pay off debts and save some money. By 1880, 32 percent of Georgia's farms were operated by sharecroppers. Sharecropping came to an end in the mid twentieth century, mostly because of the lure of big cities and the little need for farming anymore. Tenant farming was basically a step up from sharecropping. Tenant farmers came with their own equipment, and the land owner provided the house and the land. At the end of the year, the farmers paid the owners some share of the crop they had used their land to make. Reconstruction Plans
A lot of healing was going to have to be done in order to get the U.S. back to the place it was before the war. Lincoln had been elected to his second term and was looking to bring the country back. The president was not looking to punish the southerners; he just wanted to get them back into the Union as soon as possible. Lincoln said that if the southerners pardoned after taking an oath of allegiance, and when ten percent of the voters took the oath, the state could rejoin the Union. Other prominent political leaders agreed, some added that they wanted the ordinances of secessions nullified, amendments to help the blacks, and for the Confederate states to be placed under military rule. Reconstruction was a time of great sacrifice and compromise, the states had a long road ahead of them, but they would find a way to break through. 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments
The freed blacks were out in the world for the first time. It was not going to be easy for them to get on their feet and be successful. They needed some government support to allow them to have some of the basic rights they should have had long ago. The first step was officially banning slavery. The 13th did just that, on January 31, 1865, the Congress passed the amendment that read, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." The 14th amendment covered many things; it was ratified by the states on July 9, 1868. It granted citzenship to all people born in the United States, which included the freed slaves. It forbids states from denying any person "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” The 15th Amendment was ratified on February 3, 1870, and it granted, "Right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Although this law was put into act, the malicious southerners were able to cheat it. With the use of poll taxes, literacy tests, and the grandfather clause, black men would not truly be able to vote for another hundred years. All in all, these acts gave the blacks a cushion and happiness knowing they could not and should not be able to be denied of their rights.
Sources
Inforamtion:
Sharecropping and Tenant Farming - http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-3590 and Notes
Reconstruction Plans - Notes
Amendments - 13th http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/13thamendment.html
14th http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/14thamendment.html
15th http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/15thamendment.html
Pictures:
Sharecropping http://histclo.com/imagef/date/2007/07/share36s.jpg
Reconstruction Plans http://whgbetc.com/mind/reconstruction_congress.jpg
13th Amendment http://www.laits.utexas.edu/txp_media/html/cons/features/0206_01/slide3.gif
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