By Marjorie A. Gordon-DeLee (November 16, 2018)
Reconstruction in the U. S. was during the period of 1865-1877 and was for the purpose of providing repayment to the African Americans due to the inequities of Slavery. Research asserts that:
“At the national level, new laws and constitutional amendments permanently altered the federal system and the definition of American citizenship. In the South, a politically mobilized black community joined with white allies to bring the Republican Party to power, and with it a redefinition of the responsibilities of government (Britannica.com).
Additionally, as found in this research on reconstruction, in 1865 President Andrew Johnson pardoned Southern Whites except the Confederate Leaders and wealthy planters, as a result of the American Civil War, but eventually most of the Confederate Leaders received pardon and was able to receive their political rights and all of their property with the exception of returning their Slaves. Of course, this did not go across well with the Confederate Whites from the South with their plantations that they needed to be maintained by the Slaves.
In opposition to not having their Slaves returned to work on their plantations, the Confederate Leaders enacted the “black codes”. These laws were created to still maintain control of the Blacks in the South (not as Slaves but as free Slaves). The Confederate Leaders constrained the Blacks to them by having them sign contracts that indebted the Blacks to them in labor on a yearly basis. In doing so, the Blacks had limited their free time to pursue their economic growth for them and their families. The Confederate Leaders were still controlling the lives of the African Americans in the South as they are still doing on today in South Carolina and especially in the lowcountry where there remain a vast number of Plantations being maintained.
In an examination of the literature provided by Chodes (2016), he asserts that the Republicans are the ones that started the violence and how the Union League came to the South to make the Southerners good Northerners (In Forward).
Chodes (2016) exclaims in his writings that Southern operations which consisted of secret meetings, met with Black people at night and were given promises and encouraged them to assert dominance---marshalled as voters to ensure permanent Republican control by illegitimate Carpetbag state governments. The definition of a Carpetbagger is a political candidate who seeks election in an area where they have no local connections (Google).
"The premise behind chattel slavery in America was that slaves were property, and, as such, they had few or no legal rights. The slave codes, in their many loosely defined forms, were seen as effective tools against slave unrest, particularly as a hedge against uprisings and runaways. Enforcement of slave codes also varied, but corporal punishment was widely and harshly employed (Britannica.com)."
The Freedmen’s Bureau and Civil Rights Bills were passed in1866. The Freedmen’s Bureau Bill is explained below:
"Freedmen’s Bureau, (1865–72), during the Reconstruction period after the American Civil War, popular name for the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, established by Congress to provide practical aid to 4,000,000 newly freed African Americans in their transition from slavery to freedom. Headed by Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard, the Freedmen’s Bureau might be termed the first federal welfare agency. Despite handicaps of inadequate funds and poorly trained personnel, the bureau built hospitals for, and gave direct medical assistance to, more than 1,000,000 freedmen. More than 21,000,000 rations were distributed to impoverished blacks as well as whites (Britannica.com)."
In relation to the Civil Rights Bill:
"Civil rights, guarantees of equal social opportunities and equal protection under the law, regardless of race, religion, or other personal characteristics."
"Examples of civil rights include the right to vote, the right to a fair trial, the right to government services, the right to a public education, and the right to use public facilities. Civil rights are an essential component of democracy; when individuals are being denied opportunities to participate in political society, they are being denied their civil rights. In contrast to civil liberties, which are freedoms that are secured by placing restraints on government, civil rights are secured by positive government action, often in the form of legislation. Civil rights laws attempt to guarantee full and equal citizenship for people who have traditionally been discriminated against on the basis of some group characteristic. When the enforcement of civil rights is found by many to be inadequate, a civil rights movement may emerge in order to call for equal application of the laws without discrimination (Britannica.com)."
For the Black people living in the lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia, they remain to be property less for the most part (not all). The poverty in this area is directly due to the inequality and not abiding by the laws that was initially set in place by William T. Sherman’s Field Order No. 15 of January 1865 to help the Free Slaves to become equally productive citizens in the Lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia, in the State of South Carolina and Georgia. We, as South Carolina lowcountry Ancestors are due our part and should not be neglected any longer as having what is due to us as Ancestors of this property that was taken away from us.
See the quote below from Reconstruction https://www.britannica.com/event/Reconstruction-United-States-history
“Meanwhile, the social and economic transformation of the South proceeded apace. To blacks, freedom meant independence from white control. Reconstruction provided the opportunity for African Americans to solidify their family ties and to create independent religious institutions, which became centres of community life that survived long after Reconstruction ended. The former slaves also demanded economic independence. Blacks’ hopes that the federal government would provide them with land had been raised by Gen. William T. Sherman’s Field Order No. 15 of January 1865, which set aside a large swath of land along the coast of South Carolina and Georgia for the exclusive settlement of black families, and by the Freedmen’s Bureau Act of March, which authorized the bureau to rent or sell land in its possession to former slaves. But President Johnson in the summer of 1865 ordered land in federal hands to be returned to its former owners. The dream of “40 acres and a mule” was stillborn. Lacking land, most former slaves had little economic alternative other than resuming work on plantations owned by whites. Some worked for wages, others as sharecroppers, who divided the crop with the owner at the end of the year. Neither status offered much hope for economic mobility. For decades, most Southern blacks remained property less and poor.”
Reference
Britannica.com. (n.d.) Reconstruction. Retrieved November 16, 2018 from https://www.britannica.com/event/Reconstruction-United-States-history
Britannica.com. Black Code. https://www.britannica.com/topic/black-code
Chodes, J. (2016). Washington's KKK: The Union League During Southern Reconstruction (Kindle Location 48). SHOTWELL PUBLISHING LLC. Kindle Edition.
Google. Carpetbagger. Retrieved November 16, 2016 from https://www.google.com/search?q=define+carpetbagger&ie=&oe=
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