13th Ammendment Of African Americans During Reconstruction

My group has decided that our position on whether or not African Americans were free during Reconstruction was that they were not. To prove this we used 4 documents out of the 5 provided. From document A, ammendments were established and to be specific the 13th ammendment. The 13th ammendment states that slavery shouldnt exist within the United States unless as a punishment for crime. However, during the same time this ammendment wwas passed, Henry Adams was told to call the boss and madam , "master" and "missus",, which are terms that are usually used in slavery due to the owner and slave relationship .But because these enslaved people are now free there should be no reason for them to be addressing bosses and madams that way because itll just bring them back to where theyve started as

In document B the Black codes were created to maintain and attempt to keep everyone safe once slaves were free but, it did not have the aura of doing so. Instead it did not provide the enslaved with the freedom they were supposed to get. The Black Codes were actually restricting and limiting them even more than they were when they were enslaved. From document C, a statement from Henry ADams, who was a former slave, stated that " They were going to kill every colored person they found leaving their masters" this shows how whites continued to mistreat the freedmen as if they were still owned even after the civil war ended, in 1865. The fact that he had experienced this personally makes his words and statement even more important than others. In Document D, black officials were elected during reconstruction and this is only because of the 15th ammendment which gave them the chance to be elected on fairgrounds without being denied to vote. However, before 1870 also during the reconstruction many were not given the chance to run due to their race and discrimination. Therefore they werent free during the