African American Life After Reconstruction Dbq

During the time period of 1860 through 1877, there were horrid events that occurred. The North and the South states had an ongoing feud. They were feuding over the problems of slavery, and whether or not it should be a continued tradition. In 1861 through 1865 a massive event took place, the Civil War, where Abraham Lincoln was the face and figure of that time. This was without a doubt Americans fighting against fellow Americans. During these times this war was a family going head to head. That would finalize the fate of millions of slaves. After the Civil War there was reconstruction, even then there was still the popular opinion that slavery would still be there in some shape or form. Some people argue that constitutionally and socially

They thought this was because there are always people who would be against the freed African Americans, this is unavoidable. Because you have the Southerners who still desire slavery, and this is where the KKK comes in or the Ku Klux Klan. They were a social group of extremist who only believed in white supremacy. In the visual by Thomas Nast, he displays a disturbing image of how socially the views of free slaves were portrayed. In this image words are written that say “worse than slavery” (Nast). These words implicate that even though the slaves are free now, they have a worse fate with the racist brutality socially. They will be more mistreated and disrespected in society by all of the people that are against African Americans, then if they were to still be on the plantations. This social group would destroy everything that the former slaves have accomplished. As seen in the image there is a what seems to be a married couple coward down at the feet of the KKK, and in the foreground there is a cloud of black smoke through the air. You see there is a “School House” (Nast) sign, this shows that the KKK would burn and take down everything that meant something to the former slaves. Schooling was their children's futures, and with the burning down if their schools there will be no future for them. This group of white men wanted to make it clear that as long

With reconstruction there were many doors opened for African Americans. They were able to be free, and to become a citizen, and male slaves over the age of 21 were able to vote. Also there was education for children and some adults, and there were marriages for former slaves. In the image drawn by A. R. Waud, he displays a male African American voting for the first time. This image shows how constitutionally this was groundbreaking for the former slaves. Waud visualized a “journal of civilization” (Waud). Moreover in the article “Freedmen's Education during Reconstruction” by the New Georgia Encyclopedia, it exclaims how education was a big part of the revolution, and the northerners deserve “credit for aiding black education in Georgia during Reconstruction” (“Freedmen’s Education”). Freedmen's Bureau provided education for former slaves, and “at least 8,000 former slaves were attending school” (“Freedmen’s Education”). Former slave’s children would be able to develop a future through the art of learning, and could possibly have a brighter future for themselves beyond the plantations. This was a broad way that there was a major revolution constitutionally for their