The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments had been ratified to ensure equality to any and all former slaves. The first step to equality was the 13th amendment which had abolished slavery in all states and any other territory of the United States but Black Codes had been designed to keep former slaves from being free of subservient labor. The 14th amendment provided what is known as the Civil Rights to all persons born in the United States and the 15th amendment had given voting rights to all male african americans thus allowing african americans to organize politically and eventually hold major offices in government. However, groups like the Ku Klux Klan had been organized to intimidate african americans from voting or being involved politically. …show more content…
Thus all slave owners were obligated to let their slaves go or provide a salary for working on the plantations. Because this meant no free labor, Southern states passed laws known as the Black Codes. Their intended purpose was to restrict the freedom of African Americans and scam to compel jobless former slaves to work for former slave owners for low wages or to pay off debt. Southerners used a system called “sharecropping” where African Americans were forced to sign yearly contracts and pay rent for a chunk of land that cost more than what they received from the products produced. This caused a large amount of African Americans to work for free in order to pay off these debts. This basically took that sense of freedom from the African American man because they were still treated like slaves, except it was legal. So African Americans are still viewed the same way as before and not free men and they knew that. Nothing had really changed for African …show more content…
Because Republicans were worried that the South would revoke the Bill, Congress passed the 14th amendment that same year. This granted all former slaves civil rights that included citizenship. At this point Congress is now overall in control of the government. In 1867, Congress was able to pass the Reconstruction Act which required Southern states to ratify the 14th amendment if they wanted back in the Union. In 1869 the 15th amendment was passed by Congress granting all African American males the right to vote. Military Reconstruction took control of the South and set up a military rule as well. By now, the Republican Party had full control of the country and was able to grant former male slaves civil rights, voting rights, and