Failure Of Reconstruction Essay

In terms of reconstruction, more specifically the struggle to define the freedom and rights of freed slaves, the efforts were more often a failure than a success. The thirteenth amendment established the abolishment of slavery and indentured servitude, except as payment for a crime. However, the abolishment of slavery did not abolish the discrimination, racism and harassment that they endured. Freed slaves often found themselves working under their former masters in vaguely similar conditions. Yes, they received payment for their labor, but now they had to deal with the added costs of rent, food and other necessities. In this way, they were not much better off. Black codes and Jim Crow laws were, essentially, enforced discrimination in the

In this way, they were denied their rights and freedoms as American citizens. Legally, this violated the fourteenth amendment, which granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included the former slaves. The fifteenth amendment granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that the “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. These were attempts to define and shape the lives of former slaves as new citizens of the nation, insufficient attempts I might add. Racist Americans found loopholes and ways that made the lives of slaves increasingly more difficult despite these new amendments. Some historians argue that their livelihood was actually better off when they were