How Did The 13th Amendment Sharecropping In African American History

The definition of slavery is "a civil relationship whereby one person has absolute power over another and controls his life, liberty, and fortune." (Dictionary.com) Slavery was a huge part of our American History. It existed for over 245 years, and flourished especially in the south where there was plenty of cotton and slaves were needed to work the fields. It was during the Civil War when things really began changing for the African Americans. The war changed from focusing more on bringing the Confederate back to the Union, to freeing slaves and bringing an end to slavery. Four years after the North had won the war, the 13th amendment was ratified. This amendment freed 4 million African American slaves. In my opinion, the 13th amendment

From the outside, sharecropping looked like a perfect solution. Former slaves getting freedom and jobs while plantation owners get workers to work their farms, but this was definitely not the case. It may have looked different and sounded different from slavery, but it was slavery all the same. Sharecropping was a trap for African Americans. This was a system that let former slaves rent land from white land owners, often times renting land from their previous owners. In exchange for the land, they payed the plantation owners with 1/3 to 1/2 of their harvest made. Most sharecroppers had to borrow money from the land owners to buy the seeds, tools, and other supplies needed to harvest their crops, because they had none of their own. Very few farmers actually earned enough from their crops to pay them back, so instead of gaining independence and freedom, the African Americans became slaves to a life of debt and poverty. They were also treated just as they had been before; they were treated like slaves. An example of this is an African American who worked on a sharecropping farm, who's name was Henry Blake. He tells his personal story about how sharecropping became a goal for unequal power and his personal struggles. Blake says, "They didn't give no itemized statement. They just say you owe so much. No matter how good

Nobody can deny the fact that racism still occurred, but some don't know that there was still cruelty and violence in slavery after the 13th amendment, it just took on a different form. One of these forms I have not mentioned yet was the Klu Klux Klan. The KKK used fear, intimidation, and violence to get the African Americans to do what they wanted and to control them once again. The KKK first began as a social group, founded by many former confederate veterans. This new clan exploded all over the south and extended to almost every state. In all, clan members exceeded 4 million. Their main goal as a group was to restore white supremacy, and they did everything they could to see to that. They prevented blacks from enjoying basic civil rights and would murder, torture, burn and attack black communities and even some whites that would support African Americans. It became a sport for many whites, and it gradually became worse and worse. They would violently kill you, or even your children or your wife to punish you. The KKK did horrible things to the African Americans and nobody could do anything, because many of the policemen were members and even if you did try to stop them, they'd kill you too. It was a vicious cycle, one that lasted for a very long time. The common argument is stated like this one, "Though the 13th Amendment far from terminated the racism that permeated the