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Sharecropping During The Gilded Age Essay

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The United States has had racial capitalism as a defining feature since the reconstruction following the Civil War. Since capitalism's inception, this system has perpetuated the exploitation and marginalization of African Americans, who have systematically been denied access to resources and opportunities. There have been three distinct eras of racial capitalism in America over the past century and a half, each with unique features and implications for African Americans. The first era forced African Americans into a cycle of poverty and vulnerability to violence, marked by the rise of black codes and the establishment of sharecropping during the Gilded Age. The second era, which encompasses both The New Deal and WWII, witnessed the persistence …show more content…

Although the thirteenth amendment abolished slavery, white supremacy was maintained through black codes, convict leasing, and sharecropping. These policies kept African Americans at a disadvantage, particularly the exploitative practice of sharecropping. Although formerly enslaved people were granted access to small plots of land, they were required to share their profits with the landowners, leaving them with a meager income. Most formerly enslaved people lacked a family following emancipation due to the separation of enslaved families, making them defenseless against the discriminatory practices of white landowners. The Christian Recorder shows how displaced African American families were and how the necessity for money forced individuals into sharecropping positions. This struggle for social status made African Americans even more vulnerable to hate crimes, which often went unnoticed and unpunished. The Ku Klux Klan targeted African Americans after emancipation due to the mobilization of black voters within the Republican Party. These dynamics were part of a more extensive system of racial capitalism where race determined social and labor hierarchies, keeping African Americans in a lower position. Despite the abolition of slavery, systemic racism and discrimination against African Americans and Native Americans persisted well into …show more content…

Neoliberal policies led to the erosion of the welfare state, the decline of labor unions, and the growth of income inequality, disproportionately impacting communities of color. Additionally, the rise of mass incarceration in the 1980s and 1990s further entrenched racial capitalism, as African Americans and other people of color were disproportionately targeted and incarcerated for nonviolent drug offenses. The combination of neoliberalism and mass incarceration has created a new form of exploitation in America, which perpetuates the legacy of racial capitalism and undermines the efforts of the Civil Rights

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More specifically, he argues that the common goals freed slaves faced between 1830 and 1860—racial animus and Southern planters’ resistance— resurfaced again in the early 1900s. The planter class used their financial and political wherewithal to subjugate black laborers in a state of perpetual servitude—ex. sharecropping. “Keep the Negroes in the South and make them satisfied with their lot.” In response, the Negro Rural School Fund employed industrial supervisors to teach black educators. James Anderson also recounts the urbanization of the South and its impact upon the public education landscape. He sheds light upon the absence of black high schools in rural areas in the years following Reconstruction.

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Slavery played a crucial role in the development of the American economy, and the exploitation of African American labor contributed to the accumulation of wealth and power by white Americans. The Jim Crow era and ongoing discrimination against African Americans in the workplace have continued this legacy of exploitation, leading to a significant wealth gap between white and black Americans. Both Block and Jones highlight the importance of understanding the historical context in which capitalism developed and how it has contributed to social and economic inequalities. They argue that capitalism alone is not sufficient for promoting social justice and equality, and that government intervention is necessary to regulate the market and redistribute wealth. Block suggests that the government should have a more active role in promoting social welfare programs, such as education and healthcare, to ensure that all citizens have access to the resources necessary to thrive.

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The dissemination of such folk sayings reveals the commonalities of the southern African American experience. However, most African Americans were unable to afford landownership and so remained stuck in the familiar dynamic of white supremacy. The few who could moved to urban centers, signaling the beginning of the Great Migration. However, racism was not confined to one region in America and African Americans nationwide continued to experience racially motivated discrimination and violence (Doc 4). Racial violence was

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After the Civil War, the Republican party had a vision for America to thrive and prosper, but during the Gilded Age the country faced challenges that led to the abandonment of this vision. Freedmen and their families faced violence all throughout the South after Reconstruction ended. Three main groups worked to terrorize and disenfranchise black people and Southern Republicans: the Ku Klux Klan, Midnight Raiders, and Knights of the Golden Circle. Most of these lynchings were ignored – or dismissed by the police. Black men were killed and often falsely accused of rape by white women.

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The first African American leaders in the South Came from the ranks of antebellum free blacks who were joint by norther blacks to support Reconstruction. Blanche K Bruce an ex slave established a school for freedmen and in 1874 he became Mississippi’s second black U.S. senator. African American speakers who were financed by the Republican Party, spread out into the plantation districts and recruited former slaves to take part in politics. In South Carolina, African Americans constituted a majority in the lower house of legislature in 1868. Over the reconstruction twenty African Americans served in state administrations as Governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, or lesser offices.

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Reagan’s campaign against poor Black people was successful in sharpening discrimination at a national level, even after the Civil Rights Movement worked to end discrimination within the system. Tillotson strongly argues that conservative ideology is “anti-African American agency and as an ideology it poses a significant threat to the internal security of African Americans” (51). Also that it has “destroyed to a large degree any efforts at an equal playing field for poverty stricken citizens of African ancestry in America” (Tillotson 50). Tillotson includes W.D. Wright’s argument that welfare segregates African Americans in ghettos by acting as a “substitution for educating masses of Black people” (40), and failing to properly train them for good paying jobs. Furthermore, even if they were skilled, they are already closed out of the job market based on skin color, the only place available for Black folks to remain is as an exploited underpaid cheap labor

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The word gilded refers to something thinly covered in gold. Mark Twain referred to the late 1800s as the Gilded Age due to what it appeared to be, a time of great success for many but underneath a time of corruption in businesses and the government. The 1870s-1890s was a time of poverty, opportunity, and disaster. The growing comfort of middle-class life during the Gilded Age led many to fear that American men were losing their manliness. Many middle-class Americans embraced formerly taboo violent sports like boxing and football.

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Imagine living in a world where the color of your skin, your religion or where you came from would make you a target for violence and murder. This is what the African Americans, immigrants and anyone who was not considered a Christian endured in the Southern states and nationwide throughout much of America’s history. Racism fueled by anger after the American Civil War was a dangerous combination and that’s when the Ku Klux Klan or KKK was formed. The Klan is a hate group who targeted not only African Americans but Jews, Catholics, and liberals. The KKK is the most infamous and oldest of American hate groups.

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The racist legislation that followed after the destruction of Black Wall Street haunted generations of African Americans then and now. It is this legislation, rooted in both fear (from feeling threatened), jealousy, animosity, and racism that has perpetuated the racial wealth gap. These legislations and the threat of violence have led to a decrease in homeownership for African Americans; 49% of African Americans owned homes in contrast to 76% of whites between 1994 and 2017 (Asante-Muhammad, et. al., 2017). Although the black middle class increased greatly during the 1950s and throughout the 1980s—with 4 million African Americans belonging to the middle class between 1960 and 1965—it began to decelerate (Gregg, 1998).

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The Gilded Age lasted from 1870 to World War 1, “1900s.” The Gilded Age was a period of fast economic development, but also much social struggle. Mark Twain in the late nineteenth century founded the “Gilded” Age, which means covered with gold on the outside, but not really golden on the inside, for example, tin. This period of time was glittering on the surface but corrupt underneath. In other words, the outside looked beautiful, but the inside looked old and trashy.

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Inequality in the accumulation of wealth in the U.S.’s black population stretches back to times of slavery and lack of reparations for their group’s enslavement to the Social Security Act and the Federal Housing Act (GIB 1). Racial discrimination lurks in the U.S.’s housing market from its very conception after WWII, when GIs began to return home in search of a new home (RTPI). Although, the Federal Housing Administration by no means a starting point for the cause of wealth inequality, it certainly exacerbated the gap. White suburbs like “Levittown” created a white exclusive ideal neighborhood which devalued black and other nonwhite homeowners. Housing discrimination prevented blacks and nonwhites from accumulating wealth like whites would

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The Ku Klux Klan did not accept African Americans as equals after being set free from slavery, they thought they should still be working for and not with a white American. (“The KKK And Racial Problems”) African Americans were being lynched and beaten for having a white man's job, not working for a white and, of course, just for being black. “Many different groups had emigrated to America over the years. One group – the Blacks – had been brought there against their will and after the success of the northern states during the Civil War and the freeing of the Blacks from slavery in 1865, a sinister group was established which was designed to spread fear throughout the Black population that still lived in the southern states” (The KKK and Racial Problems).

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Nevertheless, as opposed to the thesis, the author argues that the new racism regarding African Americans has replaced discrimination with undeserved privileges. It is this fact that gives rise to the fear that income growth and welfare are more serious than racism. This turned out to be worse and more serious than just a black war against a grave crisis. The advancement of this disastrous "struggle against racism" generates a group of black leaders parasitizing on it. The civil rights movement shifted its main vector from democratic to capitalistic, thus turning into an economic industry.

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Introduction: During the 1800’s, Slavery was an immense problem in the United States. Slaves were people who were harshly forced to work against their will and were often deprived of their basic human rights. Forced marriages, child soldiers, and servants were all considered part of enslaved workers. As a consequence to the abolition people found guilty were severely punished by the law.

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