Sharecropping During The Gilded Age Essay

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

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

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