Question

Write an essay about the Conditions of the freedmen (men, women and children who had been in slavery), including living conditions, all the difficulties faced by them, those who tried to help,

Answer 1

Life after slavery has been a changed place for the African Americans in the South. The brutalities and indignities of slave life, the whippings and sexual attacks, the selling and forcible removal of family members, denial of schooling, jobs, lawful marriage, homeownership, and more, have gone. Privately and in public jubilees, African Americans celebrated their newfound freedom.

But life in the years following slavery also proved to be hard. The brutalities of white race prejudice persisted, even though slavery had been over. State governments across the South, after slavery, instituted legislation known as Black Codes. These laws granted blacks certain legal rights , including the right to marry, own property, and sue in court, but the Codes also made it illegal for blacks to serve in juries, testify against whites, or serve in state militias. Black codes also included the signing of annual labor contracts with white landlords by black sharecroppers and tenant farmers. They could be arrested if they refused, and hired out for work.

For a few areas in the South, during the immediate end of the Civil War, former slaves confiscated property from former plantation owners. Yet the White Landowners were soon restored by federal troops. A movement among Republicans in Congress was unsuccessful in providing land to the former slaves. Former slaves have never received compensation for their enslavement.

The rights, privileges and obligations of citizenship are frequently taken up by African Americans. Seven hundred African American men served in elected public office during Reconstruction, including two United States Senators, and fourteen U.S. House of Representatives members. About 1300 African American men and women held designated government roles. Reconstruction was at an close, without troops to implement the Fourteenth and Fifteen Amendments. Lynching, disenfranchisement, and segregationist policies have proliferated across the South. It would not be for Jim Crow segregation to be outlawed until after the Second World War and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.