18.2 Reconstruction and Daily Life

1. 18.2 Reconstruction and Daily Life • RESPONDING TO FREEDOM • After they were freed, many of the former slaves began to travel in search of family members that were separated due to slavery. • People put advertisements in newspapers to help find family members and the Freedmen's Bureau helped them with this. • African Americans could now marry legally and raise families without fear of being separated

2. Starting Schools • Freed slaves realized that the key to economic independence was at least being able to read, write, and do basic math so they flocked to freedmen's schools. • Freedmen's schools were started by the Freedmen's Bureau, northern missionaries, and African-American organizations.

3. Sometimes parents weren't able to go to school because they had to work, so children went to school and then came home and taught their parents to read and write. • White racists sometimes killed people who taught the former slaves and burned schools to the ground.

4. 40 Acres and a Mule • Sherman had suggested that some vacant pieces of land in South Carolina be parceled up into 40 acre plots and given to the former slaves (maybe this land wasn't really vacant, but remember, Sherman hated South Carolina). • There were some attempts to give plots of land to the freed slaves, but they were never successful.

5. The Contract System • Unfortunately, without their own land, many of the former slaves returned to the same plantations that they had worked on as slaves. • However, now, they earned wages now, and southern planters desperately needed farm workers, and so the African Americans could pick the best offer. • Most still earned very low wages, workers could still often not leave the plantations without permission, and many workers were cheated out of wages and other benefits.

6. Sharecropping and Debt • Under this system the worker rented a plot of land to farm. • The landowner provided tools, seed, and housing. • When the crop is harvested, the sharecropper had to give the landowner a share of the crop as payment. • One problem was that the sharecropper wanted to grow crops for food for their families, but the landowner wanted them to grow cash crops, so often the sharecroppers had to buy food from stores with the little money they had.

7. White farmers who had lost their land in the war also became sharecroppers. • By 1880, 1/3 of all farmers in the deep south worked on someone else's land. • After the war, the price of cotton dropped and the planters responded by expanding output which drove prices down further. • On top of this, the overuse of soil for cotton depleted the minerals and made the soil unusable for food crops.

9. Ku Klux Klan • After the war even though the slaves had been freed and the government had passed the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, there was still deep racism. • One group that threatened the former slaves was the Ku Klux Klan. • The Klan beat people, murdered people, and burnt homes and churches. • The Klan wanted the Democrats to get back into power, so they intimidated voters.