|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
Interested in more history? click here |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
Of course, our latter-day Rip Van Winkle would
eventually recognize that despite continuities, fundamental changes had taken
place. Chattel slavery had been defeated. The gang system of labor, enforced
by the whip, was dead. Incredibly, about twenty percent of African Americans
in the South managed to acquire land by 1880. And through the 1880s, sizeable
numbers of African American men in the South would continue to vote. Real
gains had been won, even though full equality remained an unfulfilled
promise. Like an earthquake, Reconstruction shook southern
society's foundations than subsided. But it left the national landscape
forever changed. Out of Reconstruction came the first statewide public school
systems in the South as well as hospitals, penitentiaries, and asylums. The
first black institutions of higher learning were founded. Equally important
it was during Reconstruction that the institutional foundations of the modern
black community in the South were laid, including independent black churches
and a growing number of black landowners, businessmen, clergymen, and
teachers. With the passage of the 14th Amendment, mandating equal rights for
all citizens, and the 15th Amendment, forbidding states to deny the right to
vote because of race, the possibilities for later attacks on discrimination
had been established. Reconstruction's failure also carried long-term negative
consequences. Racism became more deeply embedded in American society. The
South's economy became almost entirely dependent on a single crop, cotton,
and an increasing number of Southerners were reduced to tenant farming. One
political party, the Democratic party, monopolized political power. Violence
kept immigrants from migrating to the region. The roots of half a century of
southern poverty had been planted. |
||||||||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|