1. Reconstruction and Daily Life
18.2

2. Responding to Freedom
After emancipation, many freed slaves went searching for their families they had been separated from.
Very difficult because records were not usually kept.
Almost all freed slaves wanted to leave the plantations they had been on.
For the first time, they could travel without passes, marry, have no fear that children would be sold.

3. Freedmen’s Schools
Now that they were freed, many former slaves had the desire to learn how to read and write
also help with economic goals
Many went to newly formed Freedmen’s Schools
Most of the schools were started by the Freedmen’s Bureau from the North
By 1869 more than 150,000 African Americans students were attending 3,000 school locations
20% of the South’s African American adults could read
Many white Southerner’s were against this idea sometimes even burning or damaging the Freedmen’s Schools.

4. Working the Land
People wanted land more than anything else, especially the recently freed slaves
General Sherman proposed dividing the abandoned land in the south and dividing it into 40 acre parcels to be given out to the freed slaves
The army had extra mules that Sherman wanted to loan out
Rumors spread quickly and many freed slaves went in search of their 40 acres and a mule
Most received nothing

5. Working the Land
The few freed slaves that received land had it taken away and returned to their previous owners
Radical Republicans Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner pushed to have the plantations divided up and given away
Arguing that civil rights meant very little without economic independence
Many republicans were against the plan
Congress did not pass the plan

6. Contract System After the war, farmers needed workers to grow
cotton- still the South's main crop
African Americans were still looking for work and accepted contracts to farm cotton- known as contract farming
Contract system was far better than slavery, but still not good work
African Americans were paid for their labor and could decide who to work for
Best contracts still paid very low wages
Some landowners cheated or abused workers

7. Sharecropping
In the sharecropping system, farmers rented land on credit. The landowners provided the tools and seeds. At harvest time, the renters gave a share of their profits to the landowners as payment.
This system had serious problems
-No choice in what to farm- usually only cotton
-Farmers had to buy everything else they needed- FOOD
-Usually bought on credit and paid higher prices
Usually once the renters paid their credit debits and gave the share of the profits to the landowners they have little to no money left
Left with no hope to escape poverty

8. Violent Racism
Many farmers and former Confederate soldiers did not want African Americans to have equal rights. Besides facing poverty many African Americans also faced violent racism.
In 1866, racism in the South spurred the rise of a terrorist group named the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
Included members from all social and economic groups
The Klan’s goals were to restore control of the south and keep former slaves powerless
By 1868, the Klan existed in nearly every Southern state.

9. Violent Racism
The Klan attacked African Americans and white Republicans
They rode horseback and dressed in robes and hoods
-Beat and tortured people
-Burned schools, churches, and homes
-They even lynched some victims- without consequences

10. Violent Racism People who the Klan targeted had little protection
The government and military ignored the problem
President Johnson had rushed too greatly to restore the Southern governments who ended up being against Reconstruction
The Klan’s violence presented the Democratic Party
Kept Republicans away from the polls and lead to the increased power of the Democrats.