Civil Rights - FP1 - 13th Amendment Flashcards
The 13th Amendment
‘slavery illegal’ - passed senate apr 1864, HoR Jan 1865, Ratified Dec 1865 with bribery and pressure from supporters (despite unpop with white voters)
13th: Why?
-Black soldiers crutial in civil war
-Slavery already gone with proclaimation
June 1864 convention Lincoln = amendment, Nov 1864 did well in elections - percieved as support for amendment so it was pushed
Needed to constitutionally establish illegality of slavery
Many slaves had run away so would be logistically hard to recover slavery
Why important?
Transformed cotton dominated economy of south - dependent on labour
AA now had freedom of movement, control over lives
4m freedmen - legistation to improve lives began
Effects: Abolished Slavery
To the South, it interfered with state powers to regulate rights
Nullified the Fugitive Slave Act Clause and the Three-Fifths Comprimise
Effects: Transformation of economic position and sharecropping
$2bn worth of property (slaves) wiped from south - social tensions as slaveowners now had to negotiate contracts with ex slaves
Sharecropping - landowners provide food, tools etc and blacks labour
Land redistrubition failed and obstacles such as illeracy and lack of skills prevented AA from getting jobs other than labourer - plantation owners wanted cheap labour to replace slavery
13th: AA Freedom
New freedom and mobility to search for children and family
Autonomy - to own land, to be paid, to have meetings and services
Black troops among the occupying union army
Influx to south 1865-70 doubling of black pop in big Southern cities
AA freedoms: White Reaction
Violence at black people using their new fredoms - Texas indicted 500 whites for murder of AA 1865-6 none convicted
Slave owners fearful stoked by happenings abroad (Oct 1865 - governer of Jamaica killed 400 ‘rebels’)
Whites unwilling to accept equality -resentful at black confidence, the destroyed economy, union control and loss of life (13% of men military age in South had died)
Reconstruction: Political Divisions
Divisions - radical Repub want vote for ex-slaves and resistance of Southern elite
Southerners believed such legeslation was against the consitution and state rights - interpretations added to ratifications of 13th undermining it
Reconstruction: Beginnings to Johnson
Began Dec 1863 - proclaimation of Amnesty and reconstruction- wanted quick reconstruction - so only 10% in 1860 elections had to pledge allegiance to USA and union
Lincoln assasinated Apr 1865
Lenient Johnson means that South acted as though they hadn’t been defeated - ie Black Codes 1865-6 - to keep freedmen subordinate
Missisipi - AA could not own land, and had to have a contract to avoid punishment (also harsh in South Carolina)
Vagrancy laws - unemployed AA apprehended who could not pay a fine would be hired out to a white employer eg 74th Coloured Infrantry subject to this
