Black Reconstruction

Life for a black man during reconstruction

BY:Brock Utecht

For the beginning of my years I had grown up with smell of tobacco going through my nostrils. Whenever I go to bed and whenever I wake up smelling the citrus off the tobacco flowers. These farmers in Virginia started this whole slavery thing, by using us to aid them with tobacco. It is a scary world for a black person. People you know getting punished and persecuted for centuries. The world was a dark place for us blacks. We had no way to fight this slavery at the time.

Then all of a sudden their was major conflict in America. Bloody debates over the one word of slavery. Then after a lot of ups and downs America was determined to be one country with equal rights. But for crying out loud we did a lot to get this country up and running. For example we helped America’s industrial, economy, and helped America expand its territories westward. Lincoln saw that we deserved more respect than sleeping in barns and doing hard labor for nothing in return but a difficult lifestyle. Therefor he created the Emancipation Proclamation. Which meant for us that the north was fighting for us. All african americans had hope now and a cause. We were finally dancing and singing again. Hallelujah!!!!

We all bonded from all over. Fleeing the south and joining to fight for the north. Close to 200000 of us blacks fought in the war from both sides. We finally all had a purpose. And after a bloody and painful 4 years the Union won the war. It kind of went from a battlefield to a political realm from this point. Armies were sent for us to make sure we were being free from restrictions. This now meant we were free men. We could own our own house and walk the streets without having dogs chasing us. After the war the U.S. passed the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. What these stated were the 13th abolished slavery, the 14th granted birth right citizenship to freed slaves. And then