Life for African Americans During Reconstruction

Life for African American’s during Reconstruction

America was discovered around 1492. Around 100 years later, slavery in America had begun. African Americans were first brought over to aid the farmers in Virginia with tobacco. From that point on slavery spread throughout the Americas. People of America had no idea what they had struck upon or what the future would hold. African-American slaves were punished and persecuted for centuries, but there emancipation had finally come during the Reconstruction era, and slaves were now citizens of a “free” America. Slaves helped America develop industrially, economically, and expand its territories westward. We would go through bloody debates over slavery, but we were determined to be one nation with equal rights.

During the Civil War president Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation that would change the character of the war. On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation stated "all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free"(direct quote 1). This meant that the North was not only fighting for restoration of the Union, but

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freedom for all slaves. The Emancipation Proclamation gave African Americans hope and cause. Slaves joined from all over, fleeing the south to join the fight for the north. Close to 200,000 African Americans served in the Civil War on either side. The war lasted for four years coming to an end in 1865 with a Union victory.

The War at this point had “shifted from the battle field to a political realm”(see footnote 2). The U.S had sent the army to the south to ensure that slaves were being emancipated. After the war ended, U.S government passed the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. “The 13TH Amendment abolished slavery in the U.S, the 14th Amendment granted birth right citizenship to freed slaves, and the 15th Amendment gave...