Southern Reconstruction (Blog 10)

Modern day issues in the countries southern states can be dated back to civil war era problems. Poor success in education,and a high level of poverty points to the poorly done reconstruction of the south post civil war, setting back many of the southern states namely; Louisiana, Alabama, Arkensas, and Mississippi almost 150 years later.

The reconstruction of the south began after the civil war ended and slavery was abolished. The south's entire lively hood was walking off of their plantations as the slaves were free to go. As told by a civil war historian "Slavery was the first great sin of this nation. The second greatest sin was emancipation, or rather the way it was done. The government told 4 million people 'hit the road you are free to go' three quarters of them could not read or write. The tiniest fraction of them had any profession they could enter." Since there was no rehabilitation for slaves or compensation for slave owners the south suddenly found itself full of impoverished white men, and uneducated freed slaves. The government did not effectively rehabilitate the south after the abolishment of slavery. Considering that most of the southern states doubled as battlefields during the war many of the towns were in desperate need of repair

Even though the slaves were freed of their owners when the Jim Crow laws were instated it seemed as though they where given no chance to move up in the world. The laws put restrictions on marriage, schooling, seating on buses, even banning Negroes from using white peoples water fountains. Some of the Jim Crow laws were "“Marriages are void when one party is a white person and the other is possessed of one-eighth or more Negro, Japanese, or Chinese blood.” (Nebraska, 1911). In addition to these laws where “Separate free schools shall be established for the education of children of African descent; and it shall be unlawful for any colored child to attend any white school, or any white child to attend a colored school.” (Missouri, 1929). These laws essentially segregated whites from blacks, causing racist factions to form like the Ku Klux Klan. There was no attempt to ween the blacks into normal American society. This racial segregation caused the south to fall behind the rest of America.

Currently southern states like Mississippi, Louisiana, and Kentucky are the lowest three states with a percentage of people 25 and over who have a high school diploma. Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Arkansas are the last five states according to ranking of the percentage of people age 16 to 64 in the labor force.

The abolishment of slavery was suppose to put the country on good terms between all people, instead it deteriorated the southern infrastructure. It can be said that- “...a part of American history that isn't easy to face. It tells us that we had a moment in our history when our politics broke down. We don't like to face that. We don't even want to know about it. We like to believe we are a society of security and progress and improvement. Reconstruction makes us face an era when we were something else.”

Sources:


"Abolition & Slavery - American Civil War - CivilWar.com." Home - American Civil War - CivilWar.com. http://www.civilwar.com/content/section/38/70/ (accessed October 2, 2008).

Blight, David. "Q&A: Southern Violence During Reconstruction." PBS; American Experience, Reconstruction: The Second Civil War. www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reconstruction/40acres/sf_ violence.html#c (accessed October 1, 2008).

"Jim Crow Laws - Separate Is Not Equal." National Museum of American History. http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/1-segregated/jim-crow.html (accessed October 1, 2008).



"United States and States - R1501. Percent of People Who Have Completed High School (Includes Equivalency)." American FactFinder. http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/GRTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-_box_head_nbr=R1501&-ds_name=ACS_2006_EST_G00_&-format=US-30 (accessed October 1, 2008).

"United States and States - R2301. Percent of People 16 to 64 Years Who Are in the Labor Force (Including Armed Forces)." American FactFinder. http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/GRTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-_box_head_nbr=R2301&-ds_name=ACS_2006_EST_G00_&-redoLog=false&-format=US-30&-mt_name=ACS_2006_EST_G00_R1501_US30 (accessed October 1, 2008).

Forsyth, Ana. "Ana's Blog". http://anaforsythe.blogspot.com/ (accessed October 2, 2008).