Why Did the United States Failed to Give the Freedmen Land after the Civil War - Essay Example

Why did the United s failed to give the freedmen land after the Civil war? The topic is a very interesting debate oriented subject from the History of United States. This is a discussion which began after the civil war (1861-1865). We are aware about the causes of the civil war 1. That was majorly between the southern slavery states in America. We will brush up of what we know of Civil war, Reconstruction Era and the problems faced by the freedmen in the following paragraphs. The Confederate States of America was formed by eleven southern slave states also known as "the Confederacy". Jefferson Davis led the Confederacy and fought for its independence from the United States. Twenty mostly-Northern Free states supported U.S. federal government where slavery was already abolished, along with five slave states that became known as the Border States. These twenty-five states, referred to as the Union, had a much larger base of population and industry than the South. After four years of devastating warfare (mostly within the Southern states), the Confederacy surrendered and slavery was outlawed everywhere in the nation. This was Civil War which is also called as “War between the States”. The restoration of the Union, and the Reconstruction Era that followed, dealt with issues that remained unresolved for generations. Freedmen referred here are the blacks who worked as slaves in America. The land which could have been given to these people was not given. When we study the period of the war, we can understand that there was lot of material losses which surmounted with economy crisis. The statistics of the losses and economic crisis during this period is found in “The History of Southern United States”. Few pointers from the book are stated here. Reconstruction 2 played out against a backdrop of a once prosperous economy in ruins. The Confederacy in 1861 had 297 towns and cities with a combined population of 835,000; of these, 162 with a 681,000 people were at one point occupied by Union forces. Eleven were destroyed or severely damaged by war action, including Atlanta, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina; Columbia, South Carolina; and Richmond, Virginia; these eleven contained 115,900 people in the 1860 census, or 14% of the urban South. The number of people who lived in the destroyed towns represented just over 1% of the Confederacys combined urban and rural populations. In addition, 45 courthouses were burned (out of 830), destroying the documentation for the legal relationships in the affected communities. Farms were in disrepair, and the prewar stock of horses, mules and cattle was much depleted. The Souths farms were not highly mechanized, but the value of farm implements and machinery in the 1860 Census was $81 million and was reduced by 40% by 1870. The transportation infrastructure lay in ruins, with little railroad or riverboat service available to move crops and animals to market. Railroad mileage was located mostly in rural areas and over two-thirds of the Souths rails, bridges, rail yards, repair shops and rolling stock were in areas reached by Union armies, which systematically destroyed what they could. Even in untouched areas, the lack of maintenance and repair, the absence of new equipment, the heavy over-use, and the deliberate relocation of equipment by the Confederates from remote areas to the war zone ensured the system would be ruined at wars end. Restoring the infrastructure—especially the railroad system—became a high priority for Reconstruction state governments. The enormous cost of the Confederate war effort took a high toll on the Souths economic infrastructure. The direct costs to the Confederacy in human capital, government expenditures, and physical destruction from the war totaled 3.3 billion dollars. By 1865, the Confederate dollar was worthless due to massive inflation, and people in the South had to resort to bartering services for goods, or else use scarce Union dollars. With the emancipation of the southern slaves, the entire economy of the South had to be rebuilt. Having lost their enormous investment in slaves, white planters had minimal capital to pay freedmen workers to bring in crops. As a result, a system of sharecropping was developed where landowners broke up large plantations and rented small lots to the freedmen and their families. The South transformed from a prosperous minority of landed gentry slaveholders into a tenant farming agriculture system. The end of the Civil War was accompanied by a large migration of new freed people to the cities. In the cities, African Americans were relegated to the lowest paying jobs such as unskilled and service labor. Men worked as rail workers, rolling and lumber mills workers, and hotels workers. The large population of slave artisans during antebellum had not translated into a large number of freemen artisans during the Reconstruction. Black women were largely confined to domestic work employed as cooks, maids, and child nurses. Others worked in hotels. A large number became laundresses. Per capita income for white southerners declined from $125 in 1857 to a low of $80 in 1879. By the end of the 19th century and well into the 20th century, the South was locked into a system of economic poverty. There are few people who could be remembered for the keeping the rights of the slaves or blacks. Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, Fredrick Douglass and Daniel Freeman are few whose works, talks and literature are still looked upon in the history of America. Douglass fought for the rights of blacks along side of the Republicans. Democrats were against the option of giving freedom to the slaves and the fights that took place in Congress are well known to us. Daniel Freeman took the advantage of the Homestead Act of 1962 for the benefit of the slaves. The dispute of why the freedmen didn’t get their land could be said to the negative vote given by Andrew Johnson in 1865. The Freedmen Bureau Bill was vetoed by Johnson to the surprises of his fellow republicans. We can see that Johnson gave in his vote against the blacks when they could have got their land. He came up with reasons of ex slaves can’t be given land in America, unconstitutional and expensive, they might go beyond the powers of the ruling party etc. hence this issue has been unresolved. Every time the republicans came up with the solution to unite all, there was Johnson who used his voting to go against it. Johnson his powers again in 1866 when the Civil Rights act came by. This is clearly seen as “Impeachment of Andrew Johnson” in the literary works of History of America. There were 3 amendments between the war and reconstruction period which were close to the side of the blacks. There were 2 Freedmen Bureau Bills which were vetoed by Johnson though the Congress backed the second. Constant use of negative power made Johnson go for a trial during his presidency period. The radicals, congress and the senate couldn’t come to a common solution and there was always misunderstanding and disputes for smallest of issues. There have been lots of act and amendments released for the benefits of the blacks which was later seen. Bibliography: Howard Jones, Abraham Lincoln and a New Birth of Freedom: The Union and Slavery in the Diplomacy of the Civil War (1999) p. 154 Donald, Civil War and Reconstruction Ch. 26-30 Life after the 13th Amendment http://www.history.rochester.edu/class/douglass/part5.html viewed on10th May 2011 The Homestead Act http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/homestead-act/ viewed on 10th May 2011 Constitutional Foundation rights http://www.crf-usa.org/impeachment/impeachment-of-andrew-johnson.htm viewed on 10th May 2011 Current, Richard N., et al. eds. Encyclopedia of the Confederacy (1993) (4 Volume set; also 1 vol abridged version) (ISBN 0-13-275991-8) History of the Southern United States – Material devastation of the South in 1865 - Wikipedia Read More