Warm-up? What is the idea/concept behind this cartoon?

Freedom at last? Objective: Examine and discuss the impact Reconstruction had on the newly freed African Americans

Freedom…Changes  Many freedmen left the South ◦ Had no money or property ◦ Many migrated North or West (Exodusters)  Most visible “new” black organizations in South were churches  For the first time, African American marriages were legalized  Southern agriculture depended on cash crops---crops grown to make money.

Job Availability Freedmen remained dependent on white “masters” Sharecropping & tenant farming A different type of slavery Many poor white Southerners now had to compete for jobs with freedmen Tenant farming caused the rise of a new class of wealthy merchants

Freedmen’s Bureau ◦ Established by Congressional Reconstruction plan to help newly freed slaves ◦ Negotiated labor contracts ◦ Provided medical care, clothing, food ◦ Set up schools for education ◦ Helped reunite families separated by slavery

Reconstruction Legislation  13 th, 14 th, & 15 th Amendments  Southern Homestead Act 1866: ◦ offered low cost land to Southerners, black or white, who would farm the land.  Reconstruction Act 1867:  Put South under military rule  Had to grant vote to African American men  Required states to ratify 14 th Amendment

Opposition Southern state governments passed “black codes” Later called Jim Crow laws Restricted rights of newly freed African Americans Also main goal of Ku Klux Klan Keep African Americans submissive to white superiority using terror and violence to keep them from voting

Activity: Billie Holliday— ”Strange Fruit”