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

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

3. 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.

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

5. Sharecropping vs. Tenant Farming
Farmer would rent land and house from landowner
Farmer had control over crops that were grown and could sell them at will and keep the profits
Farmer’s responsibility to pay their rent to the landowner
Sharecropping:
Had no ownership of land, house or equipment
Farmer had no control of what they planted or how crops were sold
Landowner would hold all profits and after paying any outstanding debts the farmer had, would give the farmer their share (often nothing or farmer still owed him)
Kept the farmer in a cycle of debt & poverty

6. 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

8. Opposition
Southern state governments restricted the rights of the newly freed African Americans by passing “black codes”
Later called Jim Crow laws
Also main goal of Ku Klux Klan
Keep African Americans submissive to white superiority using terror and violence to keep them from voting
Congress passed the Enforcement Act 1870 in reaction to Klan terror

9. Activity: Go to your class page on my Windsor website
To today’s date…October 17
To documents
Letter on KKK Activities
Segregation Today