When looking back at the period of 1865-1877 which was the Reconstruction Era it is explained as a battle between the Resisters and Reformers. People have different theories about which group ultimately won. In my opinion, I could see both sides, with each one having positive and negative situations. When choosing which one I think actually got more of what they wanted though I would have to say the Resisters. Each time the Reformers tried to change anything the Resisters would fight against it. In the end, the Reformers interest began to decline until it ended which meant the Resisters got what they wanted all along.
There were numerous things that showed the Resisters came out ahead. The first way would be when the Reformers fought for Freedmen’s Bureau which promised to give African Americans land, an education and a job. The Freedmen’s Bureau never got the African Americans any land and was not a lot of help for them so they often returned to their masters. Some of the problems with the Freedmen’s Bureau was there were too many jobs, they were undermanned and it was corrupt. Although, the Reformers freed the slaves the resisters made sure the African Americans struggled being free because they felt the Reformers wanted to destroy the South.
Then even after slavery was abolished, the Democrats tried to come up with a way to exploit slaves. They then came up with The Black Codes which was supposed to “restore order.” This made it illegal for African Americans to own guns, own dogs, gather , be out late at night, use insulting language and drink alcohol. If an African American was seen doing this he was fined or done jail time. They also had Labor Contracts which stated they needed permission to leave with some stating that they must call their boss “Master” and also allowed harsh punishments. The labor contract was supposedly for “employee’s” not slaves. This was the Resisters way of reacting to the Reformers and they were bringing slavery back in subtle ways.
Then the Klu Klux Klan known as the KKK would rise and fall during this period. This was known as a “Social Club” and was organized because they did not want African Americans to vote. There were three main goals of the KKK. The first was to prevent African Americans from voting where they could maintain control. The second was to maintain white supremacy where the African Americans would stay in “their place” which included them not dating whites, owning businesses and gathering among other things. The third goal was to destroy Reconstruction.
The planters did not want to tell the slaves that slavery was over and they were free. This usually resulted in the Northern Army (The Union Soldiers) having to come through to tell the slaves and the free slaves then would follow the soldiers who ended up putting them to work. This is when the slaves began to define freedom. One of the most important things was to try and get a job which would usually be crop sharing or cotton picking. The free slaves then tried to find their families through the newspapers. They then would give their self a new name because the Masters had named them names which were meant to be degrading. They also migrated with 25,000 ending up in Kansas.
Finally, it shows with the failure of share cropping. Although, share cropping persisted for many decades in the United States it ended around 1960. It ended because there were numerous failures such as, no land for former slaves making them dependent on many slave owners. So they would farm the owners land and pay a percentage to the land owner. The land owners made sure the former slaves went into a “debt spiral” and charged them interest for all the necessities they needed since they didn’t have any resources.
During the 1870’s, the resisters persistent effort began to pay off when interest began to decline. The North started to lose interest because of all the economic distress, they began to believe it was hopeless, they had weak presidential commitment because the president wanted to avoid the issue and because of increasing white supremacy. In the end, the reformers had not won this battle and neither had the resisters so it came down to the Compromise of 1877.
