HIST-0034 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Sharecropping
Document Summary
Reconstruction, 1865 1877: democratic party was the party of slavery, republican party was the party of abolition, questions immediately after the civil war, status of 11 former confederate states, president or congress set terms for southern reinstatement, end of reconstruction means end of federal troops in the south, occupation, there to ensure that the amendments are actually being enforced. Freedman"s bureau: responsibilities, provided food, clothes, shelter, established medical care, hospital facilities, arranged legal marriages, provided funds for dislocated blacks and whites, family searches, barely had any funds, would never be as successful as it could be, realities, whites running bureau for self help and white supremacy, freedman"s work contracts indistinguishable. Sharecropping: blacks given seed, farm tools, could keep half of what they harvest, build up credit debt, tenant, farmer pledged to sell crop to merchant farmer in return for goods on credit, also results in debt, people were cheated, were never allowed to really pay off debts.
