Analysis Of How American People’s Life Changed Through 1865-1900 Period
Our world’s relationships in the period from 1865 to 1900 has deemed to be one of the most historically rich time periods I’ve learned about in my education. The “whites” dominate America using their race to hold superiority while people of color struggle to come out of slavery and make a life for themselves. Journeying through the time of the Reconstruction with the creation of Civil Rights, to immigration and industrialization with railroads all the way to the creation of the court. Such a historically dense period of time, so much to talk about yet one thing comes to my mind. How were many of these people’s individual lives throughout this time period. More specifically how did people’s life change through this time period, not just for African Americans but for all races and ethnicities, for people with all backgrounds.
Regardless of the many hardships that were brought from 1865-1900, people were able to acquire land, challenge their rights, and negotiate better work and wage for one another. After the end of the Civil War and Reconstruction took place, America was left with 630,000 people dead and hundreds of thousands displaced. American government understood that it needed a change and took many actions to carry this out. Freedom was one of the most important things discussed at this time and the 13th and 14th Amendments as well as the Civil Rights were the product of the conversation. With new regulations and laws put in place for the people of color, many knew this as an opportunity to fight the superior and argue against turning back the clock. However, people of color were still faced with many challenges. The black codes defined what freedom for African Americans was, and many might argue that the black codes resembled very closely to slavery. As I analyzed a text from a version of the Mississippi Black Code it was easily noticeable that the freedoms given to negroes freedmen and mulattoes were very restricted, if ever convicted for charges, they were given limited time to prove innocent; a huge loophole later noticed in the 13th Amendment. With all the inconsistencies in the legislature people of color still fought against the methods of slavery and worked hard for what they wanted. Sharecropping became a big method of success for many African Americans, freedmen and mulattoes. Sharecropping was a way in which both people of color and “whites” could benefit from work and service. “Under this new system, planters divided their cotton plantations into small farms that freedmen rented, paying with a share of each year’s crop, usually half.” With this new system the lives of many saw hope. People of color no longer could be abused of their physical effort without also benefitting. It wasn’t the best method to support a family or the best method to sustain for a long term because of its many faults but it was a place to start. Families could finally feed themselves and not be extremely worried to be abused or tortured by a master, instead they would be working on terms without the same conditions as slavery.
With slow advances in the legislature of rights in America it was important for the oppressed people to be extremely aware of their rights and laws. One wrong mistake could have them thrown into the loophole of a system and wound up doing the very slave work that they had avoided for so long. Around the time Reconstruction was taking place African Americans were being provided with citizenship. This was the first time ever due to the clauses of the 14th Amendment, guaranteeing equal protection and citizenship for African Americans, male exclusive. Looking more in depth with the Civil Rights, in 1866 Civil Rights called for the end of legal discrimination by states and in 1875 there was to be no discrimination in transportation, public accommodations, or juries. This was meaning that blacks and whites could sit in the same buses, be in the same apartments etc. Now as we progress in time things didn’t seem to change very much until closer to the 1900. Disenfranchisement became an issue during this time and with there being strict laws on who could vote or who could exercise their rights to vote many people of color were upset. Disenfranchisement was the restriction of people to vote based on things like poll taxes, literacy tests, and white only primaries. This was put in place so less privileged folks would have a harder time accessing voting. These restrictions stuck around for a long time, and it wasn’t until the Supreme Court came into action when people of less privileged and people of color could challenge the legislature in place and fight for their rights. With the Supreme Court present to make just decisions make cases were brought to attention such as Plessy vs Ferguson (1896) and Williams vs Mississippi (1898). Eventually the people got what they wanted but in time disenfranchisement was overruled, specifically poll and literacy taxes were overruled in 1965, and the people challenging succeeded.
In the time period from 1865 to 1900, wages and availability for work made a drastic change in the lives of the American people. People once struggling to break out of slavery or find a supporting wage for their family rode the timeline to a period where jobs were becoming more readily available, even though they still might not be fully supporting. With the initiation of sharecropping starting to benefit the worker and the farmer, more jobs followed. During around 1869 the introduction of the transcontinental railroad became a big boomer for society. Thousands of employers ventured to the railroad industry with this boom. With more employers and companies joining the railroad party more hands were needed to help creating a surplus of jobs to be filled. Andrew Carnegie was key member in this product, Carnegie was a Scottish-American businessman, who really faced the steel industry and provided many jobs for the working class through his involvement with the railroad boom. However even after the railroad boom jobs still became better in between 1860 and 1900. The number of wage earners went from 5.3 million to close to 18 million, clearly showing an upscale in an accessibility and availability to jobs. This was for whites and people of color as well as women too. Interestingly women’s jobs weren’t the same as men’s jobs but we still demanding of them. Women fulfilled jobs working mainly in other people’s homes for domestic/personal work. Some other women however had jobs working in manufacturing and trade and transportation. Women then also became a vital part in politics. With better representation in the working force women tried to shed light on a new issue of woman suffrage. “Like men, women sought after political change and organized to promote issue central to their lives, campaigning for temperance and woman suffrage. A fight for more women equality is surely to come. Regardless of the many hardships that were brought from 1865-1900, people were fought and worked to be able to acquire land, challenge their rights, and negotiate better work and wage for one another.
Overall as the time goes by slowly year by year, and time by time one by one situations become solved. However in today’s society some of the issues we learn about in our history textbooks are still relevant to this day, such as the injustice to the working class, abuse and racism many face. These issues are still a big deal with an interest in the future being, in what ways did the lives of people living in the 2000’s and 2010’s change?
