Reconstruction Era Equality
The biggest challenge of The Reconstruction Era was creating laws that would work to create equality, but laws aren't always the answer in creating equality especially between whites and blacks.
Although the 13th amendment had occurred and slaves were freed and given a "helping hand" to start a new, free life, that amendment did not help all that much. Later on the blacks were given The Freedmen's Bureau to get help in resources and finding new opportunities, the bureau did try to do as much as possible to assist blacks, because "Colored laborers, on the wharf at Beaufort, get out $8 per month, and not fully paid at that, while white men, doing the same work, get from $30 to $50 per month," one issue was unequal pay for freedmen and they were …show more content…
The South created The Mississippi Black Codes in 1865 that had laws/rules against blacks like, " Be it further enacted, that if any apprentice shall leave the employment of his or her master or mistress without his or her consent, said master or mistress may pursue and recapture said apprentice and bring him or her before any justice of the peace of the county, whose duty it shall be to remand said apprentice to the service of his or her master or mistress..." (1865). This may not seem as terrible as having slavery, but they were still slightly treated as if they were because it is so similar to the Slave Codes, " No slave can leave the "tenement" of his master (or other person with whom he lives) without a written pass or token... If he does, any person can apprehend the slave, take him before the justice of peace, and if the slave is convicted, the justice can order the slave whipped (no more than 20 lashes)." (1833). The reason that it is important to compare the new laws of freedmen to the slave laws is because it shows how not much has changed, maybe there is more civil punishments but those punishments are behind the laws that show that freedmen are still treated as less and they do not have as equal of rights to whites. The laws made in The Era of Reconstruction did not help the entire nation get equality, it only allowed them to deal with both sides of
Although the 13th amendment had occurred and slaves were freed and given a "helping hand" to start a new, free life, that amendment did not help all that much. Later on the blacks were given The Freedmen's Bureau to get help in resources and finding new opportunities, the bureau did try to do as much as possible to assist blacks, because "Colored laborers, on the wharf at Beaufort, get out $8 per month, and not fully paid at that, while white men, doing the same work, get from $30 to $50 per month," one issue was unequal pay for freedmen and they were …show more content…
The South created The Mississippi Black Codes in 1865 that had laws/rules against blacks like, " Be it further enacted, that if any apprentice shall leave the employment of his or her master or mistress without his or her consent, said master or mistress may pursue and recapture said apprentice and bring him or her before any justice of the peace of the county, whose duty it shall be to remand said apprentice to the service of his or her master or mistress..." (1865). This may not seem as terrible as having slavery, but they were still slightly treated as if they were because it is so similar to the Slave Codes, " No slave can leave the "tenement" of his master (or other person with whom he lives) without a written pass or token... If he does, any person can apprehend the slave, take him before the justice of peace, and if the slave is convicted, the justice can order the slave whipped (no more than 20 lashes)." (1833). The reason that it is important to compare the new laws of freedmen to the slave laws is because it shows how not much has changed, maybe there is more civil punishments but those punishments are behind the laws that show that freedmen are still treated as less and they do not have as equal of rights to whites. The laws made in The Era of Reconstruction did not help the entire nation get equality, it only allowed them to deal with both sides of