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Condition of African Americans Before and After The Civil War

Brief overview of how the status and treatment of African Americans different in the years before and after the United States Civil War.

It can be concluded that the status of the African Americans were both improved and worsened after the Civil War. Some things, like being free from slavery and having the opportunity to have a new life and become educated were part of the good that came out of the Civil War. However, many problems that did not previously exist also came to be due to the changes both politically and socially. Even though they were considered equal to white men, African Americans were still discriminated against though segregation, abuse, and strong violence. Many of their hardships occurred because of a series of events that were probably not thought through, such as the Civil War ruining the South’s economy and sending masses of unemployed African Americans all over the nation. Because of the fear of losing jobs to the freed slaves, many white Americans retaliated out of fear and used methods of violence, hate speech, and other similar things to try to drive the blacks away, or to prove their supremacy over the African Americans. Despite these hardships, the African American community continued to thrive and grow by forming strong groups that would eventually bring them true equality.

Works Cited

 Adams, Sean Patrick. “Clash of Extremes: The Economic Origins of the Civil War.” Journal of Southern History 76.2 (2010): 448+. US History Collection

Bigham, Darrel E. On Jordan’s Banks: Emancipation and Its Aftermath in the Ohio River Valley. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2006. Print. 

Boyer, Paul S., Clark, Clifford E. Jr., and Kett, Joseph F. The Enduring Vision, A History Of The American People. Houghton Mifflin College Div, 2004

Boyer, Paul. Holt American Nation. Holt Rinehart & Winston, 2001

Egnal, Marc. Clash of Extremes: The Economic Origins of the Civil War. New York: Hill and Wing, 2009. Print. 

 Faverty, Brenda. “Bigham, Darrel E.: On Jordan’s Banks: Emancipation and Its Aftermath in the Ohio River Valley. “History: Review of New Books Winter 2006: 39+. US History Collection

Vacca, Carolyn S. “emancipating New York: The politics of Slavery and Freedom 1777-1827.” Afro-Americans in New York Life and History 32.1 (2008) P127+ US History Collection

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