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According to the Reconstruction lecture – What were the priorities for African-Americans in the South after freedom? What were the first things they did? How did whites keep control of black labor? How did whites take away black voting and legal rights?

According to the Reconstruction Lecture the main priorities for African-Americans in the south was to establish economic freedomgiven all the years of involuntary servitude that  impoverished them in order to gain economic freedom they needed to acquire farm landrequest educationget equality by means of civil rights. White southerners aka confederates kept control over freed slaves by means of black codes, these so called “ black codes” prevented blacks from testifying against a white man in cases of white-on-black crimes, made it so blacks could not buy or lease property, blacks could not congregate in groups.

They also controlled black labor by means of sharecropping. Since newly freed slaves wanted to acquire land they did so by means of sharecropping, which was where a newly freed slave would acquire land without any way to pay for it, they would buy it from the landowner with interest same goes for all tools. When the crop was ready to harvest the land owner took about half of the crop as payment leaving the freedman in debt thus a debt cycle began. Whites were able to take away black voting by means of intimidation through threats of violence, murder and through the burning of land and homes. This would drive the freedmen and their supporters away giving control and voting power to whites democrats  which they used to pursue their politician gain.

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