Post-Emancipation: A Promise Unfulfilled

Post-Emancipation: A Promise Unfulfilled. . , Citizenship Granted: Reconstruction and Constitutional Amendments , Three amendments to the U.S. Constitution were ratified after the Civil War. The 13th Amendment granted citizenship to people who had been enslaved and guaranteed "the equal protection of the laws" (1868); and the 15th extended voting rights to formerly enslaved men (1870). During this period, known as Reconstruction, federal troops were stationed across the southern states to enforce these amendments, as well as to provide freedmen with additional support. One federal agency, the Freedmen's Bureau, was organized in the Spring of 1865 to supervise abandoned lands and "all subjects relating to the refugees and freedmen" including "issues of provisions, clothing, and fuel." More broadly, the Bureau established schools, oversaw labor contracts, and aided freedmen in gaining medical treatment., Citizenship Denied: Jim Crow Laws , In January 1870, after adopting a new state constitution and ratifying the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. Virginia was re-admitted to the Union and federal troops withdrew Over the next few years African Americans continued to realize limited social, political, and economic advancement. Unfortunately, those same steps toward social justice led to a powerful backlash, and; through the turn of the twentieth century, Virginia enacted segregation and disenfranchisement laws (Jim Crow laws). These laws sanctioned discrimination against African Americans in all aspects of public life. Indeed, the promise of full citizenship was not realized for more than a century., Allan Jackson , One freedman who successfully acquired land, self-sufficiency, and status was Allan Jackson. By the 1880s, his home just west of Montpelier had become the center of a thriving black community known as Jacksontown, which consisted of as many as 15 households, a store, a school, and a cemetery., Finding a Place , Facing persistent prejudice and lacking access to cash and land, African Americans struggled to fulfill their dreams of economic independence and security. Many left slavery owning nothing more than the furniture from their slave cabins, a few kitchen utensils, and the clothes on their backs. Most stayed close to their old plantations and created new lives by establishing homes, earning wages, and reuniting their families., Finding a Way , African Americans often worked as farm laborers earning meager cash incomes, making it difficult for them to climb the socio-economic ladder. In contrast, most whites were able to support themselves as independent landowning farmers in the years following the Civil War. (Farmers provided food for their families on land they owned; farm laborers worked for others and were dependent on a fluctuating agricultural economy.), Two decades after emancipation, Orange County African Americans' economic status had improved, but was far below that of local whites. Nearly 30 percent of African American households owned or leased the land on which their homes stood. However, the average value of a farm owned by African Americans was one-tenth that owned by most whites.