Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan is a group of racist white people who don't believe that Blacks, Jews and many other minor races should be treated as equals. The Ku Klux Klan also known as the KKK was formed on 1865 or 1866 in Tennessee. It was started as a social club that scared freed slaves from voting during reconstruction. The KKK are known for wearing white robes with white pointy hoods, go around burning the cross to frighten other non-members. The clan threatened,beat, killed the blacks and the white people that protected them in the south. The KKK were very discrete and in order to hide their identity they rode at night and put drapers over their horses. Sometimes they would even wear disguises to keep their identities a secret. The KKK spread fairly quick in no time they had a lot of members that where willing to kill and torture people from other races.
Sharecropping and Tenant Farming
After the slaves were freed many of them didn't know what to do so they became either tenant farmers or sharecroppers. For the ones that became sharecroppers their landowners provided them with the house, land, equipment and more. The landowners also issued credit to the workers, and the landowner used the money from the crops to pay their debts and the slave sharecroppers rarely had any money. Unlike the tenant farmers who their landowners only provided the house and land. The landowners also got a section of the money of the crops but on the plus side the tenant farmers usually made some money.
Henry McNeal Turner
Henry McNeal Turner was born free. His parents set him to live with another family. During the time, blacks could not learn to read and write, but he did . He became a preacher and traveled to the south. There, he got married and lived longer then 3 out of his 4 wifes. He had many many children,14 to be exact, and sadly enough, only 4 of them lived long enough to be adults. Henry McNeal Turner then wanted to become a pastor, which he did. Eventually, he became the first black state legislature. However, the Democratic Party, who was in charge then, would not allow Turner and the other black legislators take their seats in the first session. They were, though, allowed to regain their seats by the second session.
The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery. The 14th Amendment defines U.S. citizenship and includes newly freed slaves . The 15th Amendment ensures the right to vote and that it can not be denied to any U.S. citizen on the account of "race,color, or previous condition of servitude." Women were not included in the 15th amendment back then.