Reconstruction

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publicized political contests but the slow, almost imperceptible changes that occurred in southern society. Blacks could now legally marry, and they set up conventional and usually stable family units; they quietly seceded from the white churches and formed their own religious organizations, which became a central point for the black community. Without land or money, most freedmen had to continue working for white masters; but they were now unwilling to labor in gangs or to live in the old slave quarters under the eye of the plantation owner. The governments set up in the Southern states under the congressional program of were, contrary to traditional cliches, fairly honest and effective. Though the period has sometimes been labeled "Black ," the Radical governments in the south were never dominated by blacks. There were no black governors, only two black senators and a handful of congressmen, and only one legislature controlled by blacks. Those black who did hold ...

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contributing factors that participated in changing the south. The was started by the freed slaves who rallied and protested for civil rights as well as justice. In addition to this, Radical Republicans from 1865 to 1877 temporarily wiped out each state in the South�s system of government. All of the "black codes", a series of laws that forced blacks to sign labor contracts requiring them to work at a job for a full year, laws that permitted employers to whip black workers, and laws that allowed states to jail unemployed blacks and hire out their children, that violated or contradicted the equality of any man were overwritten by civil rights bills pushed by the Radical ...

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