People During Reconstruction 8-5.

During Reconstruction, industrial expansion, and the Progressive movement, South Carolina
searched for ways to improve its economy while maintaining traditional society. You should be
able to understand South Carolinas experience by describing the economic impact of
Reconstruction on South Carolina in each social group and class.
During Reconstruction, little was done to improve the southern economy. Continuing to rely on
agriculture, the South remained in economic depression into the 20th century.
The thirteenth amendment freed the slaves and many of them left the plantations. White
southerners were angered by this and turned against the freedmen, sometimes resorting to
violence and intimidation to maintain superiority. Plantation owners had little money, but they
still had their land. They began to enter into sharecropping agreements with the freedmen.
Sharecropping was an agreement where the landowner provides seed and tools and the
freedmen work the fields. They split the crops to sell at market. If it was a bad year, the
sharecropper would have to take out a lien (loan) against the next years crop, creating debt to
the landowner and tying them to the land similarly to slavery.

1. Who do you think benefitted the most from the sharecropping agreement?
Sharecropping Cycle. 2001. Scoop.it. Web. 18 June 2014.

Small farmers who had not owned slaves now found themselves competing against the
freedmen both economically and socially. This competition caused many small farmers to join
groups to terrorize the freedmen. Other small farmers worked with the Republicans in order to
benefit politically and economically. These southern Republicans became known as scalawags
by other southerners and were hated.
2. What do you think the goal was of the two
men standing in the picture?
White League. 1874. Knowla.org. Web. 17 June 2014.

While some freedmen moved around after being freed, most continued to live near the
plantations that they had always lived near. The newly formed Freedmans Bureau helped the
freedmen to find family members, rebuild communities, and establish churches. The Bureau
also worked to help the freedmen and the landowners get together for sharecropping
agreements.
White women experienced the same loss of social status as white men did during
Reconstruction. Wealthy women now either had to negotiate for house work or they had to do
it themselves. Due to widespread death and injuries of men during the war, many women now
had to do nontraditional roles such as running plantations. Written during Reconstruction, the
constitution of 1868 gave women the right to own property.
Many Northerners moved to the South after the war to work as teachers, missionaries, and
entrepreneurs. These Northerners became known as carpetbaggers and were not liked by
most Southerners. Many worked in the government while some took advantage of the South to
make fortunes.
3. Do you think the picture to the left was
meant to be positive or negative? Based on
your answer, do you think a Southerner or
Northerner drew it?
Carpetbagger. 2005. Wordpress.com. Web. 18 June 2014.