“What terrifies one generation is likely to bring only a puzzled smile to the next” is from Arthur Miller's, The Crucible. Within this quote is the culture of the past decade: From communism to gay rights, to punk rock, history has shown us that ignorance and fear are simply not generational. And that proves true for the reconstruction era of American history. Integration, while terrifying southerners before 1861, simply confused younger members of the generation. However, despite the fact that these young abolitionists did achieve an end to slavery with the 13th amendment, the problems were much more deep-rooted than that- they were ingrained in the culture. So, while slavery was outlawed, the mindset of the population was still defiant, and with instituting policies like sharecropping, segregation, and slave codes, the situation for african-americans in the south was significantly better.

Before slavery was abolished, slaves would receive little to no wages, poor living conditions, treated lesser than the dogs or horses. Plantations in the south would have as many as 100-200 slaves at a time-men, women, and children. Slaves lived by the strict rules of the plantation, and if not followed, and sometimes for no reason at all, they were beaten savagely. They had no claim to anything they owned. After 1861, there were a few differences, but the result was similar: unfair treatment of all. They used a policy known as sharecropping, to give newly-freed african-americans a job in the south. Plantation owners shared some of the land to former slaves, in-exchange of part of the crops. However, not only were the slave owners unfair in their practices, it was dangerous too. Any misdemeanour at all could send them straight to jail, because of the racial profiling and prejudice at the time.

After slavery segregation was still practiced. They had separate bathrooms, schools, hospitals, nurses, and even asylums in some states. And so it went on, until the 14th amendment was passed, claiming that everyone