After slavery ended in the US, black people fought for equal rights but faced illiteracy, poverty, and landlessness. White Americans resisted equality, using violence and segregation. Whites also faced hardship due to the loss of free labor.
After the end of slavery in the United States, black people had to start fighting for equal rights. They also faced problems such as illiteracy, poverty and lack of land ownership, all of which negatively impacted their lives. Many white Americans did not want blacks to be equal in society, developing measures, often violent, that aimed to keep them in an inferior position. Whites have separated from blacks in almost every possible way. Though they have struggled to remain the master race, whites have undergone social changes induced by the loss of free labor.
The end of slavery in the United States began a long battle for equal rights for blacks that many say has continued into the 21st century. While whites could no longer own black humans, they were very resistant to the idea of treating them equally, especially in the South. Racist hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan have taken extreme measures to make black people feel unwelcome as members of society. Freed slaves were subjected to lynchings and beatings, and whites often refused to recognize black rights.
White Americans have devised ways to disenfranchise black people after the end of slavery. Since the former slaves were mostly illiterate and unskilled, their employment opportunities were limited. Many of them, especially those from the South, were concentrated in agriculture. Working under unjust conditions meant that they generally remained poor, uneducated and landless. This provided an ideal opportunity for white Americans to develop and exploit schemes such as the poll tax and literacy tests that kept many blacks from voting.
Segregation is one of the notorious social effects that arose after the end of slavery. In an effort to further degrade black people and to continue promoting ideas of white superiority, the two groups were separated in nearly every aspect of life. There were laws requiring blacks and whites to use different water fountains and to enter buildings through separate entrances. This type of social division extended to children as well, requiring textbooks for black and white children to be kept separately.
Although blacks struggled the most, white Americans also faced hardship after the end of slavery. The loss of free sources of labor changed the lives of many white plantation owners. They could not afford to pay workers to do all the work they once forced their slaves to do. This meant that men and women who once considered themselves elite now had to do much more work for themselves. The effects of this change were changes in social status and attitudes towards marital relationships and gender roles.
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