During ,
life was difficult for both poor whites and poor blacks alike. The Freedman's Bureau was
designed to help poor blacks as well as white refugees displaced by the Civil War. While it was
a good idea on paper, it was never fully funded and it was disbanded during the Johnson
administration.
Poor blacks faced persecution from hate groups such as the Ku
Klux Klan. Many were forced to seek employment under unfavorable conditions. They were arrested
for loitering as city statutes all over the South made it illegal for blacks to be idle. If one
did not have employment papers, one could be put on a chain gang.
Many poor
blacks came to schools opened by Northern missionaries in order to gain an education. Several
left the South altogether, but they found that the North was not welcoming as these new arrivals
threatened to take jobs.
Poor whites and blacks alike often became
sharecroppers. With falling crop prices, many families never could scrape together enough money
to buy...
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