How did the crop lien system contribute to the shift in Southern agriculture toward one crop farming?

1. Late 1800s

1. Declared that the "right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
2. It was the third and last Reconstruction Amendment.

1. Although ratified in the late 1800s, its promises would not be fully realized for almost a century.
2. Through the use of poll taxes, literacy tests and other means, Southern states were able to effectively disenfranchise blacks.
3. This was passed after the first two Reconstruction Amendments, the 13th, which abolished slavery, and the 14th, which declared blacks citizens.
4. Like with these other Reconstruction Amendments, Southern "redeemed" Democratic state governments (governments that were taken over again by Democrats) would try to work around the 15th Amendment with the Jim Crow laws.
5. It represents the attempt by the North during Reconstruction to fundamentally rearrange the relationship between the Southern whites and blacks.
6. For a while, the 15th Amendment and other Reconstruction policies allowed for widespread black voting and significant black officeholding.
7. Unfortunately, despite this great attempt with the 15th Amendment and other Reconstruction policies, blacks were soon forced to the margins of the Southern political world.

1. The Moderate vs. Radical Republican conflict was significant in the late 1800s, after the Civil War.

1. Moderate and Radical Republicans differed in views about the proper approach to Reconstruction.
2. Radical Republicans wanted a harsher punishment of former Confederates and more rights for blacks.
3. Moderate Republicans rejected some of the more "extreme" goals of the Radicals, but supported extracting some concessions from the South on black rights.

1. Lincoln's sympathies lay with the Moderates of his party, so his Reconstruction plan was more based on the Moderates' wishes.
2. After Lincoln was assassinated, the North's opinion of the South grew more hostile, and the Radical Republicans took over Congress and the Reconstruction planning.
3. The Radicals were astonished at the mildness of Lincoln's program, so Congress passed the Wade-Davis bill, which proposed a more Radical approach to Reconstruction.
4. Lincoln pocket vetoed this bill, still supporting the Moderate view.
5. The conflict between the Radicals and the Moderates was representative of the bitter political battles in Washington and the South during Reconstruction.
6. Although immediately after Lincoln's assassination, the Radical Republicans took over Congress, support for the Radical cause eventually waned.
7. By the end of President Grant's first term, a new group called the Liberal Republicans even formed, hoping to oppose Grant and his support of Radical policies.

1. The "scalawags" existed in the late 1800s, during Reconstruction.

1. Critics of Southern white Republicans called these whites "scalawags."
2. Most scalawags believed that the Republican Party would serve their economic interests better than the Democrats.

1. Many scalawags were former Whigs who never felt comfortable in the Democratic Party, and many others lived in remote areas where there had been little to no slavery.
2. Scalawags were a much hated group by the Southern Democrats, who were a majority of the white Southern population.
3. Unlike the "carpetbaggers," who were Republicans that came from the North, the scalawags were white Southerners who supported the Republican Party.
4. Although the Republican Party could not have maintained control in the South as long as it did without the scalawags, the most numerous Republicans in the South were the black freedmen, not the white scalawags.
5. Scalawags were representative of the bitter political battles in Washington and the South during Reconstruction.
6. The Republicans initially maintained control of the South during Reconstruction in part because of the scalawags, but eventually, as all but a few whites regained suffrage, the Democrats "redeemed," or regained political control of, all the Southern states.

1. The "carpetbaggers" existed in the late 1800s, during Reconstruction.

1. White men from the North often served as Republican leaders in the South.
2. Critics of Reconstruction often referred to them as "carpetbaggers," which conveyed an image of penniless adventurers who arrived with all their possessions in a carpetbag.

1. Many of these carpetbaggers were veterans of the Union army who looked on the South as a new frontier, more promising than the West.
2. They settled there at war's end as hopeful planters, or as business and professional people.
3. Unlike the "scalawags," who were white Southerners who supported the Republican Party, the carpetbaggers were white Republicans from the North.
4. For this reason, they often received even more hate from Southern Democrats than even the scalawags did.
5. Although the Republican Party could not have maintained control in the South as long as it did without the carpetbaggers, the most numerous Republicans in the South were the black freedmen, not the white carpetbaggers.
6. Carpetbaggers were representative of the bitter political battles in Washington and the South during Reconstruction.
7. The Republicans initially maintained control of the South during Reconstruction in part because of the carpetbaggers, but eventually, as all but a few whites regained suffrage, the Democrats "redeemed," or regained political control of, all the Southern states.

1. The National Greenback Party was active in the late 1800s.

1. After a national depression, debtors pressured the government to redeem war bonds with greenbacks, or paper currency of the sort printed during the Civil War.
2. In 1875, these "greenbackers" created their own political organization: the National Greenback Party.

1. The greenbackers were debtors who wanted the printing of paper currency, which would cause inflation.
2. They wanted inflation because then, with each dollar being worth less than before, they could more easily repay their debts.
3. Many people came into debt and became greenbackers after the Panic of 1873.
4. While they did pressure the government to use greenbacks, President Grant and the Republican Party wanted a more "sound" currency based on gold, and sided with the banks and other creditors.
5. The National Greenback Party was representative of the bitter political battles throughout the country during Reconstruction.
6. Even after the Civil War, the country remained divided about many ideas and policies.
7. Like the question of the proper approach to Reconstruction, the greenback question was one of the most controversial and enduring issues in the late 1800s American politics, and the National Greenback Party is proof of this.

1. The Ku Klux Klan was most active in the late 1800s.

1. The Ku Klux Klan, or KKK, was the largest and most effective of the white terrorist organizations in the South during Reconstruction.
2. They tried to force all white males to join the Democratic Party and tried to exclude blacks from meaningful political activity.

1. Once most whites regained suffrage in the South during Reconstruction, Democrats were able to "redeem," or take over, many of the Southern states where whites were a majority of the population.
2. In states where blacks were a majority of the population, the white Democrats had to use intimidation and violence to hold the state, and they did so with terrorist organizations such as the KKK.
3. In response to this wave of white repression, Congress passed two Enforcement Acts, also known as the Ku Klux Klan Acts.
4. These acts prohibited the states from discriminating against voters on the basis of race, and gave the federal government the power to supercede the state courts and prosecute violations of the law.
5. The KKK was representative of the bitter political battles in the South during Reconstruction.
6. Most white Southerners were very opposed to the Reconstruction regimes, and would do everything in their power to bring down these regimes.
7. The KKK is just one example of the Southerners bitterly fighting their political opposition.

1. Rutherford B. Hayes was significant in the late 1800s.

1. Hayes was the Republican presidential candidate in 1876, running against Democratic candidate Tilden, when there were 20 disputed electoral votes, and Tilden just needed one more to win.
2. To decide who would receive the electoral votes, Congress made a special electoral commission, which gave Hayes all of those votes, causing him to win the election.

1. Hayes supported the removal of federal troops from the South, which would allow the last of the Republican governments there to be overthrown.
2. Thus, the inauguration of Hayes basically marked the end of Reconstruction.
3. The Democrats allowed Hayes to become president because of the Compromise of 1877.
4. This was a series of elaborate compromises between the leaders of both parties where the Democrats exacted several pledges from Republicans as the price of their cooperation.
5. Hayes represented the waning Northern commitment to Reconstruction.
6. By the time Hayes was elected, many Northerners were less supporting of continuing Reconstruction, for various reasons, including economic crises.
7. With the compromise of 1877 and Hayes' support of the removal of troops from the South, it was obvious that Reconstruction was at its end.

1. Redeemer/Bourbon Rule happened in the late 1800s.

1. After the last removal of federal troops from the South, every Southern state had been "redeemed," or taken over again by Democrats.
2. These new Democratic rulers were part of a powerful, conservative oligarchy, and referred to themselves as "Redeemers," while their opponents called them "Bourbons."

1. Many Southerners rejoiced at the "redemption" of their state and a restoration of what they called "home rule."
2. In reality, however, political power was more restricted than at any point since the Civil War, since all the power fell into the hands of a few powerful people.
3. After the Compromise of 1877, all federal troops were removed from the South.
4. This allowed for the overthrow of the remaining Republican governments there, and the establishment of Redeemer/Bourbon Rule.
5. Redeemer/Bourbon Rule was representative of some of the failures of Reconstruction.
6. Northerners attempted to use Reconstruction to make the South a better and more Democratic society, and the framers of the Compromise of 1877 wanted to establish a permanent, stable Republican Party in the South.
7. Both of these goals evidently failed, as the Democratic Party was established as the only viable party for the Southern whites, and instead of a more open and Democratic society, the South returned to a restricted, aristocratic Redeemer/Bourbon Rule.

1. Minstrel Shows were very popular in the late 1800s (although they were also very popular before the Civil War)

1. Minstrel Shows were one of the most popular forms of entertainment in America.
2. Initially, most Minstrel Shows were white performers who blackened their faces and portrayed stereotypes of slave culture.
3. After the Civil War, many Minstrel shows had black performers who could provide more authentic versions of black life.

1. Minstrel Shows were a testament to the level of racism in American society.
2. However, the black performers were able to transform Minstrel Shows, in some degree, for training black entertainers and developing new forms of music and dance.
3. After the Civil War, white minstrels expanded their repertoire, drawing from the successful freak shows of P.T. Barnum.
4. They did this in part because they were now facing competition from black minstrels.
5. Minstrel Shows were representative of the expanding black presence in American society and culture.
6. While the shows were once exclusively used for racist and stereotypical depictions of slave and black culture, blacks later turned the shows into a vehicle for expressing and creating true black culture.
7. Black minstrels ended up being a very important influence on many aspects of American culture, such as the music of Jazz and Rhythm and Blues, and so helped to incorporate black lifestyle into American society.

1. Sharecropping happened in the late 1800s, after the Civil War.

1. Many farmers in the late 1800s had no money or equipment, and landlords would provide them with land and supplies.
2. In return, the farmers would promise the landlord a large share of their annual crop, hence "sharecropping."

1. Most black farmers had no money or equipment, and so would have to turn to sharecropping.
2. After paying off the landlords and everybody else they needed to, the sharecroppers seldom had anything left to sell on their own.
3. Sharecropping was one of several factors contributing to a particularly harsh social and economic transformation of the Southern backcountry.
4. Sharecropping was part of the "crop-lien" system, by which people worked their lands for someone else, who had a claim on part of the farmers' crops.
5. The crop-lien system and sharecropping contributed to the greater shift in Southern agriculture towards one-crop farming.
6. Because of their growing indebtedness and sharecropping, many farmers had to turn from subsistence agriculture, which had once been the norm, to cash crops, in order to pay off their loans.
7. In all, sharecropping hurt Southern agriculture as a whole and contributed to its steady decline.

1. The Jim Crow laws began in the late 1800s after Reconstruction.

1. The Jim Crow laws were laws enforcing racial segregation.
2. These laws were enacted after the end of Reconstruction, in the South, with the guise of being "separate but equal."

1. Few white Southerners had ever accepted the idea of racial equality.
2. That the former slaves acquired any rights at all was largely due to federal support, which had vanished after Reconstruction.
3. The Jim Crow laws were held up by the Supreme Court in cases like Plessy v. Ferguson.
4. In these cases, the Court decided that separate accommodations did not deprive blacks of equal rights if the accommodations were equal.
5. The Jim Crow laws represented some of the failure of Reconstruction.
6. Reconstruction, at first glance, seems like a great attempt at installing equal rights for blacks, with new Constitutional Amendments and laws protecting blacks' rights.
7. However, with the Jim Crow laws and the Court's support of them, it is obvious that Reconstruction failed to truly create equal rights for blacks in the US, which would not be obtained for almost another 100 years.

1. Lynchings began to happen very often in the US in the late 1800s.

1. Lynching is a mob executing an individual for a crime (that they may or may not have committed).
2. It happened very often to blacks in the US, starting in the late 1800s.

1. Lynchings were a means by which whites controlled the black population through terror and violence.
2. Fortunately, there were anti-lynching movements almost from the start.
3. In the late 1800s, the Jim Crow laws served to inhibit equal rights for blacks.
4. However, more than legal efforts were involved in this process, as lynching of blacks experienced a dramatic increase.
5. Lynching represented some of the failure of Reconstruction.
6. Reconstruction, at first glance, seems like a great attempt at installing equal rights for blacks, with new Constitutional Amendments and laws protecting blacks' rights.
7. However, with the enormous amount of lynchings and other violence against blacks, it is obvious that Reconstruction failed to truly create equal rights for blacks in the US, which would not be obtained for almost another 100 years.

1. The Plains Indians were significant starting in the late 1800s.

1. The Plains Indians were the most widespread Indian groups in the West.
2. They were a diverse group of tribes and language groups.

1. The Plains Indians proved to be the most formidable force that white settlers in the West encountered.
2. They also suffered serious weaknesses that made it impossible for them to prevail in the end, such as their vulnerability to eastern infections.
3. The Plains Indians rarely had permanent settlements.
4. This is because they mainly subsisted through hunting buffalo, and followed the herds around.
5. The Plains Indians, and their ultimate fate of defeat and relocation, were representative of the whites' dreams of the West, and of moving there.
6. Whites viewed the West as an uninhabited frontier, ripe for settlement.
7. However, many other peoples, such as the Plains Indians, already lived in the West, and so the whites stopped at nothing to defeat and relocate them.

1. The buffalo were significant in the late 1800s.

1. The buffalo, or bison, were animals that provided the basis for the Plains Indians' way of life.
2. The Plains Indians would follow around the buffalo herds as they migrated.

1. The buffalo were of great importance to the Plains Indians, and the white settlers wiped most of them out.
2. The decimation of the buffalo, in addition to policies like relocation, was very devastating for the tribes.
3. The Bureau of Indian affairs condoned and even encouraged the killing of the buffalo.
4. By destroying the buffalo herds, whites were destroying the Indians' source of food and supplies and their ability to resist the white advance.
5. The buffalo, and their ultimate fate of decimation, were representative of the whites' dreams of the West, and of moving there.
6. Whites viewed the West as an uninhabited frontier, ripe for settlement.
7. However, many other peoples, such as the Plains Indians, already lived in the West, and so the whites stopped at nothing to defeat them, and even went as far as systematically destroying their main source of food and resources.

1. The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in the late 1800s.

1. The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and banned Chinese immigration into the United States for 10 years.
2. It also barred Chinese already in the country from becoming naturalized citizens.

1. In the late 1800s, Chinese immigration increased rapidly, and many of the Chinese took jobs in the West.
2. As Chinese communities grew larger in Western cities, anti-Chinese sentiment among white settlers became increasingly strong, and Congress was eventually pressured into passing the Chinese Exclusion Act.
3. The Chinese would often work very hard and for very low wages, so employers liked them; for example, most of the workforce building the Transcontinental Railroad was Chinese.
4. Many working class whites felt that the Chinese were taking their jobs, and so resentment increased, and many "Anti-Coolie" clubs were formed.
5. The Chinese Exclusion Act is representative of the prevailing racism in the US in the late 1800s.
6. Many white Americans found reasons and excuses to be racist to blacks, Native Americans, and Chinese.
7. The Chinese Exclusion Act is an example of this extreme racism, as racist whites were even able to pressure Congress into helping subordinate another race.

1. Wild West Shows first became popular in the late 1800s.

1. The Wild West Shows were entertainments that tried to evoke the romance of the Old West.
2. They would include acts such as mock Indian attacks and shooting exhibitions.

1. The West portrayed in the Wild West Shows had little connection to the reality of western life.
2. However, the shows stamped on their audiences an image of the West as a place of romance and adventure that has lasted for generations.
3. The great showman P.T. Barnum had been popularizing the "wild West," but the first real Wild West Show was put on by "Buffalo Bill."
4. Buffalo Bill's shows were an immediate success and began travelling throughout the nation, and even Europe.
5. One of the main reasons that the romantic depiction of the Old West has persisted, despite a different picture portrayed by historians, is because of these popular Wild West Shows.
6. Americans associated the west with wilderness, a rugged, free-spirited life-style, and the idea of the "last frontier," all depicted in these shows.
7. The Wild West Shows helped to popularize a factually inaccurate depiction of the Old West that, in some ways, still remains in our culture today.

1. The Frontier Thesis was first significantly put forth in the late 1800s.

1. The Frontier Thesis, also known as the Turner Thesis, was an idea about the American West stated by Frederick Turner to the American Historical Association.
2. He claimed that the American Frontier - the West - and the American advancement into it, formed and shaped American democracy, and that the end of the "frontier" also marked the end of one of the most powerful democratizing forces in America.

1. For a while, Turner's Frontier Thesis had shaped the writing of American Western history.
2. It was not until after World War II that his thesis began to be seriously challenged.
3. He promoted the Cowboy Culture by making a notion of the West as a place of individualism, innovation, and democratic renewal.
4. The Frontier Thesis argued that whites settled the West, but it is evident that, in many ways, whites did not settle the West so much as conquer it.
5. The Frontier Thesis is representative of the American Romance of the West.
6. It was perhaps the clearest and most influential statement of the romantic vision of the "frontier."
7. Though largely inaccurate, Turner's arguments in his Frontier Thesis shaped the writing of American History for many generations.

1. Jamestown was founded in the early 1600s.

1. It was the first permanent English settlement in North America.
2. The London Company had received a charter from King James to make a settlement in modern day Virginia.
3. The people they sent there named the place they settled in "Jamestown" after King James.

1. Many men in the party sent to Jamestown died on the journey.
2. They chose their site for Jamestown poorly, as it was a low and swampy area.
3. Early on, Jamestown faced many serious problems, and most of the colonists died.
4. Good leadership, such as that of Captain John Smith, helped to improve conditions there for a time.
5. James was important because it was the first enduring English settlement in North America, and it represented a larger effort by several European nations to expand the reach of their commercial societies.
6. For a long time, the British Empire in America was the smallest and weakest of European imperial ventures there.
7. However, from Jamestown would soon become part of the largest Empire in the world, and, centuries later, the most powerful country in the world.

1. Significant in the mid-1800s, before the Civil War.

1. On larger plantations, masters would generally have separate staffs for housework and fieldwork.
2. Field slaves worked outside in the field, and house slaves did domestic jobs, such as nursing, cleaning, and cooking.

1. Though house slaves may have had an easier time physically than the field slaves, they were closer to their masters all the time, and would have to suffer more abuse and punishments.
2. Despite the harsh lives of house and field slaves, they managed to produce a rich culture; for example, they created Gullah, a language that was a combination of African languages and English.
3. House and field slaves, and the "peculiar institution" of Southern slavery that they were a part of, is central to understanding the history of Antebellum America; for example, the rising sectionalism that emerged from the Southern defense of slavery.

1. Significant in the early 1600s.

1. Originally known as the London Company, it received a charter from King James for land in modern day Virginia.
2. They sent three ships of people to settle a colony there: Jamestown.

1. Jamestown, which they founded, was the earliest enduring English settlement in North America.
2. The Plymouth Company had also been given a charter, and attempted to make a settlement in North America, but that settlement failed, and they gave up on the New World.
3. The Virginia Company began a settlement that would, in time, grow to be a very significant colony of the British Empire, and, later, the most powerful country in the world.

1. Significant in the early 1800s.

1. Since Jefferson, the Presidency seemed to be the special possession of the Virginians.
2. Jefferson's Secretary of State Madison of Virginia became the president, and then Madison's Secretary of State Monroe, also of Virginia, became president.
3. Monroe ended the Virginia Dynasty by appointing John Quincy Adams, a New Englander, to be his Secretary of State (Adams did, in fact, become the next President).

1. Monroe made pains to include people from every area and both political parties in the country, and ended the "Virginia Dynasty."
2. With the end of the War of 1812, the fall of the Federalist Party, and the end of the Virginia Dynasty, the country seemed to be in an "era of good feelings," with even formally Federalist New Englanders supporting President Monroe.
3. The end of the Virginia Dynasty represented the era of good feelings, and reflected the rising spirit of nationalism that was permeating the United States in the years following the War of 1812.

1. Significant in the early 1800s.

1. He was the brother of a black preacher.
2. He attempted to start a large slave rebellion with 1000 slaves in Richmond, but two black gave the plot away, and the Virginia militia stopped the uprising.

1. Although most slaves resisted in more subtle ways, such as putting on the "Sambo" stereotype, or breaking tools, there were a few attempts at starting large rebellions, such as what Gabriel Prosser tried to do.
2. Most slave revolts, such as Prosser's, were unsuccessful, but, at least once in the history of the United States, there have been at least somewhat successful revolts, such as Nat Turner's, where slaves rose up and killed 60 whites.
3. Although very few revolts were successful, fears of rebellions or attempted rebellions, such as Nat Turner's and Gabriel Prosser's, caused Southerners to enforce tighter restrictions on slaves and free blacks.

1. Significant in the early 1800s.

1. He was a free black and former slave.
2. Vesey and his followers were said to be planning to kill slaveholders in Charleston, liberate the slaves, and sail to the black republic of Haiti for refuge; however, word got out, and Vesey and others were arrested and executed.

1. Although most slaves resisted in more subtle ways, such as putting on the "Sambo" stereotype, or breaking tools, there were a few attempts at starting large rebellions, such as what Denmark Vesey tried to do.
2. Most slave revolts, such as Vesey's, were unsuccessful, but, at least once in the history of the United States, there have been at least somewhat successful revolts, such as Nat Turner's, where slaves rose up and killed 60 whites.
3. Although very few revolts were successful, fears of rebellions or attempted rebellions, such as Nat Turner's and Denmark Vesey's, caused Southerners to enforce tighter restrictions on slaves and free blacks.

1. Significant in the early 1800s.

1. He was a slave preacher who led a band of armed blacks, and went from house to house in Virginia, killing 60 whites.
2. They were then overpowered by state and federal troops, and more than 100 blacks were executed in the aftermath.

1. Although most slaves resisted in more subtle ways, such as putting on the "Sambo" stereotype, or breaking tools, there were a few attempts at starting large rebellions, such as what Nat Turner tried to do.
2. Although this slave revolt was somewhat successful, most attempted slave rebellions were stopped before they could begin, such as Demark Vesey's attempted revolt.
3. Although very few revolts were successful, fears of rebellions or attempted rebellions, such as Nat Turner's and Denmark Vesey's, caused Southerners to enforce tighter restrictions on slaves and free blacks.

What was the impact of crop lien system?

What was the crop lien system and how did it impact the South?

How did sharecropping and the crop lien system impact southern agriculture?

What was the crop lien system in the South?