In the teaching of economics, to measure the effect of changes to the economy, you introduce one new factor and assume all other things stay the same. Multiple factors come into play in real life, and seemingly unrelated things cause ripples through the economy. After the enslavement of Black people ended in 1865, the American economy grew substantially in the north due to increased industrialization. There was initial turmoil with the theoretical loss of enslaved people in the south, but in reality, southern legislators enacted the Black Codes.
The Black Codes reimplemented slavery as best they could under the law. Mississippi and South Carolina issued the first Black Codes. In Mississippi, former slaves were required to show proof of employment each January. Suppose they left their employment before the end of the year. They would forfeit their wages and become subject to arrest. In South Carolina, if Black people worked in any other occupation besides farmer or servant, they were subject to an annual tax. Failure to pay would lead to forced servitude on a plantation. Black people were unable to own guns and knives.
Preventing Black people from voting was one of the major themes of the Black Codes. Laws were passed requiring ownership of property. Poll taxes and unpassable literacy tests were en vogue — other measures included scaring voters away or just killing them. The Southern economy didn’t collapse immediately due to the loss of enslaved workers; instead, the South forced many of those workers to work for sub-par wages or under unfair sharecropping agreements, in many cases for the same masters who previously enslaved them. Several economists suggest that ending slavery made America richer. I submit the ending of the war and the de facto continuation of slavery made America richer.
The Republican Party and the Democratic Party have at different times in their histories meant little good for Black people. The Republicans were founded in 1854 by a group of anti-slavery Whigs, unsatisfied with the direction of their own Party. They were the Party of Lincoln and firmly against slavery, but like almost all political parties in America, were headed by rich white men who intended to stay that way. Democrats at the time were vehemently pro-slavery and resented the continued presence of federal troops, which kept them from what they considered reestablishing order to the South.
Under Republican control, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments were passed between 1865–1870, which freed enslaved Black people, overturned the Dred Scott decision, and gave the freedmen the right to vote. Freedmen literally meant men, as women didn’t generally get that right until 1920. These amendments, plus the Civil Rights Act of 1875, made it harder for the South to hold onto Black people as if they were still enslaved, and the southern economy was more vulnerable to economic factors around the world. A combination of silver demonetization (of which America was the world’s largest provider), the Franco-Prussian War, huge property losses from fires in Chicago and Boston, and overinvestment in speculative projects without an immediate return like railroads left the American economy on edge. Combine all that with fraud and corruption, including the Credit Mobilier scandal, the final straw broke when Jay Cooke & Co., a major player in financing the railroads, announced they could no longer authorize any withdrawals.
A financial panic ensued, and banks collapsed around the country. Sounding much like today, Congress wanted to pass a $100 million stimulus package, but President Grant, along with members of both party’s that agreed with him, opted for a hard money policy in the midst of a recession that resulted in what was then called the Great Depression turning into the Long Depression as it lasted six years in America until 1879.
A decade after the Civil War ended, Republicans had held a solid grip on presidential elections, but Democrats were finally a threat by 1876. The disputed presidential election left Republicans and Democrats trying to determine which party would seat the next President. The Republicans appeared to have lost, coming up just one electoral vote short of victory, with two states votes in dispute, and the Democratic Party were the winners of the popular vote. It seemed a foregone conclusion the Democrats would prevail. The Democrats, strongest in the South and the party the Klan called home, allowed the Republicans to claim victory on one condition: the removal of federal troops from the South.
This ushered in the era of Jim Crow, and all the previous gains of Black people were immediately wiped out. There never could have been a Reconstruction had not the Union Army left federal troops in the South to protect the newly freed enslaved people and guaranteed their right to vote. In 1878, that Republican president, Rutherford B. Hayes, signed into law the Posse Comitatus Act, ensuring Federal Troops could never again be used in that manner on U.S. soil, protecting Black citizens. With its adoption of the Compromise of 1877, followed up by Posse Comitatus slamming the door. America consciously and irrevocably declared its lack of conscience and choice to go down the path of white supremacy.
Democrats began a reign of terror, which included voter suppression enforced by lynchings, Jim Crow, segregation (which were always part of the program), and more. Republicans, who amusingly still call themselves “The Party of Lincoln,” looked the other way at best, cheerfully enacting some of the same voter suppression programs and gerrymandering, which they continue to this day.
The result of that collaboration between Republicans and the Democratic Party was that Jim Crow brought back economic order and reestablished a permanent underclass that raised the American economy, which had always depended on a source of cheap labor, whether that was indentured servants, enslaved people, or the de facto slaves enabled by the Black Codes and Jim Crow. In 1877, demand for cotton was increasing internationally, and someone had to pick it. With the Black Codes losing their power after the passage of three amendments and a Civil Rights Act, it took the Compromise of 1877 and Jim Crow to ensure the labor force to bring back the American economy and dig it out from the then-greatest depression in American history.
When they tell you America grew fiscally stronger after slavery ended, don’t buy into the hype. Post-slavery America, like the rest of the world, was suffering mightily. The government might have offered fiscal relief, but hoping to avoid inflation, chose another path. That path effectively ended Reconstruction and continued into perpetuity a permanent underclass to the wealthy. Jim Crow did save the American economy, but it was at the expense of those who never benefited from it.
It’s important to understand our past so that knowledge can be applied to the present and future. The underclass that existed during each era of enslaved people is present today. COVID-19 has exposed our essential workers to deadly infections in meatpacking plants, agricultural fields, and in many cases, retail. These at-risk workers include recent immigrants, documented or not, and those without the opportunities available in the suburbs. It’s time we have an economy that pays a fair wage, considers health care a right, and benefits others than the already wealthy. The late Elijah Cummings thought that as a country, we are “better than this.” It’s now time to demonstrate it.
This story is one of 26 essays from Estranged Americans: Fallacies of Freedom, Citizenship, and Racism, available on Amazon.
—
This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
***
You may also like these posts on The Good Men Project:
Escape the Act Like a Man Box | What We Talk About When We Talk About Men | Why I Don’t Want to Talk About Race | The First Myth of the Patriarchy: The Acorn on the Pillow |
Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
A $50 annual membership gives you an all access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.
Register New Account
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
Photo credit: iStock.com