Why were African Americans not free during reconstruction?
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Us history
Document E: Education (Modified)
In 1865 the United States government created the Freedmen’s Bureau to help people who were formerly enslaved in Southern states. The Freedmen’s Bureau helped people by providing medical supplies and health care and establishing schools.
The creation of schools for former slaves was an important part of Reconstruction. Before the Civil War, Southern states outlawed the teaching of reading and writing to people who were enslaved.
Many of the negroes . . . common plantation negroes, and day laborers in the towns and villages, were supporting little schools themselves. Everywhere I found them hoping to get their children into schools. I often noticed that workers in stores and men working in warehouses, and cart drivers on the streets, had spelling books with them, and were studying them during the time they were not working. Go outside any large town in the South, and walk among the negro housing, and you will see children and in many cases grown negroes, sitting in the sun alongside their cabins studying.
Source: Sidney Andrews quoted in the Joint Report on Reconstruction, 1866. The document above is an excerpt from a report by a Northern white man to the United States government in 1866.
Document B: Black Codes (Modified)
In the years following the Civil War, many Southern states and cities passed Black Codes. These laws laid out what freedmen were and were not allowed to do. The document below, passed July 3, 1865, is a Black Code from Opelousas, Louisiana.
SECTION 1. No negro shall be allowed to come within the limits of the town of Opelousas without special permission from his employers. SECTION 3. No negro shall be permitted to rent or keep a house within the limits of the town under any circumstances.
SECTION 4. No negro shall reside within the limits of the town of Opelousas who is not in the regular service of some white person or former owner.
SECTION 5. No public meetings of negroes shall be allowed within the limits of the town of Opelousas under any circumstances without the permission of the mayor or president of the board of police. This, however, does not prevent the freedmen from attending the usual church services.
SECTION 7. No freedman who is not in the military service shall be allowed to carry firearms, or any kind of weapons, within the limits of the town of Opelousas without the special permission of his employer, in writing, and approved by the mayor or president of the board of police.
SECTION 11. All the foregoing provisions apply to freedmen and freedwomen.
Why were African Americans not free during reconstruction? Use cite/evidence to prove your points. Provide analysis in own words.
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