Jim Crow Laws

African-Americans were slaves to the Jim Crow laws that were placed after the Civil War. These segregation laws affected all colored, minority populations: Africans, Mexicans, and Chinese. The Jim Crow laws enforced the idea of white supremacy, and rendered the equality gained through the civil war obsolete.

Freedom for slavery began in the Civil War, even though the war was not started because of slavery. The Civil War started over state rights. Southern states had an economy based on agriculture and northern state’s economies had switched to industrialization, because of the Market Revolution. Southern states had lost majority in the House of Representatives, and only held half of the seats in the Senate. Since northern states had the majority in congress, they were able to pass tariffs that helped the North’s economy, but these tariffs hurt the South’s economy. Afraid of losing slaves and power when Lincoln became president, southern states started seceding from the country when Lincoln was inaugurated. Initially, the North fought to unify the states and the South fought for stronger state rights.

The focus of the war changed when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The website Our Documents stated that Lincoln did this for a military reason. The Emancipation Proclamation stated that only slaves of rebellious states would be freed, and that slaves would be allowed to fight for the liberation of other slaves (United). This would allow the North to gain a substantial amount of southern forces to fight for them. The proclamation changed the whole focus of the war from state’s rights, to slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation wasn’t permanent; Lincoln was only able to issue it because of military necessity. That’s why the Thirteenth Amendment was put in place, to establish the permanent abolition of slavery. The new Jim Crow laws thwarted the equality that the Thirteenth Amendment attempted to give to the nation.

Jim Crow laws were not placed at the national level; the laws were a mix of state and local codes enforced by the local area. Even though the the thirteenth amendment abolished slavery among the states, the segregation laws were allowed through the new president. An article on the government website White House states that the president to follow Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, was a southern Democrat and believed in stronger state rights instead of a strong central government (United). Since President Johnson was a strong advocate for giving power to the states instead of the national government, states were able to place laws that restricted African-American’s daily lives and let white supremacy remain. The Thirteenth Amendment was obsolete when state and local laws became more powerful than the national laws.

Even the North adopted Jim Crow laws, for many still viewed African-Americans as an inferior race. Northerners, who weren’t abolitionists, wanted slaves to be treated better, but still not as equals. In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Mr. and Mrs. Shelby are examples of a true abolitionist and of someone who wants better treatment for slaves. When Mrs. Shelby discovers that Eliza and Harry have fled, she aids them in their escape, but Mr. Shelby is worried more about his honor with Mr. Haley than with helping Eliza escape (25). Mr. Shelby looks down on how Mr. Haley treats his slaves, yet Mr. Shelby still treats them as inferior beings. After slavery was abolished, many carried Mr. Shelby’s views and refused to help the newly freed slaves gain footing in their new lives. Mrs. Shelby is a true abolitionist, and strives for the morals that she believes to be true, which is a trait that abolitionists have during the Second Great Awakening. Abolitionists, equal rights advocates, and Underground Railroad conductors are the only people who gave refuge to African-Americans.