After the American civil war, 1861-1865, there had to be a certain social order that was
meant to show the difference between the black communities and the whites which was far from
being just racial. This form of ranking was so serious that in Pennsylvania, a hall that had been
built by the anti-slavery community in the year 1938 for meeting purposes was set on fire by
racists Americans after been opened for only three days. Several mechanisms were used to
enforce the social hierarchy as discussed in this essay.
After the US president, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, Andrew Johnson, who had no
interest whatsoever in the equality of the African-Americans took over and brought about
limitation of the rights of the African-American men and women through the introduction of
black codes. 1 Black codes were restrictive laws that limited the rights of African-Americans and
which also ensured their availability as cheap labor after the abolishment of slavery. Black codes
affected the freedom of the black men and women in such a way that movement of a black
employee without the knowledge of his or her white employer was treated as a gross mistake and
was severely punished. These laws continued to demean the status of the blacks and continued to
make them inferior to their white counterparts and therefore was a perfect method of maintaining
social hierarchy that had been in existence.
1 Kali N. Gross, Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso: A Tale of Race, Sex, and Violence in America
(Cambridge: Oxford University Press, 2016), 24.1
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For the black community, there were no employment vacancies so the only work they
could get was in the plantations owned by the white landlords. There was introduction of a
practice which known as sharecropping 2 . Sharecropping refers to a practice where the white land
owners allowed the African-Americans to cultivate their land and in return they received only a
portion of the produce. At times, they would exploit the employees by charging them for the
tools they used to cultivate on their own land, or even at times, sell the tools to them at higher
prices since they had to be in credit as they could not afford them. This form of contract was
harsh for the tenant farmers since they would have to settle in for them since they were not
allowed to own land. This treatment continued to oppress the black community as they became
wholly dependent on their white counterparts and this acted as a reinforcement of the social
hierarchy that had been in force during the slavery days.
Even after abolishment of slavery, when the African American children were allowed to
learn how to read and write, they still were not allowed to school together. This meant that black
children would walk miles away from where they lived, since they did not have any
transportation means to school, past several schools because they belonged to the white. These
schools were often not clean and were mostly crowded because they were few and had to be
shared among all African American children. This practice continued to make the African-
Americans inferior to their white counterparts who had access to better learning facilities and
therefore continued to propagate the social hierarchy that had been in existence since the slavery
days.
In summary, even after the abolishment of slavery which was meant to bring equality
among all Americans, it is a pity that the situation did not change much as African-Americans
2 Gross, Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso: A Tale of Race, Sex, and Violence in America, 46.2
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continued to be oppressed a situation that propagated the social hierarchy that had been in
existence since the days of slavery. The use of black codes, sharecropping and differential access
to resources such as schools were some of the mechanisms that were used to propagate the social
hierarchy.
Works Cited
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Kali N. Gross, Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso: A Tale of Race, Sex, and
Violence in America (Cambridge: