he domination of the carpetbagger
and the Ku Klux Klan, a period of physical coercion and intimidation.
Within a decade the negro vote was uncast or uncounted, and the
grandfather clauses soon completed the political mastery of the former
slave owner. A strict interpretation of the Civil Rights Act denied
the application of the equality clause of the Constitution to social
equality, and the social as well as the political separation of the
two stocks was also accomplished. "Jim Crow," cars, separate
accommodations in depots and theaters, separate schools, separate
churches, attempted segregations in cities--these are all symbolic of
two separate races forcibly united by constitutional amendments.

But the economic struggle continued, for the black man, even if
politically emasculated and socially isolated, had somehow to earn a
living. In their first reaction of anger and chagrin, some of the
whites here and there made attempts to reduce freedmen to their former
servitude, but their efforts were effectually checked by the Fifteenth
Amendment. An ingenious peonage, however, was created by means of the
criminal law. Strict statutes were passed by States on guardianship,
vagrancy, and petty crimes. It was not difficult to bring charges
under these statutes, and the heavy penalties attached, together with
the wide discretion permitted to judge and jury, made it easy to
subject the culprit to virtual serfdom for a term of years. He would
be leased to some contractor, who would pay for his keep and would
profit by his toil. Whatever justification there may have been for
these statutes, the convict lease system soon fell into disrepute, and
it has been generally abandoned.

It was upon the land that the freedman naturally sought his economic
salvation. He was experienced in cotton growing. But he had neither
acres nor capital. These he had to find and turn to his own uses ere
he could really be economically free. So he began as a farm laborer,
passed through various stages of tenantry, and finally graduated into
land ownership. One finds today examples of every stage of this
evolution.[13] There is first the farm laborer, receiving at the end
of the year a fixed wage. He is often supplied with house and garden
and usually with food and clothing. There are many variations of this
labor contract. The "cropper" is barely a step advanced above the
laborer, for he, too, furnishes nothing but labor, while the landlord
supplies hou