Although blacks had "freedom" in a legal sense, most of them still did not have any educationor economic independence. Consequently, they were helpless to participate significantly in the political process to try to improve their status. Except for farm work, most former slaves had no skills. As a result, many blacks went back to work for the same white people who used tobe their masters. Not many blacks could buy their own land or accumulate enough money to become economically independent. Instead they worked on the whites' land and gave to or shared with the owner the crops or money earned from the crops. In the South, "sharecropping" had become a way of life for many blacks. By 1900, thirty-five years after the end of the Civil War,conditions in the South had changed little for black people.
虽然从法律意义上讲，黑人享有“自由”，但是他们中的大多数人仍然受不到任何教育，仍然得不到经济上的独立。其结果是，他们无法真正参与争取改善其自身地位的政治进程。除了干农活之外，大多数昔日的奴隶都没有技术。因此，许多黑人又回到原来的白人主子那儿为他们干活。没有多少黑人买得起土地或能攒起足够的钱做到经济上独立。他们只能在白人的土地上干活，把收获的庄稼或出售庄稼挣来的钱交给主人或与主人均分。在南方，“收益分成”已成为许多黑人的一种生活方式。到1900年，在南北战争结束35年之后，南方黑人的状况变化甚微。