Black Protest and the Great Migration

Post-slavery proved to be just as difficult to the newly free African Americans in many aspects of life. Although they were no longer bound to a master, they often had to answer to many European? business men. After the abolition of slavery there were many African American citizens trying to find their place in society. Particularly iIn the South, particularly however, they did not experience the same amounts of freedom as they had been promised and had hoped for. Their place in society was at the bottom, and Blacks endured harsh segregation laws along with many other forms of violence. (source) They were often part of sharecropping farms, another system to keep the African Americans poor and indebtedl sharecropping which provided the basic essentials ofto life, but produced however provided nearly the same amount of freedom as slavery already had . (source) Their place in politics was virtually noninexistent, especially in the South with the Jim Crow laws imposing harsh restrictions. In many ways the African Americans were stuck within the constraints of their race and appearance.

The Great Migration was the climax of an already occurring event during America's history. Many unsatisfied African Americas were consistently moving to find a better life within America, often coming up with no improvement. Prior to World War I the overwhelming number of African American workers outweighed the demand, and due to Rreconstruction's failure, many African Americans were left completing the same agricultural jobs in rural areas of America. (source) In the northern states, of America businesses had begun to rely on the mass numbers of European immigrants coming over to the new land seeking the "American Dream" (source). With the war occurring in Europe and the halt on European Immigrants, the demand for African American skilled industrial workers was now prominent in the Northern factories. As demand grew so did the desire to move, and by 1916 the migration began to increase noticeably which began to drain the South of its key source of labour. (source)

In the North there was a new life awaiting the African American workers and their families filled with greater political, economic and social freedoms . Unlike the harsh racism in the South, the African Americans were able to earn more respectable pay for their work and the ability to provide forto their families (source, as well as live a more comfortable life . The Great Migration was able to give many new opportunities to African American workers who previously would never have gotten the chance to change their field and work in an industrial atmosphere. The reduction in immigration from Europe helped influence and regulate stronger immigration laws, which in turn meant more migration from the South to the North for jobs. (source) The South had to eventually turn to waged labour instead of sharecropping. The Great Migration that occurred in America prior during and