1865 to 1900 as the “Age of Organization”

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apital, which had been slaves. “This country without slave labor would be completely worthless,” wrote a Confederate lieutenant in 1863, and he was for the most part correct (McPherson 107). Planters were unable to secure loans for the day-to-day operations of their estates. Republican lawmakers enacted high taxes intended to break up the plantations, and “one-fifth of the entire area of Mississippi…fell into the hands of the state for nonpayment of taxes (Foner 69).”
Reconstruction, however, did not significantly change the balance of power in the South. Initially the process of rebuilding the South was left almost entirely to the Southern states. Blacks were left landless and state and local governments passed laws, known as black codes, in an attempt to force them to work at their former plantations. After southern mismanagement of Reconstruction became clear, the federal government imposed military rule over the former Confederate states. The Army and various federal agencies such as the Freedman’s Bureau set about helping th...