Discuss the economic conditions of poor blacks and whites during Reconstruction?

The early Reconstruction period in the South was a period of great optimism for the newly freed slaves. They were finally granted economic independence and an opportunity to climb the social ladder. This sense of optimism was unfounded, however, as racism was even more pronounced in the South after the Civil War. The federal government refused to grant slaves land under redistribution and the freedman did not have money to purchase land. Even if the former slaves could save money, most whites would not sell to them. As a result, a new system of subjugation was created in the form of tenant farming and sharecropping. In both systems, black families had to rent the land from wealthy white men, usually the same people that owned the slave plantations. A cycle of debt ensued because freedman did not own tools necessary for farming and had to borrow to purchase the necessities. Black people, for generations, were mired on the farms in poverty and debt.

Many poor whites saw the opportunity to profit from cotton production after the Civil War. They faced many of the same difficulties of the freed slaves. They did not have the capital to purchase land and the war had crippled the economy of the South. Even wealthy whites were having difficulty rebuilding. For the most part, poor whites stuck to farming and were in perpetual debt for decades after the war.