* Faced discrimination and violence from whites.
* Worked as sharecroppers or tenant farmers, often in debt to their landlords.
* Lived in poverty and had limited access to education and other opportunities.
* Were often denied the right to vote and hold office.
Poor whites
* Also faced discrimination from whites, although not to the same extent as freedmen.
* Competed with freedmen for jobs and resources.
* Often resented the freedmen's new status and blamed them for their own economic problems.
* Were sometimes used by whites to suppress freedmen's rights.