Final answer:
Black codes, Jim Crow laws, and sharecropping were systems put in place to keep African Americans impoverished post-Civil War, maintaining an economic dependence reminiscent of slavery and impeding Black economic progress.
Step-by-step explanation:
The economic system that kept Blacks in poverty after the Civil War was largely shaped by Black codes and Jim Crow laws, designed to maintain a White supremacist social order and economic control over freed African Americans. Sharecropping played a significant role in this, tying Black families to the land in a cycle of debt and dependence that mirrored the conditions of slavery.
This system, along with domestic terrorism from groups like the Ku Klux Klan, inhibited Black economic progress and perpetuated a racial underclass in the South. Laws were also designed to prevent Blacks from owning property or gaining meaningful employment, and economic injustices like white-capping and lack of access to job training further entrenched poverty in the Black community.