Reconstruction Part 2
RECONSTRUCTION IN THE
SOUTH
• 20,000 troops stationed in the
South
– Tended to stay in the
background but their presence
was intensely resented by
white southerners
– Role was generally positive
• Protected Unionists and
blacks when they voted
– Without army, exConfederates would
have prevented both
from voting
CARPETBAGGERS AND
SCALAWAGS
• Most blacks and Unionists
voted for Republicans
– Often called
“Carpetbaggers” (white
Northerners who had
moved to the South) or
“Scalawags” (former white
Unionists)
– Contrary to myth, most
were honest and sincere
men who truly wanted to
help the ex-slave
• Not the corrupt and
vicious politicians that
white racist legend has
portrayed them to be
“New” Southern Politics
• Carpetbaggers – Northern Republicans
that moved to the south to get elected
• Scalawags – Southern whites that became
Republicans
• Blacks gained some public offices
RECONSTRUCTION STATE
GOVERNMENTS
• State governments set up by
Republicans all aimed at
overthrowing white supremacy in
the South
– All gave blacks the right to vote
– Many reapportioned legislative
districts to give blacks better
representation
– Property qualifications for
voting and holding office were
abolished
– Black Codes were abolished
– Institutions for caring for the
sick, disabled, insane, and
destitute were set up
– Most set up integrated public
schools
GOOD BUT HATED
• Some elected Republican officials in the
South were black
– Most were white Scalawags or
carpetbaggers
• Most southern state administrations
were liberal and aimed at guaranteeing
equality and education for all and
helping the unfortunate
– Earned undying animosity of former
conservative white planter elite
• Hated every aspect of
Reconstruction
• Hated coalition of blacks,
Unionists and northern
Republicans
• Resented aid to the poor
• Especially hated policy of equal
rights for blacks
Corruption Under US Grant
• “Era of Good Stealings” – name for Grant
Administration
– Gold Scandal
– Credit Mobilier
– Whiskey Ring
– Railroad Scheme
• Grant too trusting in friends/supporters, taken
advantage of
• Corruption ruins his legacy
BIG OBSTACLE
• Former white planter elite
exploited racism of poor,
white southerners to
undermine Reconstruction
and destroy Republicans
• Powerful current of racism
was the major and, in the end,
insurmountable obstacle that
southern Republicans faced
in trying to win over poor
white voters
– Who might have otherwise
sympathized with Radical
Republican policies
DANGEROUS TURN
• White Republicans were
socially disliked
• Republican businesses were
boycotted
• White Republicans could not
rent houses, hotel rooms, or
even boarding house rooms
• Whites employed intimidation
and violence to prevent blacks
from voting
• “uppity” blacks were beaten up
and sometimes killed
• Black leaders were threatened
with assassination attempts
and mob violence
KKK
• Secret terrorist
organizations were formed
to terrorize blacks and
control their votes
– Such as the Ku Klux Klan
• Public opinion was
generally on the side of
these organizations
– White juries routinely
found them not guilty
• Even when the crime
was murder
Ku Klux Klan
• Organization of former Confederate
soldiers
• Terrorize blacks and white sympathizers
– Teachers, Republicans, Lawyers (later Jews
and Catholics)
• Purpose: Restore pre-Civil War conditions
– Maintain White Supremacy
– Restore south to Democrats
Lynching
400 die between 1867-1871 (that we know of).
Lynching will continue for the next 100 years!
LIBERAL REPUBLICANS
• Conservative Southern whites,
rallying around the Democratic
Party, gradually overturned
Reconstruction
– At the same time, the federal
government was doing less
and less to protect southern
Republicans
• National Republican Party had
split over Reconstruction
policy
– “Liberal Republicans”
argued that continued
support for Negro rights in
the South against powerful
white opposition was
costing the party more than
it was worth
• Favored backing off from
Reconstruction
RETREAT
• Throughout the North, many
people had come to believe
by 1875 that the country as a
whole would be better off if
the government gave up
trying to impose
Reconstruction on an
unwilling South
– In general, the Republican
Party and Northerners
gradually retreated from
their commitment to black
equality
• Abandoned all efforts
to defend equal rights
ELECTION OF 1876
• Democrat Samuel J. Tilden
vs Republican Rutherford
B. Hayes
– Very close election
– 184 electoral college
votes for Tilden and 165
for Hayes
– But 20 electoral college
votes (19 of which were
from the South) were in
dispute and claimed by
both candidates
• If Hayes could get
firm control of them,
he would win, 185 to
184
Compromise of 1877
• Special Commission on Elections
– 20 undecided electoral votes
– LA, FL, SC so close they send two sets of
votes; Hayes wins one/Tilden the other
– Hayes chosen to win the election
– Conditions:
• Troops removed from south
• South handles their own affairs (race relations)
• Blacks are abandoned
See source to learn more:
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchistcivilwar/5470
END OF RECONSTRUCTION
• Compromise of 1877 ended
Reconstruction in the South
once and for all
– Remaining white
Republicans and all blacks
were now at the mercy of
racist Democratic local and
state governments
• Also created so-called “Solid
South”
– Region overwhelmingly
voted Democratic in every
election until the late 1960s
• Even after Democratic
Party changed its attitude
towards race
Jim Crow Laws
• Created to replace Black Codes
• Kept segregation legal
• Will exist from 1866 to 1965 in most
places in the southern U.S.
CONCLUSION
• As a result of the Compromise
of 1877, South was also given a
free hand to deal with blacks
and other local issues with
little federal interference
– Result of this would be
lynching, “Jim Crow” laws,
segregated public facilities
and schools, poll taxes, and
all the other racist laws that
the Civil Rights Movement
of the 1950s/1960s finally
eliminated
• The failure of Reconstruction
and the Compromise of 1877
established the characteristics
that the South would retain for
the next 100 years
– And most of them were
negative
Post Reconstruction Challenges
• Jim Crow Laws: Social
Discrimination
• Sharecropping:
Economic Limitation
• Literacy Tests:
Loss of political power
• White Supremacy in
South upheld by
terrorism (lynching)
How did this affect
reconstruction?
• Ends reconstruction
• South allowed free reign over blacks
• Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) established
to rule southern society
• South had won the reconstruction battle