Reconstruction Era 1865-1876/1877
Standard Indicator 8-5.3
~Brushing Up~
Congressional Reconstruction:
• Why were some southern states forced to write new state
•
•
•
•
constitutions?
What did the South’s refusal to ratify the 14-15 amendments
mean socially?
What happened when most whites boycotted the convention to
write the new constitution?
*Slightly more than half of the delegates to the convention were
African American and half of those were newly freed slaves
Also newly immigrated northerners were elected as delegates to
the convention as well
New state constitutions for SC & South,
why?
 SC whites refused to accept African American freedom &





authority of federal government
SC refused to ratify the 14th & 15th amendments (guaranteed
equal rights & the right to vote to AA men)
Result: Congress required SC to call convention to write
new state constitution
Whites boycotted election of convention delegates
African American majority of population so were more than
half of delegates to convention
Writers: Former slave, Free African Americans & recent
immigrants
Political Opportunities for African
Americans in SC:
• SC Constitution of 1868, African American men allowed to
•
•
•
•
•
•
vote & hold office (& did so in large numbers)
They had greater political power/most of any other southern
state
Held every office in the state but Governor
were a majority in the state legislature
throughout Reconstruction
Six US House Representatives
Characterized by whites as illiterate
ex-slaves
Actually were literate, middle class, &
many free before the Civil War
Legacy of Republican Reconstruction SC
Government:
 Some corrupt individuals
 Established social services: state-
supported institutions for blind, deaf,
& mute
 Made public health care a state
government concern
 Established public schools for all
children for first time
 Raised taxes to pay for services
White Reaction to SC Republican
Reconstruction Governments: Whites
 Claimed taxes were bankrupting them
 Exaggerated corruption of inexperienced African American




legislators
Played on northern racism
Manipulated the Northern press with propaganda about
incompetence of Republicans
Blamed rising taxes on corruption
Result: northern public tired of Reconstruction & gave up
hope for changing Southern attitudes & way of life
Freedmen Education
• Before Civil War denied, except for secret schools
• After emancipation freedom schools established by Freedmen’s Bureau
•
•
•
•
•
(African Americans flocked to attend) & supported by northern
philanthropists
Republican Reconstruction state governments established new public
schools
Colleges established by Northern philanthropists & religious
denominations: Claflin College,
Benedicts College, Allen University
& Avery Institute
Northern Aid Society created the
Penn School in Beaufort, SC
Northern missionaries moved
South to
teach & were called
Carpetbaggers by whites
Literacy rates for all southerners rose
White Backlash in SC
• Result of African American gains in participation in government
• White SC, outnumbered by African American political majority,
refused to participate in the new state government
• Whites carried on a campaign of terror against African
Americans & white Republicans after adoption of 1868 SC
Constitution
• Without federal troops & state militias, vigilante groups such as
the Ku Klux Klan, Riflemen, Red Shirts harassed, intimidated, &
murdered
Reaction of Federal Government to
Terror Campaign against Republicans
 Congress passed the Ku Klux Klan Act
 President Grant sent federal troops to SC
 Some Klansmen surrendered & tried
 Insufficient efforts by federal government encouraged the
insurgency by whites (terror campaign)
 By 1876 Election, white insurgents ready to contest political
control of Republicans
End of Reconstruction in SC:
 Violence & controversy
 The Hamburg Massacre of 1876 (Aiken County): six black
militia members killed by white mob, marked intensification of
white campaign to “redeem” SC government
 White Democratic “Red Shirts” led by Wade Hampton
(former Confederate general) used fraud, violence, &
intimidation to win the Election of 1876
 President Grant sent more troops, but could not assure free &
fair election
State Election of 1876:
 State elections thrown into General Assembly due to voting
irregularities
 Two rival governments were established, one Republican &
one white Democrat
 White taxpayers refused to support Republican government
 When Rutherford Hayes was named president of US he
withdrew troops from SC & Hampton & Conservative
Democrats took over government
National Election of 1876:
 Plagued by voting irregularities too
 Electoral votes of 3 southern states (SC included) were
disputed
 Democrats & Republicans in Congress reached a compromise
 Democrats recognize election of Republican President Hayes
 Republicans agree to withdraw federal troops from South
 Hayes withdraws troops from SC, FL, & LA
 Results: Hampton & Conservative Democrats control SC &
African Americans left to fend for themselves in a hostile
environment