Ending Reconstruction Unit 6

“Waving the Bluudy Shirt”

Republicans emotionally blackmailing voters with Civil War memories 🩸😭. They reminded people of Union sacrifices and painted Democrats (aka the South) as traitors to win elections. Effective? Yes. Subtle? Absolutely not.

Ulysses S. Grant Administration

War hero president, but… messy 😬. Grant meant well, but his administration became famous for corruption scandals. While the economy grew, political trust tanked, and support for Reconstruction slowly died out.

Boss Tweed / Party Bosses and Political Machines

Local political kings who ran cities like their personal businesses 👑🏙. Boss Tweed controlled NYC through Tammany Hall by trading jobs and favors for votes. Corrupt? Yes. Helpful to immigrants? Also yes. Democracy was… optional.

Thomas Nast

Political cartoonist with NO chill 🖊🔥. Used cartoons to expose Boss Tweed’s corruption and turn public opinion against political machines. Basically the original political meme account.

Credit Mobilier Scandal / Whiskey Ring

Peak Gilded Age corruption 💸.
Credit Mobilier: Railroad companies bribed Congress with stock to avoid investigations.
Whiskey Ring: Tax collectors and distillers stole whiskey taxes from the government. Grant wasn’t directly involved, but his administration took the L.

Gilded Age

A time period that looked shiny on the outside but rotten underneath ✨➡🤢. Massive industrial growth, extreme wealth, political corruption, and huge inequality. The name is literally sarcastic.

Patronage

The “I got you a job because you voted for me” system 🤝. Government jobs were handed out based on loyalty, not skill. Led to corruption, incompetence, and people finally saying, “maybe this is bad.”

Compromise of 1877

The deal that officially killed Reconstruction ☠. Democrats let Republican Rutherford B. Hayes become president if federal troops left the South. Result: white Southern Democrats regained control and Jim Crow began.

Sharecropping

Post-slavery farming trap 🌾🔒. Freedmen rented land and paid with crops, but debt kept piling up. In theory: independence. In reality: economic slavery.

Jim Crow Laws

State laws enforcing racial segregation and white supremacy 😐. Passed after Reconstruction ended. Segregated schools, transportation, and public spaces while pretending things were “separate but equal” (they weren’t).

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

The Supreme Court said segregation was legal as long as it was “separate but equal” 🙃. This ruling gave Jim Crow laws constitutional protection for decades.

Chinese Exclusion Act

The first U.S. law banning immigration based on race 🇨🇳❌. Blocked Chinese laborers from entering the country due to fear and racism during industrialization. Big example of nativism in the Gilded Age.

Gilded Age Presidents

Presidents with little power and lots of problems 😴. Most focused more on party loyalty than real reform. Congress and political machines ran the show instead.

Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act

The government finally said “merit > vibes” 📝. Required government jobs to be based on exams, not patronage. Reduced corruption and weakened political machines.

Grandfather Clause / Poll Taxes / Literacy Tests

Voter suppression trio 😤.
Poll taxes charged people to vote,
Literacy tests were unfair and rigged,
Grandfather clauses let poor whites vote if their ancestors had voted before the Civil War. Goal: keep Black citizens from voting without technically breaking the 15th Amendment.