Unit 2 Reconstruction: Test Review Pt.2

African Americans in Government 1870

African Americans in Government 1870

• African American voters - important role

  • Contributed to Repub. victories in S.

• Some win seats as elected officials

  • S. Carolina, Afr. Amer. held majority in lower house

  • Other states, Afr. Amer. held important positions, but never proportional to #’s

• Afr. Amer. began Serving in political positions as Reps. in Congress

Federal Representation Changes

• At the National Level

  • 16 - House of Reps & 2 in Senate

Hiram Revels (R)

• recruited Afr. Amer. for Union army

• started school for freed Afr. Amer. in MO

• chaplain of Afr. Amer. regiment in MS

• stayed in MS - elected to U.S. Senate - 1870

Blanche K. Bruce

• former escaped slave

• Taught in school for Afr. Amer’s in MO

• 1869 went to MS - elected to U.S. Senate- 1874

Scalawags and Carpetbaggers

Some Southern whites backed Republicans

• Confederates called them scalawags (scoundrels or worthless rascals)

Some N. whites moved South after war to support Republican party

• Critics called these Northerners carpetbaggers

Some very dishonest, many were reformers who wanted to help S.

• Many S,’rs accused Reconstruction gov’ts (Republican) of corruption

Resistance to Reconstruction

• Most S’rs opposed efforts to expand Afr. Amer. Rights

  • Most white landowners refused to rent land to freed people

  • Store owners refused credit; employers would not hire them

The Ku Klux Klan - An Original American Terrorist Organization

Secret societies, used fear, violence to deny rights to freed men / women.

• Killed 1000s of Afr. Amer’s and their white friends

  • Burned African American homes, schools, churches

• Many S’rs, esp. planters & Dem’s, backed the KKK

  • Saw violence as only defense against Republican rule

1870-1871 – Enforcement (Force) Acts

• S’rs refused to testify against attacker’s of Afr. Amer.

  • Passed to blacks' / enforce 14th Amendment & protect 15th amd’ts

  • right to vote

  • hold office,

  • serve on juries

  • receive = protection of law

• Sr’n States often to weak or afraid to act

• If states failed - they allowed fed. Gov’t to intervene.

• Private criminal acts became federal crimes &Pres. Grant could step in

  • Pursue, prosecute w/federal

    troops

African Americans Created Own Schools

• N’rn missionary societies set up academies

  • grew into Afr. Amer colleges/universities

• A few states required schools be integrated

  • but laws were not enforced

1870’s Farming – Slavery Without the Chain

• Some African Amer. freedmen purchased land

  • w/the help of the Freedmen’s Bank

  • Most unable to get land

• Most common form of farm work – sharecropping - landowner

  • rented land to sharecropper

  • a crude shack, seed, tools (maybe a mule)

Farming – Economic Slavery w/o Chain

• In return, sharecroppers

  • shared a % of crops w/landowners

  • After paying landowner - little was left to sell

• Sharecropping little better than slavery

  • (economic slavery w/o the chain)

  • Will last for generations

Grant’s Administration – Reconstruction Weakens

1. Radical leaders begin to disappear

– (Thaddeus Stevens died)

2. During... N’rs began losing interest in Reconstruction

– Time for S. to solve own problems

3. Panic of 1873 – caused economic depression

– It was becoming long and expensive

4) 1873 – Pres. scandals & corruption discredit REPUB’s

5) Nation focusing on industry/westward settlement.

6) S’rs protested “bayonet rule”

– federal troops to back Reconstruction gov’ts

– great violence & race riots occurred

Republican Revolt

• 1870s: Corruption in Grant’s administration and Reconstruction govt’s split’s the Republican Party

  • Liberal Republicans (Halfbreeds) Formed

• 1872 - Nominate Horace Greeley to run against Grant

Amnesty Act of 1872

• Pardoned most former Confed’s

  • affected over 150,000

  • Full rights granted. (voting)

• Most were Democrats

  • soon gain control of S. state gov’ts.

  • Assisted by KKK - terrorized Repub. voters

Panic of 1873

• Small banks close/stock market plummets

  • 1000s of businesses shut down

  • Tens of 1000s out of work

• Blame - Republicans!

• 1874 Congressional Elections

  • DEM’s gain seats in Senate & House of Reps

  • weakens Congress’ commitment to Reconstruction

Election of 1876

• REPUB’s needed win back Liberal Repub’s - unite party

• Rutherford B. Hayes, (OH)

  • Honest/moderate views

• DEM’s - Samuel Tilden (gov. NY)

  • Fought corruption in N.Y.C.

• Tilden appeared to win

  • (250,000 more votes) and 184 electoral votes.

    • 1 short to win

  • 4 states/disputed results

    • He needed all 20 to win

• A commission set up

  • voted 8 to 7 to give all 20 votes to Hayes

Compromise of 1877

1. New Repub. Gov’t - more $ aid to South

2. All troops removed fr. S. states

3. DEM’s promise - maintain Afr. Amer. rights

March 2, 1877, Congress met in a joint session - declared Rutherford B. Hayes president

Inaugural Address, Hayes declares - the S. needs...

1. Restoration of “wise, honest, peaceful local self-government”

2. Let S’rs handle racial issues.

3. FED gov’t no longer attempt to reshape S.

4. Reconstruction was over!

Democrats in Control

• Large landowning DEM’s took power

• Plus “Redeemers”- merchants, bankers & business leaders who supported economic development

• “Redeem” S. fr. Repub. rule

• adopt conservative policies

  • lower taxes/reduced spending

  • cut Reconstruction services

    • Including public ed.

  • dominates S. politics into 1900’s

Rise of the New South

1. S’rs looked to develop a strong industrial economy

2. Some industries grew based on region’s abundant coal, iron, tobacco, cotton, & lumber

   – Some Textile/iron mills.

   – was cheap/reliable workforce

3. Factory workers - long hours/low wages

4. 1880-1890: RR system rebuilt/doubled

5. Agriculture remained main economic activity

Rural Economy

• Supporters of a New South wanted small farms to raise a variety of crops rather than cotton

  • most went to unprofitable sharecropping

  • Debt caused problems for poor farmers

    • grew cash crops to repay

    • Main crop - cotton

  • Too much cotton produced - prices fell

A Divided Society

• 15th Amend. prohibited states denying right to vote on race.

• S. States pass codes for political exclusion

  • poll taxes & literacy tests

  • also kept whites from voting

  • Solution - grandfather clauses - keep whites included

  • If father/grandfather voted in 1860 - you can vote

Afr. Amer. voting plummets

1883: S.C. Decision Opens Segregation

• Civil Rights Act of 1875 Overturned

  • Bans separation of races in public places.

• Ruling: 14th Amend. = prot. clause prohibits states /not private organizations

  • Here comes “Jim Crow” SEGREGATION in private facilities.

Jim Crow Laws

• 1890s segregation was common

  • Laws (Jim Crow) required races to be separate in public places

• 1896- Plessy v. Ferguson:

  • Segregation legal as long as it is equal

    • “Separate but equal”

  • The facilities were in no way equal

• White violence rose including lynching

Reconstruction’s Impact

• A success and failure

  • Helped South rebuild its economy

    • BUT most remained agricultural/poor

    • The North boomed – Industrial Rev.

  • Afr. Amer. gained greater equality, created own institutions, shared in gov’t

    • advancements didn’t last

• Civil rights leader W.E.B. Du Bois said

  • “The slave went free, stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery”