Reconstruction Era Flashcards

1868 Presidential Election

• Ulysses S. Grant elected as Republican president.
• Despite battlefield success, his presidency faced challenges.
• He served two terms, winning overwhelmingly despite corruption within his administration (though he was not personally corrupt).

Fifteenth Amendment

• Passed during Grant's presidency.
• Prohibits states from denying citizens the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
• Southern states circumvented this with:
  • Literacy tests
  • Property qualifications
  • Poll taxes
  • Grandfather clauses: Allowed voting if one's father voted before the 15th amendment or the 13th amendment (abolition of slavery).

Rise of the Ku Klux Klan

• Social tensions and resentment against the North fueled its rise.
• Started by former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest in 1866.
• Evolved from a fraternal organization to a violent one.
• Goal: Restore white supremacy.
• Membership: White people of all social classes.
• Tactics:
  • Intimidation
  • Violence
  • Burning crosses
  • Lynching
  • Influence election outcomes by preventing white and black Republicans from voting.

Federal Response: Enforcement Acts

• Aimed to limit Klan activities.
• Provided federal protection for black suffrage.
• Authorized the use of the army against the Klan.
• Outlawed Klan activities.
• The Klan had gained significant power, requiring substantial federal effort to suppress.

1876 Election and the Compromise of 1877

• By 1876, Republicans only controlled South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida due to Klan activity.
• Republican candidate: Rutherford B. Hayes
• Democratic candidate: Samuel Tilden of New York.
• Tilden won the popular vote, but the electoral college was uncertain.
• Contested results in South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana (the states still under Republican control).
• A special commission was appointed to determine the election outcome.
• Hayes was awarded the disputed votes, subject to ratification by both houses of Congress.

Compromise of 1877 Details

• Hayes elected president.
• In return, federal support for Republican regimes in the South would end.
• This withdrawal of federal support marked the end of Reconstruction.
• Southern states came under the control of white Democrats (Redeemers).
• Redeemers:
  • Used violence and intimidation.
  • Enforced segregation laws.

End of Reconstruction and its Aftermath

• The federal government largely ceased intervention in the South.
• Americans grew tired of Reconstruction efforts.
• Conditions worsened for former slaves in the South.