5.11 The Failure of Reconstruction

Southern Society and Economics After the Civil War

  • Black Independence and Advancement:

    • Newly freed black people established schools and colleges (e.g., Morehouse, Howard) to gain independence through education.
    • Some black men were elected to representative offices.
    • The Freedmen's Bureau assisted in reuniting families and providing education and social welfare.

  • Persistent White Supremacy:

    • Despite advancements, white Southerners created conditions similar to pre-Civil War slavery and segregation.
    • Sharecropping: Replaced traditional slavery as a system of coerced labor.
      • Initially, contracts bound black workers perpetually to plantations with unlimited labor extraction similar to slavery.
      • Evolved into landowners providing seeds and supplies in exchange for a share of the harvest - sharecropping seemed like a solution, but ended up being another form of servitude.
      • Poor white people also fell victim to this system.
    • White Supremacy Ideology:
      • The belief that the white race was superior persisted.
      • The Ku Klux Klan (founded in 1867) terrorized black people to enforce this ideology.
      • The Klan burned buildings, controlled local politics through intimidation, and lynched black individuals who they believed did not accept their place.
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  • Black Codes:

    • Southern legislatures codified white supremacy into law through Black Codes.
      • Black Codes prohibited Black Americans from borrowing money to buy or rent land, pushing them towards sharecropping.
      • These codes prevented black people from testifying against white individuals in court, effectively denying them justice.
      • Black Codes enforced racial segregation in Southern society.

End of Reconstruction in 1877

  • Factors Leading to the End of Reconstruction:
    • Northern interest in Southern race issues waned in favor of industrial development.
    • A contested presidential election: 1876 Election between Samuel Tilden and Rutherford B. Hayes
      • Samuel Tilden vs. Rutherford B. Hayes
        • Tilden won the popular vote, but the electoral vote was disputed in South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida.
        • Both Republicans and Democrats claimed victory in those states.
        • A special electoral commission, with a Republican majority, awarded these states to Hayes.
        • Democrats threatened to block Hayes's inauguration.
    • Compromise of 1877:
      • To avoid deadlock, Democrats agreed to concede the election to Hayes.
      • In exchange, all federal troops were removed from the South.
      • This marked the official end of Reconstruction.
      • Southern Democrats regained dominance and further oppressed the black population without federal protection.