The End of Reconstruction

1. The End of Reconstruction 12.3

2. Objectives • Explain why Reconstruction ended. • Evaluate the successes and failures of Reconstruction

3. Key Parts • The Nation Considers Other Matters • Why Did Reconstruction End • Evaluating Reconstruction Effects

4. Introduction • Read 12.3 • Answer Questions 4-5

5. The Nation Considers Other Matters • By 1872 Reconstruction had been occurring for over a decade. • European immigration was swelling in the north and west, major industry was also developing, allowing major profit and major corruption. • Ulysses S. Grant was a popular war hero but a disappointing President.

6. Cont. • Grant had a great ability to lead but he allowed corruption to occur within his congress and legislature, even his own vice president was involved in financial scandals. • Some of these financial scandals came to light, and the peoples confidence in political leaders was extremely low. • Also at this point the northern economy was failing, so reconstruction was less focused on.

7. Why Did Reconstruction End • Gradually the North began to pull troops out of the south because of the enormous cost. • Also in 1872 the Feedmen’s Bureau was dissolved. • During this time, in the south the goal was to increase segregation and to get the white men back into power. • The group doing this was called Redeemers; with the goal of reclaim power in Congress.

8. Cont. • In the election of 1876 Rutherford B. Hayes won the election and wanted to end the political corruption. • However he doesn’t realize the dept of corruption and how difficult it will be to fix it. • Reconstruction finally officially ended through the Compromise of 1877. • All northern troops had to be pulled out of the south and the south was guarantied subsidies to build railroads and improve ports.

9. Evaluating Reconstruction Efforts • Reconstruction wasn’t a huge success, however it wasn’t a failure either. • Enduring changes to the south occurred. The introduction of a tax-supported school system, an infusion of federal money to modernize roads and ports, and to have more than once singular cash crop.

10. Cont. • Before the Civil War, no African American in the South and only a few in the north could vote, own land, or work for pay. • Reconstruction changed these things. By 1877 some southern blacks owned their own farms and that number would continue to grow. • One issue that arose was that black men could vote but women of either race couldn’t.

11. Cont. • Women’s suffrage groups began to emerge. • The American Woman Suffrage Association, and the National Woman Suffrage Association. • Both of these groups were working to get women the right to vote. • In 1869 the NWSA scored its first victory when the Wyoming Territory became the first political unit to extend the vote to women.