1 / 14

The Collapse of Reconstruction

The Collapse of Reconstruction. “Of course he wants to vote the Democratic ticket” Cartoon showing how the Mississippi Plan worked. (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved. Opposition to Reconstruction. Ku Klux Klan

mave
Download Presentation

The Collapse of Reconstruction

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Collapse of Reconstruction

  2. “Of course he wants to vote the Democratic ticket” Cartoon showing how the Mississippi Plan worked. (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved.

  3. Opposition to Reconstruction • Ku Klux Klan • founded by six confederate veterans as a social club in Tennessee in 1866 • Made up of democratic politicians and former confederates • Made many chapters and turned them into violent terrorist organizations • By 1868, the Klan existed in every southern state

  4. Goals of KKK • Destroy the Republican party • To throw out the reconstruction governments • To aid the planter class in controlling African American laborers • To prevent African Americans from exercising their political rights

  5. Resorted to burning cabins and churches Murdering innocent people Between 1868 and 1871 the Klan killed 1,000s of Men Women Children To achieve the KKK goals they…

  6. Legislative Response • Congress passed a series of Enforcement Acts in 1870 and 1871 • Provided federal supervision of elections in Southern States • President had the power to use federal troops in areas where the Klan was active • Klan’s activities decreased • individual acts of violence against blacks and white Republicans continued

  7. May 1872 Congress passed the Amnesty Act Returned the right to vote the right to hold federal and state offices to about 160,000 former Confederates who would vote Democratic Shifts in Political Power

  8. Shifts in Political Power • Only about 500 did not gain their rights back • Congress allowed the Freedman’s Bureau to expire • Southern Democrats had a chance to shift the balance of political power

  9. The Election of 1868 • Election was referendum on Congressional Reconstruction • Ulysses S. Grant • Republican nominee • Opposed Johnson’s Reconstruction policies • Horatio Seymour • Democrat associate with KKK • Grant wins electoral college, but got minority of white vote nationally (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved.

  10. “Who stole the people’s money? Do tell. ‘Twas him” by Thomas Nast. An attack on Tammany Hall and William “Boss” Tweed. (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

  11. Scandals and Money Crisis Hurt Republicans • President Grant • Was elected for a 2nd term • Appoints friends who end up being dishonest

  12. The Panic of 1873 • Economy was expanding after the war, so investors borrowed large amounts of $$$ and built new factories • Many who invested took on more debt than they could afford • Set off a series of financial failures

  13. Supreme Court Decisions • Slaughterhouse cases of 1873 • Court decided that the 14th Amendment protected only the rights people had by virtue of the citizenship in the U.S. not state citizenship. • U.S. v. Cruikshank in 1876 • Court ruled that the 14th Amendment did not give the federal government the right to punish individual whites who oppressed blacks • U.S. v. Reese in 1876 • Court ruled in favor of officials who had barred blacks from voting, stating that the 15th Amendment did not “confer the right of suffrage on anyone” but merely listed grounds on which states could not deny suffrage

  14. Democrats “Redeem” the South • Between 1869 and 1875 Redemption • the Southern Democratic term for their return to power in the South in the 1870s • Democrats recaptured the state governments of • Alabama • Arkansas • Georgia • Mississippi • N.C. • Tennessee • Texas • Virginia

More Related