Southern Reconstruction: A Controversial Era

1. Reconstruction Part 2

2. RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH • 20,000 troops stationed in the South • Tended to stay in the background but their presence was intensely resented by white southerners • Role was generally positive • Protected Unionists and blacks when they voted • Without army, ex-Confederates would have prevented both from voting

3. CARPETBAGGERS AND SCALAWAGS • Most blacks and Unionists voted for Republicans • Often called “Carpetbaggers” (white Northerners who had moved to the South) or “Scalawags” (former white Unionists) • Contrary to myth, most were honest and sincere men who truly wanted to help the ex-slave • Not the corrupt and vicious politicians that white racist legend has portrayed them to be

4. “New” Southern Politics Carpetbaggers – Northern Republicans that moved to the south to get elected Scalawags – Southern whites that became Republicans Blacks gained some public offices

5. RECONSTRUCTION STATE GOVERNMENTS • State governments set up by Republicans all aimed at overthrowing white supremacy in the South • All gave blacks the right to vote • Many reapportioned legislative districts to give blacks better representation • Property qualifications for voting and holding office were abolished • Black Codes were abolished • Institutions for caring for the sick, disabled, insane, and destitute were set up • Most set up integrated public schools

6. GOOD BUT HATED • Some elected Republican officials in the South were black • Most were white Scalawags or carpetbaggers • Most southern state administrations were liberal and aimed at guaranteeing equality and education for all and helping the unfortunate • Earned undying animosity of former conservative white planter elite • Hated every aspect of Reconstruction • Hated coalition of blacks, Unionists and northern Republicans • Resented aid to the poor • Especially hated policy of equal rights for blacks

7. Corruption Under US Grant “Era of Good Stealings” – name for Grant Administration Gold Scandal Credit Mobilier Whiskey Ring Railroad Scheme Grant too trusting in friends/supporters, taken advantage of Corruption ruins his legacy

8. BIG OBSTACLE • Former white planter elite exploited racism of poor, white southerners to undermine Reconstruction and destroy Republicans • Powerful current of racism was the major and, in the end, insurmountable obstacle that southern Republicans faced in trying to win over poor white voters • Who might have otherwise sympathized with Radical Republican policies

9. DANGEROUS TURN • White Republicans were socially disliked • Republican businesses were boycotted • White Republicans could not rent houses, hotel rooms, or even boarding house rooms • Whites employed intimidation and violence to prevent blacks from voting • “uppity” blacks were beaten up and sometimes killed • Black leaders were threatened with assassination attempts and mob violence

10. KKK • Secret terrorist organizations were formed to terrorize blacks and control their votes • Such as the Ku Klux Klan • Public opinion was generally on the side of these organizations • White juries routinely found them not guilty • Even when the crime was murder

11. Ku Klux Klan Organization of former Confederate soldiers Terrorize blacks and white sympathizers Teachers, Republicans, Lawyers (later Jews and Catholics) Purpose: Restore pre-Civil War conditions Maintain White Supremacy Restore south to Democrats

12. Lynching 400 die between 1867-1871 (that we know of). Lynching will continue for the next 100 years!

13. LIBERAL REPUBLICANS • Conservative Southern whites, rallying around the Democratic Party, gradually overturned Reconstruction • At the same time, the federal government was doing less and less to protect southern Republicans • National Republican Party had split over Reconstruction policy • “Liberal Republicans” argued that continued support for Negro rights in the South against powerful white opposition was costing the party more than it was worth • Favored backing off from Reconstruction

14. RETREAT • Throughout the North, many people had come to believe by 1875 that the country as a whole would be better off if the government gave up trying to impose Reconstruction on an unwilling South • In general, the Republican Party and Northerners gradually retreated from their commitment to black equality • Abandoned all efforts to defend equal rights

15. ELECTION OF 1876 • Democrat Samuel J. Tilden vs Republican Rutherford B. Hayes • Very close election • 184 electoral college votes for Tilden and 165 for Hayes • But 20 electoral college votes (19 of which were from the South) were in dispute and claimed by both candidates • If Hayes could get firm control of them, he would win, 185 to 184

16. Compromise of 1877 Special Commission on Elections 20 undecided electoral votes LA, FL, SC so close they send two sets of votes; Hayes wins one/Tilden the other Hayes chosen to win the election Conditions: Troops removed from south South handles their own affairs (race relations) Blacks are abandoned See source to learn more: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-civilwar/5470

17. END OF RECONSTRUCTION • Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction in the South once and for all • Remaining white Republicans and all blacks were now at the mercy of racist Democratic local and state governments • Also created so-called “Solid South” • Region overwhelmingly voted Democratic in every election until the late 1960s • Even after Democratic Party changed its attitude towards race

18. Jim Crow Laws • Created to replace Black Codes • Kept segregation legal • Will exist from 1866 to 1965 in most places in the southern U.S.

19. CONCLUSION • As a result of the Compromise of 1877, South was also given a free hand to deal with blacks and other local issues with little federal interference • Result of this would be lynching, “Jim Crow” laws, segregated public facilities and schools, poll taxes, and all the other racist laws that the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s/1960s finally eliminated • The failure of Reconstruction and the Compromise of 1877 established the characteristics that the South would retain for the next 100 years • And most of them were negative

20. Post Reconstruction Challenges • Jim Crow Laws: Social Discrimination • Sharecropping: Economic Limitation • Literacy Tests: Loss of political power • White Supremacy in South upheld by terrorism (lynching)

21. How did this affect reconstruction? Ends reconstruction South allowed free reign over blacks Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) established to rule southern society South had won the reconstruction battle