Download Reconstruction (1865

Ms. Maddox & Mr. Piernick
War debt and low demand for
cotton slows the South’s recovery.
• $100 million worth of Confederate property in Georgia
and S. Carolina was destroyed.
• Buildings, twisted railroad tracks, demolished bridges,
neglected roads, and abandoned farms had to be
restored or replaced.
• Property values had plummeted.
• Southern agriculture went down. Cotton was no longer
king.
African-Americans are terrorized by
racist violence
• Many whites, frustrated by their loss of political power and by
the South’s economic stagnation, took out their anger on
African Americans.
• Reconstruction brought violent opposition throughout the
South
• White citizens formed private groups, supposedly to keep
order in the South. The rise of the Ku Klux Klan a.k.a KKK
formed in Tennessee in 1866 and soon began terrorizing
African Americans and whites who were loyal to the Union.
Violence against blacks was rarely prosecuted.
Ku Klux Klan - secret group set up in the South
founded by veterans of the Confederate Army to
fight against Reconstruction. Members terrorized
primarily African-Americans. Their methods included
threats, house burnings, and killings(lynching) against
not only blacks but whites as well who were loyal to
the Union. The idea behind the terror was to keep
African Americans from voting and to better
themselves.
Mississippi 1870s:
Caption:
"Mississippi KuKlux in the
disguises in which
they were
captured."
“Boy, You ain’t a votin’ here”!
The “Invisible Empire of the South”
The Failure of Federal Enforcement
Enforcement Acts of 1870 & 1871 [also known as the KKK Act].
Three Enforcement Acts
were passed, setting heavy
penalties for anyone
attempting to prevent a
qualified person from
voting.
They banned the use of
disguises and gave the
army and federal courts
power to capture and
punish KKK members.
While the KKK was soon
brought under control,
other groups continued to
operate
Republican Party is weakened by internal conflict,
scandal, and financial panic

Though Grant was not corrupt, many people in his administration were.
*
Credit Mobilier Scandal- a
construction company had
skimmed off large profits from
a government railroad contract.
*
Whiskey Ring-Internal-revenue
collectors and other officials
accepted bribes from whiskey
distillers who wanted to avoid
paying taxes on their product.
*
The Indian Ring-Secretary of
War accepted bribes from
merchants who wanted to keep
profitable trading concessions
in Indian territory.
Democrats take control of all of the state
governments in the South once again

The 1876 elections brought an end to Republican influence in Southern states
government.

They restricted the rights of freed slaves. Southern laws set up a:
•
Poll tax- a voter had to pay a tax to vote
•
Literacy test- a voter had to be able to read & write
•
Grandfather clause- no man could vote if his grandfather had not been able to
vote before the civil war

They wiped out social programs and got rid of integrated public schools.

KKK violence without the protection of federal troops

Reconstruction had failed to gain equal rights for African Americans.
After Reconstruction
ended, African
Americans lost many of
their new rights.
“Jim Crow”
It led to segregation in
the form of “Jim Crow”
They could not work in
factories. They could
not eat or shop in the
same places as whites.
There were “white
only” & “black only”
places and even
drinking fountains.
The most
important civil
rights that they
lost was the right
to vote.
• “Jim Crow” was a minstrel character from the 1830’s.He
was portrayed as an elderly, crippled and clumsy African
American slave and his portrayal showed all the negative
stereotypes of African Americans.
“Jim Crow” America
In 1896; the US Supreme Court
upheld Jim Crow laws
Plessy vs. Ferguson:
•What? Homer Plessey tries to sit
in a whites-only train car and
refuses to move.
•He was arrested; tried; and
convicted for breaking
Louisiana’s segregation law
•Plessey claimed he had been
denied equal protection under
the law
•How did the Supreme Court
Rule? Segregation is ok as long
as the facilities are equal
Sample Question
• Several southern states adopted Jim
Crow laws in the late 1800s to
• A enforce legal segregation
• B deny women the right to vote
• C protect the freedom of speech
• D preserve the separation of church and
state
The End
Legacy of Reconstruction
(Reconstruction was not complete failure)
 The Thirteenth Amendment permanently abolished slavery in
all states.
 Radical Republicans did succeed in passing the Fourteenth
and Fifteenth Amendments, and although the Supreme Court
narrowed the interpretation of the amendments, they
remained part of the Constitution. In later years, these
amendments would be used to strength African American’s
rights.
 African Americans had founded many black colleges and
volunteer organizations
 The percentage of literate African Americans had gradually
increased.