Chapter 18 Reconstruction and the New South�(1865-1896)

Lesson 4 The Post-Reconstruction Era

Grant’s Administration

• During Grant’ administration, Northerners began losing interest in Reconstruction
• Radical leaders began to disappear from politics
• Southerners felt they knew how to deal with African Americans
• “Bayonet rule”: the use of federal troops to support Reconstruction governments
• protests

Republican Revolt

• Rumors of corruption in Grant’s administration and in Reconstruction governments spread
• Repubs broke away over Reconstruction
• Called themselves the Liberal Republicans
• Nominated Horace Greeley to run against Grant
• Grant was reelected

Amnesty Act

• Pardoned most former Confederates
• Full rights were granted including voting
• Most were in the Democratic party
• Democrats soon gained control of state governments in the South
• The KKK helped the Democrats take power by terrorizing Republican voters

Republican Problems

• A series of political scandals came to light: including VP
• These scandals damaged the Grant administration and the Republicans
• Grant and the nation also endured a severe economic depression
• Panic of 1873

Panic of 1873

• Forced small banks to close and the stock market to plummet
• 1000s of businesses shut down
• Tens of 1000s of Americans were out of work
• Blame fell on Republicans
• Democrats start gaining popularity
• What sort of things do democrats want?

Election of 1876

• The Republicans wanted someone besides Grant
• The Republicans nominated Rutherford B. Hayes
• Hayes was honest and had moderate views of Reconstruction
• Democrats nominated Samuel Tilden
• Tilden gained fame by fighting corruption in New York City

Election of 1876 Continued

• Tilden looked like the winner
• Tilden had 184 electoral votes.
• 1 short of winning
• Disputed votes
• Hayes needed all 20 of the disputed votes to win
• A commission was set up to decide and they voted 8 to 7 to award all 20 votes to Hayes

Compromise of 1877

• Democrats in Congress threatened to fight the decision
• Hayes was declared the winner
• The Compromise of 1877- The new government would give more aid to the South
• Republicans would withdraw all remaining troops from Southern states
• The Democrats promised to maintain African American rights

A New Policy

​

• Hayes decided to let the Southerners handle racial issues
• The federal government would no longer attempt to reshape Southern society
• Reconstruction was over

Democrats in Control

• Large landowning Democrats took power
• They called themselves “Redeemers”
• They redeemed the South from Republican rule
• They adopted conservative policies (lower taxes and reduced government spending)
• They cut services from Reconstruction (Including public education)

Rise of the New South

​

• This “New South” would have industries based on the region’s abundant resources
• Textile and iron mills sprang up across the South
• Factory workers put in long hours for low wages
• Agriculture remained the South’s main economic activity

Rural Economy

• New South wanted to have the small farms raise a variety of crops rather than cotton
• But most went to unprofitable sharecropping
• Debt caused problems for poor farmers
• Overproduce cotton
• worth less

A Divided Society

• Dreams of justice faded for African Americans when Reconstruction faded
• The 15^th Amendment prohibited states from denying the right to vote because of race
• Southerners required a poll tax (many African Americans and poor whites couldn’t vote)

A Divided Society

• Another approach was to make prospective voters take a literacy test (Had to read difficult parts of the Constitution)
• Literacy tests also kept some whites from voting so some states passed grandfather clauses
• If your father or grandfather voted it gave you the right to vote

​

Jim Crow Laws

• Segregation was a common feature of the South
• The South passed Jim Crow laws that required African Americans and whites to be separated in almost every public place
• 1896- Plessy v. Ferguson- Segregation was legal as long as it was equal
• White violence rose including lynching

Reconstruction’s Impact

​

• It helped the South rebuild its economy
• But most of the South remained poor
• African Americans gained greater equality, created their own institutions, and shared in governments with whites
• Their advancements did not last