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

Lesson 3 The South During Reconstruction

African Americans in Government

• African American voters played an important role in Reconstruction
• Contributed to Republican victories in the South
• Some African Americans were able to win seats as elected officials
• In South Carolina, African Americans held a majority in the lower house of the legislature
• In other states, African Americans held important positions, but never in proportion to their numbers

At the National Level

• 16 African Americans served in the House of Representatives (1869-1880)
• 2 African Americans served in the Senate (1869-1880)
• One was Hiram Revels- an ordained minister
• Revels had recruited African Americans for the Union army
• He also started a school for freed African Americans in Missouri
• He also served as chaplain of an African American regiment in Mississippi
• Revels stayed in Mississippi and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1870

Blanche K. Bruce

• The other African American senator
• Also from Mississippi
• A former escaped slave
• Taught in a school for African Americans in Missouri
• In 1869 he went to Mississippi, entered politics, and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1874

Scalawags and Carpetbaggers

• Some Southern whites backed the Republicans
• Former Confederates called them scalawags (scoundrel or worthless rascal)
• Some Northern whites moved to the South after the war and supported the Republican party
• Critics called these Northerners carpetbaggers
• Some were dishonest, but many were reformers who wanted to help the South
• Many Southerners accused the Reconstruction governments of corruption

Section 3

1. A
2. B
3. C
4. D

Southern whites who supported Republicans were called

A. scalawags

B. sharecroppers

C. carpetbaggers

D. freedmen

Resistance to Reconstruction

• Most Southerners opposed efforts to expand African Americans’ rights
• Most white landowners refused to rent land to freed people
• Store owners refused them credit and employers would not hire them
• Secret societies, such as the Ku Klux Klan, used fear and violence to deny rights to freed men and women
• The KKK wore white sheets and hoods

The KKK

• Klan members killed 1000s of African Americans and their white friends
• Wounded many more
• Burned African American homes, schools, and churches
• Many southerners, especially planters and the Democrats, back the KKK
• They saw violence as a defense against Republican rule
• 1870 and 1871- Laws were passed to stop the violence of the Klan
• But most Southerners refused to testify against those who attacked African Americans and their white supporters

Education

• During Reconstruction, African Americans created their own schools
• The Freedmen’s Bureau also helped spread education
• 1870s- Reconstruction governments created public schools for both races
• Within a few years about 50% of white children and 40% of African American children in the South were enrolled
• Northern missionary societies set up academies
• These academies grew into African American colleges and universities
• Fisk University in Tennessee and Morehouse College in Georgia
• Only a few states required that schools be integrated, but the laws were not enforced

Farming

• Some African Americans purchased land with the help of the Freedmen’s Bank
• Most were unable to get land
• The most common form of farmwork for freed people was sharecropping
• A landowner rented a plot of land to a sharecropper
• And a crude shack, some seeds, and tools (also maybe a mule)
• In return, sharecroppers shared a percentage of their crops with the landowners
• After paying the landowner, sharecroppers often had little left to sell
• For many, sharecropping was little better than slavery

Section 3

1. A
2. B
3. C
4. D

What was the relationship between sharecroppers and landowners?

A. Landowners owned � sharecroppers.

B. Landowners sold small � parcels of land to sharecroppers.

C. Sharecroppers rented a parcel � of land from a landowner.

D. Sharecroppers worked the landowner’s land for a� small annual salary.

Chapter 18 Lesson 3 Quiz

African American voters were supporters of the Republican Party.

1. True
2. False

Hiram Revels was a plantation owner.

1. True
2. False

A carpetbagger was a poor person from the South who tried to make money in the North.

1. True
2. False

Many Democrats supported the actions of the Ku Klux Klan.

1. True
2. False

The Freedmen's Bank lent money to help African Americans buy land.

1. True
2. False

Southern whites who supported Republican policy throughout Reconstruction were called

1. carpetbaggers.
2. Republican hostages.
3. scalawags.
4. freedmen.

Northerners who moved to the South and supported the Republicans were called

1. carpetbaggers.
2. Republican hostages.
3. scalawags.
4. freedmen.

One way some Southerners made life difficult for freed African Americans was to

1. keep them from holding government positions.
2. keep them out of schools.
3. refuse to give them work.
4. supply them with diseased food.

What did Southerners who had the most to gain from the reestablishment of white supremacy see as a defense against Republican rule?

1. voting rights
2. violence
3. cooperation
4. Democratic Party

What did African Americans find to be little better than slavery?

1. integration
2. moving to the North
3. sharecropping
4. land ownership