Reconstruction and Its Effects 393
Terms & Names
Terms & Names
MAIN IDEA
MAIN IDEA
One American's Story
The Collapse of
Reconstruction
WHY IT MATTERS NOW
WHY IT MATTERS NOW
Ku Klux Klan
(KKK)
panic of 1873
redemption
Rutherford B.
Hayes
Samuel J. Tilden
Compromise of
1877
home rule
Southern opposition to Rad-
ical Reconstruction, along
with economic problems
in the North, ended Recon-
struction.
The failure of Congress and the
Supreme Court to protect the
rights of African Americans during
Reconstruction delayed blacks’
achievement of full civil rights by
over a century.
In 1868, white Georgia legislators, who were in the majority in both
houses, expelled 27 black members of the state senate and House of
Representatives. The new state constitution gave African Americans
the right to vote, they argued, but not to hold office. Outraged by
this expulsion, Henry M. Turner, an African-American legislator,
addressed the Georgia House of Representatives.
A PERSONAL VOICE HENRY M. TURNER
Whose Legislature is this? Is it a white man’s
Legislature or is it a black man’s . . . ? . . . It is said
that Congress never gave us the right to hold office. I
want to know . . . if the Reconstruction measures did
not base their action on the ground that no distinction
should be made on account of race, color or previous
condition! . . . We have built up your country. We have
worked in your fields, and garnered your harvests, for two hundred and fifty years!
Do we ask you for compensation? . . . We are willing to let the dead past bury its
dead; but we ask you, now, for our RIGHTS.
quoted in The Trouble They Seen: Black People Tell the Story of Reconstruction
The expelled legislators petitioned the U.S. Congress and were eventually
reinstated in office. But by the time Congress acted, more than a year later, the
terms of Turner and his colleagues were almost at an end.
Opposition to Reconstruction
White Southerners who took direct action against African-American participation
in government were in the minority. Most white Southerners swallowed
whatever resentment they felt over African Americans’ change in status. However,
some bitter Southern whites relied on violence to keep African Americans from
participating in politics.
Henry M. Turner
became a leading
proponent of
African-American
emigration to
Africa.
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Page 1 of 9
A
KU KLUX KLAN
Founded as a social club for Confederate
veterans, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) started in Tennessee
in 1866. As membership in the group spread rapidly
through the South, many of the new chapters turned into
violent terrorist organizations. By 1868, the Klan existed in
nearly every Southern state. Its overarching goal was to
restore white supremacy. Its method was to prevent African
Americans from exercising their political rights.
ANTI-BLACK VIOLENCE
Abram Colby, who organized a
branch of Georgia’s Equal Rights Association and later
served as a Republican member of the Georgia legislature,
testified before Congress about Klan atrocities.
A PERSONAL VOICE ABRAM COLBY
[The Klan] broke my door open, took me out of bed, took
me to the woods and whipped me three hours or more and
left me for dead. They said to me, ‘Do you think you will
ever vote another damned radical ticket?’ . . . I supposed
they would kill me anyhow. I said, ‘If there was an election
tomorrow, I would vote the radical ticket.’ They set in and
whipped me a thousand licks more, with sticks and straps
that had buckles on the ends of them.
quoted in Testimony Taken by the Joint Select Committee to Inquire
into the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionar y States
Between 1868 and 1871, the Klan and other secret
groups killed thousands of men, women, and children, and
burned schools, churches, and property. While the vast
majority of victims were African-American, whites who
tried to help African Americans—whether by educating
them, renting land to them, or buying their crops—were
also in danger.
Another Klan objective was to turn the Republicans, who had established the
Reconstruction governments, out of power. The North Carolina state senator
John Stephens, a white Republican, answered warnings that his life was in danger
by saying that some 3,000 African-American voters had supported him “at the
risk of persecution and starvation” and that he would not abandon them.
Stephens was assassinated in 1870.
While Klan members tried to conceal their identities when they struck,
Southern Democrats openly used violence to intimidate Republicans before the
1875 state election in Mississippi. Democrats rioted and attacked Republican lead-
ers and prominent African Americans. Their terrorist campaign frightened the
African-American majority away from the polls, and white Democratic candidates
swept the election. The Democrats used similar tactics to win the 1876 elections
in Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana.
ECONOMIC PRESSURE
The Klan and other secret groups tried to prevent
African Americans from making economic, as well as political, progress. African
Americans who owned their own land or who worked in occupations other than
agriculture were subject to attacks and destruction of property.
In fact, economic necessity forced most former slaves—who had little money
or training in other occupations—to work for whites as wage laborers or share-
croppers. Some white Southerners refused to hire or do business with African
Americans who were revealed by election officials to have voted Republican. The
fear of economic reprisals kept many former slaves from voting at all.
394 C
HAPTER 12
Klan members—
like this
Mississippian
photographed in
1871—wore
costumes to
conceal their
identities and to
appear more
menacing.
MAIN IDEA
MAIN IDEA
A
Analyzing
Motives
What were the
goals of the KKK?
A. Answer
To destroy the
Republican
party, oust the
Reconstruction
governments,
help planters
control African-
American labor-
ers, and prevent
African
Americans from
exercising their
political rights.
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Page 2 of 9
Reconstruction and Its Effects 395
B
Vocabulary
amnesty: a pardon
granted by a
government,
especially for
political offenses
LEGISLATIVE RESPONSE
To curtail Klan violence and Democratic intimi-
dation, Congress passed a series of Enforcement Acts in 1870 and 1871. One act
provided for the federal supervision of elections in Southern states. Another act
gave the president the power to use federal troops in areas where the Klan was
active. However, President Grant was not aggressive in his use of the power given
to him by the Enforcement Acts, and in 1882, the Supreme Court ruled that the
1871 Enforcement Act was unconstitutional.
Although federal enforcement of anti-Klan legislation was limited, it did con-
tribute to a decrease in the Klan’s activities in the late 1870s. However, the reason
for the reduction in Klan violence was the Klan’s own success—by 1880, terrorist
groups had managed to restore white supremacy throughout the South. The Klan
no longer needed such organized activity to limit the political and civil rights of
most African Americans.
SHIFTS IN POLITICAL POWER
By passing the Enforcement Acts, Congress
seemed to shore up Republican power. But shortly after these acts went into effect,
Congress passed legislation that severely weakened the Republican Party in the South.
With the Amnesty Act, passed in May 1872, Congress returned the right to
vote and the right to hold federal and state offices—revoked by the Fourteenth
Amendment—to about 150,000 former Confederates, who would almost certain-
ly vote Democratic. In the same year Congress allowed the Freedmen’s Bureau to
expire, believing that it had fulfilled its purpose. As a result
of these actions, Southern Democrats had an opportunity
to shift the balance of political power in their favor.
Scandals and Money Crises Hurt
Republicans
As Southern Republicans struggled to maintain their hold
on Reconstruction governments, widespread political cor-
ruption in the federal government weakened their party.
During the early 1870s, scandals plagued the Grant admin-
istration. These scandals diverted public attention away
from conditions in the South.
FRAUD AND BRIBERY
President Grant was considered
an honest man. However, he had had no political experi-
ence before becoming president and found it difficult to
believe that others might use him for their own political
advantage. When making political appointments, he often
selected friends and acquaintances rather than people of
proven ability. Too frequently, Grant’s appointees turned
out to be dishonest.
Beginning in 1872, a series of long-simmering scandals
associated with Grant’s administration boiled over. First,
the New York Sun exposed the Crédit Mobilier affair, in
which a construction company had skimmed off large
profits from a government railroad contract. This scandal
involved several leading Republicans, including Grant’s
first vice-president, Schuyler Colfax.
REPUBLICAN UNITY SHATTERED
A group of Repub-
licans, angered by the corruption, called for honest, effi-
cient government. They formed the Liberal Republican
Party in 1872, hoping to oust Grant in that year’s presi-
dential election.
MAIN IDEA
MAIN IDEA
B
Identifying
Problems
Why was the
government weak
in its ability to
confront the Klan?
THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Although the United States
focused largely on domestic prob-
lems during Reconstruction, the
nation did have one significant
dealing with a foreign power. In
1870, President Grant attempted
to annex the Dominican Republic,
one of two nations sharing the
Caribbean island of Hispaniola
(the other being Haiti).
This action aroused a storm of
controversy. The plan’s support-
ers believed that annexation
would increase Caribbean trade
and spread “the blessings of our
free institutions.” Opponents
pointed out that the Dominican
Republic was caught up in a civil
war and felt that the United
States should avoid involvement
in the conflict. The Senate reject-
ed the annexation treaty.
W
O
R
L
D
S
T
A
G
E
W
O
R
L
D
S
T
A
G
E
DOMINICAN
REPUBLIC
HAITI
B. Answer
Grant chose not
to exercise the
power given to
him by the
Enforcement
Acts, and the
Supreme Court
later struck down
one of the acts.
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Page 3 of 9
C
As the 1872 presidential election approached, the Liberal Republicans held a
separate convention. They chose Horace Greeley, the editor of the New York
Tribune and a vocal pre-Civil War abolitionist, as their candidate. He had sup-
ported some Radical Republican causes—abolition and the Fourteenth and
Fifteenth Amendments. However, he had broken with Radicals by calling for uni-
versal amnesty for Confederates and for an end to military rule in the South.
Claiming that Reconstruction governments had achieved their purpose, he want-
ed former slaves to fend for themselves.
Believing that it would take a united effort to oust Grant, the Democrats also
nominated Greeley. Nevertheless, Greeley lost the 1872 presidential election to
Grant by a wide margin. “I was the worst beaten man that ever ran for that high
office,” Greeley said, “and I have been assailed so bitterly that I hardly know
whether I was running for President or the penitentiary.” Physically exhausted by
his rigorous campaign, Greeley died a few weeks after the election—before the
electoral college made his defeat official.
Although the Liberal Republicans did not win the White House, they did
weaken the Radicals’ hold over the Republican Party. The breakdown of
Republican unity made it even harder for the Radicals to continue to impose their
Reconstruction plan on the South.
CONTINUED SCANDAL
Despite the rift in the Republican party that resulted
from the scandals, corruption in Grant’s administration continued. In 1875, the
so-called Whiskey Ring was exposed. Internal-revenue collectors and other offi-
cials accepted bribes from whiskey distillers who wanted to avoid paying taxes on
their product—a conspiracy that defrauded the federal government of millions of
dollars. One of the 238 persons indicted in this scandal was Grant’s private secre-
tary, General Orville E. Babcock. Grant refused to believe that such a close associ-
ate was guilty and helped him escape conviction.
Finally, in 1876, an investigation revealed that Secretary of War William W.
Belknap had accepted bribes from merchants who wanted to keep their profitable
trading concessions in Indian territory. The House of Representatives impeached
Belknap, who promptly resigned. The public also learned that the secretary of the
navy had taken bribes from shipbuilders and the secretary of the interior had had
shady dealings with land speculators. As the evidence mounted, there was
increasing disgust with the blatant corruption in the Grant administration, and
Grant did not seek reelection in 1876.
396 C
HAPTER 12
MAIN IDEA
MAIN IDEA
C
Summarizing
Give examples
of corruption in
the Grant
administration.
Analyzing
Analyzing
SCANDAL IN THE GRANT ADMINISTRATION
Political cartoonists had a field day with Grant’s troubles and often criticized
the president’s refusal to believe that his associates were dishonest. In this
cartoon, President Grant pulls packets labeled with the names of various
scandals out of a barrel. The caption—“I hope I get to the bottom soon”—
suggests that the corruption in Grant’s administration runs deep and that
there may be more scandals to come.
SKILLBUILDER
Analyzing Political Cartoons
1.
What political scandals can you identify from the packets lying outside
the barrel?
2.
Why do you think the cartoonist portrayed Grant as having his head
stuck in a barrel?
SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R24.
U. S. Grant: “ I hope I get to the bottom soon.”
C. Answer Crédit
Mobilier, the
Whiskey Ring,
acceptance of
bribes by
Secretary of War
Belknap and the
secretary of the
navy, dishonest
dealings by the
secretary of the
interior.
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Page 4 of 9
D
Economic Turmoil
As if political scandals were not enough for the country to deal with, a wave of
economic troubles hit the nation in 1873.
THE PANIC OF 1873
The economy had been expanding since the end of the
Civil War, and investors became convinced that business profits would continue
to increase indefinitely. Eager to take advantage of new business opportunities in
the South, Northern and Southern investors borrowed increasing amounts of
money and built new facilities as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, many of those who invested in these new businesses took on
more debt than they could afford. A Philadelphia banker named Jay Cooke invest-
ed heavily in railroads. Not enough investors bought shares in Cooke’s railroad
lines to cover his ballooning construction costs, and he could not pay his debts.
In September 1873, Cooke’s banking firm, the nation’s largest dealer in govern-
ment securities, went bankrupt, setting off a
series of financial failures known as the
panic of 1873. Smaller banks closed, and
the stock market temporarily collapsed.
Within a year, 89 railroads went broke. By
1875, more than 18,000 companies had fold-
ed. The panic triggered a five-year economic
depression—a period of reduced business
activity and high unemployment—in which
3 million workers lost their jobs.
CURRENCY DISPUTE
The economic
depression following the panic of 1873 also
fueled a dispute over currency. This dispute
had its roots in the Civil War. During the
war, the federal government had begun to
issue greenbacks, paper money that was not
backed by equal value in gold. When the war
ended, many financial experts advocated
withdrawing the greenbacks and returning
the nation completely to a currency backed
by gold. This action would have reduced the
number of dollars in circulation.
In contrast, Southern and Western farmers and manufacturers wanted the
government to issue even more greenbacks. They believed that “easy money”—a
large money supply—would help them pay off their debts.
In 1875, Congress passed the Specie Resumption Act, which promised to put
the country back on the gold standard. This act sparked further debate over mon-
etary policies. As the economy improved, beginning in 1878, the controversy
died down. However, the passionate debate over the money question in the 1870s
was one of many factors that drew the attention of voters and politicians away
from Reconstruction.
Judicial and Popular Support Fades
In 1874, a Southern Democratic senator wrote, “Radicalism is dissolving—going
to pieces.” Indeed, political scandals, economic problems, and the restoration of
political rights to former Confederate Democrats seriously weakened the Radical
Republicans. In addition, the Supreme Court began to undo some of the social
and political changes that the Radicals had made.
Reconstruction and Its Effects 397
This 1873
cartoon portrays
the panic as a
health officer,
sweeping garbage
out of Wall Street.
The trash is
labeled “rotten
railways,” and
“shaky banks,”
among other
things.
Background
See gold standard
on page R41 in
the Economics
Handbook.
MAIN IDEA
MAIN IDEA
D
Predicting
Effects
What effect
do you think the
panic of 1873
might have had on
the Republican
Party?
D. Answer
People may
have blamed the
Republicans for
the panic and
lost faith in their
ability to govern.
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Page 5 of 9
SUPREME COURT DECISIONS
Although Congress had passed important laws
to protect the political and civil rights of African Americans, the Supreme Court
began to take away those same protections. During the 1870s, the Court issued a
series of decisions that undermined both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Amendments.
In the Slaughterhouse cases of 1873, for example, the Court decided that the
Fourteenth Amendment protected only the rights people had by virtue of their
citizenship in the United States, such as the right of interstate travel and the right
to federal protection when traveling on the high seas and abroad. The Court con-
tended that most of Americans’ basic civil rights were obtained through their
citizenship in a state and that the amendment did not protect those rights.
Another setback for Reconstruction was U.S. v. Cruikshank in 1876, in which
the Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment did not give the federal govern-
ment the right to punish individual whites who oppressed blacks. The same year,
in U.S. v. Reese, the Court ruled in favor of officials who had barred African
Americans from voting, stating that the Fifteenth Amendment did not “confer
the right of suffrage on anyone” but merely listed grounds on which states could
not deny suffrage. By the late 1870s, the Supreme Court’s restrictive rulings had
narrowed the scope of these amendments so much that the federal government
no longer had much power to protect the rights of African Americans. Although
the Supreme Court would later overturn them, these decisions impeded African
Americans’ efforts to gain equality for years to come.
NORTHERN SUPPORT FADES
As the Supreme Court rejected Reconstruction
policies in the 1870s, Northern voters grew indifferent to events in the South.
Weary of the “Negro question” and sick of “carpetbag government,” many
Northern voters shifted their attention to such national concerns as the panic of
1873 and the corruption in Grant’s administration. In addition, a desire for
reconciliation between the regions spread through the North. Although political
violence continued in the South and African Americans were denied civil and
political rights, the tide of public opinion in the North began to turn against
Reconstruction policies.
As both judicial and public support decreased, Republicans began to back
away from their commitment to Reconstruction. The impassioned Radicals who
had led the fight for congressional Reconstruction, Charles Sumner and Thaddeus
Stevens, were dead. Business interests diverted the attention of both moderates
and Radicals, and scalawags and carpetbaggers deserted the Republican Party.
Moreover, Republicans gradually came to believe that government could not
impose the moral and social changes needed for former slaves to make progress
in the South. As a result, Republicans slowly retreated from the policies of
Reconstruction.
398 C
HAPTER 12
F
E
MAIN IDEA
MAIN IDEA
E
Analyzing
Effects
How did the
Slaughterhouse
and Reese
decisions affect
African Americans’
pursuit of civil
rights?
MAIN IDEA
MAIN IDEA
F
Analyzing
Issues
Why did
Northern attitudes
toward
Reconstruction
change?
E. Answer
The decisions
hurt African
Americans’
pursuit of civil
rights by limiting
the federal gov-
ernment’s ability
to protect those
rights.
F. Answer
Political scandal,
the panic of 1873,
a desire for
reconciliation,
and Republicans’
faltering commit-
ment to Recon-
struction drew
the North’s atten-
tion away from
the problems of
Reconstruction.
Date Decision(s) Ruling
1873 Slaughterhouse cases Most civil rights were ruled to be state, rather than
federal, rights and therefore unprotected by the
Fourteenth Amendment.
1876 U.S. v. Cruikshank The Fourteenth Amendment was ruled not to grant
the federal government power to punish whites who
oppressed blacks.
1876 U.S. v. Reese The Fifteenth Amendment was determined not to
grant voting rights to anyone, but rather to restrict
types of voter discrimination.
Civil Rights Setbacks in the Supreme Court
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Reconstruction and Its Effects 399
Democrats “Redeem” the South
Between 1869 and 1875, Democrats recaptured the state governments of
Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and
Virginia. As a result of redemption—as the Democrats called their return to
power in the South—and the national election of 1876, congressional
Reconstruction came to an end.
ELECTION OF 1876
In 1876, the Republicans decided
not to run the scandal-plagued Grant for a third term.
Instead, they chose the stodgy governor of Ohio,
Rutherford B. Hayes. Smelling victory, the Democrats
put up one of their ablest leaders, Governor Samuel J.
Tilden of New York. Tilden had helped clean up the graft
that had flourished in New York City under the corrupt
Tweed Ring.
As most people had expected, Tilden won the popular
vote. However, he fell one short of the number of electoral
votes needed to win, and 20 electoral votes were disputed.
Congress appointed a commission to deal with the prob-
lem. The commission, which had a Republican majority,
gave the election to the Republican, Hayes, even though he
had received a minority of the popular vote.
For the first time in U.S. history, a candidate who had
lost the popular election became president. How did it hap-
pen? In the oldest tradition of politics, party leaders made a
deal. Although Republicans controlled the electoral com-
mission, Democrats controlled the House of Representatives,
which had to approve the election results. Southern
Democrats were willing to accept Hayes if they could get
something in return.
The price they demanded was, first of all, the with-
drawal of federal troops from Louisiana and South
Carolina—two of the three Southern states that
Republicans still governed. Second, the Democrats wanted
federal money to build a railroad from Texas to the West
Coast and to improve Southern rivers, harbors, and bridges.
Third, they wanted Hayes to appoint a conservative Southerner
to the cabinet. In the Compromise of 1877, Republican lead-
ers agreed to these demands, and Hayes was peacefully inaugu-
rated. The acceptance of this compromise meant the end of
Reconstruction in the South.
HOME RULE IN THE SOUTH
After the 1876 election,
Republicans and Democrats disputed the results in Louisiana’s and
South Carolina’s elections, and both states ended up with two rival state govern-
ments! When Hayes later removed the federal troops in those states, the
Democrats took over. Florida also had questionable election returns, but the state
supreme court ruled in favor of the Democrats. As a result, Republicans no longer
controlled the government of any Southern state.
The Democrats had achieved their long-desired goal of home rule—the
ability to run state governments without federal intervention. These so-called
Redeemers set out to rescue the South from what they viewed as a decade of mis-
management by Northerners, Republicans, and African Americans. They passed
laws that restricted the rights of African Americans, wiped out social programs,
slashed taxes, and dismantled public schools.
S
P
O
T
L
I
G
H
T
S
P
O
T
L
I
G
H
T
HISTORICAL
HISTORICAL
THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE
AND THE 1876 ELECTION
The nation was in such turmoil
over the disputed 1876 election
that people talked of another civil
war. Of the 20 contested electoral
votes, 19 came from Florida,
South Carolina, and Louisiana.
Republican officials in those
states threw out election returns
from counties where violence kept
Republican voters from the polls.
The Democrats refused to accept
the altered returns, and each
party sent its own set of results
to Washington, D.C.
Fortunately for the country, the
warlike slogans proved to be just
political rhetoric. After a joint ses-
sion of Congress met to witness
the counting of electoral votes,
which did not settle the dispute,
the parties struck a deal—the
Compromise of 1877.
An advertisement
expresses
ambivalence
about the two
candidates in the
1876 election.
G
G. Answer The
compromise
included the
withdrawal of
federal troops
from the South.
Without enforce-
ment, Recon-
struction mea-
sures eroded,
and Democrats
took over in
Southern
governments.
MAIN IDEA
MAIN IDEA
G
Analyzing
Causes
How did the
Compromise of
1877 bring about
the end of
Reconstruction?
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Page 7 of 9
“Reconstruction was a success.”
Reconstruction was an attempt to create a social and
political revolution despite economic collapse and the
opposition of much of the white South. Under these
conditions its accomplishments were extraordinary.
• African Americans only a few years removed from
slavery participated at all levels of government.
State governments had some success in solving
social problems; for example, they funded public
school systems open to all citizens.
• African Americans established institutions that
had been denied them during slavery: schools,
churches, and families.
• The breakup of the plantation system led to
some redistribution of land.
• Congress passed the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Amendments, which helped African Americans to
attain full civil rights in the 20th century.
W. E. B. Du Bois summa-
rized the achievements of
the period this way: “[I]t was
Negro loyalty and the Negro
vote alone that restored the
South to the Union; estab-
lished the new democracy,
both for white and black.”
Despite the loss of
ground that followed Recon-
struction, African Americans
succeeded in carving out a
measure of independence
within Southern society.
“Reconstruction was a failure.”
Federal and state governments failed to secure the
rights guaranteed to former slaves by constitutional
amendments.
• State Republican parties could not preserve
black-white voter coalitions that would have
enabled them to stay in power and continue
political reform.
• Radical Republican governments were unable or
unwilling to enact land reform or to provide for-
mer slaves with the economic resources needed
to break the cycle of poverty.
• Racial bias was a national, not a regional, prob-
lem. After the Panic of 1873, Northerners were
more concerned with economic problems than
with the problems of former slaves.
• The Supreme Court undermined the power of the
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.
At the end of Recon-
struction, former slaves
found themselves once
again in a subordinate
position in society. The
historian Eric Foner con-
cludes, “Whether mea-
sured by the dreams
inspired by emancipation
or the more limited goals
of securing blacks’ rights
as citizens. . . . Recon-
struction can only be
judged a failure.”
COUNTERPOINT
COUNTERPOINT
POINT
POINT
400 C
HAPTER 12
LEGACY OF RECONSTRUCTION
Despite the efforts of African Americans and
many Radical Republicans, Reconstruction ended without much real progress in
the battle against discrimination. Charles Harris, an African-American Union Army
veteran and former Alabama legislator, expressed his frustration in an 1877 letter.
A PERSONAL VOICE CHARLES HARRIS
We obey laws; others make them. We support state educational institutions, whose
doors are virtually closed against us. We support asylums and hospitals, and our
sick, deaf, dumb, or blind are met at the doors by . . . unjust discriminations. . . .
From these and many other oppressions . . . our people long to be free.
quoted in American Colonization Society Papers in the Congressional Record
Although Radical Republicans wanted to help the former slaves, they made
several serious mistakes. First, they assumed that extending certain civil rights to
freed persons would enable them to protect themselves through participation in
government, especially in lawmaking. However, Congress did not adequately pro-
tect those rights, and the Supreme Court undermined them. Second, the Radicals
balked at distributing land to former slaves, which prevented them from becoming
THINKING CRITICALLY
THINKING CRITICALLY
1. CONNECT TO HISTORY Evaluating What are the two
major arguments each side makes as to whether
Reconstruction was a success or failure? Which per-
spective do you agree with, and why?
SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R16.
2. CONNECT TO TODAY Analyzing Issues One historian
has referred to Reconstruction as “America’s Unfinished
Revolution.” Is the U.S. still dealing with issues left over
from that period? Research Reconstruction’s legacy
using newspapers, magazines, or other sources. Make a
short persuasive presentation in class.
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Page 8 of 9
Reconstruction and Its Effects 401
Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
panic of 1873
redemption
Rutherford B. Hayes
Samuel J. Tilden
Compromise of 1877
home rule
1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.
MAIN IDEA
2. TAKING NOTES
Re-create the time line below. Fill in
the major events that ended
Reconstruction.
Which event do you think was most
significant and why?
CRITICAL THINKING
3. ANALYZING EFFECTS
What were the positive and negative
effects of Reconstruction?
4. EVALUATING LEADERSHIP
During Reconstruction, was the
presidency weak or strong?
Support your answer with details
from the text.
5. EVALUATING DECISIONS
Do you think the political deal to
settle the election of 1876 was an
appropriate solution? Explain why or
why not. Think About:
the causes of the conflict over
the election
other possible solutions to the
controversy
the impact of the settlement
Medical students
at Howard
University, an
African-American
institution
founded in 1867
event one
event two event four
event three
economically independent of the landowning planter class. Finally, the Radicals
did not fully realize the extent to which deep-seated racism in society would
weaken the changes that Congress had tried to make.
But congressional Reconstruction was not a complete failure. The Thirteenth
Amendment permanently abolished slavery in all of the states. Furthermore,
Radical Republicans did succeed in passing the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Amendments, and although the Supreme Court narrowed the interpretation of
the amendments during the 1870s, they remained part of the Constitution. In the
20th century, the amendments provided the necessary constitutional foundation
for important civil rights legislation.
During Reconstruction, African Americans had founded many black colleges
and volunteer organizations, and the percentage of literate African Americans had
gradually increased. The memory of this time of expanding opportunities lived on
in the African-American community and inspired the fight to regain civil rights.
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