HIST 1312 1st Edition Lecture 10 Outline of Last Lecture I The Meaning of Freedom a Families in Freedom b Church and School c Political Freedom d Land Labor and Freedom e Masters without Slavery f The Free Labor Vision g The Freedman s Bureau h The Failure of the Land Reform i The White Farmer II The Making of Radical Reconstruction a Andrew Johnson b The Failure of Presidential Reconstruction c The Black Codes d The Radical Republicans e The Origins of Civil Rights f The Fourteenth Amendment g The Reconstruction Act These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute h Impeachment and the Election of Grant i The Fifteenth Amendment j The Great Constitutional Revolution k The Rights of Women III Radical Reconstruction in the South a The Tocsin of Freedom b The Black Officeholder c Carpetbaggers and Scalawags Outline of Current Lecture IV The Overthrow of Reconstruction a Reconstruction s Opponents b A Reign of Terror c The Liberal Republicans d The North s Retreat e The Triumph of Redeemers f The Disputed Election and Bargain of 1877 g The End of Reconstruction Current Lecture The Overthrow of Reconstruction Reconstruction s Opponents o South s traditional leaders planters merchants and Democratic politicians bitterly opposed the new governments o Corruption did exist during Reconstruction but it was confined to no race region or party o The rapid growth of state budgets and the benefits to be gained from public aid led to some states to a scramble for influence that produced bribery insider dealing and a get rich quick atmosphere o The rising taxes needed to pay for schools and other new public facilities and to assist railroad development were another cause of opposition to Reconstruction o Many poor whites who initially supported the Republican Party turned against t when it became clear that their economic situation was not improving o The most basic reason for opposition to Reconstruction however was that most white southerners could not accept the idea of former slaves voting holding office and enjoying equality before the law o Opponents launched a campaign of violence in an effort to end Republican rule A Reign of Terror o Violence remained widespread in large parts of postwar South o Blacks were assaulted and murdered for refusing to give away to white on city sidewalks using insolent language challenging end of year contract settlements and attempting to buy land o After 1867 in wide areas of the South secret societies sprang up with the aim of preventing blacks from voting and destroying the organization of the Republican Party by assassinating local leaders and public officials o Ku Klux Klan KKK most notorious secret society Served as a military arm of the Democratic Party in the South Founded in 1866 in Tennessee It was a terrorist organization It committed some of the most brutal criminal acts in American history Klan s victims included white Republicans among them wartime Unionists and local officeholders teachers and party organizers But African Americans local political leaders those who managed to acquire land and others who in one way or another defied the norms of white supremacy bore the brunt of the violence The bloodiest act of violence during Reconstruction took place in Colfax Louisiana in 1873 where armed whites assaulted the town with a small cannon Hundreds of former slaves were murdered including fifty members of a black militia unit after they had surrendered o In 1870 and 1871 Congress adopted three Enforcement Acts outlawing terrorist societies and allowing the president to use the army against them These laws continued the expansion of the national authority during Reconstruction In 1871 President Grant dispatched federal marshals backed up by troops in some areas to arrest hundreds of accused Klansmen After a series of well publicized trials the Klan went out existence o In 1872 for the first time since the Civil War peace reigned in most of the former Confederacy The Liberal Republicans o North s commitment to Reconstruction waned during the 1870s o Northerners increasingly felt that the South should be able to solve its own problems without constant interference from Washington o The federal government had feed the slaves made them citizens and given them the right to vote now blacks should rely on their own resources not demand further assistance o In 1872 an influential group of Republicans alienated by corruption within the Grant administration and believing that the growth of the federal power during and after the war needed to be curtailed formed their own party The North s Retreat o Liberal attack on Reconstruction which continued after 1872 contributed to aa resurgence of racism in the North o In 1873 the country plunged into a severe economic depression o Distracted by economic problems Republicans were in no mood to devote further attention the South o The depression dealt the South a severe blow and further weakened the prospect that Republicans could revitalize the region s economy o For the first time since the Civil War the Democratic Party took control of the House of Representatives o Old Congress enacted a final piece of Reconstruction legislation the Civil Rights Act of 1875 outlawed racial discrimination in places of public accommodation like hotels and theaters o The Supreme Court whittled away at the guarantees of black rights Congress had adopted Slaughterhouse Cases 1873 justices ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment had not altered traditional federalism It declared that most rights of citizens remained under state control US vs Cruikshank 1876 the Court gutted the Enforcement Acts by throwing out the convictions of some of those responsible for the Colfax Massacre of 1873 The Triumph of the Redeemers o Democrats mid 1870s had already regained control of states with substantial white voting majorities o The victorious Democrats called themselves Redeemers since they claimed to have redeemed the white South from corruption misgovernment and northern and black control o In Mississippi 1875 armed Democrats destroyed ballot boxes and drove former slaves from the polls The result was a Democratic landslide and the end of Reconstruction in Mississippi Similar events took place in South Carolina in 1876 The Disputed Election and Bargain of 1877 o Events in South Carolina directly affected the outcome of the presidential campaign