Radical

Reconstruction

Lesson 8: 1867-1877

African Americans built their own schools during Reconstruction.

Academies, schools with special training, were set up and grew into African

American colleges in the South.

African Americans and whites went to different schools, very few were

integrated.

African Americans wanted land to farm, but couldn’t afford it.

Most became sharecroppers, who rented land and paid their rent with a

percentage of their crops each year.

Most sharecroppers had little left over to pay their debts or feed their families.

Three major groups of people helped to build up the Republican governments in the South:

1. Scalawags were the whites in the South who had opposed the South seceding from

the U.S. in the first place.

2. Freedmen (freed slaves) supported the Republicans who helped them win their

freedom.

3. Carpetbaggers were northern whites who moved south to start businesses or run for

political offices.

They were called this because of their cheap suitcases that they put their belongings in

because they rushed to the South.

Because African Americans were allowed to vote, more and more Republicans were elected in the South.

These Republicans helped to write new constitutions for the southern states and Congress welcomed new southern Republicans to join them.

African Americans began to win elections at the local and state level.

Hiram Revels and Blanche Bruce were elected to the U.S. Senate.

Southern Whites who had supported the Confederacy and who wanted to maintain slavery were slowly being denied political power.

To make sure they were able to show their unhappiness, these southerners formed secret societies in the South.

The most popular was the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) started by Nathan Bedford Forrest, an ex-Confederate general.

The KKK would try to terrorize African Americans to keep them from voting.

They burnt crosses, whipped, tortured, and killed African Americans.

Congress passed the Ku Klux Klan Acts to make sure violence couldn’t be used against voters.

While the KKK was forced to dissolve, fewer African Americans voted as a result.

Many people in both the North and South wanted the federal

troops and military districts to end in the South.

Democrats began to run for election and started to win in the

South, taking back the state governments from the

Republicans. They were called “Redeemers”

African American rights were threatened with each Democrat

elected.

Societies like the KKK helped to make sure African Americans

didn’t feel safe voting.

After the Black Codes and violence continued in the South through 1866, the Radical

Republicans convinced Congress to be strict on the South.

By 1867, Reconstruction had been taken over by Congress and was called “Radical

Reconstruction.”

The Reconstruction Act of 1867 dissolved any southern state government who would not

approve of the 14th Amendment.

These states were divided into 5 military districts, each governed by a Union general.

Each of these states would have to write another new constitution that ratified

(approved) of the 14th Amendment and give African Americans the right to vote.

The Radical Republicans realized that President Johnson was not going to help

them be tough on the South.

The Radicals wanted to impeach, or remove from office, the President.

The President can be removed from office for treason, bribery, or other “high crimes or

misdemeanors.”

Johnson had ignored the Tenure of Office Act, which was set up to protect the

appointments of Abraham Lincoln from being fired.

Johnson fired Secretary of War Edwin Stanton without the permission of Senate,

which allowed Congress to try and impeach him for breaking the law.

Republican candidate General Ulysses S. Grant was elected

President of the United States in 1868.

Grant won support in the North and the South where the military made sure that

African Americans could vote safely.

Most African Americans voted Republican.

Grant continued Reconstruction, taking control

back from the Radical Republicans.

As the Civil War crept further into the past, people wanted to focus on their

own lives and cared less about Reconstruction.

President Grant’s administration was corrupt, and many of the men he put in

office were not trustworthy.

The Republicans became less popular as a result.

The 15th Amendment to the Constitution made sure that the right to vote could not be denied for reasons like “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

This made sure African Americans men would be able to vote.

This did not guarantee the right to vote for any women, black or white.

The South responded by adding property restrictions to voting, ensuring newly freed African Americans would still have a hard time voting.

There were several reasons why Reconstruction ended:

1. The Republican Party became less popular.

2. The Democrats began to “redeem” the South.

3. Rutherford B. Hayes was elected President in 1876.

The South began to grow again during Reconstruction.

Cotton and tobacco production began to soar again.

The textile (cloth) industry grew quickly using southern cotton to

create new products.

Mills and factories sprung up to produce new materials the South

didn’t have in the past.

This “New South” was not just a cotton producer, but an

industrial center.