African Americans Work to Build New Lives Chapter 11: Rebuilding a Divided Nation (1865 – 1877) Section 3 Explain the success of reconstruction when dealing with the problems of freedmen African Americans Work to Build New Lives

Economic Problems Freedmen were slaves their entire lives No Education Parents and grandparents were slaves No Education Limited their job opportunities Only skills they had was farming Manual labor not actually running the farm No money No clothes They had nothing

Job Opportunities Most freedmen were forced to take farming jobs Sharecroppers – a landowner allows a sharecropper to use the land in return for a share of the crop produced on the land Tenant Farming – When a freedmen made enough money sharecropping he could eventually rent the land Freedmen were unable to make any significant profit Landowners were usually ex-plantation owners Freedmen still had very little economic freedom They were still subservient to whites

Sociological Problems Freedmen were slaves their entire lives They were not seen as equal Leads to many societal problems Southerners did not respect them and in a way were angry at them

Freedmen's Aid Freedmen’s Bureau Education Churches Part of the Reconstruction Act Provided clothes, shelter and food for freedmen Education School teachers from the north Began to educate the freedmen Churches Freedmen needed to find some emotional relief Lead to the growth of black Methodist and Baptist Churches Used spiritual song and gospel

Southerners Reaction Also passed Jim Crow Laws – created to separate African Americans from whites (segregation) In response to the 15th Amendment southern states passed voting laws Literacy Tests – Voter must be able to read the constitution before voting Poll Taxes – Pay to vote Grandfather Clause – Mandated that a person could only vote if his grandfather could

Racism Supremacy and racism began to take over in the south Ku Klux Klan Former confederate soldiers wanting revenge Resisted the plans of the reconstruction Afraid of the power the African Americans were getting

End of Reconstruction Reconstruction took place for over 12 years Northerners were tired of reconstruction After the Civil War the economy went down The north could no longer afford the costs of reconstruction After 8 years of scandalous activity Grant and the Republican power lost power

Election of 1876 Democrats had a good chance of winning the presidential election They nominated Sam Tilden Republicans nominated Rutherford. B. Hayes Tilden won both the popular vote and electoral votes However, to become president you must have a majority (he was 1 elector vote shy) The decision then went on to a committee of 15 8 Rep. & 7 Dem.

Compromise of 1877 The committee ended up cutting a deal Hayes would become president Military forced had to leave the south Thus the end of reconstruction