Scalawags White southern Republicans, known to their enemies as “Scalawags”, made up the largest groups of representatives to the Radical Reconstruction era legislatures. Some scalawags were established plantation owners(mainly in the Deep South) who thought that whites should recognize African American’s civil and political rights. The majority of the scalawags were non-slaveholding small farmers as well as merchants, artisans, and others who remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War. Many lived in the Upper South and a number had served in the Union army. These men wanted to keep the hated Confederates from regaining power in the postwar south. They also wanted to develop the economy by not relying on farming. The Scalawags supported the Radical Reconstruction movement in the South. They believed they could profit more from supporting Reconstruction. These men were viewed as traitors to the south.

Carpetbaggers “Carpetbaggers” refers to someone who arrives in a new region with only a suitcase (or carpetbag) of possessions. Their goal was to profit from a bad situation. After 1865, a number of Northerners moved to the South to purchase cheap land in hopes of making money from cotton. At first Southerners welcomed Northern money, to get the Southern economy back on its feet. They later became hated, as many Southerners saw them as newcomers seeking to get rich on their misfortune. In reality, most Reconstruction-era carpetbaggers were well-educated members of the middle class. Some worked at the Freedmen’s Bureau helping aid African Americans who were newly freed. Many were former Union soldiers. Although some carpetbaggers were corrupt, many were reformers who were concerned for the Civil and political rights of the freed African Americans.

Freedmen’s Bureau When the Civil War ended in 1865, the newly reunited United States faced a huge problem. In the Southern states,, cities, plantations, and crops had been burned, railroads were destroyed, and southern whites and freed slaves were suffered from disease and hunger. A majority of the newly freed slaves were not educated and had no job opportunities. To help solve these problems the U.S. government created the Freedmen’s Bureau. The Freedmen’s Bureau was established by Congress in 1865 to aid and protect former slaves after the end of the war. In 1866, the U.S. military was sent to the south to maintain law and order and help the Freedmen’s Bureau. Freedmen’s Bureau focused on education of African Americans, helping African Americans with labor contracts, and providing food, shelter, and clothing for African Americans. It established African American schools in the South and distributed thousands of food rations to whites and freed slaves.

Reversing Reconstruction Despite the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment, African Americans were not treated equally. Many suffered from violence and discrimination. Whites formed secret societies to keep African Americans from politics. The most infamous of these groups was the Ku Klux Klan(KKK). They threatened black voters, and officeholders. African Americans were beaten and even murdered by the KKK. Many African Americans hoped for public education provided by Southern states. The Freedmen’s Bureau provided teachers for public schools from Northern states. However, Southern governments cut spending on education. With no money, many schools closed. By the 1880’s only about half of all African American children in the south attended school. The newly passed Constitutional amendments could not protect the rights of African Americans living in the South. Many southern states passed laws requiring citizens who wanted to pay a poll tax. The tax was too much to pay for many poor white and African American southerners. Some southern states also required citizens to pass a literacy test to show they could read to vote. These test were designed so that African Americans would fail. Many southern states passed new segregation laws called Jim Crow Laws or Black Codes These laws drew a “color line” between blacks and whites in public life. African Americans were limited in where they could go and even where they could live in many southern states.

Sharecropping Even though slavery was outlawed by the 13th amendment, a new form of slavery in South became known as sharecropping. Sharecropping was a way for very poor farmers to earn a living from land owned by someone else. The landowner provided land, housing, tools and see to the sharecropper. At harvest time the sharecropper received a share of the crop (from 1/3 to ½), which paid of his debt. Poor white farmers also became sharecroppers. During Reconstruction, sharecropping was one of few options for poor white and African American southerners. The sharecropper had to have a yearly contract with the landowner. The Freedmen’s Bureau tried to write and enforce these contracts between the landowner and freed slaves. Many sharecroppers became economically tied back to the large farmers. To work the land, sharecroppers had to buy seed and tools, sometimes from the plantation owner who often charged high prices. Contracts also typically gave less than half of the crop to the sharecropper. Contracts often had rules that African Americans had to follow like night time curfews and they could not own a weapon. Sharecropping became slavery by another name.