Change in the South Section Four

A) Reconstruction Ends

President Grant During Pres. Grant’s term, many in the North were tired of Reconstruction and wanted to leave the South to itself. U.S. troops had been occupying the area since the war.

Southern Democrats Take Power In the South, the power of the Southern Democrats was getting stronger. They were made up of former Confederates, plantation owners, etc. who wanted to return the South to its original state minus slavery. As well, many of the leading Radical Republicans had died off or retired from public office.

Amnesty Act of 1872 In the 1870s, Republicans were divided over the issue of reconciliation with the South (making peace) and Congress passed the Amnesty Act in 1872, which gave former Confederates the power to vote again.

Ku Klux Klan As a result, Southern governments began to be retaken by the Southern Democrats with the help of the Ku Klux Klan, who kept African Americans from voting.

Political Corruption In 1874, President Grant and the Republicans were busy with charges of political corruption so the Democratic Party regained the U.S. Congress. This was the first time in ten years.

Election of 1876 Samuel Tilden Rutherford B. Hayes In the Election of 1876, the Republicans nominated Rutherford B. Hayes and the Democrats nominated Samuel Tilden. Even though Tilden had the most votes, Hayes was declared the winner from a Republican controlled Congressional commission that reviewed the election.

Election of 1876 Samuel Tilden should have won the election.

Disputed Election To keep the Democrats from protesting, the Republicans secretly offered to remove all U.S. troops from the South and Democrats promised to maintain African American rights.

Disputed Election

Compromise of 1877 This agreement between the Republicans and the Democrats was known as the Compromise of 1877.

Pres. Rutherford B. Hayes Rutherford B. Hayes became the next President of the United States of America.

Union Troops Leave the South

Southern Democrats Take Power In the South, the power shifted to the Southern Democrats and the new “Redeemers” – they had saved the South from Northern rule. Improvements made in the South for African Americans disappeared as funding and support was drastically cut.

Rise of Southern Industry Industry became the main focus of the new leaders in the South who realized the South lost the war due to a lack of manufacturing and not on the battlefield.

New South The New South would concentrate on cotton, coal, tobacco, and lumber. They would also process these materials on their own within the South. New mills were popping up all over the South.

James Duke James Duke revolutionized tobacco production in North Carolina.

William Kelly/ Henry Bessemer William Kelly and Henry Bessemer created the Bessemer Process to produce steel from iron. Thousands of Southerners worked in these new factories in terrible conditions. However, the South never really caught up with the North in industry.

Agricultural Society The South remained an agricultural society with sharecropping and an emphasis on cash crops. Many poor farmers were still bad off since everyone still grew cotton, which drove the price down.

B) A Divided Society

African Americans Lose Rights As Reconstruction ended, so did all of the advancements made for African Americans in the South.

Poll Tax In the South, the “poll tax” and “literacy tests” allowed the governments to get around the 15th Amendment and deny African Americans the right to vote. The “grandfather clause” allowed whites who could not read and write or afford the poll tax to continue to vote if their father and grandfather had voted before the Civil War.

Literacy Test

Segregation Jim Crow laws also helped keep the South segregated. They kept whites and African Americans separated in all public places and were reinforced with Plessy vs. Ferguson (separate but equal).

End of Reconstruction Without the help from the U.S. troops or the Southern governments, the African Americans became the victims of violence from the Ku Klux Klan or angry mobs of Southerners who demanded they act a certain way.

Impact of Reconstruction Reconstruction was a brief success for the North and for African Americans, but quickly those advancements disappeared as the South returned to the way it was. “The slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery…” W.E.B. DuBois

Impact of Reconstruction A long standing dislike of Northerners by many Southerners that lasted generations Southerners were the only Americans that knew what it feels like to be conquered, defeated, and occupied by an ENEMY army…

Impact of Reconstruction The brief success gained by African Americans lasted only about 10 years. Socially, politically, and economically; African Americans would have to wait over 100 years for true equality…