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Terrorist Groups
Main political goal:
- Prevent African Americans from exercising their right to vote
Main economic goal:
- Prevent African Americans from making economic progress:
a. prevent them from owning their own farms
b. prevent them becoming economically competitive with whites
Amnesty Act 1872
Amnesty:
- Official pardon for people who have been convicted of political
offenses
Why?
- Southerners complained that newly elected Republicans
abused their political power by denying them government
positions.
- Congress responds with the Amnesty Act 1872
- Gave many former Confederates the right to vote.
Results?:
- Southern Democrats (Whites) begin to regain power in
southern state governments.
- Weakens Republican (Black) power in southern state
governments.
Grant Administration Scandals
Scandal:
- an action or event regarded as morally or legally wrong and
causing general public outrage
corrupt:
- having or showing a willingness to act dishonestly in return
for money or personal gain
What?:
- Many in Grant’s Administration (vice president, cabinet members,
personal secretary) were corrupt and involved in scandals.
Results?:
- Hurt the Republican party nationwide.
- Erodes support for Reconstruction policies (new rights for Blacks)
Economic Turmoil
Why?
- Scandals and corruption in the Grant Administration hurt
the economy.
- Investors believe Civil War economy will continue to expand
- Borrow $ to start or expand businesses
- Demand for goods slows down
- Business can’t pay back loans
- Banks close
Results?
- Economic depression
- Erodes support for Reconstruction policies (new rights for Blacks)
14th and 15th Amendments Weakened
14th Amendment
- Gave African Americans full citizenship.
15th Amendment
- Banned states from denying the vote to African Americans.
Mid-1870s:
a. Several Supreme Court decisions weakened the power of the
14th and 15th Amendments.
b. Over time more Northerners want to reconcile with the South
Reconcile:
- Restore friendly relations between
Results?
- Harder for the federal govt to enforce Reconstruction policies,
because Amendments were weakened.
- Reconciliation erodes support for Reconstruction policies (new
rights for Blacks)
African-American Rights in the Future
14th and 15th Amendments remained part of the Constitution
- The 14th and 15th Amendments were used to strengthen African
Americans’ rights decades after Reconstruction
Democrats Regain Power in the South
Why?
- Republican power weakened:
- terrorism
- Amnesty Act
- political scandals / corruption
- economic depression
- weakening of 14th and 15th Amendments
- White Southern Democrats recapture many southern state
gov’ts
- Claim loss of the Civil War and 12 years of Reconstruction
has redeemed them.
- Referred to their return to power as redemption.
Redeem:
- to make up for past errors
Redemption = restoration of White supremacy in the south
Election of 1876
Highest voter turnout ever: over 82%
- Republican Rutherford B. Hayes v. Democrat Samuel H. Tilden.
- Tilden won popular vote only because violence was used to deny
the southern Black vote
- Tilden did not have enough electoral votes to win
c. Congress appointed a commission to settle election
Compromise of 1877
The election had the potential to tear apart the country
- Democrats and Republicans made a deal called the Compromise
of 1877
- Democrats allowed Hayes to be president
- Republicans agreed to withdraw federal troops from South
- The Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction
The End of Republican Influence in the South
In the 1876 state elections, Republican lost control of state gov’ts
throughout the South.
- Democrats controlled every Southern state government
- These newly elected Democrats were called redeemers
- Redeemers and Redemption = white supremacy
Home Rule / Racist Policies Return
Southern Democrats (“redeemers”) used their new power to
reverse the changes that began during Reconstruction in the South
- Redeemers referred to their new power as home rule:
a. the ability to run state govts without the interference of the
federal gov’t
b. Home rule = the restriction of voting rights
c. Home rule = end to social programs (Freedmen’s Bureau)
d. Home rule = end of public schools for blacks
- As a result of the redeemers and home rule, Reconstruction and
failed to ensure the rights of former enslaved people