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South Under Reconstruction

South Under Reconstruction. Southern Politics The KKK Cycle of Poverty. New Forces in Southern Politics. White Southern Republicans Some white businessmen were concerned only with rebuilding the south Scalawags – white southern Republicans who wanted to forget the war and rebuild

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South Under Reconstruction

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  1. South Under Reconstruction Southern Politics The KKK Cycle of Poverty

  2. New Forces in Southern Politics • White Southern Republicans • Some white businessmen were concerned only with rebuilding the south • Scalawags – white southern Republicans who wanted to forget the war and rebuild • Northerners • Carpetbaggers – northerners who came to the South after the war • Southerners claimed they just wanted to get rich off the South’s misfortune and were in such a hurry all they had were small bags • African Americans • Voted in large numbers and ran for public office

  3. Conservatives Resist • White southerners who had power before the Civil War resisted reconstruction (known as conservatives). • Wanted the South to change as little as possible • Many white Southerners were Democrats who wanted to force African Americans to be slaves again.

  4. The KKK • The Ku Klux Klan worked to keep African Americans and white Republicans out of office. • Originally formed as a political group. • Dressed in white robes and hoods to hide their identities. • Burned crosses and shouted threats, sometimes turned to violence – lynching • Many moderate southerners did not approve of the Klan but there was little they could do to stop them. • In 1870, Congress made it a crime to use force to keep people from voting (Enforcement Acts)

  5. Harper's Weekly cartoon by Thomas Nast depicting the plight of African Americans in the Reconstruction South

  6. Challenge of Rebuilding • Built schools for both white and black children • Built railroads, telegraph lines, bridges, and roads • Southerners had to pay high taxes and many of them were upset. • Some of the governments were corrupt as well.

  7. Cycle of Poverty • Some Radical Republicans wanted to give freedmen “40 acres and a mule”, but all they got was freedom. • Most were not able to afford their own land and became sharecroppers. • Sharecroppers – rented and farmed a plot of land. Planters provided seed, fertilizer, and tools in return for a share of the crop at harvest time. • Most ended up in debt

  8. Questions to Consider • If you were an African American at the time of the formation of the KKK, would you have voted? • Does racism exist in our society today? Where does it exist? • Provide an example of racism that you’ve seen, experienced, or heard about.

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