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Chapter 13: Reconstruction and the New South

Chapter 13: Reconstruction and the New South. Section 3: Reconstruction in the South. Pages: 415-419. Reconstruction in the South. African American Activism (415) With the passage of the Reconstruction Acts by Congress, African Americans saw a new era beginning.

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Chapter 13: Reconstruction and the New South

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  1. Chapter 13: Reconstruction and the New South Section 3: Reconstruction in the South Pages: 415-419

  2. Reconstruction in the South • African American Activism (415) • With the passage of the Reconstruction Acts by Congress, African Americans saw a new era beginning. • The rise of Congressional Reconstruction (14th Amendment, 13th Amendment, 15th Amendment, and the Civil Rights and Reconstruction Acts) gave former slaves further hope for equal citizenship with whites. • Many registered to vote and began lobbying for the equality promised by the Civil Rights Act and the 14th Amendment

  3. African American Activism (415) • African Americans joined political groups such as the Union League. The Union League: spread the view of the Republican Party to freed slaves as well as to poor whites. • The Union League also built schools and churches for African Americans. • African American education and literacy expanded greatly during Reconstruction • White northerners founded many schools, but African Americans launched educational institutions as well

  4. Reconstruction in the South • African American Activism (415) • African Americans became more involved in politics, they served as delegates to all state constitutional conventions: when states were writing their constitutions • In Louisiana and South Carolina, African American delegates outnumbered the whites • African Americans were the largest group of southern Republican voters. • During Reconstruction, more than 600 African Americans were elected as representative of state legislatures • Sixteen African Americans were elected to Congress. • African American Hiram Revels of Mississippi was elected to the U.S. Senate to replace Jefferson Davis • Other African Americans held state and local offices

  5. Reconstruction in the South • Reconstruction Governments: (416) • Carpetbaggers: Northern Republicans – both whites and African Americans – eager to participate in state conventions increased resentment among many white southerners • The newcomers, they joked, were “needy adventurers” of “the lowest class” who would carry everything they owned in a carpetbag – a type of cheap suitcase • Scalawags (scoundrels) were southern whites who had backed the Union cause and now supported Reconstruction – the former Confederates did not like the carpetbaggers or the scalawags

  6. Reconstruction in the South • Reconstruction Governments: (416) • Reconstruction supporters soon formed a Republican alliance – they saw themselves as the “party of progress, and civilization.” • The Republican alliance hoped to seize economic and political power from the planters and then rebuild the South, improving conditions of poor white farmers and African Americans alike. • The Republican alliance used its political leverage to draft new state constitutions • The Republican state governments abolished property qualifications for jurors and political candidates. • They also guaranteed white and African American men the right to vote

  7. The Klu Klux Klan: (416-417) • The Reconstruction governments’ reforms, the election of African Americans to office, and African Americans’ growing political participation were soon met by a vicious response • Angry whites formed secret terrorist groups to prevent African Americans from voting – The Klu Klux Klan • The Klu Klux Klan was founded in 1866 by six former Confederates

  8. The Klu Klux Klan: (416-417) • Klan Attacks: (416-417) • The head of the Klan – “Grand Wizard” Nathan Bedford Forrest, a former slave-trader and Confederate general – bluntly warned Republicans that he intended “to kill the radicals.” • The Klan and similar groups were determined to destroy the Republican Party, to keep African Americans from voting, and to frighten African American political leaders into submission • The Klan murdered or attacked many Republican legislatures both white and black • Klan members also attacked African Americans who voted for Republican candidates • Klansmen also assaulted and killed thousands of African Americans whom they regarded as too successful • Klansmen burned homes, schools, and churches, and stole livestock in a n effort to chase African Americans and pro-Reconstruction whites from the South

  9. The Klu Klux Klan: (416-417) • Steps against the Klan: (417) • African Americans struck back at the Klan when possible. • They burned barns of Klansmen • As the violence mounted, African Americans demanded that Congress act to “enable us to exercise the rights of citizens.” • Congress responded to this call in 1870 and 1871 by passing legislation to stop violence against African Americans • Congress passed the Enforcement Acts: these three laws empowered the federal government to combat terrorism with military force and to prosecute guilty individuals • The Democrats called them the Force Acts and claimed they threatened individual freedom

  10. Reconstruction in the South • Changes in Reconstruction: (417-419) • Shifting Republican Interests: (417) • A particularly severe economic depression, known as the Panic of 1873, hit the nation • Republican leaders came under pressure as workers threatened strikes and farmers demanded relief • Republicans called for the abandonment of universal voting rights so thousands of immigrants joined the Democratic party • The Republicans call to restrict the voting rights of immigrants, and the urban poor, weakened public support for African Americans’ rights as well

  11. Changes in Reconstruction: (417-419) • The Southern Redeemers: (418-419) • The discontent caused by the Panic of 1873 turned voters against the Republican-controlled Congress. • When Congress came back together, Republicans made one final effort to enforce Reconstruction by enacting the Civil Rights Act of 1875: This Act prohibited businesses that served the public – such as hotels and transportation facilities- from discriminating against African Americans

  12. Changes in Reconstruction: (417-419) • The Southern Redeemers: (418-419) • The Compromise of 1877: this deal solved the problem between leading Republicans and southern Democrats. • The Compromise of 1877 Said: in return for the Democrats’ acceptance of Rutherford B. Hayes (republican) as president, the Republicans agreed to withdraw the remaining federal troops from the South • Redeemers: the individuals behind the Democrats return to power. They wrote state constitutions and overturned many of the Reconstruction governments’ reforms

  13. THE END

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