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Reconstruction. Ms. Maddox & Mr. Piernick. $100 million worth of Confederate p roperty in Georgia and S. Carolina was destroyed . Buildings, twisted railroad tracks, demolished bridges, neglected roads, and abandoned farms had to be restored or replaced. Property values had plummeted .
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Reconstruction Ms. Maddox & Mr. Piernick
$100 million worth of Confederate property in Georgia and S. Carolina was destroyed. Buildings, twisted railroad tracks, demolished bridges, neglected roads, and abandoned farms had to be restored or replaced. Property values had plummeted. Southern agriculture went down. Cotton was no longer king. War debt and low demand for cotton slows the South’s recovery.
Many whites, frustrated by their loss of political power and by the South’s economic stagnation, took out their anger on African Americans. Reconstruction brought violent opposition throughout the South White citizens formed private groups, supposedly to keep order in the South. The rise of the Ku Klux Klan a.k.a KKK formed in Tennessee in 1866 and soon began terrorizing African Americans and whites who were loyal to the Union. Violence against blacks was rarely prosecuted. African-Americans are terrorized by racist violence
Ku Klux Klan - secret group set up in the South founded by veterans of the Confederate Army to fight against Reconstruction. Members terrorized primarily African-Americans.Their methods included threats, house burnings, and killings(lynching) against not only blacks but whites as well who were loyal to the Union. The idea behind the terror was to keep African Americans from voting and to better themselves.
Mississippi 1870s: Caption: "Mississippi Ku-Klux in the disguises in which they were captured."
The Failure of Federal Enforcement Enforcement Acts of 1870 & 1871 [also known as the KKK Act]. Three Enforcement Acts were passed, setting heavy penalties for anyone attempting to prevent a qualified person from voting. They banned the use of disguises and gave the army and federal courts power to capture and punish KKK members. While the KKK was soon brought under control, other groups continued to operate
Republican Party is weakened by internal conflict, scandal, and financial panic • Though Grant was not corrupt, many people in his administration were. • Credit Mobilier Scandal- aconstruction company had skimmed off large profits from a government railroad contract. • Whiskey Ring-Internal-revenue collectors and other officials accepted bribes from whiskey distillers who wanted to avoid paying taxes on their product. • The Indian Ring-Secretary of War accepted bribes from merchants who wanted to keep profitable trading concessions in Indian territory.
Democrats take control of all of the state governments in the South once again • The 1876 elections brought an end to Republican influence in Southern states government. • They restricted the rights of freed slaves. Southern laws set up a: • Poll tax- a voter had to pay a tax to vote • Literacy test- a voter had to be able to read & write • Grandfather clause- no man could vote if his grandfather had not been able to vote before the civil war • They wiped out social programs and got rid of integrated public schools. • KKK violence without the protection of federal troops • Reconstruction had failed to gain equal rights for African Americans.
“Jim Crow” was a minstrel character from the 1830’s.He was portrayed as an elderly, crippled and clumsy African American slave and his portrayal showed all the negative stereotypes of African Americans. “Jim Crow” After Reconstruction ended, African Americans lost many of their new rights. It led to segregation in the form of “Jim Crow” They could not work in factories. They could not eat or shop in the same places as whites. There were “white only” & “black only” places and even drinking fountains. The most important civil rights that they lost was the right to vote.
In 1896; the US Supreme Court upheld Jim Crow laws Plessy vs. Ferguson: • What? Homer Plessey tries to sit in a whites-only train car and refuses to move. • He was arrested; tried; and convicted for breaking Louisiana’s segregation law • Plessey claimed he had been denied equal protection under the law • How did the Supreme Court Rule? Segregation is ok as long as the facilities are equal
Sample Question • Several southern states adopted Jim Crow laws in the late 1800s to • A enforce legal segregation • B deny women the right to vote • C protect the freedom of speech • D preserve the separation of church and state
Legacy of Reconstruction (Reconstruction was not complete failure) • The Thirteenth Amendment permanently abolished slavery in all states. • Radical Republicans did succeed in passing the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, and although the Supreme Court narrowed the interpretation of the amendments, they remained part of the Constitution. In later years, these amendments would be used to strength African American’s rights. • African Americans had founded many black colleges and volunteer organizations • The percentage of literate African Americans had gradually increased.
