Heimler's History: Unit 5 - Post-Civil War Reconstruction

Overview

• Focus on why post-Civil War Reconstruction failed.
• Two main aspects:
  1. Southern society and economics post-war.
  2. End of Reconstruction.

Southern Society After the Civil War

Changes for Black Population

• Emancipated from slavery.
• Established black schools and colleges (e.g., Morehouse, Howard).
• Some black men elected to representative offices.
• Freedmen’s Bureau established for family reunification, education, and welfare.

Continuity of Pre-War Conditions

1. Sharecropping System

   • Replaced slavery but maintained similar oppressive dynamics.
   • Black workers bound by contracts, reminiscent of slavery.
   • Eventually evolved to sharecropping: workers received a share of crops but remained in economic bondage.
   • Also affected poor whites.

2. White Supremacy and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

   • KKK founded in 1867 to terrorize black people.
   • Activities: burning buildings, influencing politics, lynchings.

3. Black Codes

   • Laws reinforcing white supremacy.
   • Examples:
     • Prohibited black people from borrowing money for land.
     • Barred black testimony against whites in court.
     • Enforced racial segregation.

Federal Troops in the South

• Federal troops enforced Reconstruction policies.
• Raised questions about what would happen if troops withdrew.

End of Reconstruction (1877)

1876 Presidential Election

• Contested election: Samuel Tilden vs. Rutherford B. Hayes.
• Tilden won popular vote, but neither had enough electoral votes.
• Dispute in South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida.
• Electoral commission (Republican majority) awarded these states to Hayes.

Compromise of 1877

• Democrats conceded to Hayes in exchange for removal of federal troops from the South.
• Post-troop withdrawal: Democratic dominance and harsher conditions for southern black population.

Conclusion

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