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Reconstruction and Its Effects 393

Terms & Names

MAIN IDEA

One American's Story

The Collapse of

Reconstruction

WHY IT MATTERS NOW

•Ku Klux Klan

(KKK)

•panic of 1873

•redemption

•Rutherford B.

Hayes

•Samuel J. Tilden

•Compromise of

1877

•home rule

Southern opposition to Rad-

ical Reconstruction, along

with economic problems

in the North, ended Recon-

struction.

The failure of Congress and the

Supreme Court to protect the

rights of African Americans during

Reconstruction delayed blacks’

achievement of full civil rights by

over a century.

In 1868, white Georgia legislators, who were in the majority in both

houses, expelled 27 black members of the state senate and House of

Representatives. The new state constitution gave African Americans

the right to vote, they argued, but not to hold ofﬁce. Outraged by

this expulsion, Henry M. Turner, an African-American legislator,

addressed the Georgia House of Representatives.

A PERSONAL VOICE HENRY M. TURNER

“ Whose Legislature is this? Is it a white man’s

Legislature or is it a black man’s . . . ? . . . It is said

that Congress never gave us the right to hold ofﬁce. I

want to know . . . if the Reconstruction measures did

not base their action on the ground that no distinction

should be made on account of race, color or previous

condition! . . . We have built up your country. We have

worked in your ﬁelds, and garnered your harvests, for two hundred and ﬁfty years!

Do we ask you for compensation? . . . We are willing to let the dead past bury its

dead; but we ask you, now, for our RIGHTS.

”

— quoted in The Trouble They Seen: Black People Tell the Story of Reconstruction

The expelled legislators petitioned the U.S. Congress and were eventually

reinstated in ofﬁce. But by the time Congress acted, more than a year later, the

terms of Turner and his colleagues were almost at an end.

Opposition to Reconstruction

White Southerners who took direct action against African-American participation

in government were in the minority. Most white Southerners swallowed

whatever resentment they felt over African Americans’ change in status. However,

some bitter Southern whites relied on violence to keep African Americans from

participating in politics.

▼

Henry M. Turner

became a leading

proponent of

African-American

emigration to

Africa.

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Page 1 of 9

KU KLUX KLAN

Founded as a social club for Confederate

veterans, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) started in Tennessee

in 1866. As membership in the group spread rapidly

through the South, many of the new chapters turned into

violent terrorist organizations. By 1868, the Klan existed in

nearly every Southern state. Its overarching goal was to

restore white supremacy. Its method was to prevent African

Americans from exercising their political rights.

ANTI-BLACK VIOLENCE

Abram Colby, who organized a

branch of Georgia’s Equal Rights Association and later

served as a Republican member of the Georgia legislature,

testiﬁed before Congress about Klan atrocities.

A PERSONAL VOICE ABRAM COLBY

“ [The Klan] broke my door open, took me out of bed, took

me to the woods and whipped me three hours or more and

left me for dead. They said to me, ‘Do you think you will

ever vote another damned radical ticket?’ . . . I supposed

they would kill me anyhow. I said, ‘If there was an election

tomorrow, I would vote the radical ticket.’ They set in and

whipped me a thousand licks more, with sticks and straps

that had buckles on the ends of them.

”

— quoted in Testimony Taken by the Joint Select Committee to Inquire

into the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionar y States

Between 1868 and 1871, the Klan and other secret

groups killed thousands of men, women, and children, and

burned schools, churches, and property. While the vast

majority of victims were African-American, whites who

tried to help African Americans—whether by educating

them, renting land to them, or buying their crops—were

also in danger.

Another Klan objective was to turn the Republicans, who had established the

Reconstruction governments, out of power. The North Carolina state senator

John Stephens, a white Republican, answered warnings that his life was in danger

by saying that some 3,000 African-American voters had supported him “at the

risk of persecution and starvation” and that he would not abandon them.

Stephens was assassinated in 1870.

While Klan members tried to conceal their identities when they struck,

Southern Democrats openly used violence to intimidate Republicans before the

1875 state election in Mississippi. Democrats rioted and attacked Republican lead-

ers and prominent African Americans. Their terrorist campaign frightened the

African-American majority away from the polls, and white Democratic candidates

swept the election. The Democrats used similar tactics to win the 1876 elections

in Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana.

ECONOMIC PRESSURE

The Klan and other secret groups tried to prevent

African Americans from making economic, as well as political, progress. African

Americans who owned their own land or who worked in occupations other than

agriculture were subject to attacks and destruction of property.

In fact, economic necessity forced most former slaves—who had little money

or training in other occupations—to work for whites as wage laborers or share-

croppers. Some white Southerners refused to hire or do business with African

Americans who were revealed by election ofﬁcials to have voted Republican. The

fear of economic reprisals kept many former slaves from voting at all.

394 C

HAPTER 12

Klan members—

like this

Mississippian

photographed in

1871—wore

costumes to

conceal their

identities and to

appear more

menacing.

▼

MAIN IDEA

Analyzing

Motives

What were the

goals of the KKK?

A. Answer

To destroy the

Republican

party, oust the

Reconstruction

governments,

help planters

control African-

American labor-

ers, and prevent

African

Americans from

exercising their

political rights.

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Page 2 of 9

Reconstruction and Its Effects 395

Vocabulary

amnesty: a pardon

granted by a

government,

especially for

political offenses

LEGISLATIVE RESPONSE

To curtail Klan violence and Democratic intimi-

dation, Congress passed a series of Enforcement Acts in 1870 and 1871. One act

provided for the federal supervision of elections in Southern states. Another act

gave the president the power to use federal troops in areas where the Klan was

active. However, President Grant was not aggressive in his use of the power given

to him by the Enforcement Acts, and in 1882, the Supreme Court ruled that the

1871 Enforcement Act was unconstitutional.

Although federal enforcement of anti-Klan legislation was limited, it did con-

tribute to a decrease in the Klan’s activities in the late 1870s. However, the reason

for the reduction in Klan violence was the Klan’s own success—by 1880, terrorist

groups had managed to restore white supremacy throughout the South. The Klan

no longer needed such organized activity to limit the political and civil rights of

most African Americans.

SHIFTS IN POLITICAL POWER

By passing the Enforcement Acts, Congress

seemed to shore up Republican power. But shortly after these acts went into effect,

Congress passed legislation that severely weakened the Republican Party in the South.

With the Amnesty Act, passed in May 1872, Congress returned the right to

vote and the right to hold federal and state ofﬁces—revoked by the Fourteenth

Amendment—to about 150,000 former Confederates, who would almost certain-

ly vote Democratic. In the same year Congress allowed the Freedmen’s Bureau to

expire, believing that it had fulﬁlled its purpose. As a result

of these actions, Southern Democrats had an opportunity

to shift the balance of political power in their favor.

Scandals and Money Crises Hurt

Republicans

As Southern Republicans struggled to maintain their hold

on Reconstruction governments, widespread political cor-

ruption in the federal government weakened their party.

During the early 1870s, scandals plagued the Grant admin-

istration. These scandals diverted public attention away

from conditions in the South.

FRAUD AND BRIBERY

President Grant was considered

an honest man. However, he had had no political experi-

ence before becoming president and found it difﬁcult to

believe that others might use him for their own political

advantage. When making political appointments, he often

selected friends and acquaintances rather than people of

proven ability. Too frequently, Grant’s appointees turned

out to be dishonest.

Beginning in 1872, a series of long-simmering scandals

associated with Grant’s administration boiled over. First,

the New York Sun exposed the Crédit Mobilier affair, in

which a construction company had skimmed off large

proﬁts from a government railroad contract. This scandal

involved several leading Republicans, including Grant’s

ﬁrst vice-president, Schuyler Colfax.

REPUBLICAN UNITY SHATTERED

A group of Repub-

licans, angered by the corruption, called for honest, efﬁ-

cient government. They formed the Liberal Republican

Party in 1872, hoping to oust Grant in that year’s presi-

dential election.

MAIN IDEA

Identifying

Problems

Why was the

government weak

in its ability to

confront the Klan?

THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Although the United States

focused largely on domestic prob-

lems during Reconstruction, the

nation did have one signiﬁcant

dealing with a foreign power. In

1870, President Grant attempted

to annex the Dominican Republic,

one of two nations sharing the

Caribbean island of Hispaniola

(the other being Haiti).

This action aroused a storm of

controversy. The plan’s support-

ers believed that annexation

would increase Caribbean trade

and spread “the blessings of our

free institutions.” Opponents

pointed out that the Dominican

Republic was caught up in a civil

war and felt that the United

States should avoid involvement

in the conﬂict. The Senate reject-

ed the annexation treaty.

DOMINICAN

REPUBLIC

HAITI

B. Answer

Grant chose not

to exercise the

power given to

him by the

Enforcement

Acts, and the

Supreme Court

later struck down

one of the acts.

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Page 3 of 9

As the 1872 presidential election approached, the Liberal Republicans held a

separate convention. They chose Horace Greeley, the editor of the New York

Tribune and a vocal pre-Civil War abolitionist, as their candidate. He had sup-

ported some Radical Republican causes—abolition and the Fourteenth and

Fifteenth Amendments. However, he had broken with Radicals by calling for uni-

versal amnesty for Confederates and for an end to military rule in the South.

Claiming that Reconstruction governments had achieved their purpose, he want-

ed former slaves to fend for themselves.

Believing that it would take a united effort to oust Grant, the Democrats also

nominated Greeley. Nevertheless, Greeley lost the 1872 presidential election to

Grant by a wide margin. “I was the worst beaten man that ever ran for that high

ofﬁce,” Greeley said, “and I have been assailed so bitterly that I hardly know

whether I was running for President or the penitentiary.” Physically exhausted by

his rigorous campaign, Greeley died a few weeks after the election—before the

electoral college made his defeat ofﬁcial.

Although the Liberal Republicans did not win the White House, they did

weaken the Radicals’ hold over the Republican Party. The breakdown of

Republican unity made it even harder for the Radicals to continue to impose their

Reconstruction plan on the South.

CONTINUED SCANDAL

Despite the rift in the Republican party that resulted

from the scandals, corruption in Grant’s administration continued. In 1875, the

so-called Whiskey Ring was exposed. Internal-revenue collectors and other ofﬁ-

cials accepted bribes from whiskey distillers who wanted to avoid paying taxes on

their product—a conspiracy that defrauded the federal government of millions of

dollars. One of the 238 persons indicted in this scandal was Grant’s private secre-

tary, General Orville E. Babcock. Grant refused to believe that such a close associ-

ate was guilty and helped him escape conviction.

Finally, in 1876, an investigation revealed that Secretary of War William W.

Belknap had accepted bribes from merchants who wanted to keep their proﬁtable

trading concessions in Indian territory. The House of Representatives impeached

Belknap, who promptly resigned. The public also learned that the secretary of the

navy had taken bribes from shipbuilders and the secretary of the interior had had

shady dealings with land speculators. As the evidence mounted, there was

increasing disgust with the blatant corruption in the Grant administration, and

Grant did not seek reelection in 1876.

396 C

HAPTER 12

MAIN IDEA

Summarizing

Give examples

of corruption in

the Grant

administration.

Analyzing

SCANDAL IN THE GRANT ADMINISTRATION

Political cartoonists had a ﬁeld day with Grant’s troubles and often criticized

the president’s refusal to believe that his associates were dishonest. In this

cartoon, President Grant pulls packets labeled with the names of various

scandals out of a barrel. The caption—“I hope I get to the bottom soon”—

suggests that the corruption in Grant’s administration runs deep and that

there may be more scandals to come.

SKILLBUILDER

Analyzing Political Cartoons

What political scandals can you identify from the packets lying outside

the barrel?

Why do you think the cartoonist portrayed Grant as having his head

stuck in a barrel?

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R24.

U. S. Grant: “ I hope I get to the bottom soon.”

C. Answer Crédit

Mobilier, the

Whiskey Ring,

acceptance of

bribes by

Secretary of War

Belknap and the

secretary of the

navy, dishonest

dealings by the

secretary of the

interior.

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Page 4 of 9

Economic Turmoil

As if political scandals were not enough for the country to deal with, a wave of

economic troubles hit the nation in 1873.

THE PANIC OF 1873

The economy had been expanding since the end of the

Civil War, and investors became convinced that business proﬁts would continue

to increase indeﬁnitely. Eager to take advantage of new business opportunities in

the South, Northern and Southern investors borrowed increasing amounts of

money and built new facilities as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, many of those who invested in these new businesses took on

more debt than they could afford. A Philadelphia banker named Jay Cooke invest-

ed heavily in railroads. Not enough investors bought shares in Cooke’s railroad

lines to cover his ballooning construction costs, and he could not pay his debts.

In September 1873, Cooke’s banking ﬁrm, the nation’s largest dealer in govern-

ment securities, went bankrupt, setting off a

series of ﬁnancial failures known as the

panic of 1873. Smaller banks closed, and

the stock market temporarily collapsed.

Within a year, 89 railroads went broke. By

1875, more than 18,000 companies had fold-

ed. The panic triggered a ﬁve-year economic

depression—a period of reduced business

activity and high unemployment—in which

3 million workers lost their jobs.

CURRENCY DISPUTE

The economic

depression following the panic of 1873 also

fueled a dispute over currency. This dispute

had its roots in the Civil War. During the

war, the federal government had begun to

issue greenbacks, paper money that was not

backed by equal value in gold. When the war

ended, many ﬁnancial experts advocated

withdrawing the greenbacks and returning

the nation completely to a currency backed

by gold. This action would have reduced the

number of dollars in circulation.

In contrast, Southern and Western farmers and manufacturers wanted the

government to issue even more greenbacks. They believed that “easy money”—a

large money supply—would help them pay off their debts.

In 1875, Congress passed the Specie Resumption Act, which promised to put

the country back on the gold standard. This act sparked further debate over mon-

etary policies. As the economy improved, beginning in 1878, the controversy

died down. However, the passionate debate over the money question in the 1870s

was one of many factors that drew the attention of voters and politicians away

from Reconstruction.

Judicial and Popular Support Fades

In 1874, a Southern Democratic senator wrote, “Radicalism is dissolving—going

to pieces.” Indeed, political scandals, economic problems, and the restoration of

political rights to former Confederate Democrats seriously weakened the Radical

Republicans. In addition, the Supreme Court began to undo some of the social

and political changes that the Radicals had made.

Reconstruction and Its Effects 397

This 1873

cartoon portrays

the panic as a

health ofﬁcer,

sweeping garbage

out of Wall Street.

The trash is

labeled “rotten

railways,” and

“shaky banks,”

among other

things.

▼

Background

See gold standard

on page R41 in

the Economics

Handbook.

MAIN IDEA

Predicting

Effects

What effect

do you think the

panic of 1873

might have had on

the Republican

Party?

D. Answer

People may

have blamed the

Republicans for

the panic and

lost faith in their

ability to govern.

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Page 5 of 9

SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

Although Congress had passed important laws

to protect the political and civil rights of African Americans, the Supreme Court

began to take away those same protections. During the 1870s, the Court issued a

series of decisions that undermined both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth

Amendments.

In the Slaughterhouse cases of 1873, for example, the Court decided that the

Fourteenth Amendment protected only the rights people had by virtue of their

citizenship in the United States, such as the right of interstate travel and the right

to federal protection when traveling on the high seas and abroad. The Court con-

tended that most of Americans’ basic civil rights were obtained through their

citizenship in a state and that the amendment did not protect those rights.

Another setback for Reconstruction was U.S. v. Cruikshank in 1876, in which

the Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment did not give the federal govern-

ment the right to punish individual whites who oppressed blacks. The same year,

in U.S. v. Reese, the Court ruled in favor of ofﬁcials who had barred African

Americans from voting, stating that the Fifteenth Amendment did not “confer

the right of suffrage on anyone” but merely listed grounds on which states could

not deny suffrage. By the late 1870s, the Supreme Court’s restrictive rulings had

narrowed the scope of these amendments so much that the federal government

no longer had much power to protect the rights of African Americans. Although

the Supreme Court would later overturn them, these decisions impeded African

Americans’ efforts to gain equality for years to come.

NORTHERN SUPPORT FADES

As the Supreme Court rejected Reconstruction

policies in the 1870s, Northern voters grew indifferent to events in the South.

Weary of the “Negro question” and sick of “carpetbag government,” many

Northern voters shifted their attention to such national concerns as the panic of

1873 and the corruption in Grant’s administration. In addition, a desire for

reconciliation between the regions spread through the North. Although political

violence continued in the South and African Americans were denied civil and

political rights, the tide of public opinion in the North began to turn against

Reconstruction policies.

As both judicial and public support decreased, Republicans began to back

away from their commitment to Reconstruction. The impassioned Radicals who

had led the ﬁght for congressional Reconstruction, Charles Sumner and Thaddeus

Stevens, were dead. Business interests diverted the attention of both moderates

and Radicals, and scalawags and carpetbaggers deserted the Republican Party.

Moreover, Republicans gradually came to believe that government could not

impose the moral and social changes needed for former slaves to make progress

in the South. As a result, Republicans slowly retreated from the policies of

Reconstruction.

398 C

HAPTER 12

MAIN IDEA

Analyzing

Effects

How did the

Slaughterhouse

and Reese

decisions affect

African Americans’

pursuit of civil

rights?

MAIN IDEA

Analyzing

Issues

Why did

Northern attitudes

toward

Reconstruction

change?

E. Answer

The decisions

hurt African

Americans’

pursuit of civil

rights by limiting

the federal gov-

ernment’s ability

to protect those

rights.

F. Answer

Political scandal,

the panic of 1873,

a desire for

reconciliation,

and Republicans’

faltering commit-

ment to Recon-

struction drew

the North’s atten-

tion away from

the problems of

Reconstruction.

Date Decision(s) Ruling

1873 Slaughterhouse cases Most civil rights were ruled to be state, rather than

federal, rights and therefore unprotected by the

Fourteenth Amendment.

1876 U.S. v. Cruikshank The Fourteenth Amendment was ruled not to grant

the federal government power to punish whites who

oppressed blacks.

1876 U.S. v. Reese The Fifteenth Amendment was determined not to

grant voting rights to anyone, but rather to restrict

types of voter discrimination.

Civil Rights Setbacks in the Supreme Court

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Page 6 of 9

Reconstruction and Its Effects 399

Democrats “Redeem” the South

Between 1869 and 1875, Democrats recaptured the state governments of

Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and

Virginia. As a result of redemption—as the Democrats called their return to

power in the South—and the national election of 1876, congressional

Reconstruction came to an end.

ELECTION OF 1876

In 1876, the Republicans decided

not to run the scandal-plagued Grant for a third term.

Instead, they chose the stodgy governor of Ohio,

Rutherford B. Hayes. Smelling victory, the Democrats

put up one of their ablest leaders, Governor Samuel J.

Tilden of New York. Tilden had helped clean up the graft

that had ﬂourished in New York City under the corrupt

Tweed Ring.

As most people had expected, Tilden won the popular

vote. However, he fell one short of the number of electoral

votes needed to win, and 20 electoral votes were disputed.

Congress appointed a commission to deal with the prob-

lem. The commission, which had a Republican majority,

gave the election to the Republican, Hayes, even though he

had received a minority of the popular vote.

For the ﬁrst time in U.S. history, a candidate who had

lost the popular election became president. How did it hap-

pen? In the oldest tradition of politics, party leaders made a

deal. Although Republicans controlled the electoral com-

mission, Democrats controlled the House of Representatives,

which had to approve the election results. Southern

Democrats were willing to accept Hayes if they could get

something in return.

The price they demanded was, ﬁrst of all, the with-

drawal of federal troops from Louisiana and South

Carolina—two of the three Southern states that

Republicans still governed. Second, the Democrats wanted

federal money to build a railroad from Texas to the West

Coast and to improve Southern rivers, harbors, and bridges.

Third, they wanted Hayes to appoint a conservative Southerner

to the cabinet. In the Compromise of 1877, Republican lead-

ers agreed to these demands, and Hayes was peacefully inaugu-

rated. The acceptance of this compromise meant the end of

Reconstruction in the South.

HOME RULE IN THE SOUTH

After the 1876 election,

Republicans and Democrats disputed the results in Louisiana’s and

South Carolina’s elections, and both states ended up with two rival state govern-

ments! When Hayes later removed the federal troops in those states, the

Democrats took over. Florida also had questionable election returns, but the state

supreme court ruled in favor of the Democrats. As a result, Republicans no longer

controlled the government of any Southern state.

The Democrats had achieved their long-desired goal of home rule—the

ability to run state governments without federal intervention. These so-called

Redeemers set out to rescue the South from what they viewed as a decade of mis-

management by Northerners, Republicans, and African Americans. They passed

laws that restricted the rights of African Americans, wiped out social programs,

slashed taxes, and dismantled public schools.

HISTORICAL

THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE

AND THE 1876 ELECTION

The nation was in such turmoil

over the disputed 1876 election

that people talked of another civil

war. Of the 20 contested electoral

votes, 19 came from Florida,

South Carolina, and Louisiana.

Republican ofﬁcials in those

states threw out election returns

from counties where violence kept

Republican voters from the polls.

The Democrats refused to accept

the altered returns, and each

party sent its own set of results

to Washington, D.C.

Fortunately for the country, the

warlike slogans proved to be just

political rhetoric. After a joint ses-

sion of Congress met to witness

the counting of electoral votes,

which did not settle the dispute,

the parties struck a deal—the

Compromise of 1877.

▼

An advertisement

expresses

ambivalence

about the two

candidates in the

1876 election.

G. Answer The

compromise

included the

withdrawal of

federal troops

from the South.

Without enforce-

ment, Recon-

struction mea-

sures eroded,

and Democrats

took over in

Southern

governments.

MAIN IDEA

Analyzing

Causes

How did the

Compromise of

1877 bring about

the end of

Reconstruction?

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Page 7 of 9

“Reconstruction was a success.”

Reconstruction was an attempt to create a social and

political revolution despite economic collapse and the

opposition of much of the white South. Under these

conditions its accomplishments were extraordinary.

• African Americans only a few years removed from

slavery participated at all levels of government.

• State governments had some success in solving

social problems; for example, they funded public

school systems open to all citizens.

• African Americans established institutions that

had been denied them during slavery: schools,

churches, and families.

• The breakup of the plantation system led to

some redistribution of land.

• Congress passed the Fourteenth and Fifteenth

Amendments, which helped African Americans to

attain full civil rights in the 20th century.

W. E. B. Du Bois summa-

rized the achievements of

the period this way: “[I]t was

Negro loyalty and the Negro

vote alone that restored the

South to the Union; estab-

lished the new democracy,

both for white and black.”

Despite the loss of

ground that followed Recon-

struction, African Americans

succeeded in carving out a

measure of independence

within Southern society.

“Reconstruction was a failure.”

Federal and state governments failed to secure the

rights guaranteed to former slaves by constitutional

amendments.

• State Republican parties could not preserve

black-white voter coalitions that would have

enabled them to stay in power and continue

political reform.

• Radical Republican governments were unable or

unwilling to enact land reform or to provide for-

mer slaves with the economic resources needed

to break the cycle of poverty.

• Racial bias was a national, not a regional, prob-

lem. After the Panic of 1873, Northerners were

more concerned with economic problems than

with the problems of former slaves.

• The Supreme Court undermined the power of the

Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.

At the end of Recon-

struction, former slaves

found themselves once

again in a subordinate

position in society. The

historian Eric Foner con-

cludes, “Whether mea-

sured by the dreams

inspired by emancipation

or the more limited goals

of securing blacks’ rights

as citizens. . . . Recon-

struction can only be

judged a failure.”

COUNTERPOINT

POINT

400 C

HAPTER 12

LEGACY OF RECONSTRUCTION

Despite the efforts of African Americans and

many Radical Republicans, Reconstruction ended without much real progress in

the battle against discrimination. Charles Harris, an African-American Union Army

veteran and former Alabama legislator, expressed his frustration in an 1877 letter.

A PERSONAL VOICE CHARLES HARRIS

“ We obey laws; others make them. We support state educational institutions, whose

doors are virtually closed against us. We support asylums and hospitals, and our

sick, deaf, dumb, or blind are met at the doors by . . . unjust discriminations. . . .

From these and many other oppressions . . . our people long to be free.

”

— quoted in American Colonization Society Papers in the Congressional Record

Although Radical Republicans wanted to help the former slaves, they made

several serious mistakes. First, they assumed that extending certain civil rights to

freed persons would enable them to protect themselves through participation in

government, especially in lawmaking. However, Congress did not adequately pro-

tect those rights, and the Supreme Court undermined them. Second, the Radicals

balked at distributing land to former slaves, which prevented them from becoming

THINKING CRITICALLY

1. CONNECT TO HISTORY Evaluating What are the two

major arguments each side makes as to whether

Reconstruction was a success or failure? Which per-

spective do you agree with, and why?

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R16.

2. CONNECT TO TODAY Analyzing Issues One historian

has referred to Reconstruction as “America’s Unﬁnished

Revolution.” Is the U.S. still dealing with issues left over

from that period? Research Reconstruction’s legacy

using newspapers, magazines, or other sources. Make a

short persuasive presentation in class.

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Page 8 of 9

Reconstruction and Its Effects 401

•Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

•panic of 1873

•redemption

•Rutherford B. Hayes

•Samuel J. Tilden

•Compromise of 1877

•home rule

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its signiﬁcance.

MAIN IDEA

2. TAKING NOTES

Re-create the time line below. Fill in

the major events that ended

Reconstruction.

Which event do you think was most

signiﬁcant and why?

CRITICAL THINKING

3. ANALYZING EFFECTS

What were the positive and negative

effects of Reconstruction?

4. EVALUATING LEADERSHIP

During Reconstruction, was the

presidency weak or strong?

Support your answer with details

from the text.

5. EVALUATING DECISIONS

Do you think the political deal to

settle the election of 1876 was an

appropriate solution? Explain why or

why not. Think About:

• the causes of the conﬂict over

the election

• other possible solutions to the

controversy

• the impact of the settlement

Medical students

at Howard

University, an

African-American

institution

founded in 1867

event one

event two event four

event three

▼

economically independent of the landowning planter class. Finally, the Radicals

did not fully realize the extent to which deep-seated racism in society would

weaken the changes that Congress had tried to make.

But congressional Reconstruction was not a complete failure. The Thirteenth

Amendment permanently abolished slavery in all of the states. Furthermore,

Radical Republicans did succeed in passing the Fourteenth and Fifteenth

Amendments, and although the Supreme Court narrowed the interpretation of

the amendments during the 1870s, they remained part of the Constitution. In the

20th century, the amendments provided the necessary constitutional foundation

for important civil rights legislation.

During Reconstruction, African Americans had founded many black colleges

and volunteer organizations, and the percentage of literate African Americans had

gradually increased. The memory of this time of expanding opportunities lived on

in the African-American community and inspired the ﬁght to regain civil rights.

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