On June 13 John Orrick a local white confronted Alex Webb a

politically active freedman on the streets of Greensboro. Webb

had recently been appointed a voter registrar for the district.
Orick swore he would never be registered by a Blackman and
shot Webb dead.

Only 15% of African American families were

fortunate enough to be able to buy land.

Above are Black Congressman

Brister Reese and James K. Green

Alabama State Legislature in 1869

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a

punishment for crime whereof the party shall have
been duly convicted, shall exist within the United
States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRMEARzCyY8

Robert
Chaney the
first black
Congressman
in Washington
in 1870.

From the Plantation to the Senate

Politics of
Reconstruction

When General Robert E. Lees surrendered more

than 600,000 soldiers had died during the four
years. The war destroyed slavery but not racism.

Four Million newly freed slaves

Defeated
South

Much of the best agricultural land was laid waste, the

northern Virginia, Shenandoah Valley and large
sections of Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia and
South Carolina. Many towns and cities Richmond,
Atlanta and Columbia, South Carolina were in Ruins.

Lincolns
Plan

Abraham Lincolns
plan

Lincolns plan was Emancipation Proclamation: Other than

Confederate leaders who were pardon could have full
participation in government. When the members of a
Confederate state voters; who took the oath of allegiance
reached 10% of the number who had voted in the election of
1860, this group could establish a state government that
Lincoln would recognize as legitimate.

Radical Republicans wanted

the south to suffer and had
higher standards for the south
to get back in the Union. The
Wade Davis Bill (radical
republicans) wanted 50% of a
seceding states white male
citizens to take a loyalty oath
before elections could be held
for a convention to rewrite the
states constitution. Wanted a
fundamental change in the
south.

The Colfax Massacre, or Colfax Riot, as the events are termed on the 1950 state historic marker, occurred on
Easter Sunday, April 13, 1873, in Colfax, Louisiana, the seat of Grant Parish, during confrontation between
opposing political forces of the Republicans and Democrats.
In the wake of the contested 1872 election for governor of Louisiana and local offices, a group of white
Democrats, armed with rifles and a small cannon, overpowered Republican freedmen and state militia (also
black) trying to control the Grant Parish courthouse in Colfax;[1][2] white Republican officeholders were not
attacked. Most of the freedmen were killed after they surrendered; nearly 50 were killed later that night after
being held as prisoners for several hours. Estimates of the number of dead have varied, ranging from 62 to 153;
three whites died but the number of black victims was difficult to determine because bodies had been thrown into
the river or removed for burial. There were rumors of mass graves at the site.
The historian Eric Foner described the massacre as the worst instance of racial violence during Reconstruction.
[1] In Louisiana, it had the highest fatalities of any of the numerous violent events following the disputed
gubernatorial contest in 1872 between Republicans and Democrats. Foner wrote, "...every election [in Louisiana]
between 1868 and 1876 was marked by rampant violence and pervasive fraud."[3] Although the Fusionistdominated state "returning board," which ruled on vote validity, initially declared John McEnery and his
Democratic slate the winners, the board eventually split, with a faction declaring Republican William P. Kellogg
the victor. A Republican federal judge in New Orleans ruled that the Republican-majority legislature be seated.[4]
Federal prosecution and conviction of a few perpetrators at Colfax under the Enforcement Acts was appealed to
the Supreme Court. In a key case, the court ruled in United States v. Cruikshank (1876) that protections of the
Fourteenth Amendment did not apply to the actions of individuals, but only to the actions of state governments.
After this ruling, the federal government could no longer use the Enforcement Act of 1870 to prosecute actions by
paramilitary groups such as the White League, which had chapters forming across Louisiana beginning in 1874.
Intimidation and black voter suppression by such paramilitary groups were instrumental to the Democratic Party
regaining political control in the state legislature by the late 1870s.

http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=
6uSE6W2ae2s

General Braxton
Bragg lost much of his
land and eventually
ended up living in an
ex-slave quarters.
Bragg all was lost
except my debts.
Lost money and
opportunity

In 1855, Schurz settled in Watertown, Wisconsin, where he immediately

became immersed in the anti-slavery movement and in politics, joining
the Republican Party. In 1857, he was an unsuccessful Republican
candidate for lieutenant-governor. In the Illinois campaign of the next
year between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, he took part as
a speaker on behalf of Lincolnmostly in Germanwhich raised
Lincoln's popularity among German-American voters (though it should
be remembered that Senators were not directly elected in 1858, the
election being decided by the Illinois General Assembly). Later, in 1858,
he was admitted to the Wisconsin bar and began to practice law in
Milwaukee. In the state campaign of 1859, he made a speech attacking
the Fugitive Slave Law, arguing for states' rights. In Faneuil Hall, Boston,
on April 18, 1859,[14] he delivered an oration on "True Americanism,"
which, coming from an alien, was intended to clear the Republican party
of the charge of "nativism". Wisconsin Germans unsuccessfully urged
his nomination for governor in 1859. In the
1860 Republican National Convention, Schurz was spokesman of the
delegation from Wisconsin, which voted for William H. Seward; despite
this, Schurz was on the committee which brought Lincoln the news of his
nomination

General Benjamin F. Butler

transformed slaves on Louisiana
sugar plantation into wage laborers
under the close supervision of the
federal government. Butler
required slave to remain on the
estates of the loyal planters where
they would receive wages, food
and medical care for the aged and
sick. These types of systems were
leased to northern investors.

The Freedmens Bureau, an engraving from

Harpers Weekly

By 1869 nearly 3,000 school, served more

than 150,000 pupils. Bureau agents also
assumed control of hospitals established by
the army during the war and expanded the
system into new communities.

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, usually referred to as

simply the Freedmen's Bureau,[1] was a U.S. federal government agency that aided
distressed freedmen (freed slaves) during the Reconstruction era of the United
States. The Freedmen's Bureau Bill, which established the Freedmen's Bureau in
March 3, 1865, was initiated by President Abraham Lincoln and was intended to last
for one year after the end of the Civil War.[2] The Freedmen's Bureau was an
important agency of the early Reconstruction, assisting freedmen (freed ex-slaves) in
the South. The Bureau was part of the United States Department of War. Headed by
Union Army General Oliver O. Howard, the Bureau started operations in 1865.
Throughout the first year, it became clear that these tasks were more difficult than
had been previously believed as conservative Southerners established Black Codes
detrimental to African-American civil rights.
Not withstanding, the Bureaus powers were expanded to help find lost families for
African Americans and teach them to read and write so they could better do so
themselves.[3][4] Bureau agents also served as legal advocates for African
Americans in both local and national courts, mostly in cases dealing with family
issues.[3] The Bureau encouraged former plantation owners to rebuild their
plantations, urged freed Blacks to gain employment, kept an eye on contracts
between labor and management, and pushed both whites and blacks to work
together as employers and employees rather than as masters and as slaves.[3]

Freedmans Bureau demanded the vote and an end to

legal discrimination against African Americans. Most
Africans voted Republican . Land was the central issue
of politics for the new Black voters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_iKCXE8MaY

Map 15.1 The Barrow Plantation

http://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=
WVuxRkMdjQU
Start at 50 seconds

A postCivil War photograph of an

unidentified black family

Mother and Daughter Reading,

Mt. Meigs

Congressman
Seaward

http://www.youtube
.com/watch?v=
nowsS7pMApI
34 seconds
4 minutes 20
seconds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=
A0vAo4uQr2E

Family Record, a lithograph marketed to former

slaves after the Civil War

School was named in honor of General

Clinton B. Fisk of the Tennessee Freedmen's Bureau,
who made unused barracks available to the school,
as well as establishing the first free schools for white
and black children in Tennessee. In addition, he
endowed Fisk with a total of $30,000.[3] The American
Missionary Association's work was supported by the
United Church of Christ, which retains an affiliation
with the university.[4] Fisk opened to classes on
January 9, 1866.[

Andrew Johnson
and Presidential
Reconstruction

Andrew Johnson a Democrat and former slaveholder was a

most unlikely successor to the martyred Lincoln. Johnson was
always for the yeoman. He was the only southern senator
loyal to the Union. In 1864 the Republicans in an appeal to
northern and border state, War Democrats nominated
Johnson for Vice Presidents.

Andrew Johnson used the term restoration rather than reconstruction. A

lifelong Democrat with ambitions to be elected president on his own in 1868.
Johnson committed to white supremacy. This was a collision course with the
Radical Republicans.

Johnson offered a pardon to nearly all white southerners who

took an oath of allegiance. He excluded Confederate leaders and
wealthy planters whose prewar property had been valued a more
than $20,000. This exemption suggested at first that Johnson
planned a more punitive Reconstruction than Lincoln had
intended. Johnson also appointed provisional governors and
ordered them to call state convention elected by whites alone,
that would establish loyal governments in the South

Confederate official received 90% pardon from

President Johnson. Johnson restored property rights to
call Confederates other than slaves.

Free Labor and

the Radical
Republican
Vision

Thaddeus Stevens

Senator Lyman Trumbull of Illinois proposed two bill reflecting

the moderates belief that Johnsons policy required
modification. The first extended the life of the Freedmens
Bureau which had originally been establish for only one year.
The second bill the Civil Rights Bill It defined all person bone in
the United States as citizens and spelled out rights they were
to enjoy with out regard to race

On small Caribbean islands like

Barbados where no unoccupied land
existed, former slaves and no
alternative but to return to plantation
labor. With a new labor force composed
of indentured servants from India and
China, as in Jamaica, Trinidad and
British Guiana. As slavery ended
between the years 1838 and 1865 more
than 100,000 Indian laborers were
introduced into the British Caribbean.
Southern planters in the United States
brought in a few Chinese laborers in an
attempt to replace freedmen, but since
the federal government opposed such
efforts, the Chinese remained only a tiny
proportion of southern workers

Most Radicals were men whose careers had been

shaped by the slavery controversy. One of the most
effective rhetorical weapons used against slavery and
its spread had been free labor

Stevens called for the confiscation of 400 million acres

belonging to the wealthiest 10% of Southerners to be
redistributed to black and white yeomen and northern land
buyers. The whole fabric of the south must be changed.

President Johnson vetoed the first bill on the Freedmans

Bureau. Eventual tension persuaded Johnson to sign the bill.

Radical Republicans waved blood shirts to remind

northern voters of the hundreds of thousands of Yankee
soldiers left dead. This was the attack against President
Johnson.

Congressional
Reconstruction and
the Impeachment
Crisis

The First Reconstruction Act takes over Johnsons veto

Secretary of War Edwin M.

Stanton entrusted with
implementing Congressional
Reconstruction. In August
1867 with Congress
adjourned, Johnson
suspended Stanton and
appointed General Ulysses
S. Grant. Grant openly
broke with Johnson.

This is a scene from the Johnsons impeachment

February,1868. Behind the scenes during the Senate trial,
Johnson agreed to abide by the Reconstruction Acts. In May the
Senate voted 35 for conviction and 19 for acquittal one vote shy
of the two-thirds necessary for the removal from office.
Johnsons narrow acquittal established the precedent that only
criminal actions by a president, not political disagreements
warranted removal from office.

President Andrew Johnson, in an 1868

A Democratic Party broadside from the election

of 1866 in Pennsylvania

A Democratic Party broadside from the election

of 1866 in Pennsylvania

The
Election of
1868

Election of 1868

The Ku Klux Klan emerges a an instrument of terror. In

Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, and South Carolina. The
terrorism enabled the Democrats to carry Georgia and Louisiana
but it ultimately cost the democrats votes in the North . In the
final tally Grant won 214 to 80 in the electoral college. 500,000
blacks voted for Grant.

President Grant the Norths foremost war hero was the

Republican nominee. Grant had made a great sense of
being popular. Totally lacking in political experience,
Grant admitted after receiving the nomination that he had
been forced into politics in spite of himself.

Map 15.3 The Presidential Election of 1868

Black students outside a schoolhouse in a postCivil

War photograph. The teacher is seated at the far right.

Murder of Louisiana, an 1873 cartoon

A Prospective Scene in the City of Oaks

Two Members of the Ku Klux Klan in Their Disguises,

from Harpers Weekly

The Old Plantation Home

Womens Suffrage
During the
Reconstruction

Womens
Suffrage and
Reconstruction

Women suffrage

A Delegation of Advocates of Woman Suffrage

Addressing the House

The Fifteenth Amendment, an 1870 lithograph marking

Uncle Sams Thanksgiving Dinner, an engraving by Thomas

Nast from Harpers Weekly

Myra Colby was born on February 12, 1831 in Manchester, Vermont. She was the daughter of Eben Colby and Abigail Willey.
She lived in Vermont and Western New York during her childhood. When Bradwell was twelve she moved to Schaumburg,
Illinois with her family (Bradwell). She attended schools in Kenosha, Wisconsin and later enrolled in Elgin Female Seminary in
Illinois. She completed her formal education by the age of twenty four. She became a school teacher after she graduated
(Jones). In 1852, Myra Colby married James B. Bradwell and she became Myra Colby Bradwell. Two years later they moved
to Memphis, Tennessee. James Bradwell was the head of a private school and Myra Bradwell became a teacher in that
school. In 1855 they moved to Chicago, where James Bradwell was admitted to the Chicago Bar. He became a successful
lawyer, judge, and in 1873 he was elected to the General Assembly.
A few years after marrying James Bradwell, Myra Bradwell started her formal law training when her husband was accepted to
the Illinois Bar. There she apprenticed as a lawyer in her husbands office. There were some complications that came up
during her rise to becoming a lawyer. She had four children, and two of them died at an early age. She raised funds to help
aid the wounded soldiers during the American Civil War. She was also a member of the Northwestern Sanitary Commission.
In 1868, she founded the Chicago Legal News, and with her husband's legal help, she was able to serve as both editor and
business manager of the paper. It was the most widely circulated legal newspaper in the United States (Mezey). Bradwell
dedicated her newspaper to changing women's status in Myra Colby was born on February 12, 1831 in Manchester, Vermont.
She was the daughter of Eben Colby and Abigail Willey. She lived in Vermont and Western New York during her childhood.
When Bradwell was twelve she moved to Schaumburg, Illinois with her family (Bradwell). She attended schools in Kenosha,
Wisconsin and later enrolled in Elgin Female Seminary in Illinois. She completed her formal education by the age of twenty
four. She became a school teacher after she graduated (Jones). In 1852, Myra Colby married James B. Bradwell and she
became Myra Colby Bradwell. Two years later they moved to Memphis, Tennessee. James Bradwell was the head of a private
school and Myra Bradwell became a teacher in that school. In 1855 they moved to Chicago, where James Bradwell was
admitted to the Chicago Bar. He became a successful lawyer, judge, and in 1873 he was elected to the General Assembly.
A few years after marrying James Bradwell, Myra Bradwell started her formal law training when her husband was accepted to
the Illinois Bar. There she apprenticed as a lawyer in her husbands office. There were some complications that came up
during her rise to becoming a lawyer. She had four children, and two of them died at an early age. She raised funds to help
aid the wounded soldiers during the American Civil War. She was also a member of the Northwestern Sanitary Commission.
In 1868, she founded the Chicago Legal News, and with her husband's legal help, she was able to serve as both editor and
business manager of the paper. It was the most widely circulated legal newspaper in the United States (Mezey). Bradwell
dedicated her newspaper to changing women's status in society, and she included a column in the paper entitled "Law
Relating to Women." She published information about court opinions, laws, and court ordinances. She supported women's
suffrage reforms, efforts to gain employment for women, railroad regulation, and improvement of court systems (Mezey).

She assisted in writing the Illinois Married Women's Property Act of 1861 and the Earnings Act of 1869. These were to give
married women control over their earnings and property. In August 1869, the Illinois Seventh Circuit Judge examined
Bradwell's Legal ability. He pronounced her qualified and suggested that the Illinois State Supreme Court Issue her a
license; however, her application was denied on the grounds that as a married woman, she could not enter into any legal
contracts, as lawyers do in their profession. On February 5, 1870, the Illinois high court again denied her claim on the basis
of sex. Chief Justice Charles B. Lawrence stated that "God designed the sexes to occupy different spheres of action."
Finally, Bradwell appealed to the United States Supreme Court,claiming that refusing to admit her to the bar because she
was female violated her 14th Amendment rights.
The Supreme Court held 7 to 1 that the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment did not include the
right to practice a profession. Justice Joseph Bradley wrote, "The natural and proper timidity and delicacy which belongs to
the female sex evidently unfits it for many of the occupations of civil life... [T]he paramount destiny and mission of woman
are to fulfill the noble and benign offices of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator." Bradwell v. Illinois, 83 U.S. (16
Wall.) 130 (1873).
society, and she included a column in the paper entitled "Law Relating to Women." She published information about court
opinions, laws, and court ordinances. She supported women's suffrage reforms, efforts to gain employment for women,
railroad regulation, and improvement of court systems (Mezey).
She assisted in writing the Illinois Married Women's Property Act of 1861 and the Earnings Act of 1869. These were to give
married women control over their earnings and property. In August 1869, the Illinois Seventh Circuit Judge examined
Bradwell's Legal ability. He pronounced her qualified and suggested that the Illinois State Supreme Court Issue her a
license; however, her application was denied on the grounds that as a married woman, she could not enter into any legal
contracts, as lawyers do in their profession. On February 5, 1870, the Illinois high court again denied her claim on the basis
of sex. Chief Justice Charles B. Lawrence stated that "God designed the sexes to occupy different spheres of action."
Finally, Bradwell appealed to the United States Supreme Court,claiming that refusing to admit her to the bar because she
was female violated her 14th Amendment rights.
The Supreme Court held 7 to 1 that the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment did not include the
right to practice a profession. Justice Joseph Bradley wrote, "The natural and proper timidity and delicacy which belongs to
the female sex evidently unfits it for many of the occupations of civil life... [T]he paramount destiny and mission of woman
are to fulfill the noble and benign offices of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator." Bradwell v. Illinois, 83 U.S. (16
Wall.) 130 (1873).

The
Meaning of
Freedom

Nearly 4 million slaves were now free. What should they do

now?

Moving
About

Between 1865 and 1870 the African American

population of the Souths ten largest cities doubled
while the white population increase by only 10%

The deference, submission and loyalty from

African Americans can no longer be seen by the
whites.

African American
Families, Churches
and Schools.

Freedmans Bureau Agents question anyone who

might have information about finding loved ones.

Winslow Homers 1876 painting

First Baptist Memphis Church for African Americans

This was the First Baptist Church from Atlanta. Before the
structure was completed it held services in a Box Car.

In nearly every black community the first institution

made was a church.

First
Episcopal
Church of
Atlanta

First Baptist Church of

Atlanta today.

In South Carolina only a few hundred black Methodist

attended biracial churches down from over 40,000 in
1865. Black Baptist churches were more emotional

African American Families, schools, and Churches

A black family in the cotton fields after the Civil War,

photographed in 1867.

There was a rapid spread of school. Southern state had

prohibited education for slaves. But many freed blacks attended
school. Still over 90% of the Souths adult African American
Population was illiterate in 1860. Freemans Bureau wanted a
new school system.

Morris Brown College: All African American in Atlanta, Georgia.

Freedmans Bureau was supervising nearly 3,000

school over 150,000 students in the south. Over of
the 3,300 teachers were African Americans.

Land and
Labor After
Slavery

General Howard chief

commissioner of the
Freedmens Bureau
observed that many,
supposed that the
Government would divide
among them the lands of
conquered owner, and
furnish them with all that
might be necessary to be
farmers.

President Johnson directed General Howards of the

Freedmens Bureau to evict tens of thousands of freed people
settled on confiscated lands. The opportunity was taken away

Hale County (middle left) in

Alabama, local black
farmhands contracted to
work on Henry Watsons
plantation in 1866 deserted
him when they angrily
discovered that their small
share of the crop left them
in debt. Local Union League
activist encouraged newly
freed slaves to remain
independent of white
farmers and political
agitation for freedmens
rights.

Barrows
Plantation,
Oglethorpe
County, Georgia
1860 vs. 1881
Notice the
contrast in which
ex slave rent
land in the
process of share
cropping.

Map 15.2 Sharecropping in the South, 1880

Sharecroppers economic opportunities were severely

limited by a world market in which the price of farm
products suffered a prolonged decline

Matt Brown a Mississippi famer

who borrowed money each year
from a local merchant. He
began 1893 with a debt of $226
held over from the previous
year. By 1893 although he
produced cotton worth $171.
Browns debt had increased to
$402, because he had borrowed
$33 for food, $29 for clothing,
$173 for supplies and $112 for
other items. Brown never
succeeded in getting out of
debt. He died in 1905

White Share
croppers also
had the
principles of
creating
value of the
market with
limited
resources.

Chinese laborers at work on a Louisiana

plantation during Reconstruction.

The origins of
African American
Politics.

First Reconstruction Act in 1867 Encourage more political

activity for Africans. The military help establish over
735,000 new African voters.

4/5 of African registered voters voted in elections in

1867 and 1868

Much of the new African American political activism was

channeled through local Union League chapters throughout
the South. However places such as Alex Webb in Hale
County made it clear blacks were not welcomed in politics.

Union Club in
Philadelphia
was known for
trying to help
the African
Cause.

Electioneering at the South, an engraving from

HarpersWeekly

The First Vote, an engraving from Harpers Weekly

Southern
Politicians

Reconstructions Acts of 1867 and 1868 laid out the

requirements for the readmission of southern states along wit
the procedures fro forming and electing new governments.

Yet the political structure created in the southern states proved

too restricted and fragile to sustain itself. To most southern
whites, the active participation of the African Americans seem to
dangerous. Federal troops were need to protect Republican
governments and their support from violent opposition.
Congressional action to monitor southern elections and protect
black voting rights became routine. Despite initial successes the
southern Republicanism proved unstable and the Democrats
took control in 1877.

Southern
Republicans

1)African Americans
2)Carpetbaggers
3)Scalawags
Were three groups of the
Southern Republicans

Three major groups composed the fledgling Republican

coalition in the postwar South. African American voters made
up a large majority of southern Republicans throughout the
Reconstruction era. Yet African Americans out number whites in
only three southern states. Republican would have to attract
white support.

Carpet baggers tended to be

well educated and from the
middle class. Albert Morgan was
an army veteran from Ohio who
settled in Mississippi after the
war. He and his brother failed at
running a cotton plantation and
sawmill. Morgan won an
election to the state constitution
convention and became a
power in the state legislature.
He risked his life to keep the
Republican organization alive in
the Mississippi Delta region..

Scalawags had diverse backgrounds.

Some were prominent prewar Whigs
who saw the Republican Party as at
their best chance to regain political
influence. Others viewed the party as
an agent of modernization and
economic expansion. Yankees and
Yankee notions wart just what we
want in this country. We want their
capital to build factories and
workshops (Scalawag Thomas Settle
from North Carolina).

In United States history, scalawags were southern whites who

supported Reconstruction and the Republican Party after the
American Civil War.
Like similar terms such as "carpetbagger" the word has a long
history of use as a slur against Southerners considered by
other conservative or pro-federation Southerners to betray the
region's values by supporting policies considered "Northern"
such as desegregation and racial integration.[1] The term is
commonly used in historical studies as a neutral descriptor of
Southern White Republicans, though some historians have
discarded the term due to its history of pejorative
connotations.[

The term was originally a derogatory

epithet but is used by many historians
as a useful shorthand, as in Wiggins
(1991), Baggett (2003), Rubin (2006)
and Wetta (2012). The word
"scalawag", originally referring to lowgrade farm animals, was adopted by
their opponents in the to refer to
Southern whites who formed a
Republican coalition with black
freedmen and Northern newcomers
(called carpetbaggers) to take control
of their state and local governments.
Among the earliest uses in this new
meaning were references in Alabama
and Georgia newspapers in the
summer of 1867, first referring to all
southern Republicans, then later
restricting it to only White ones

In United States history, scalawags were southern whites

who supported Reconstruction and the Republican Party
after the American Civil War.
Like similar terms such as "carpetbagger" the word has a
long history of use as a slur against Southerners
considered by other conservative or pro-federation
Southerners to betray the region's values by supporting
policies considered "Northern" such as desegregation and
racial integration. The term is commonly used in historical
studies as a neutral descriptor of Southern White
Republicans, though some historians have discarded the
term due to its history of pejorative connotations

Reconstructing
the States: A
mixed Record

Republican leaders envisioned

promoting northern style
capitalist development factories,
large towns and diversified
agriculture. Many Republicans
wanted railroad. In spite of all
the new laws it proved
impossible to attract significant
amounts of northern and
Europeans investment.
Obsession with railroads
withdrew resources from
education and other programs .

Southern Political corruption also

occurred causing a slow down of
southern progress.

The south
failed in
the
railroad
industry.

White
Resistance and
Redemption

Ku Klux Klan Act of

1871 made the
violent infringement
of civil and political
rights a federal crime
punishable by the
national government.

The Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment protected

only the former slaves, not butchers and that it protected only
national citizenship rights not the regulatory powers of state.
It separated national citizenship from state citizenship and
declared that most of the rights that American enjoyed were
freedom of Speech, fair trial, the right to sit on juries ,
protection from unreasonable search and the right to vote.
The ruling denied the original intent of the 14th Amendment of
national citizenship rights. As in the Bill of Rights.

The Slaughterhouse Case in

Louisiana gave a monopoly to the
whites in the butcher industry.
Blacks were excluded from the
butcher industry.

In United States v. Reese

and United States v.
Cruikshank (1876) the Court
restricted congressional
power to enforce the Ku Klux
Klan Act. The Court held that
the 14th Amendment
extended the federal power
to protect civil rights in cases
involving discrimination by
states. Discrimination by
individuals or groups was not
covered.

Colfax , Louisiana on Easter 1873. Nearly 100

African Americans were murdered after they fail to
hold a besieged courthouse during a contested
election.

The Colfax Massacre, or Colfax Riot, as the events are termed on the 1950 state historic marker, occurred on
Easter Sunday, April 13, 1873, in Colfax, Louisiana, the seat of Grant Parish, during confrontation between
opposing political forces of the Republicans and Democrats.
In the wake of the contested 1872 election for governor of Louisiana and local offices, a group of white
Democrats, armed with rifles and a small cannon, overpowered Republican freedmen and state militia (also
black) trying to control the Grant Parish courthouse in Colfax;[1][2] white Republican officeholders were not
attacked. Most of the freedmen were killed after they surrendered; nearly 50 were killed later that night after
being held as prisoners for several hours. Estimates of the number of dead have varied, ranging from 62 to 153;
three whites died but the number of black victims was difficult to determine because bodies had been thrown
into the river or removed for burial. There were rumors of mass graves at the site.
The historian Eric Foner described the massacre as the worst instance of racial violence during Reconstruction.
[1] In Louisiana, it had the highest fatalities of any of the numerous violent events following the disputed
gubernatorial contest in 1872 between Republicans and Democrats. Foner wrote, "...every election [in
Louisiana] between 1868 and 1876 was marked by rampant violence and pervasive fraud."[3] Although the
Fusionist-dominated state "returning board," which ruled on vote validity, initially declared John McEnery and his
Democratic slate the winners, the board eventually split, with a faction declaring Republican William P. Kellogg
the victor. A Republican federal judge in New Orleans ruled that the Republican-majority legislature be seated.[4]
Federal prosecution and conviction of a few perpetrators at Colfax under the Enforcement Acts was appealed to
the Supreme Court. In a key case, the court ruled in United States v. Cruikshank (1876) that protections of the
Fourteenth Amendment did not apply to the actions of individuals, but only to the actions of state governments.
After this ruling, the federal government could no longer use the Enforcement Act of 1870 to prosecute actions
by paramilitary groups such as the White League, which had chapters forming across Louisiana beginning in
1874. Intimidation and black voter suppression by such paramilitary groups were instrumental to the Democratic
Party regaining political control in the state legislature by the late 1870s.
In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, historians have paid renewed attention to the events at Colfax and the
resulting Supreme Court case, and their meaning in American history.

United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542 (1876)[1] was an important United States Supreme Court
decision in United States constitutional law, one of the earliest to deal with the application of the Bill of
Rights to state governments following the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The case occurred in the aftermath of the Colfax massacre during the Reconstruction Era. The 1872
Louisiana gubernatorial election was heavily disputed, leading to both major political parties certifying their
slates of local officers. Despite a federal judge ruling that the Republican-majority legislature be seated,
growing social tensions finally erupted on April 13, 1873, when an armed group of white Democrats attacked
African American Republican freedmen, who had gathered at the Grant Parish Courthouse in Colfax,
Louisiana, to protect it from the pending Democratic takeover.[2] Over 100 African American freedmen were
killed in the massacre, compared to only an estimated three whites.
Federal charges brought against several members of the white mob under the Enforcement Act of 1870,
prohibiting two or more people from conspiring to deprive anyone of their constitutional rights, were
appealed to the Supreme Court. Among these charges including hindering the freedmen's First Amendment
right to freely assemble and their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. In its ruling, the Supreme
Court overturned the convictions against the white men, holding that the Due Process Clause and the Equal
Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment only applies to state action, not individual citizens.[3] The
Court also ruled that the First Amendment right to assembly was not intended to limit the powers of the State
governments in respect to their own citizens.[4] In addition, the Justices ruled that the Second Amendment
only restricts the power of the national government, and that it does not grant private citizens a constitutional
right to keep and bear arms.[5]
For the next several decades after the Cruikshank ruling, Blacks in the South were left at the mercy of
increasingly hostile state governments, which passed laws restricting voting based on race, turned a blind
eye on paramilitary groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, and ignored any request to grant Blacks the right to
keep and bear arms

The Civil Rights Act of

1875 outlawed racial
discrimination in theaters,
hotels and other public
place. But the law
proved more an assertion
of principle than direct
federal intervention in
southern affairs

1883 Civil Rights

Cases decision the
Court declared the
Civil Rights Act of
1875 unconstitutional
holding the the
Fourteenth
Amendment gave the
power to outlaw
discriminate but state
not by private
individuals.

King Cotton
Sharecroppers
Tenants and the
Southern
Environment.

By 1900 roughly half of the South's 2,620,000 farms were

operated by tenants who rented land or sharecroppers
who pledged a portion of the crop to owners in exchange
for some combination of work animals, seed and tools.
Over one-third of the white farmers and nearly three
quarters of the African American farmer were tenants or
sharecroppers in the cotton states.

Crop lien system was the Souths

main form of agricultural credit
forced more and more farmers into
cotton growing.
In a crop lien system southern
wealthy advanced loans and
supplies to small owner, and
sharecroppers in exchange for a lien
or claim on the years cotton crop,
They often charged extremely high
interest rates on advances while
marking up the prices of the goods
sold in their their stores. Taking
advantage of illiteracy rates of
interest changed in the books to
inflate the figures.

Farmers with Cotton in the Courthouse Square

Selling a Freeman to Pay His Fine at

Monticello, Florida

Reconstructing
the North

The Pacific Railway Act of 1862 granted the Union Pacific and
the Central Pacific rights to a broad swath of land extending
from Omaha, Nebraska to Sacramento, California. An 1864 act
bestowed a subsidy of $15,000 per mile of track laid over
smooth plains country and vary larger amounts up to $48,000
for mountains.

The Burlingame Treaty, also known as the Burlingame-Seward

Treaty of 1868, between the United States and China, amended
the Treaty of Tientsin of 1858 and established formal friendly
relations between the two countries, with the United States
granting China most favored nation status. It was signed at
Washington in 1868 and ratified at Beijing in 1869

Stanford invested in pictures

which evolve into moving
pictures. Stanford will work
with Edison and make the first
movies or Talkies.

Collis Huntingtons home in New York

William Stewart of Nevada a member of the

Committee on the Pacific Railroads received a gift of
50,000 acres of land from the Central Pacific for his
services

Stewart was born in Wayne County, New York. As a child he moved with his
parents to Trumbull County, Ohio. As a young man he was a mathematics teacher
in Ohio. In 1849 he began attending Yale University but left in 1850 to move to
California. Like many young men during that time, he came to California because
of the Gold Rush. He arrived in San Francisco, California and soon left to begin
mining near Nevada City, California. In 1852 he stopped mining and decided to
become a lawyer in Nevada City. He almost immediately became a district
attorney, and served as attorney general of California briefly during 1854, at the
age of 27.
In 1860 Stewart moved to Virginia City, Nevada where he participated in mining
litigation and helped the development of the Comstock Lode. As Nevada was
becoming a state in 1864, he helped the state develop its constitution. Stewarts
role as a lawyer and politician in Nevada has always been controversial. He was
the territorys leading lawyer in mining litigation, but his opponents accused him of
bribing judges and juries.[1] Stewart accused the three Nevada territorial judges of
being corrupt, and he barely escaped disbarment

Colfax's political reputation was ruined in 1872 when he was

implicated in the Credit Mobilier Scandal. In 1867, Congress
had appropriated funds for the construction of the Union
Pacific Railroad. House member Oakes Ames was director of
the railroad and set up a holding company, Credit Mobilier in
which he deposited millions of dollars appropriated for the
railroad. He proceeded to bribe other members of Congress
not to expose his corruption by selling them share of stock in
the holding company. Colfax received 20 shares. he argued
that his mistakes should not have affected his tenure as vice
president. However, it was to no avail. Colfax never held
political office again, and spent the rest of his life
denying any wrong-doing

Liberal
Republicans
and the Election
of 1872

Emancipation

Liberal republicans and the election

of 1872

Map 15.5 The Presidential Election of 1876

Of Course He Wants to Vote the Democratic Ticket

James Alcorn was elected by the Republicans as governor

in 1869, serving, as Governor of Mississippi from 1870 to
1871. As a modernizer, he appointed many like-minded
former Whigs, even if they were now Democrats. He strongly
supported education, including public schools for blacks only,
and a new college for them, now known as Alcorn State
University. He maneuvered to make his ally, Hiram Revels,
its president. Radical Republicans opposed Alcorn, angry at
his patronage policy. One complained that Alcorn's policy
was to see "the old civilization of the South modernized"
rather than lead a total political, social and economic
revolution.[2]

Black and white members of the Mississippi Senate

The Operations of the Registration Laws and

Negro Suffrage in the South

The Shackle Brokenby the Genius of Freedom.

Depression
of 1873

The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered a depression in

Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 until 1879, and even longer
in some countries. In Britain, for example, it started two decades of
stagnation known as the "Long Depression" that weakened the country's
economic leadership.[1] The Panic was known as the "Great Depression" until
the events in the early 1930s took precedence.[2]
The Panic of 1873 and the subsequent depression had several underlying
causes, of which economic historians debate the relative importance. Postwar inflation, rampant speculative investments (overwhelmingly in railroads),
a large trade deficit, ripples from economic dislocation in Europe resulting
from the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), property losses in the
Chicago (1871) and Boston (1872) fires, and other factors put a massive
strain on bank reserves, which plummeted in New York City during
September and October 1873 from $50 million to $17 million.
The first symptoms of the crisis were financial failures in the
Austro-Hungarian capital, Vienna, which spread to most of Europe and North
America by 1873.

The decision of the German Empire to cease minting silver thaler coins in 1871
caused a drop in demand and downward pressure on the value of silver; this had a
knock-on effect in the USA, where much of the supply was then mined. As a result, the
Coinage Act of 1873 was introduced and this changed the United States silver policy.
Before the Act, the United States had backed its currency with both gold and silver,
and it minted both types of coins. The Act moved the United States to a 'de facto'
gold standard, which meant it would no longer buy silver at a statutory price or
convert silver from the public into silver coins (though it would still mint silver dollars
for export in the form of trade dollars).[6]
The Act had the immediate effect of depressing silver prices. This hurt Western mining
interests, who labeled the Act "The Crime of '73." Its effect was offset somewhat by the
introduction of a silver trade dollar for use in the Orient, and by the discovery of new
silver deposits at Virginia City, Nevada, resulting in new investment in mining activity.[7]
But the coinage law also reduced the domestic money supply, which raised interest
rates, thereby hurting farmers and anyone else who normally carried heavy debt loads.
The resulting outcry raised serious questions about how long the new policy would
last.[8] This perception of instability in United States monetary policy caused investors
to shy away from long-term obligations, particularly long-term bonds. The problem was
compounded by the railroad boom, which was in its later stages at the time.
In September 1873, the American economy entered a crisis. This followed a period of
post-Civil War economic over-expansion that arose from the Northern railroad boom. It
came at the end of a series of economic setbacks: the Black Friday panic of 1869, the
Chicago fire of 1871, the outbreak of equine influenza in 1872, and demonetization of
silver in 1873.

In September 1873, Jay Cooke & Company, a major component

of the United States banking establishment, found itself unable
to market several million dollars in Northern Pacific Railway
bonds. Cooke's firm, like many others, had invested heavily in
the railroads. At a time when investment banks were anxious for
more capital for their enterprises, President Ulysses S. Grant's
monetary policy of contracting the money supply (again, also
thereby raising interest rates) made matters worse for those in
debt. While businesses were expanding, the money they needed
to finance that growth was becoming scarcer.
Cooke and other entrepreneurs had planned to build the second
transcontinental railroad, called the Northern Pacific Railway.
Cooke's firm provided the financing, and ground was broken
near Duluth, Minnesota, for the line on 15 February 1870. But
just as Cooke was about to swing a $300 million government
loan in September 1873, reports circulated that his firm's credit
had become nearly worthless. On 18 September, the firm
declared bankruptcy

Americans believed the government should redeem the war-era paper currency
(known as "greenbacks") for money coined with precious metals (known as
specie). The specie issue would remain an central political issue until nearly the
end of the century). The funds necessary to redeem the greenbacks would have
to come from increased trade tariffs, and those depended on increased and
stable trade. Grant, however, employed a hands-off approach to the economy.
He gave approval for the Treasury Department to reduce the national debt and to
gradually resume specie currency. Six months into his first term, market
speculators James Fisk and Jay Gould saw in Grant's lack of direct action an
opportunity to corner the gold market (buy enough to be able to control the price
for it). Their plan would only work if Grant continued to do nothing. They were
relying on the influence of Grant's brother-in-law to convince the president not to
sell government gold. On September 24, known as Black Friday," the price of
gold soared, threatening many banks with ruin. Finally, Grant ordered Treasury
Secretary George Boutwell to sell government gold reserves. With increased
supply, the market recovered, but the episode undermined people's confidence in
the Grant administration.

Changes in graphic artist Thomas Nasts depiction

of blacks in Harpers Weekly

Election
of 1876

Satire of
the Negro
in the
form of
Jim Crow

Map 15.4 Reconstruction in the South, 1867-1877

In 1872 an influential group of Republicans alienated by corruption

within the Grant administration and believing that the growth of
federal power during and after the war needed to be curtailed
formed their own party. They included Republican founders Lyman
Trumbull and journalist EL Godkin of the Nation. They nominated
Horace Greeley editor of the New York Tribune for president