The Reconstruction South

1. The Reconstruction South Chapter 17, Section 3

2. Before the Civil War a small group of rich planters controlled southern politics. • New state governments formed during Radical Reconstruction. • 3 new groups in southern politics. 1. White southerners who supported Reconstruction. 2. Northernersthat moved south after the war. 3. Freedmen

3. Scalawags and carpetbaggers • Scalawags: terms used for white southerners who supported the new Republican governments. • Carpetbaggers: Northerners who moved South after the war • Some moved seeking fortune hoping to profit in the southern rebuilding • Some were union soldiers who came to love the south • Some African American reformers who wanted to help freedmen.

4. African Americans in public life • Now freedmen were not only voting in large numbers but running and being electedinto public office. • 1869-1880: 16 African Americans were elected to Congress.

5. White Southerners Fight Back • Conservatives: white southerners whom resisted Reconstruction wanted the south to change as little as possible. • Wanted real power to remain in the hands of the white man.

6. Spreading terror • Some wealthy plantation owners wanted to force African Americans back to work on plantations. • Some were small farmers and laborers who felt threatened by the millions of freedmen. • White southerners formed secret societies

7. Spreading terror • Ku Klux Klan: most dangerous secret society. • Dressed in white robes and hoods to hide their identity. • Klansmen rode to home of African Americans at night yelling threats and burning wooden crosses. • When threats did not work they used violence murdering hundreds of African Americans and their white allies

8. Congress Responds • 1870 Congress made it a crime to use force to keep people from voting. • Klan activities decreased but the threat of violence continued. • Many African Americans stayed away from the ballots box while others continued to vote and run for office.

9. The Difficult Task of Rebuilding • They built public schools for both black and white children. • Many states gave women the right to own property. • Rebuilt railroads, telegraph lines, bridges, and roads.

10. Rebuilding the economy • By 1880 Cotton production was equal to that in 1860. • Industry also grew. • Birmingham Alabama was often called the Pittsburg of the South for its iron and steel production. • However, the South’s industry lagged far behind that of the north

11. Problems of taxes and corruption • Reconstruction governments raised taxes heavily. • White southerners were outraged by widespread corruption in spending of tax money.

12. A Cycle of Poverty • Many freedmen moved from the plantation on which they lived and worked

13. Nothing but freedmen • Some Radical Republicans talked about giving freedmen acres and a horse. Others mentioned breaking up plantation and distributing land. • In the end former slaves received nothing but freedom • Through hard work some freedmen became land owners. • Most had no choice but to return to where they had lived in slavery.

14. Sharecropping • Large plantation owners who held on to their land now had no one to work the plantations. • Sharecroppers: landless farmers. Use seed fertilizers and tool provided by the plantation owners. At the end they gave the owners a portion of their crop. • Sharecropping felt like another form of slavery to most freedmen. • They faced a day to day struggle to just to have enough food for themselves to survive.

15. Sharecropping • Even land owning farmers faced hard times. • The fall harvests were not producing enough to pay off the debt they acquired for supplies the previous spring. • Many farmers lost their land and became sharecroppers themselves. • Much of the South became locked in poverty.