The Reconstruction Plan Going South

1. Claim: Reconstruction failed because of the southern political and social resistance against the north, who imposed civil liberties to African Americans, thus the southern reactionary beliefs recalled pre-civil war ideas, creating a segregated society incapable of reconstruction. The Reconstruction Plan Going South By Richard Hunter Harrison

2. Black Codes: • Put in place during reconstruction under states formed under Johnsons policy • If a freedman wanted better terms of work, he/she would have to leave his old plantation • The moment he did though he could be fined and charged with vagrancy • Rich land owners could pay the fine off of the freedman and then the freedman would be bound to work for the land owner until he was able to pay back the land owner • “To seek more attractive work terms, a freedman would of course have had to leave his old plantation in search of a new arrangement,, but the moment he did so, he was liable to charges of vagrancy and a fine. The fine might be paid by any landholder, who could then command the alleged vagrant’s services… a form, that is, of involuntary servitude” 1 1 Richard Klugar, A Simple Justice, (WHS History Department, ), 24

3. Opposition to Black Suffrage: • Although the Civil War ended in 1865, violent groups of local and unorganized white southerners began to terrorize blacks in the south. • The KKK was founded in 1866 in Tennessee, and quickly spread into a criminal organization all across the southern states.2 • “The Klan...inflicted summary vengeance on the colored citizens of this country by breaking into their houses at the dead of night, dragging them from their beds, torturing them in the most inhuman manner, and in many instances murdering them”. • The Klan’s victims included political white republicans, such as teachers, office holders, unionists, and party organizers, along with black republicans 3 • The bloodiest act of violence committed by racially motivated groups of southern rebels occurred in Colfax Louisiana, where whites assaulted a town with a small cannon. The victims included hundreds of former slaves, and fifty members of a black militia unit.4 • In 1870 and 1871, congress created 3 new Enforcement Acts, which outlawed terrorist societies like the klan, this allowed the president to use the army to suppress these rebellious and racist southern groups.5 2 Foner, Eric.Give Me Liberty!: An American History. (504)New York: WW.Norton. 2005. 3 Foner, Eric.Give Me Liberty!: An American History. (504)New York: WW.Norton. 2005. 4 Foner, Eric.Give Me Liberty!: An American History. (504)New York: WW.Norton. 2005. 5 Foner, Eric.Give Me Liberty!: An American History. (504)New York: WW.Norton. 2005.

4. Compromise of 1877: • The Democrats would not accept Rutherford B. Hayes as the President, unless these demands were accepted • Federal troops have to withdraw from Louisiana and South Carolina • The Democrats got federal money to build a railroad from Texas to the west coast and to improve southern river, harbors, and bridges 5 • Have a conservative southerner in Hayes’s cabinet • This refusal to accept Hayes as President, allowed the south to profit off the Republicans and put an end to Reconstruction.6 5Gerald A. Danzer, "Section 3: The Collapse of Reconstruction," in The Americans (n.p.: McDougal Littell, 2005), 399. 6Richard Klugar, A Simple Justice, (WHS History Department, ), 40

5. Bibliography • Danzer, Gerald A. "Section 3: The Collapse of Reconstruction." In The Americans, 393-401. N.p.: McDougal Littell, 2005. • Foner,Eric.Give Me Liberty!: An American History. (504)New York: WW.Norton. 2005. • United States, Justices. “The Klu Klux Klan- Terrorist or Peacekeeping Organization?”(43) 1872, Columbia, South Carolina. • Richard Klugar, A Simple Justice, (WHS History Department, ), 21-29