4-3+USH

Abby Regan 11/4/11 USHCP

Key Terms: Carpetbaggers: Another name for the Northern Republicans. Scalawags: Another name for southern whites who supported the Union during the Civil War. Ku Klux Klan: A terrorist group formed in 1866 by six former Confederates in response to African American legal rights. Enforcement Acts: This stated that the govt. could strike back at terrorists with military force and prosecute guilty individuals. Panic of 1873: A severe economic depression where farmers, workers, and threatened strikes demanded relief from Republican leaders. Civil Rights Act of 1875: This bill kept businesses that served the public from discriminating against African Americans. Redeemers: Supporters of a white controlled govt. Compromise of 1877: If the Democrats accepted Hayes as president, then the Republicans would agree to withdraw the federal troops from the South.

Key People: Rutherford B. Hayes: The Republican candidate for the presidental election of 1876.
 * Samuel J. Tiden: The candidate for the Democrats for the presidental election of 1876.

Summary:

African American Activism
 * Many African Americans saw opportunity for equality with the Reconstruction Acts.
 * African Ameicans joined many politcal groups, such as the Union league, which spread Rebuplican party views to poor whites and freedmen.
 * African Americans also became involved in politcal offices and served as delegates.

Reconstruction Governments
 * Northern Republicans coming to the South to participate in state conventions made many white southerners distraught.
 * Former supporters of the Confederacy hated Southern Union supporters.
 * Supporters of the Reconstruction united to take economic and politcal power from planters and distribute it to the poor white farmers and freedmen.
 * The Republicans also drafted new state constitutions, which guaranteed both races voting rights and got rid of property qualifications for jurors and political candidates.

The Ku Klux Klan
 * The fact that African Americans had rights produced violent outcomes, such as the formation of terrorist groups.

Klan Attacks
 * The leader of the Klan, Nathan Bedford Forrest, intended to destroy the Republican Party, keep African Americans from voting, and to frighten African American political leaders.
 * Klansmen also attacked and killed African Americans who they saw as "too successful", and also burned down homes, schools, and churches, and stole livestock of African Americans and the whites supporting them.

Steps Against The Klan
 * African Americans retaliated whenever possible, such as burning the barns of Klansmen.
 * African Americans asked that Congress "enable us to exercise the rights of citizens", and Congress set up the Enforcement Acts in response.

Changes In Reconstruction
 * When the Republicans decided to focus more on the economic issues and political corruption in the North, their popularity slowly declined.

Shifting Republican Interests
 * The Panic of 1873 caused the relationships between the Republicans to dissolve.
 * Republicans also abandoned equal voting rights, as many immigrants joined the Democratic Party, and the Republicans responded to this by restricting the voting rights of immigrants.

The Southern Redeemers
 * Since voters were now turned against Republicans, the Democrats took over Congress and appealed to white supremacy.
 * White supporters of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 saw the Reconstruction as a political burden.
 * Mississippi Democrats used terrorism to get them to win elections.
 * Tiden won the popular vote.
 * Hayes won the electoral vote, Democrats protested, and the Compromise of 1877 came about.
 * Because they had no federal protection, the last of the Reconstruction govts. were demolished.