The Reconstruction Era Part IV Southern Reaction to Reconstruction

Southern Reaction to Reconstruction

Many Southerners were embittered by the laws passed during Reconstruction.

Republican control of southern state governments began to weaken in 1869.

Tennessee was the first southern state to elect a post-war government dominated by conservative Democrats.

Reconstruction ended when federal troops were withdrawn from Florida in 1877.

Southerners attempted to regain control of state legislatures from their hated rivals, known as “carpetbaggers”

Carpetbaggers was a nickname referring to the large bag many Northerners supposedly brought to the South to participate in reconstruction, seeking their fortune.

Another hated rival was the “scalawags,” southern whites who supported the Republicans and worked in concert with the Carpetbaggers.

Although it is true some of these people were basically just vultures feeding off the defeated Southern corpses, many of both groups actually did a lot of good, reviving the school system, helping rebuild the railroads, and so on…

One method Southern legislatures used to regain power was to organize secret societies, such as the Ku Klux Klan, the Knights of the White Camellia, and Pale Faces to intimidate black voters.

These organizations used violence – burning homes, beatings, and lynching – to prevent blacks and sympathetic whites from voting.

Hundreds of African Americans were beaten, driven from their homes, or brutally murdered as a result of these groups’ actions.

The terrorist activities of the white supremacist groups were very effective in “keeping blacks in their place.” And the groups had unwitting allies in the current president of the United States, Andrew Johnson, and Northerners who were losing interest in reforming the South.

Congress passed the Force Acts of 1870 and 1871, which authorized Congress to stop this violence

However, the influence of the Radical Republicans was declining as the recession of 1873 turned the nation’s concerns to economic rather than political or social issues.

The End of Reconstruction

By 1876, federal troops had withdrawn from all the southern states but South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana.