The American Pageant Chapter 22 The Ordeal of Reconstruction, Cover Slide Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Black sharecropping family in front of their cabin Sharecropping gave African Americans more control over their labor than did labor contracts. But sharecropping also contributed to the south's dependence on one-crop agriculture and helped to perpetuate widespread rural poverty. Notice that the child standing on the right is holding her kitten, probably to be certain it is included in this family photograph. (Library of Congress) Black sharecropping family in front of their cabin Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Black teacher and students During Reconstruction, the freed people gave a high priority to the establishment of schools, often with the assistance of the Freedmen's Bureau and northern missionary societies. This photograph of a newly established school was taken around 1870, showing both the barefoot students and the teacher. (Library of Congress) Black teacher and students Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Charles Sumner Charles Sumner, Senator from Massachusetts, and Thaddeus Stevens, Congressman from Pennsylvania, led the Radical Republican faction in Congress. (Library of Congress) Charles Sumner Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Daughter teaching mother to read, Mt. Meigs, Alabama African Americans of all ages eagerly pursued the opportunity freedom provided to gain an education. This young woman in Mt. Meigs, Alabama, is helping her mother learn to read. (Smithsonian Institute. Photo by Rudolf Eickemeyer.) Daughter teaching mother to read, Mt. Meigs, Alabama Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Distinguished Colored Men This lithograph from 1883 depicts prominent African American men, several of whom had leading roles in Black Reconstruction. (Library of Congress) Distinguished Colored Men Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Domestic workers with tools Domestic workers with the tools of their trades--bridle, pot, broom, duster, wheelbarrow, and wagon--pose in front of their employer's home. (Atlanta History Center ) Domestic workers with tools Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Exodusters Benjamin "Pap" Singleton, a one-time fugitive slave from Tennessee, returned there to promote the "exodus" movement of the late 1870s. Forming a real estate company, Singleton traveled the south recruiting parties of freedmen who were disillusioned with the outcome of Reconstruction. These emigrants, awaiting a Mississippi River boat, looked forward to political equality, freedom from violence, and homesteads in Kansas. (Library of Congress) Exodusters Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Hayes as a Benevolent Farmer, May 12, 1880 This cartoon by J. A. Wales Puck reveals the North's readiness to give up on a strong Reconstruction policy. According to the image, only federal bayonets could support the "rule or ruin" carpetbag regimes that oppressed the south. What do the background and foreground of the cartoon suggest will be the results of President Hayes's "Let ‘Em Alone Policy"? (Library of Congress) Hayes as a Benevolent Farmer, May 12, 1880 Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

His First Vote by Thomas Waterman Wood, 1865 Thomas Waterman Wood, who had painted portraits of society figures in Nashville before the war, sensed the importance of Congress's decision in 1867 to enfranchise the freedmen. This oil painting, one of a series on suffrage, emphasizes the significance of the ballot for the black voter. (Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville, Tennessee) His First Vote by Thomas Waterman Wood, 1865 Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

King Andrew This Thomas Nast cartoon, published in Harper's Weekly just before the 1866 congressional elections, conveyed Republican antipathy to Andrew Johnson. The president is depicted as an autocratic tyrant. Radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens, upper right, has his head on the block and is about to lose it. The Republic sits in chains. (Harper's Weekly, 1866) King Andrew Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Ku Klux Klan meeting In this picture, the artist has portrayed a group of bizarrely dressed Klansmen contemplating the murder of a white Republican. (Library of Congress) Ku Klux Klan meeting Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Memphis Riots, May 2, 1866, Harper's Weekly In 1866, as Congress reviewed the progress of Reconstruction, news from the South had a considerable impact. Violence against black people, like the riot in Memphis depicted here, helped convince northern legislators that they had to modify President Johnson's policies. (Library of Congress) Memphis Riots, May 2, 1866, Harper's Weekly Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Mississippi Klansman, 1871 Members of the Ku Klux Klan devised ghoulish costumes to heighten the terror inspired by their acts. This photograph shows the costume of a Mississippi Klansman from (Courtesy of Mr. Herbert Peck, Jr.) Mississippi Klansman, 1871 Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Mrs. Juliann Jane Tillman, 1844 by Alfred Hoffy Black churches--especially the African Methodist Episcopal Church, run by and for free people of color-- were central in the communal and religious life of free people of color. Mrs. Juliann Jane Tillman, an AME minister in Philadelphia, was a popular preacher. Peter S. Duval printed this 1844 life drawing of Tillman by Alfred Hoffy. (Library of Congress) Mrs. Juliann Jane Tillman, 1844 by Alfred Hoffy Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Pig iron, Birmingham, Harper's Weekly, March 26, 1877 One notable success in Reconstruction efforts to stimulate industry was Birmingham, Alabama. Here workers cast molten iron into blocks called pigs. (Birmingham Public Library) Pig iron, Birmingham, Harper's Weekly, March 26, 1877 Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Portrait of Andrew Johnson Combative and inflexible, President Andrew Johnson contributed greatly to the failure of his own Reconstruction program. (Library of Congress) Portrait of Andrew Johnson Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Reconstruction cartoon This 1868 cartoon by Thomas Nast pictured the combination of forces that threatened the success of Reconstruction: southern opposition and the greed, partisanship, and racism of northern interests. (Library of Congress) Reconstruction cartoon Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Store owner's record book of debts of sharecroppers Sharecropping became an oppressive system in the postwar south. At plantation stores like this one, photographed in Mississippi in 1868, merchants recorded in their ledger books debts that few sharecroppers were able to repay. (Smithsonian Institution, Division of Community Life) Store owner's record book of debts of sharecroppers Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Taking the Oath of Allegiance These white southerners are shown taking the oath of allegiance to the United States in 1865 as part of the process of restoring civil government in the South. The Union soldiers and officers are administering the oath. (Library of Congress) Taking the Oath of Allegiance Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Thaddeus Stevens Charles Sumner, Senator from Massachusetts, and Thaddeus Stevens, Congressman from Pennsylvania, led the Radical Republican faction in Congress. (Library of Congress) Thaddeus Stevens Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

The First Vote A newly freed slave casts his first vote. (Library of Congress) The First Vote Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

The White League Alabama's White League, formed in 1874, strove to oust Republicans from office by intimidating black voters. To political cartoonist Thomas Nast, such vigilante tactics suggested an alliance between the White League and the outlawed Ku Klux Klan. (Harper's Weekly, October 24, 1874) The White League Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Map: The Reconstruction The Reconstruction This map shows the five military districts established when Congress passed the Reconstruction Act of As the dates within each state indicate, conservative Democratic forces quickly gained control of government in four southern states. So- called Radical Reconstruction was curtailed in most of the others as factions within the weakened Republican Party began to cooperate with conservative Democrats. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.