intro

In the 1870's, violent opposition in the South and the North's retreat from its commitment to equality, resulted in the end of Reconstruction. By 1876, the nation was prepared to abandon its commitment to equality for all citizens regardless of race.

As soon as blacks gained the right to vote, secret societies sprang up in the South, devoted to restoring white supremacy in politics and social life. Most notorious was the Ku Klux Klan, an organization of violent criminals that established a reign of terror in some parts of the South, assaulting and murdering local Republican leaders.

In 1871 and 1872, federal marshals, assisted by U. S. troops, brought to trial scores of Klansmen, crushing the organization. But the North's commitment to Reconstruction soon waned. Many Republicans came to believe that the South should solve its own problems without further interference from Washington. Reports of Reconstruction corruption led many Northerners to conclude that black suffrage had been a mistake. When anti-Reconstruction violence erupted again in Mississippi and South Carolina, the Grant administration refused to intervene.

The election of 1876 hinged on disputed returns from Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina, where Republican governments still survived. After intense negotiations involving leaders of both parties, the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, became president, while Democrats assumed control of the disputed Southern states. Reconstruction had come to an end.

opposition 1

Subsection Label: The Opposition to Reconstruction

From the outset, Reconstruction governments aroused bitter opposition among the majority of white Southerners. Though they disagreed on specific policies, all of Reconstruction's opponents agreed that the South must be ruled by white supremacy.

The reasons for white opposition to Reconstruction were many. To numerous former Confederates, the new governments appeared as living reminders of military defeat. Their ambitious programs of economic development and school construction produced rising taxes and spiraling state debts. In some states, these programs also spawned corruption, in which Democrats as well as Republicans shared, but which served to discredit Republican rule. Many whites deeply resented the absence of the region's former leaders from positions of power, and planters disliked the tendency of local officials to side with former slaves in labor disputes.

The essential reason for the growing opposition to Reconstruction, however, was the fact that most Southern whites could not accept the idea of African Americans voting and holding office, or the egalitarian policies adopted by the new governments. Beginning in 1867, Southern Democrats launched a campaign of vilification against Reconstruction, employing lurid appeals to racial prejudice as well as more measured criticisms of Reconstruction policies.

Object Labels

1 The "Freedom of the South," c. 1870 (Schomburg Center)
2 Practical Illustration of the Virginia Constitution, c. 1870 (Virginia State Library)
3 "The Black Vomit; Or, the Bottom Rail on Top," broadside, c. 1870. (Library of Congress)
Southern cartoons illustrate the extent to which Democrats used racial imagery to castigate and discredit Republican governments.

kkk1

Subsection Label: The Ku Klux Klan

Founded in 1866 as a Tennessee social club, the Ku Klux Klan was soon transformed into an organization of terrorist criminals, which spread into nearly every Southern state. Led by planters, merchants, and Democratic politicians, the Klan committed some of the most brutal acts of violence in American history.

The Klan first came to national prominence during the 1868 presidential campaign, when its members assassinated Arkansas congressman James M. Hinds, three South Carolina legislators, and other Republican leaders. In Georgia and Louisiana, it established a reign of terror so complete that blacks were unable to go to the polls, and Democrats carried both states in the presidential election.

Klan violence accelerated in 1869 and 1870. The organization singled out local Republican leaders, including white officeholders and teachers. Most victims, however, were freedpeople, including political organizers as well as former slaves who had acquired land or engaged in contract disputes with employers. Institutions like black churches and schools frequently became targets. The Klan's aim was to restore white supremacy in all areas of Southern life -- in government, race relations, and on the plantations.

The new Southern governments generally proved unable to restore order. Only the intervention of federal marshals in 1871, backed up by the army, succeeded in crushing the Klan.

Object Labels

4 Klansman on horseback c. 1868 (Tennessee State Museum)
5 Mississippi Klansman, 1871 (American Social History Project)
Members of the Ku Klux Klan disguised themselves in hooded robes while committing criminal acts against Southern blacks and their Republican allies. Hooded horses added another element of terror.

6 Ku Klux Klan flag, painted taffeta, c. 1866. (Chicago Historical Society)

Klansmen embellished this flags with a Satanic dragon image and a Latin motto referring to African Americans: "What has always, and everywhere, been hated."

7 Ku Klux Klan robe and hood, applique and painted linen, Lincoln County, Tennessee, c. 1866. (Chicago Historical Society)
Although Klansmen did not have official uniforms during Reconstruction, their robes often featured astrological symbols and appliqued facial features. The Klan's more familiar white robes came into being during the 1920s, when the organization experienced a revival.

8 John B. Gordon, c. 1868 (Library of Congress)
Georgia rice planter, Confederate general, and Democratic candidate for governor in 1868, John B. Gordon headed the Ku Klux Klan in his native state.

9 Nathan Bedford Forrest, c. 1868 (Louisiana State University)
Responsible for the Fort Pillow Massacre of 1864, in which Confederate troops murdered black Union soldiers after they had surrendered, Lt. General Nathan B. Forrest of the Confederate cavalry later served as Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

10 Klan Warning, May 28, 1869 (Alabama Department of Archives and History)
"A Prospective Scene in the City of Oaks," Independent Monitor, September 1, 1868
The Klan's threats of violence terrorized black and white Republicans. This cartoon sent a threat to a carpetbagger from Ohio, the Rev. A. S. Lakin, who had just been elected president of the University of Alabama, and Dr. N. B. Cloud, a scalawag serving as Superintendent of Public Instruction of Alabama. The Klan succeeded in driving both men from their positions.

11 Petition from William Wilson et al to Rufus Bullock, August 22, 1869 (Georgia State Archives)
A petition sent by blacks to Georgia governor Rufus Bullock asks for protection against the Klan: "I drop you a few lines to let you know that we as a race are in a bad condition here in Hancock County. The white people are killing us... There has been three colored men killed here in the length of a week. We as a people do beg you for some protection in this county..."

retreat 1

Subsection Label: The North's Retreat

Despite the Grant administration's effective response to Klan terrorism, the North's commitment to Reconstruction waned during the 1870s. Many Radical leaders passed from the scene, their place taken by politicians less committed to the ideal of equal rights for black citizens. Many Northerners felt the South should be able to solve its own problems without constant interference from the North.

In 1872, a group of Republicans alienated by corruption within the Grant administration bolted the party. These Liberal Republicans nominated New York editor Horace Greeley for president, and he was endorsed by the Democrats. Greeley's campaign stressed that the South would prosper under "local self-government," with the "best men" (traditional white leaders) restored to power.

Despite Grant's reelection, Northerners were growing tired of Reconstruction, a reaction accelerated when a depression began in 1873, pushing economic issues to the forefront of politics instead of sectional ones. Racism, which had waned in the aftermath of the Civil War, now reasserted itself. Influential Northern newspapers portrayed Southern blacks not as upstanding citizens but as little more than unbridled animals, incapable of taking part in government.

When, in 1874 and 1875, anti-Reconstruction violence again reared its head in the South, few Northerners believed the federal government should intervene to suppress it.

Object Labels

12"Sambo" clock, c. 1875. (Chicago Historical Society)
As white Americans grew weary of Reconstruction, derogatory images of African Americans became more prevalent and accepted in the North as well as in the South. A mantle clock made in Connecticut portrays a black man as "Sambo," a naive, clownish figure that remained a familiar American stereotype well into the next century.

13"Let Us Clasp Hands Over the Bloody Chasm," Harper's Weekly, October 19, 1872
Thomas Nast satirized Horace Greeley's call for sectional reconciliation in 1872. Although Greeley lost the election for president, many Northerners sympathized with his call for a return to rule by "traditional leaders" in the South so that the nation could put the Civil War and Reconstruction behind it.

14"Colored Rule in a Reconstructed (?) State", Harper's Weekly, March 14, 1874.
Thomas Nast, a long?time proponent of black rights, expressed his discouragement with Reconstruction by depicting members of the South Carolina legislature arguing amongst themselves. Nast's pessimistic caricature contrasted sharply with his earlier, more optimistic views.

15 "A Cotton Plantation on the Mississippi," Currier & Ives, 1884. (Library of Congress)
As public interest in the issues of Reconstruction began to wane, a more idealized view of the South began to emerge, with prosperous plantations manned by industrious blacks working under the supervision of benevolent whites.

election 1

Subsection Label: The Centennial Election

In 1876, the United States marked the centennial of the Declaration of Independence. A yearlong exposition in Philadelphia celebrated a century of material and moral progress. Yet the year's election campaign was again marked by violence in the South. The Bargain of 1877 resolved disputes over the election's results, and resulted in the final abandonment of Reconstruction.

By 1876, Reconstruction had been overthrown in all the Southern states except South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida. The presidential election hinged on the outcome in these states, which both parties claimed to have carried.

After prolonged controversy and behind-the-scenes negotiations, Democratic and Republican leaders worked out a solution to the disputed election of 1876. In the Bargain of 1877, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes became president, and he, in turn, recognized Democratic control of the remaining Southern states and promised to end federal intervention in the South. United States troops who had been guarding the state houses in South Carolina and Louisiana were ordered to return to their barracks (not to leave the region entirely, as is widely believed). The Redeemers, as the Southern Democrats who overturned Republican rule called themselves, now ruled the entire South.

Object Labels

16"Centennial," 1876. (Wadsworth Athenaeum)
Although the imagery of "Centennial" presented the Emancipation Proclamation as the culmination of the Declaration's promise, by 1876 American efforts to extend equal citizenship rights to black Americans had begun to wane.

hampton 1

Biographical Sidebar: Wade Hampton

The governor who "redeemed" South Carolina from Republican rule, Wade Hampton (1818-1902) was born in Charleston, the son of a prominent member of the planter aristocracy. In the 1840s, his family began acquiring land in the Mississippi Delta, and in 1860 Hampton owned 900 slaves there.

During the Civil War, Hampton won fame as a Confederate cavalry commander. He emerged from the war as one of the state's most popular figures, and although he refused to be a candidate for governor in 1865, a write-in campaign on his behalf was only narrowly defeated.

Saddled with enormous debts, Hampton played little part in politics for most of Reconstruction. He did try to "direct the negro vote" in 1867, and when unsuccessful, denounced Reconstruction as unconstitutional and advocated removing the freedpeople from the state.

In 1876, Hampton became the Democratic candidate for governor. He pledged to expand the state's educational system and protect blacks against violence, but his supporters launched a campaign of intimidation that neutralized South Carolina's large Republican majority. Both parties claimed victory, and Hampton became governor as part of the "Bargain of 1877."

As governor, Hampton favored a paternalistic policy toward the former slaves, and appointed a few blacks to minor positions. He was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1878, serving until 1891.

17 Wade Hampton, c. 1876. (The Valentine Museum)

18"Of Course He Wants to Vote the Democratic Ticket," Harper's Weekly, October 21, 1876.
In 1876 in South Carolina, Democrats launched a campaign of terror and violence in an attempt to wrest control of the state from the Republican Party.

19"Attention! Colored Citizens Attention!," broadside, 1876. (South Carolina Historical Society)

A call for South Carolina's black citizenry to protest "The Hamburg Massacre," in Edgefield county, refers to Gen. Matthew C. Butler, the area's most prominent Democrat, who led hundreds of armed whites in an attack against the town's black militia in early July, 1876. Five black men were murdered after being captured. Among those listed to speak at the rally was Robert B. Elliott, former congressman from South Carolina.

20 "He Wants Change, Too," Harper's Weekly, October 28, 1876.
Thomas Nast's cartoon, drawn in response to South Carolina's violent 1876 election campaign, depicts blacks as victims but also warns of the possibility of their taking up arms in self?defense. "The Boast of the Solid South" features quotes from several Southern Democratic newspapers proclaiming the right to use force in order to remove Reconstruction governments from power.

21 & 22 Campaign bandannas, 1876. (National Museum of American Political Life)
To settle the contested presidential election of 1876, Congress appointed a fifteen-member Electoral Commission that decided Rutherford B. Hayes had carried South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana, thereby defeating his opponent, Samuel J. Tilden, by a single electoral vote.

23"Tilden or Bood," Harper's Weekly, February 17, 1877
Thomas Nast's cartoon derided Democrats' claim during the disputed election of 1876-77 that bloodshed, and possible a new civil war, would result if Tilden did not become president.

24 "Is This A Republican Form of Government?", Harper's Weekly, September 2, 1876.
Thomas Nast, the nation's most prominent political cartoonist and a long-time proponent of civil rights, viewed the end of Reconstruction as a tragedy and questioned whether the nation was truly prepared to live up to its democratic creed by offering black citizens equality before the law and protection against violence.