SC Success & Failure of Reconstruction

8.5-3—Summarize the successes and failures of Reconstruction in South Carolina, including the creation of political, educational,

and social opportunities for African Americans; the rise of discriminatory groups; and the withdrawal of federal protection.

~Brushing Up~• Congressional Reconstruction: – Why were some southern states forced to write new state

constitutions?– What did the south’s refusal to ratify the 14-15 amendments

mean socially?– What happened when most whites boycotted the convention

to write the new constitution?– *Slightly more than half of the delegates to the convention

were African American and half of those were newly freed slaves

– Also newly immigrated northerners were elected as delegates to the convention as well

African American Voters• Under the constitution of 1868,

African American men were allowed to vote & hold office (& did so in large numbers)

• African Americans had greater political power in SC, than they did in any other southern state

• Held every office in the state but Governor & were a majority in the state legislature throughout Reconstruction

Propaganda

• Often characterized African-American elected officials as ignorant ex-slaves

• Jim Crow• Most who did serve

were literate members of the middle class who were free before the Civil War

Republican Government• Officials established social service programs

– State funded institutions for the blind & deaf

– Made public health care a concern of the SC govnt

– Established public schools for both whites & African Americans for the first time

• Whites claimed the higher taxes to pay for these programs was bankrupting them

• Whites manipulated the northern press with propaganda, blaming the rising tax rate and corruption on new state services

• The north quickly grew tired of Reconstruction & gave up hope of ever changing southern attitudes & way of life

Freedmen Education

• Young & old flocked to learn to read & write• Northern funded private schools & new

Freedmen’s Bureau public schools• Religious & Northern funded Colleges: Claflin

college, Benedict College, Allen University &

Avery University• Northern Aid Society

Created the Penn School in Beaufort, SC

White Backlash in SC

• African Americans outnumbered white southerners in the legislature, leading to many whites refusal to participate in the new state government

• Southern whites carried on a campaign of terror against African Americans and white Republicans they saw as assisting them

• Federal troops & militias disbanded in 1868• Ku Klux Klan, Riflemen, Red Shirts left free to

harass, intimidate, & murder

Getting to know the Klan…• With passage of the Third Force Act, popularly known as the Ku Klux Act, Congress

authorizes President Ulysses S. Grant to declare martial law, impose heavy penalties against terrorist organizations, and use military force to suppress the Ku Klux Klan(KKK).

• Founded in 1865 by a group of Confederate veterans, the KKK rapidly grew from a secret social fraternity to a paramilitary force bent on reversing the federal government's progressive Reconstruction Era-activities in the South, especially policies that elevated the rights of the local African-American population. The name of the Ku Klux Klan was derived from the Greek word kyklos, meaning "circle," and the Scottish-Gaelic word "clan," which was probably chosen for the sake of alliteration. Under a platform of philosophized white racial superiority, the group employed violence as a means of pushing back Reconstruction and its enfranchisement of African-Americans. Former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest was the KKK's first grand wizard and in 1869 unsuccessfully tried to disband it after he grew critical of the Klan's excessive violence.

• Most prominent in counties where the races were relatively balanced, the KKK engaged in terrorist raids against African-Americans and white Republicans at night, employing intimidation, destruction of property, assault, and murder to achieve its aims and influence upcoming elections. In a few Southern states, Republicans organized militia units to break up the Klan. In 1871, passage of the Ku Klux Act led to nine South Carolina counties being placed under martial law and thousands of arrests. In 1882, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the Ku Klux Act unconstitutional, but by that time Reconstruction had ended, and the KKK had faded away.

Hamburg Massacre 1876

Violence in SC- Thanks Reconstruction!

• Left SC in a state of violence and controversy• The Hamburg Massacre of 1876 (Aiken County)• White Democratic “Red Shirts” coordinated a

campaign of intimidation and fraud in order to win the election of 1876

• Resulted in voting irregularities for governor's election

• Two rival governments were established-one Republican and one white Democrat.

• Standoff between white taxpayers who refused to support the Republican government

Election Irregularities Plague the Nation• Electoral votes of 3 southern states (SC included) were

disputed• Congress support to protect the freedmen waned as

southerners continued to resist and the corruption in the Grant Administration

• Western expansion/ migration west• Northern economic depression• Democratic & Republican compromise: Acknowledge

Hayes as President/ removal for federal troops from the south

• Wade Hampton was elected SC governor & freedmen were left to fend for themselves in hostile environments