A brief introduction to Reconstruction in the South after the Civil War

4. “Carpetbaggers”
Nickname applied by
Southern whites to
people who migrated
South after the Civil War

5. The
“Carpetbagger”
Stereotype
Click to play!

6. The Motives
of the Carpetbaggers
Power
Opportunity
Wealth
Service

7. Educating Freedmen and Women
Although many carpetbaggers went
South to seek fortune and political
office, many went South to educate
freedmen and women.
Hampton Institute (VA)
Late Nineteenth Century

8. The Republican Coalition
in the South
“Carpetbaggers”
“Scalawags”
Freedmen

9. Resistance
to Reconstruction

10. The (First) Ku Klux Klan
Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest,
CSA Vigilantism
1865-1874

11. The Second Ku Klux Klan

12. The Two Klans “Kompared”
The First
Ku Klux Klan
The Second
Ku Klux Klan
Time Period Reconstruction 1920s
Regional
Prevalence
South Midwest, South
Purpose Oppose
carpetbagger
governments
Oppose
immigration,
Catholicism,
black migration
Methods Intimidation & Violence

13. Birth of a
Nation
• Highest grossing silent
film EVER
• Glamorized the KKK
– Responsible for rise of
Second KKK?
(1915)

14. From Birth of a Nation
POTUS

15. Birth of a Nation
(1915)
CLIP ONE
NOTE: The inclusion of this video footage is
for educational purposes and is not
intended to endorse the views and
perspectives contained therein.

16. 1872 Presidential Election
• Republican Split
– Radicals vs. Moderates
• Horace Greeley
– Liberal Republican party
• Opposed Radical
Reconstruction and
government corruption
• Democrats Back Greeley

18. You Win. You Die.

19. 18721868 1876

20. Birth of a Nation
(1915)
CLIP TWO
NOTE: The inclusion of this video footage is
for educational purposes and is not
intended to endorse the views and
perspectives contained therein.

21. Restoration of Southern “Home Rule”
1869-1877
1869
1874
1871
1877
1877
1877
1874
1873
1870
1869
1876

22. 1874
Northern public opinion
turns against Radical
Reconstruction.
Perception of
“Colored Rule”
and corruption in the South
under Carpetbag state
governments
http://blackhistory.harpweek.com/7illustratio
ns/reconstruction/coloredrule.htm

23. 1874 Congressional Elections
U.S. House
of Representatives
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
1872 1874
Republicans
Democrats
VOTERS REACT TO:
• Bad Economy
• Political Corruption
• Reconstruction Policy

24. Birth of a Nation
(1915)
CLIP THREE
NOTE: The inclusion of this video footage is
for educational purposes and is not
intended to endorse the views and
perspectives contained therein.

25. Republican
Platform
Tilden: 184
Hayes: 166
Disputed: 19
FTW: 185
18721868 1876
Democratic
Platform

26. http://elections.harpweek.com/controversy.htm

27. Compromise of 1877
DISPUTED ELECTION
Samuel Tilden
(D-NY)
Rutherford B. Hayes
(R-OH)
“Rutherfraud”
184 166
185

29. “Redeemer” Governments
Southern White “Bourbon”
Democrats re-assert authority
“Solid South”
– DEMOCRATIC
STRONGHOLD
• Republican Party a non-entity in
Southern politics until the 1960s
Gov. Wade Hampton (SC)

30. The “Solid South”
Almost 50 Years Later

31. The Textile Industry
Moves South
CHEAP
LABOR

32. But the South was still primarily
agricultural.
Photo by Martin LaBar

33. Photo by stonebird

34. Segregation
Photo by Universal Pops

35. VOTING RESTRICTIONS
New York Historical Society

36. Literacy Tests
Photo by ladytimeless

37. Poll Tax

39. Photo by Rene Bastiaanssen

40. Photo by Rene Bastiaanssen
If this guy
could vote...

41. Photo by allesok

42. The Supreme Court
and Civil Rights
(Late Nineteenth Century)
In the late 19th century, the Supreme Court upheld
Jim Crow, as well as restrictions on voting.
(Restrictions were not explicitly based on race.)
Photo by Joe Gratz

43. Plessy v. Ferguson
Segregation
Challenged
(1896)
Photo by stef_dit_patoc

44. Plessy v. Ferguson
SEPARATE BUT EQUAL
(1896)
Photo by fd

45. The Reality
1904 political cartoon by John T. McCutcheon

46. OVERTURNED
Brown v. Board
(1954)
Photo by &y

47. “One hundred years
later, we must face the
tragic fact that the
Negro is still not free.”