The Retreat from Reconstruction
History 103
Dec. 14, 1998
Dynamics of Southern "Redemption"
High taxes and corruption of Reconstruction governments
Democratic-Conservatives appeal to white racism
Terror
Democratic-Conservatives gain political control of former Confederate states
Tennessee (1869)
Virginia (1869)
North Carolina (1870)
Georgia (1871)
Dynamics of Northern Disengagement
U.S. Grant elected U.S. president in 1868
Congress passes Enforcement Acts (1870-71)
Emergence of Liberal Republicans
Grant defeats Horace Greeley in 1872 election
Panic of 1873
Congressional elections of 1874
To the Compromise of 1877
More southern violence
More states redeemed
Texas (1873)
Arkansas (1874)
Alabama (1874)
Mississippi (1875)
1876 presidential election: Samuel J. Tilden (Democrat) vs. Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican)
Disputed electoral votes and referral to Congress
Electoral Commission awards all disputed electoral votes to Hayes
Understanding between Hayes and southern Democrats
Redemption completed
Florida (1877)
South Carolina (1877)
Louisiana (1877)