1961.

According to Fleming (1907), the KKK "quieted the Negroes, made life and property safer, gave protection to women, stopped burnings, forced the Radical leaders to be more moderate, made the Negroes work better, drove the worst of the Radical leaders from the country and started the whites on the way to gain political supremacy. James T. Moore, "Black Militancy in Readjuster Virginia, 1879–1883,", Fletcher M. Green, "Walter Lynwood Fleming: Historian of Reconstruction,", T. Harry Williams, 'An Analysis of Some Reconstruction Attitudes,'. . A third school blames the failure on not giving land to the freedmen so they could have their own economic base of power. However, they were abolished in 1866 and seldom had effect, because the Freedmen's Bureau (not the local courts) handled the legal affairs of freedmen. [180] A compromise was reached in April 1866, that limited the treasury to a currency contraction of only $10 million over six months. . In the end, three whites died and 120–150 blacks were killed, some 50 that evening while being held as prisoners. The civil war entailed a dramatic expansion of roles and responsibilities of the central government that resulted in the ratification of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the constitution. Such bargaining soon led to the establishment of the system of sharecropping, which gave the freedmen greater economic independence and social autonomy than gang labor. [21] Black women were largely confined to domestic work employed as cooks, maids, and child nurses.

Teachers and parents! "[79] McKitrick says that in 1865 Johnson had strong support in the Republican Party, saying: "It was naturally from the great moderate sector of Unionist opinion in the North that Johnson could draw his greatest comfort. The federal treasury had issued $428 million in greenbacks, which was legal tender but not backed by gold or silver. Virginia had been represented in the U.S. Senate until March 3, 1865, by the Restored Government of Virginia. Rather, emancipation was a historical tragedy and the end of Reconstruction was a clear sign of God's favor. The teachers were poorly paid, and their pay was often in arrears. [148][149] By 1871 the Northern Methodists had 88,000 black members in the South, and had opened numerous schools for them. [36], Congress had to consider how to restore to full status and representation within the Union those Southern states that had declared their independence from the United States and had withdrawn their representation.

Their level of living was reduced to the bare minimum, the lowest of the low, they were treated like animals, what whites thought befitted them. People had to resort to bartering services for goods, or else try to obtain scarce Union dollars. The South was "sparsely settled"; only 10 percent of Louisiana was cultivated, and 90 percent of Mississippi bottom land was undeveloped in areas away from the river fronts, but freedmen often did not have the stake to get started. They appreciated opportunities to exercise their independence, to worship in their own way, to affirm their worth and dignity, and to proclaim the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. In the 1860s and 1870s, leaders who had been Whigs were committed to economic modernization, built around railroads, factories, banks, and cities. The outcome of the 1876 presidential election between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, was decided by disputed vote counts from those three states.

. There were no trials on charges of treason. [47] The question of women's suffrage was also debated but was rejected. White paramilitary organizations, especially the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) as well as the White League and Red Shirts, formed with the political aim of driving out the Republicans. Even with the benefits that it gave to the freedmen, the Freedmen's Bureau was unable to operate effectively in certain areas. His biographer calls him the "High Priest of the Radical Republicans. Nevertheless, Grant was unable to resolve the escalating tensions inside the Republican Party between Northern Republicans and Southern Republicans (this latter group would be labelled "scalawags" by those opposing Reconstruction). By 1870, most Republicans felt the war goals had been achieved, and they turned their attention to other issues such as economic policies. In a speech delivered on April 11, while referring to plans for Reconstruction in Louisiana, Lincoln proposed that some blacksi… Johnson broke with the Republicans after vetoing two key bills that supported the Freedmen's Bureau and provided federal civil rights to the freedmen. A specially constituted electoral commission (composed of eight Republicans and seven Democrats) accepted the Republican returns, and Hayes was given the presidency.

Johnson’s plan for restoring the splintered Union pardoned all Southern White persons except Confederate leaders and wealthy plantation owners and restored all of their constitutional rights and property except enslaved persons. Whaples says this highlights: "A recurring difference dividing historians and economists. The moderates in Congress wanted virtually all of them to vote, but the Radicals resisted. [76], Lincoln continued to advocate his Louisiana Plan as a model for all states up until his assassination on April 15, 1865. A federal bureau was created to provide food, clothing, fuel, and advice on negotiating labor contracts.

African Americans voted for both white and black candidates. When the war ended, Confederate currency and bank deposits were worth zero, making the banking system a near-total loss. These Reconstruction Amendments established the rights that led to Supreme Court rulings in the mid-20th century that struck down school segregation. "Measures of War: A Quantitative Examination of the Civil War's Destructiveness in the Confederacy. Economically, the South’s economy failed to modernize and equalize with the North. Historian James D. Anderson argues that the freed slaves were the first Southerners "to campaign for universal, state-supported public education.

Historians now agree that the radical state governments were no more corrupt than their predecessors and successors, and that they made notable contributions toward restoring a devastated Southern economy, protecting the rights of freedmen, and extending public education to whites and blacks alike. However, Congress refused to count any of the votes from Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee, in essence rejecting Lincoln's moderate Reconstruction plan. [163] When they gained suffrage, black politicians took this commitment to public education to state constitutional conventions. [93] One report indicates two freed women, Frances Thompson and Lucy Smith, describe their violent sexual assault during the Memphis Riots of 1866. , restricted the ability of blacks to own land and to work as free laborers and denied them most of the civil and political rights enjoyed by whites. The struggle for equality among white American men with other races and women dates back to the slavery era. Reconstruction in the South meant a massive social and political upheaval and a devastated economy. Black women were in a particularly vulnerable situation. Historian Walter Lynwood Fleming, associated with the early 20th-century Dunning School, describes the mounting anger of Southern whites: The Negro troops, even at their best, were everywhere considered offensive by the native whites. . [176] The taxes would serve as a market-based system for redistributing the land to the landless freedmen and white poor. ", Other historians emphasize the failure to fully incorporate Southern Unionists into the Republican coalition.