Download - 2 presentation the new south
The New SouthI. The Failure of ReconstructionII. “Redemption”
A. Prologue: MississippiB. The Redeemers Seize Power
III. Prospects for African-AmericansIV. The Economic Landscape of the New South
A. The Sharecropping SystemB. Southern Industry
The Slaughterhouse Cases (1873)Home RuleRutherford B. Hayes/Samuel TildenCompromise of 1877“Solid South”Politics of the “Bloody Shirt”Colfax MassacreU. S. v. CruikshankRedeemersretrenchment
poll taxJourdan AndersonExodustersBenjamin “Pap” Singletonsharecropping“King Cotton”crop lienHenry Grady
The Failure of Reconstruction
1. Declining support in the Northa. Panic of 1873b. Corruption of the Grant administrationc. Weariness
2. Legal challenges (Slaughterhouse, etc.)3. Hostility from the white South
The Slaughterhouse Cases (1873)
- Origins: meatpackers inLouisiana challenge a monopoly granted to a New Orleans slaughterhouse
-USSC upholds monopoly, saying that 13th and 14th Amendments focused upon the freedom of “the slave race”
Impact1. Narrows the scope of the 14th Amendment’s protections 2. Most of citizens’ rights remained under the control of state, not
fed’l, governments
Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
A Democratic Party broadside from the electionof 1866 in Pennsylvania
Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & CompanyMap 15.5 The Presidential Election of 1876
Colfax (Louisiana) MassacreEaster Sunday, April 1873
Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
The Freedmen’s Bureau, an engraving fromHarper’s Weekly
The “Redeemers”- White supremacists- Goals
1. dismantle the Reconstruction state2. reduce the political power of blacks3. reshape South’s legal system in interest of
labor control/racial subordination- The Redeemer Governments:
Low taxesFiscal retrenchment:
“Spend nothing unless absolutely necessary.”
How do the “Redeemers” maintain power after Reconstruction?
Political shenanigans- Electoral fraud- Poll taxes- Registration laws- “Grandfather clauses”
Changes in criminal laws- Vagrancy and “anti-enticement” laws- Sharpened penalties for petty thef- Expansion of convict labor system
Reforming “local” governmentGerrymandering: redrawing political districts * Violence
United States v. Cruikshank (1876)- The U. S. Supreme Court overturns the only three federal
convictions that had resulted from Colfax Massacre.
- The Court found that the 14th Amendment only empowered the federal government to stop violations of citizens’ rights by the states
- The 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection/Due Process rights did not apply to the actions of individuals
- Provides a virtual green light to acts of terror in areas where local officials could/would not prosecute such acts.
The Prospect for African-Americans
Thwarted in efforts to participate in public life, where do African-Americans look?- Opportunities for advancement
EducationChurchBusiness
- Migration?Abroad? LiberiaThe West? Exodusters
Above: African-American migrants await asteamboat for passage to points west and,
eventually, Kansas.
Left: Benjamin “Pap” Singleton,organizer of the Exoduster migration to Kansas
Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & CompanyFarmers with Cotton in the Courthouse Square
The Sharecropping SystemDefined: a labor system in which tenant farmers (black and white)
worked small plots of land for property’s owners (whites), producing cash crops (namely cotton)
- at end of the year, tenants paid their rent with share of that season’s crop
Compromise: 1. owners’ desire for control and reliable/powerless
labor supply 2. tenants’ desire for land and some measure of independence
Why cotton?A cash-poor societyMany advantages
Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
A black family in the cotton fields after the Civil War,photographed in 1867.
Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & CompanyMap 15.1 The Barrow Plantation
Henry GradyProphet of a new, industrialized South