When it comes to the Civil War’s outcomes, these were monumental: the establishment of a stronger federal government, validation of the United States’ single political entity, and, evidently, freedom for millions of enslaved African Americans. In terms of the latter, the rights of newly liberated people were sought to be established and protected immediately after the end of the war. According to Watson (2018), this period of time is referred to as Reconstruction and is considered to last from 1865 to 1877. In the early years of Reconstruction, there were legal attempts to further maintain Black people’s suppression. New southern legislatures under President Andrew Johnson passed the Black Codes, the restrictive laws to control the life and labor of African Americans. The North’s indignation about these codes led to the undermining of the support for the Presidential Reconstruction approach and, as a consequence, the triumph of the Republican Party’s radical wing. So-called Radical Reconstruction began when the Reconstruction Act of 1867 was passed; during that time, Black people managed to obtain a voice in the government – for the first time in the country’s history.
Reconstruction saw Congress passing and enforcing laws promoting civil and political rights for Black people in the South. As per Watson (2018), the most remarkable among these laws were the Amendments to the Constitution of the United States: the Thirteenth, the Fourteenth, and the Fifteenth. African Americans were actively exercising citizenship rights, responsibilities, and opportunities. For one, during Reconstruction, a few hundred Black men held elected public office; two were United States Senators, and fourteen were the House of Representatives, members. Over a thousand more Blacks, male and female, were appointed to government jobs. It seemed that finally came the times for no limitations for Black Americans as compared to their white folks. The federal government, headed by Republicans in Congress, was resolute about the necessity of civil and political rights for Black people in spite of the ferocious opposition of white Southerners.
Eventually, reactionary forces led by these white Southerners reversed Radical Reconstruction’s changes through a wave of violence that reestablished white supremacy on their territories. Everyone knows about the Ku Klux Klan; however, as noted by Watson (2018), several other groups were seeking to bring back the suppression of Black people after the end of slavery, for instance, by the early 1870s, a union known as the Redeemers emerged with intentions of reimposing the South’s old order. The Redeemers were a fully white, pro-Democratic-Party group of wealthy businessmen, traders, and farmers, all of whom had disdain for Republicanism and the granting of rights for African Americans. The group’s collective goal was the destruction of the race relations and political institutions that had developed during Reconstruction. In other words, the Redeemers aimed at ending state governments controlled by Republicans and restricting Black people’s common right to equality, concurrently removing them from political positions.
Groups such as the Redeemers resorted to violence and threats of violence for the weakening the Republican vote. According to Watson (2018), by the 1876 presidential elections, there were only three states in the South of which white Democrats had not yet gained control: Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana. The results of the election – featuring the democratic candidate Tilden and the Republican candidate Hayes – are believed to be the result of negotiations between the parties leaders. It became known as the Compromise of 1877, according to which Hayes won in return for a great number of benefits for the South, including the withdrawal of Federal troops from the states remaining unoccupied. As these forces were withdrawn, Reconstruction came to an end.
Reference
Watson, H. L. (2018). Building the American republic, volume 1: A narrative history to 1877. University of Chicago Press.