Who Killed Reconstruction?

Terrorizing “Carpetbaggers” and “Scalawags”

• ·      The image of the Alabama lynching is chilling, especially considering it was drawn as a warning to Republicans in the South. It is a direct threat to Carpetbaggers and Scalawags who sided with the Freedmen.
• ·      The KKK formed as a social club in 1866 and quickly evolved into an organization that used violence to intimidate Freedmen and any who sought to support Republican Reconstruction governments.
• ·      The KKK and other groups often targeted individuals in key positions of power including judges and government officials. Since the KKK did not see the Reconstruction governments as legitimate, they felt justified in their attacks. The term “redemption,” which they used to describe their efforts, literally means salvation. The KKK saw themselves as saviors for Southerners who were being enslaved by Reconstruction governments.
• ·      Albion Tourgee is one of the most famous of the so-called Carpetbaggers. He not only was an effective judge in a very violent area of North Carolina, he bravely wrote about his experiences and observations, thus endangering himself even more. He also helped start a school for black students, now known as Bennett College. After Reconstruction he left North Carolina and became an influential writer and editor in Colorado and New York.
• ·      The Donkey is the symbol of the Democratic Party and had been since the Age of Jackson. The image, therefore, is a threat to any who support the Republican efforts at Reconstruction. The donkey clearly links the KKK to the Democratic Party.

Targeting Black Voters and Government Officials

• ·      Elections during Reconstruction were times of increased violence in the South. Many Southerners saw the Republicans as conquerors—after all they were the party of Lincoln. Not surprisingly, Freedmen overwhelmingly voted for the Republican ticket. In 1868 President Grant won the popular vote by only 310,000 votes, 500,000 African American votes in the South were the difference.
• ·      Harper’s Weekly was a very influential Northern magazine. This 1876 image was a scathing attack on Southerners use of violence to intimidate the black vote. These scare tactics were used well into the 20^th century, and it wasn’t until the 1960s that many black Southerners felt safe enough to cast a vote.
• ·      It was well known in the North and in Congress that voter intimidation was rampant in most Southern states. Colby’s testimony was part of an effort to expose the cruel and illegal nature of the Klan’s activities. Congress did authorize President Grant to use troops suppress KKK activities. One of Grant’s greatest efforts led to the arrest of 600 Klansmen in South Carolina. Even though the celebrated event led to only 9 of the 600 men standing trial, much of the Klan’s energies were limited as its leaders went into hiding or fled. However, as Grant and Congress began to take less forceful measures after 1872, the ideals of Radical Reconstruction were doomed to fail. Soon White Leagues and the KKK remerged in full force.

Popular Opinion and Racism in the North

• ·      The only way that Reconstruction was going to succeed was if Northerners want it to do so. Resistance was strong in the South. The crusade of the Civil War left many Northerners willing to continue the aggressive Radical Reconstruction policies for a while. But eventually, fatigue, money, and the death of the most important radicals, left many in the North exhausted and frustrated.
• ·      One reason Northerners tired of Reconstruction has been traced to the racism that existed in the North. As blacks were being brutalized in the South, many Northerners turned a blind eye to the problem, and even began seeing blacks as the cause of their own problems. In her book, The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor, and Politics in the Post-Civil War North, 1865-1901, Heather Richardson makes a convincing case that Northern public opinion changed in the early 1870s. Newspapers and cartoonist, who had originally portrayed the slave as a hard working, freedom-seeking American, began to show blacks as lazy and corrupt and of low character in general. Richardson argues that the Freedmen was in part the victim of the Northern middle class becoming increasingly fearful of immigrants and labor unions, many of whom advocated socialist-like ideas. This shift in attitude toward Southern blacks is not surprising given that many Northern states had tight restrictions on black suffrage until the 15^th Amendment was passed.
• ·      If Northern racism was the reason the Federal Government became less interested in Reconstruction, then who was really responsible for bringing Reconstruction to an end—Northerners who were unwilling to force change, or Southerners who used violence and terrorism to resist change?

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