1) Reconstruction ended as support declined for policies that protected the rights of freed slaves. Southern Democrats regained power using violence and threats against black voters. 2) The South transitioned to a "New South" economy based on industries like textiles, tobacco, and steel, though it remained largely rural and poor. Segregation laws and disenfranchisement of black voters created a divided society. 3) Reconstruction brought some success in rebuilding the South but ultimately failed to achieve full freedom and equality for African Americans, as the South imposed racial segregation and Jim Crow laws.

2. Why It Matters
We had survived our worst war, but the end of
the Civil War left Americans to deal with a set
of pressing issues. The status of some 3.5
million former enslaved people had yet to be
decided. Nor had the terms by which the former
Confederate states would rejoin the Union been
decided. How Americans would handle these
issues would shape the future of our country.

3. The Impact Today
Debate over the rightful power of the federal
government and the states continues to this day.
Americans continue to wrestle with the problem
of providing civil rights and equal opportunity
to all citizens.

4. Chapter Objectives
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• Cite the changes that occurred in the South during
the last years of Reconstruction. 
• Describe how African Americans were denied their
rights.
Section 4: Change in the South

5. Click the mouse button or press the
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Guide to Reading
Democrats steadily regained control of Southern
governments as support for Radical Reconstruction
policies decreased. 
• reconciliation 
Main Idea
Key Terms
• commission 
• cash crop 
• poll tax 
• literacy test 
• grandfather clause

• segregation 
• lynching

6. Click the mouse button or press the
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Reconstruction Declines
• As Southern Democrats began to regain
political and economic control in the South,
support for Radical Reconstruction policies
decreased. 
(pages 513–515)
• Many Northerners also began believing in the
end of Reconstruction. 
• They thought it was holding back Southern
economic expansion.

7. Click the mouse button or press the
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• Grant was reelected in the 1872 presidential
election despite division in the Republican
Party. 
• Reports of corruption in Grant’s
administration and in Reconstruction
programs caused a group of Republicans to
form the Liberal Republicans. 
• They nominated Horace Greeley. 
• Although Greeley also had the support of
many Democrats, Grant won.
Reconstruction Declines (cont.)
(pages 513–515)

8. Click the mouse button or press the
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• Congress passed the Amnesty Act in May 1872
that pardoned most former Confederates. 
• This caused the political balance in the South
to change and allowed Democrats to regain
power. 
• During the 1872 election, Liberal Republicans
called for expanded amnesty for white
Southerners.
Reconstruction Declines (cont.)
(pages 513–515)

9. Click the mouse button or press the
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• Democrats regained control of state
governments in Virginia and North Carolina. 
• The Ku Klux Klan and other violent groups
terrorized Republican voters, thus helping
Democrats take power. 
• The Democrats used threats to pressure white
Republicans to become Democrats. 
• They also used violence to persuade African
Americans not to vote. 
• By 1876 Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana
were the only Southern states
to remain Republican.
Reconstruction Declines (cont.)
(pages 513–515)

10. Click the mouse button or press the
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• Scandals and corruption charges weakened the
Republican Party. 
• The nation was also in an economic depression.
Blame fell on the
Republicans. 
• In the 1874 congressional elections, the
Democrats won control of a part of the federal
government. 
• They gained Senate seats and won control of the
House. 
• This weakened Congress’s commitment to
Reconstruction and to protecting the rights of
newly freed African Americans.
Reconstruction Declines (cont.)
(pages 513–515)

11. Click the mouse button or press the
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The End of Reconstruction
• The disputed election of 1876 confirmed the
Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes the
winner four months after the election. 
(pages 515–517)
• Samuel Tilden, the Democrat, appeared the
winner, but disputed returns from Florida,
Louisiana, and South Carolina changed the
result. 
• A special commission was appointed to
resolve the election.

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• It awarded all 20 disputed electoral votes to
Hayes, giving him the required majority for
victory. 
• Congress confirmed the commission’s
findings, so Hayes became president although
he had fewer popular votes than Tilden did.
The End of Reconstruction (cont.)
(pages 515–517)

13. Click the mouse button or press the
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• Congressional leaders made a deal to settle the
election. 
• This was the Compromise of 1877. 
• It said that the new government would give
more aid to the South and withdraw all
remaining troops while the Democrats
promised to maintain the rights of African
Americans.
The End of Reconstruction (cont.)
(pages 515–517)

14. Click the mouse button or press the
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• Hayes sent a clear message in his Inaugural
Address that Reconstruction was over. 
• The federal government would no longer
attempt to reshape Southern society or help
African Americans.
The End of Reconstruction (cont.)
(pages 515–517)

15. Click the mouse button or press the
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Change in the South
• By the 1880s the country saw the rise of the
“New South.” 
(pages 517–518)
• Industry developed based on the region’s
resources of cotton, tobacco, lumber, coal,
iron, and steel. 
- The textile industry advanced. 
- Instead of shipping cotton to the North and Europe,
the South built its own textile mills. 
- The tobacco industry grew. James Duke’s company,
Duke’s American Tobacco Company, eventually
controlled almost all tobacco manufacturing in the
nation.

16. Click the mouse button or press the
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Change in the South (cont.)
(pages 517–518)
- The iron and steel industry also grew. 
- Alabama had deposits of iron ore. 
- By 1890 Southern mills produced nearly 20 percent
of the nation’s iron and steel.

17. Click the mouse button or press the
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• The following factors helped this growth: 
Change in the South (cont.)
(pages 517–518)
- a cheap and reliable workforce of people who
worked long hours for low pay 
- the railroad rebuilding of destroyed track caused a
railroad boom; between 1880 and 1890, the miles of
track doubled

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• A new ruling party, the Democrats, took over. 
• Many of these people were merchants,
bankers, industrialists, and other business
leaders who supported economic development
and opposed Northern interference. 
• They were conservatives. 
• They called themselves “Redeemers” because
they saved themselves from Republican rule.
Change in the South (cont.)
(pages 517–518)

19. Click the mouse button or press the
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• Policies included lower taxes, less public
spending, and reduced government services. 
• Many social services that had started during
Reconstruction were cut or eliminated,
including public education.
Change in the South (cont.)
(pages 517–518)

20. Click the mouse button or press the
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• The South still remained primarily a rural
economy even as it developed some industry. 
• It sank deeper into poverty and debt as time
went on. 
Change in the South (cont.)
(pages 517–518)
- Some plantations, although not many, were
broken up. 
- When divided, the land was used for
sharecropping and tenant farming, which were not
profitable.

21. Click the mouse button or press the
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Change in the South (cont.)
(pages 517–518)
- Reliance on sharecropping and cash crops, or
crops that could be sold for money, hampered the
development of a more modern agricultural
economy. 
- An oversupply of the biggest cash crop, cotton,
forced prices down. 
- With less money, farmers had to buy on credit and
pay high prices for their food
and supplies. 
- Thus, their debt increased.

22. Click the mouse button or press the
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A Divided Society
• Reconstruction was a success and a failure. 
(pages 519–520)
• It helped the South recover and begin
rebuilding. 
• However, the South remained a rural
economy that was very poor. 
• African Americans did not have true
freedom because the South created a
segregated society, separating them from
whites.

23. Click the mouse button or press the
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• Southern states imposed voting restrictions
even though the Fifteenth Amendment
prohibited any state from denying the right to
vote because of race. 
A Divided Society (cont.)
(pages 519–520)
- Many states required people to pay a poll tax before
voting. 
- Because many African Americans and poor whites
could not afford to pay the tax, they could not vote.

- Many states required prospective voters to also take
a literacy test. 
- Because African Americans had little education,
they could not pass the test and therefore could not
vote.

24. Click the mouse button or press the
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A Divided Society (cont.)
(pages 519–520)
- Some states passed a grandfather clause to enable
some whites who may not have been able to pass
the test to be able to vote. 
- The law said that if their fathers or grandfathers had
voted before Reconstruction, they were also allowed
to vote. 
- African Americans were excluded because they did
not gain the right to vote until 1867.

25. Click the mouse button or press the
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• The South became a segregated society. 
• Many states passed Jim Crow laws, which were
laws that required African Americans and
whites to be separated in almost every public
place and facility. 
• The facilities were separate but not equal. 
• Southern states spent more money on schools
and facilities for whites than for African
Americans. 
• This segregation lasted for more than 50 years.
A Divided Society (cont.)
(pages 519–520)

26. Click the mouse button or press the
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• Violence against African Americans increased.

• Threats of violence and the voting laws caused
African American voting to drop. 
• Mob lynching, or killing African Americans
by hanging, increased. 
• If African Americans were suspected of
committing crimes or did not behave as whites
expected them to, they were lynched.
A Divided Society (cont.)
(pages 519–520)