What significance did the white backlash in the former Confederacy have on the rights of black Americans?

Question 1

Describe how the KKK was set up.

Answer 1

• 24th December 1865 confederate soldiers to create the KKK
• Prominent members included Nathan Bedford Forest and John. C Gordon
• Elaborate rituals began

Question 2

Describe how the White League was set up and their successes.

Answer 2

o Created March 1874 in Louisiana
o Coushatta Massacre August 1874 – murdered 6 Republican officials and 5 BAs
o Battle of Liberty Place September 1874 – troops removed because of yellow fever, WL demanded the resignation of the current governor and for him to be replaced by a Democrat and held New Orleans for 3 days
♣ Eventually lost

Question 3

Describe the Knights of the White Camelia.

Answer 3

• slaughtered 50 BAs 1873, then when BAs surrendered, killed more – in total 280

Question 4

1870 Enforcement Act.

Answer 4

placed penalties against anyone who interfered with a citizen

Question 5

Second Enforcement Act.

Answer 5

• placed the election of Congressmen under the surveillance of federal election officials

Question 6

Third Enforcement Act

Answer 6

gave troops the power to suspend habeas corpus and arrest suspected KKK members

Question 7

Impact on voting?

Answer 7

• In the 1875 elections in Mississippi, local democrat party rifle clubs paraded in black areas and incited riots where hundreds of BAs were killed
• Historian Kenneth Stampp wrote that ‘on election day, many BAs stayed away’
• Resentment of military occupation and the impact of black participation in voting alienated white voters

Question 8

Evidence to suggest Reconstruction ended earlier than 1877?

Answer 8

o E.g. the election of Ulysses Grant as President (very moderate)
o 1869, Congress refused to provide funding for the Freedmen’s Bureau
Amnesty Act of 1872, pardoned all but the most senior confederate officials

Question 9

Describe the situation in 1873.

Answer 9

• 1873 – major economic depression in the US economy

o Northern businessmen pressurised the government

Question 10

Describe the election leading to the end of Reconstruction.

Answer 10

o Democrats nominated Samuel Tilden
o Republicans nominated R. B. Hayes
♣ In a private letter, Hayes said the cleverest thing to do with Reconstruction would be not leave the south alone
o Tilden won the most votes but not the electoral college
• In April 1877, the last Republican Party government in the South left saying Hayes’ southern party abandoned southern Republicans