The South in Reconstruction

“Scalawags" were mostly former members of the Whig party, wealthy men in search of economic development and success. Others were farmers that resided in rural areas, and were only interested in the Republicans because they believed their improvements to the area would help end their economic struggles.

“Carpetbaggers” referred to white men from the North who served as Republican leaders in the new South.  The term referred to a cheap suitcase, portraying an image of poverty. But in reality most of them were educated middle class citizens.

A threat to Carpetbaggers from the Klu Klux Klan
Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 1868
Klu Klux Klan. Web. 12 Dec 2010. http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/kkk_cart1.jpg.

African American freedmen would be the most numerous among Republicans in the South. They usually possessed no experience in politics, and intended to build institutions that would allow them to exercise their newly found power. They held conventions, called “colored conventions” by white southerners. Churches created by freedmen gave the African American communities a sense of unity and self-confidence in politics. They played a large role in reconstructing the South by serving as delegates in conventions, and holding public office. Between 1869 and 1901 there were twenty African Americans that served in the House of Representatives. There were also two Senators named Hiram Revels and Blanche K Bruce both of whom represented Mississippi. African Americans also held positions in state legislatures and other state offices.

Hiram Revels,
1st black U.S. senator, 1870
Flashback Lancaster. Web. 12 Dec 2010. http://blogs.lancasteronline.com/flashbacklancaster/files/2008/11/revels.jpg.


To no surprise, white southerners complained of “Negro Rule” during Reconstruction. Ironically, no African Americans were governors in any of the southern states. The only time they came close to controlling state legislature was when they held the lower house majority in South Carolina for a brief period. In the south, the percentage of black people in office was much lower than the percentage of black people in the population.

The Reconstruction Era is denounced as a time of corruption and extravagancy by some. Many state officeholders got rich off of illicit activities, and state budgets expanded. State debts were significantly higher than ever before, in South Carolina the debt went from $7 million to $29 million in a period of just eight years. However the Northern states were said to be just as corrupt, and for the same reason: the growth of government services and revenue that tempted officials into corruption. The end of Reconstruction did little to end this, in many states corruption increased afterwards.

However the money that was spent during this era went to good things also, such as public education, public works programs, poor relief, and other commitments that the government had previously not been a part of.

In the South, groups called for improvements in public schools. Among these were the Freedman’s Bureau, Northern Philanthropic organizations, teachers at Freedmen's schools, and southern African Americans. White citizens feared education would give a “false notion of equality” to African Americans. Despite this, many schools were established. Four thousand schools were built by 1870, with nine-thousand teachers (half of whom were African American) and two-hundred thousand students (12% of the total school age population of African Americans.)

By 1876 40% of all African American children in the South were in school, and more than 50% of all white children. Black schools of higher education called “Academies” began to open. These eventually became universities and colleges, like Morehouse College and Fisk and Atlanta Universities.


There were early efforts to integrate Southern schools, which failed miserably. Schools such as the Freedmen’s Bureau Schools were open to all races but hardly any white children went to them. New Orleans set up integrated schools during the Reconstruction Era but similarly, white children did not attend. A federal effort to force school integration was the Civil Rights Act of 1875, but all the provisions for the desegregation of schools was removed before it was passed into law.

The Crises of Reconstruction. Web. 12 Dec 2010. http://websupport1.citytech.cuny.edu/Faculty/pcatapano/lectures_us2/schoolhouse.jpg.


Most land was not owned during the Reconstruction. Around 25% of African American farm laborers worked for wages. The rest were tenants of white landowners. They worked a plot of land that they owned in exchange for rent or a share of the crop. This way, African Americans had at least an independence from the landowners and got to work their own land, even if they would only ever rent the plot.

While African Americans earned money for working in post-slave society, they worked less. Adult men worked shorter days, and women and children were a lot less likely to labor outside. Their labor force worked 1/3 of the hours as they had before the war. This put this financially in the same category as white farmers. The income redistribution did little to help black citizens get out of poverty.

After the war, a new system emerged which was called credit. It was mostly used in rural stores, because the workers of the land near the stores depended on them for everyday necessities. Since the income of field workers isn’t as steady as other jobs, the stores would work out a deal in which the worker would pay later. Since the stores had virtually no competition they set ridiculous interest rates, as high as 60 percent. The workers would give the store a lien (claim) on their crop as collateral, which is why it was entitled the “crop-lien system”. If a worker were to suffer from a few bad crops in a row they would be trapped in debt for the rest of their lives.

This system had a number of negative effects on the south. Black citizens who had gotten land right after the war lost it as they fell into debt. A smaller amount of white landowners had the same happen to them. Southern farmers became totally dependent on cash crops (mostly cotton) because these crops seemed to be a way out of debt. They relentlessly planted cotton which exhausted the soil. The crop-lien system not only financially crippled farmers, but also hurt southern agriculture.


A sharecropper's cabin, North Carolina
Image Quiz. Web. 12 Dec 2010. http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/dl/free/0073257184/89059/u26_11.jpg.

The most ambitious goal of Republican Radicals in Congress and the Freedmen’s Bureau was to reform landownership in the South. By 1865 the bureau had settled nearly 10,000 black families on abandoned plantations. But by the end of the year the plantation owners began to return and demand their property back, with the support of President Johnson. The government ended up returning most of the land to the original owners.


White landownership went from 80% before the war to 67% by the end of reconstruction. African Americans landownership went from around 0% to over 20%. It is said that most white citizens lost their land because of increased taxes or debts left unpaid, while some abandoned the land they owned for more fertile areas that they rented. There was an attempt by white citizens that were against slavery to encourage landownership among black citizens. It was called the Freedmen’s Bank, established 1865. They persuaded people to give their savings to the bank, but then invested in unsuccessful businesses. The bank failed in 1874.


Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Company. Web. 12 Dec 2010. http://www.blackpast.org/files/blackpast_images/Freedmens_Bank.jpg.

Many freed slaves rapidly disappeared from the plantations of the south after the war, mostly to find lost relatives. African Americans wandered throughout the south looking for their families. There were a few black newspapers at the time in which people posted advertisements looking for information about their missing relatives. They had their marriages sanctified by church and law. African Americans left the slave quarters and moved into cabins that were dispersed amongst the countryside. Male and female roles quickly morphed to that of white families; women and children ceased working outside in the fields. They believed this to be a “badge of slavery”. Women focused on domestic chores, and some husbands refused to let their wives work as servants to white people. However income forced many black women to work as servants or work in the fields. At the end of Reconstruction, half of all African American women over 16 were working. Unlike white women, most of them were married.

Brinkley, Alan. American History: A Survey. 13th ed. 1. New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 2009. 413-418. Print.