The Redeemers: Reconstruction or Ruin? Quiz

Answer: Freedmen

When President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 he did not put an end to the institution; the slave would not legally become emancipated until he escaped the control of the Confederate States of America, or CSA. He could do this either by running away or waiting until Union troops liberated the area in which he lived.

When the Thirteenth Amendment was passed in 1865, however, slavery was abolished. In quick succession, the Fourteenth Amendment (1868) granted citizenship to the former slaves, called freedmen, and the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) gave freedmen the right to vote. Even so, there were groups in the South, such as the Redeemers, who worked against those Republicans who sought to make the freedmen equal, and sought "Redemption" for antebellum Southern ways, thinking that the Republicans were too radical and extremist in their views.

Answer: Reconstruction

Actually the term "Reconstruction" has two meanings in U.S. history from 1865-1877. It not only refers to the rebuilding of the entire country after the Civil War, but specifically to the rebuilding of the South as well. After the Civil War it was necessary to restore the Union and find a way to readmit the Confederate states. President Lincoln had a plan called the Ten Percent Plan, whereby a new state government would be established when 10% of the state's prewar voters took a loyalty oath. He died, however, before the plan could be initiated. Eventually, after much deliberation, Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 (the new President Johnson's plans were vetoed), which included ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment and writing new state constitutions that would include universal male suffrage. By 1877 this plan was deemed accomplished and the federal Reconstruction program ended.

Answer: Jim Crow

While the Republicans planned to equalize the rights of African Americans who had previously been slaves after the Civil War, the Redeemers were able to take control of state legislatures and pass laws that promoted racial segregation in the South; some of these laws continued in force until the 1960s. Laws were enacted that segregated public education, public businesses, transportation, and even drinking fountains and restrooms.

In addition, poll taxes and literacy tests made it difficult for many former slaves, as well as poor whites, to participate in voting.

The Civil Rights Act of 1875 attempted to do away with Jim Crow laws. However, schools did not become desegregated until the passage of "Brown v. Board of Education" (1954) by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Many of the other Jim Crow laws were rendered inoperative with the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Answer: Scalawags

After the Civil War there were Southerners who aligned with Republican ideas, contrary to the Redeemers, even though they were viewed by their peers as being unfaithful to the Southern way of life. Although they were relatively few in number, these people gained power taking advantage of that fact that many of the whites in the South refused to take the "ironclad" oath, to which they would have to swear that they had never backed the Confederate States of America. General James Longstreet, one of the CSA's top generals during the war (Lee's Old War Horse), became a scalawag, working with U.S. Grant during the Reconstruction Era.

Historically the term "scalawag" was applied to farm animals that were poor in quality.

Answer: White League

While a paramilitary force was not part of a state's professional armed forces, it did function in much the same way. During Reconstruction the Redeemers used paramilitary forces to intimidate people into voting against Republicans and to frighten former slaves. Also called the White Man's League, the White League worked out of Louisiana; many of its original members were former CSA troops.

The White League was not a clandestine group; members organized and worked in the open to achieve their goals.

There was a similar groups in other states; for example, the Red Shirts operated out of Mississippi.

Answer: Opelousas Massacre

When some of the freedmen from Opelousas, Louisiana, attempted to join the Southern Democrats, many of whom were Redeemers, in the nearby town of Washington in 1868, they were forced to leave by a group of white supremacists from Opelousas. In response to the action, a young newsman in Opelousas, Emerson Bentley, wrote an editorial in "The Landry Progress", stating that he believed this action would make freedmen more loyal to the Republican cause.

After being assaulted by white supremacists, Bentley left town.

Many, however, believed that he had been killed, and some freedmen armed themselves with the intention of seeking retaliation. Several of these men were captured and executed, as it was still against local laws for blacks to have a gun.

The violence continued for weeks, with an estimated casualty list of 200-300 blacks and 30-50 whites.

Answer: Ku Klux Klan

Historians list three incarnations of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in the United States. The first, operating until the early 1870s, was a contained Southern movement with an expressed goal of ending Republican control of state governments and intimidating the newly-freed African Americans.

There were many self-governing chapters of the organization in the South. However, the Enforcement Act of 1871, also known as the Civil Rights Act of 1871, gave President Grant federal power to fight these groups of Redeemers and the first movement of the KKK was ended.

The second rise to power of the group was in the early 1900s was nationwide and was not only a white supremacist group, but was also was against any religion that wasn't Protestant and largely supported Prohibition.

The third movement of the group has existed since the 1950s and grew out of a reaction to the civil rights movements of that era.

Answer: Bourbon

Coined by their opponents who saw the politicians as being old-fashioned and conservative, the term "Bourbon Democrat" was used to describe the Redeemers, who worked to stamp out the Radical Republicans in the South. In addition to opposing imperialism and high tariffs, Bourbon Democrats were stronger supporters of reforms within the government - such as Civil Service Reform - but were against giving rights to the freedmen of the South.

The movement became popular in the early 1870s; notable among the Bourbon Democrats was President Grover Cleveland, who served two nonconsecutive terms from 1884 and 1892.

By the turn of the century the power of the Bourbon Democrats began to wane. What about their name? While it may be that the first members of the party drank bourbon in Kentucky, it is believed that the name primarily came from the French Bourbon Dynasty, the Old Régime that was overthrown during the French Revolution.

Answer: Corrupt Bargain

The first so-called "Corrupt Bargain" took place after the 1825 election; there was no majority in the Electoral College, so Henry Clay gave his support to presidential candidate John Quincy Adams in exchange for being appointed as Secretary of State.

In 1876, Republican candidate Rutherford B Hayes received the disputed votes of three Southern states and was accused of being involved in the exchange of some sort of compromise - which never surfaced or was proven. The third such bargain in U.S. history was said to have been made when Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon, which some said was the deal for his being appointed president.

The significance of the second Corrupt Bargain was that the so-called agreement - made with Redeemers that called for President Hayes to withdraw federal troops from the South - ended the Reconstruction Era.

Answer: Carpetbagger

Carpetbaggers, mostly politicians or businessmen, came to the South after the Civil War in order to seek personal gain. Politicians, typically called Radical Republicans, sought to assert political control of the area. They called for the total and lasting cessation of slavery and the return to the Union of the Southern states that had formed the Confederacy.

In addition, many carpetbaggers sought economic gain from the defeated South, and sought to built banks, which, of course, offered high interest loans, and retail businesses; some even leased plantations that had largely been unproductive during the war years. Named for the bags of luggage that they carried, carpetbaggers, as Radical Republicans, were against the Redemption movement.