Whose inauguration in 1877 is generally used to mark the end of Reconstruction?

The Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 freed African Americans in rebel states, and after the Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment emancipated all U.S. slaves wherever they were. As a result, the mass of Southern blacks now faced the difficulty Northern blacks had confronted—that of a free people surrounded by many hostile whites. One freedman, Houston Hartsfield Holloway, wrote, “For we colored people did not know how to be free and the white people did not know how to have a free colored person about them.”

Even after the Emancipation Proclamation, two more years of war, service by African American troops, and the defeat of the Confederacy, the nation was still unprepared to deal with the question of full citizenship for its newly freed black population. The Reconstruction implemented by Congress, which lasted from 1866 to 1877, was aimed at reorganizing the Southern states after the Civil War, providing the means for readmitting them into the Union, and defining the means by which whites and blacks could live together in a nonslave society. The South, however, saw Reconstruction as a humiliating, even vengeful imposition and did not welcome it.

During the years after the war, black and white teachers from the North and South, missionary organizations, churches and schools worked tirelessly to give the emancipated population the opportunity to learn. Former slaves of every age took advantage of the opportunity to become literate. Grandfathers and their grandchildren sat together in classrooms seeking to obtain the tools of freedom.

After the Civil War, with the protection of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, African Americans enjoyed a period when they were allowed to vote, actively participate in the political process, acquire the land of former owners, seek their own employment, and use public accommodations. Opponents of this progress, however, soon rallied against the former slaves' freedom and began to find means for eroding the gains for which many had shed their blood.

Forever Free

Celebration of Emancipation

Victorious Soldiers Return

Alfred R. Waud. Mustered Out. Little Rock, Arkansas, April 20, 1865. Drawing. Chinese white on green paper. Published in Harper's Weekly, May 19, 1866. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-175 (5–1)

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Black Exodus

Black Exodus to Kansas

• Standard Atlas of Graham Co. Kansas, Including a Plat Book of the Villages, Cities, and Townships. Lithograph map. Chicago: A. Ogle, 1906. Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress (5–8a)

• Standard Atlas of Graham Co. Kansas, Including a Plat Book of the Villages, Cities, and Townships. Index of families in Nicodemus. Chicago: A. Ogle, 1906. Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress (5–8b)

African American Population Distribution, 1890

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Fruits of Reconstruction

Freed Persons Receive Wages From Former Owner

Hampton Plantation Account Book, 1866–1868. South Carolina. Handwritten manuscript. Page 68 - Page 69. Miscellaneous Manuscript Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (5–20)

Glimpses of the Freed Women

African Americans And The Franchise

The Fisk Jubilee Singers

“I Am the Door.” From Songs of the Jubilee Singers from Fisk University. Sheet music. Cincinnati: John Church & Co., 1884. Music Division, Library of Congress (5–16)

Teaching The Newly Freed Population

“Sea-island School, No. 1,—St. Helena Island. Established in April 1862.” Education among the Freedmen, ca. 1866-70. Broadside. Page 2. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress. Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-107754 (5–2)

An African American Majority in the South Carolina Legislature

Freedmen Navigate Legislative Shoals

Laws in Relation to Freedmen, U.S. Sen. 39th Congress, 2nd Sess. Senate Executive Doc. No. 6. Washington: War Department, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1866-67. Pamphlet. Law Library, Library of Congress (5–17)

Nineteenth Century Leaders

African American Men in Government

Distinguished Colored Men

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The Role of the Black Church

The African American Church—A Bulwark

Activism in the Black Church

Proceedings of the Semi-centenary Celebration of the African Methodist Episcopal Church of Cincinnati . . . February 8th, 9th, and 10th, 1874. Edited by Rev. B. W. Arnett. Cincinnati: H. Watkin, 1874. Daniel A.P. Murray Pamphlet Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (5–3)

An African American Institution of Higher Learning—Wilberforce University

• The Wilberforce Alumnae: A Comprehensive Review of the Origin, Development and Present Status of Wilberforce University, 1885. Compiled by B. W. Arnet and S. T. Mitchell. Xenia, Ohio: Printed at the Gazette Office, 1885. Pamphlet. Daniel A.P. Murray Pamphlet Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (5–4)

  What ended Reconstruction in 1877?

  The Compromise of 1877 gave Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency in exchange for the end of Reconstruction in the South.

  Which presidential election marked the end of Reconstruction?

  The presidential election of 1876 led to the end of Reconstruction. In this election, the Republican Party nominated Rutherford B. Hayes, an Ohioan, while the Democratic Party ran Samuel Tilden, a New Yorker. Tilden won the popular vote by 250,000 votes, but a dispute arose in the Electoral College.

  Who ultimately decided the outcome of the election of 1877?

  An informal agreement was struck that became known as the Compromise of 1877. Following this agreement, the Commission voted along party lines to award all 20 disputed electoral votes to Hayes, thus assuring his electoral victory by a margin of 185–184.

  How did the Compromise of 1877 mark the beginning of the end of Reconstruction?

  How did the Compromise of 1877 mark the beginning of the end of Reconstruction? It removed federal troops from the South.