Cities, roads, and bridges damaged.
 MS wealth gone – now in extreme
poverty


1/3 of adult white male population dead
or unable to work because of war
wounds

400,000 freedmen homeless, poor, &
uneducated.
› Feared re-enslavement
› Wanted equality

Freedmen’s Bureau was created by the
federal government.
› Help with adjustment to free society
› Provided food, shelter, education, health
care, & helped them find jobs

Southern whites
feared
consequences of
secession by the
federal
government.
All southerners (except high ranking
Confederate officials) would be
pardoned after taking an oath of loyalty
to the United States.
 After 10% of the population took the
oath, the state could form a legal
government and rejoin the Union.

Lincoln’s plan not
implemented
because of his
assassination in
April of 1865.
 His Vice President
Andrew Johnson
became
president.

High ranking Confederate officials,
military, and those who owned property
worth more than $20,000 had to apply to
the President for a pardon.
 Southern states had to:

› Write a new state constitution abolishing
slavery
› Repeal their secession ordinances
› Void their war debt
› Ratify 13th Amendment (abolished slavery)
Legalized marriage between blacks
 Prohibited interracial marriages






Restricted blacks’ testimony in court cases
involving whites
Limited black land ownership
Prohibited from carrying firearms or other
weapons
Provided for the arrest, fining, or
imprisonment of blacks who assembled
without permission or were unemployed Blacks who were arrested could be hired
out to anyone who paid the fine.
Black workers had to have a written
employment contract witnessed by 2
whites. If broken, they could be arrested
and returned to their employer.

Because of the Black Codes and MS and
many other southern states’ refusal to
ratify the 13th & 14th Amendments,
Congress took over Reconstruction.

Reconstruction Act (1867) carved the
south into 5 military districts. MS was in
the 4th Military District headed by Major
General Edward Ord.

Scalawags: White Mississippians who
supported Congressional Reconstruction.
James Alcorn

Carpetbaggers: Northern whites who
had come to MS after the war.
Adelbert Ames
from Maine would
become governor.

MS black leaders
› Hiram Revels

Mississippi and other former Confederate
states refused to ratify the 13th
Amendment.
› In response, Congress refused to seat
Mississippi’s delegation in Washington.

14th Amendment came up for
ratification in 1866. The 14th Amendment:
› granted citizenship to all: black and white
› forbade states from depriving any person of
life, liberty or property without due process
› gives power to pardon to Congress
› voided Confederate war debt
Congress eventually took control of
Reconstruction because MS and other
southern states refused to ratify the 14th
Amendment.
 The Reconstruction Act carved the south
into 5 military districts and set new, strict
requirements for restoring government
 Mississippi was in District 4 under the
command of Major General
Edward Ord.


Ord’s first (and perhaps the most
important) task of the military
commander was to register all eligible
voters.
› When the registration process closed in 1867,
137,000 adult males qualified to vote.
› 29 counties had a white majority.
› 32 counties had a black majority of voters.

In the first election, voters decided to
write a new state constitution and
elected delegates.

100 delegates made up the 1868
constitutional convention (also known as
the “Black and Tan” convention).
Among the 100 were:
› 17 black Republicans
› 29 scalawags
› 25 carpetbaggers
› 17 conservative Democrats

The 1868 constitution became the most
democratic of all of MS’s constitutions.

1868 MS constitution:
› Universal male suffrage*
› Free public education* for children ages 6–18
› Forbade discrimination in public
transportation
› Eliminated property qualifications for voting or
holding office
› Extended property rights to married women
*Major concerns of MS freedmen

Conservative Democrats did not
approve the following additions to the
new constitution:
› Disfranchisement of secession supporters
and those who gave aid to Confederacy
› Increased power of governor
› Requirement of former Confederates to take
oath acknowledging that all men are
created equal

The 1868 constitution was not ratified the
first time around.
› Many conservative whites refused to vote
and Ku Klux Klan used violence and
intimidation to keep blacks from polls.

It was finally passed in 1869 when the
disfranchisement of former Confederates
and the loyalty oath were deleted.
Republican Rule in MS
The adoption of the new constitution
began Republican rule in Mississippi.
 James L. Alcorn was elected the first
Republican governor in 1869.


After the 1868 elections, the Republicans
had a majority in the state legislature.

Mississippi was readmitted as a state in
1870 when the state legislature ratified of
the 14th and 15th Amendments.
› MS did not officially ratify the 13th until 2013!
Mississippi’s two U.S. Senators:
Adelbert Ames
Hiram Revels

Adelbert Ames – carpetbagger from
Maine
› Provisional governor of Maine

Hiram Revels – from Missouri but moved
to Natchez
 1st black to serve in U.S. Senate
 Finished Jefferson Davis’ term
James Alcorn was governor of all the
people.
 Under his leadership:






Economy improved
Land value increased
Public schools expanded
Laws more democratic
Though a successful governor, he
decided to resign in order to run for the
U.S. Senate when Revels finished his term.
› Revels became the 1st president of Alcorn
University.

The Mississippi Republican party was
weakened by a conflict between Alcorn
and Ames during the 1873 governor
election.
› Alcorn accused by Ames of deserting the
Republican party and siding with Democrats.
› He also stated that Ames was not protecting
blacks from Klan violence.
› Ames won but the Republican party split
between supporters of Ames and Alcorn.

Benjamin Montgomery
› Black planter appointed by Ord as justice of
the peace
› 1st black to hold a public
office in the state.

Blanche K. Bruce
› 1st African-American to serve
in the U.S. Senate to serve a
full term
› The custom in the Senate is
for the state’s senior senator
to escort the new senator to
his seat.
› James Alcorn refused.
› Senator Roscoe Conkling of
NY did it instead. Bruce
named his first son after him.

John R. Lynch
› Speaker of MS House of
Representatives
› Only black member of MS
delegation to U.S. House of
Representatives

Robert H. Wood
› First black mayor of any
American city (Natchez)
Mississippi’s Reconstruction government
established tax supported public schools.
 Public school enrollment of Mississippi in
1875 was 89,813 black & 78,404 white.


Higher Education
› Expanded University of Mississippi (Ole Miss)
› Established Alcorn University = Alcorn
Agricultural and Mechanical College
› Established Industrial Institute – 1st state
supported college for women in the U.S. (MS
University for Women)
› Established MS Agricultural and Mechanical
College (MSU) as a segregated school for
whites

Conservative Democrats opposed
Reconstruction from the beginning.
› They wanted to return control of MS
government back to native whites.
› They named themselves the Redeemers
since they were to “save” the state from
Republican rule.

To ensure Democrat victories, the KKK
and other groups used intimidation and
violence to prevent blacks from voting.
› Blacks were not just threatened with physical
violence but with loss of their jobs.

Warren County Riot (1874)
› 500 whites forced black sheriff Peter Crosby
to resign
› Riot occurred when blacks tried to help
Crosby get his job back
› 2 whites, 29 blacks killed
› Federal troops called in to maintain order.

Clinton Riot (1875)
› Group of whites ambushed and killed black
Republican Charles Caldwell because “he
belongs to this Republican party and sticks
up for those Negroes.”

1876 Presidential Election
› Rutherford B. Hayes (Rep) &
Samuel Tilden (Dem) tied in
electoral votes.
› Democrats made a secret
compromise with
Republicans to allow Hayes
to be president if federal
troops were pulled out of the
southern states.
› They agreed and Hayes
became president.
Democrats called for another
constitutional convention to change the
1868 constitution.
 Major changes to voting:

› Pay an annual poll tax
› Had to read a section of the state
constitution or “understand it when read to
them” = Understanding clause

Result: black voters dropped from
142,000 to 8,615 and more than 30,000
whites were too poor to pay the poll tax.
Democrats would rule
Mississippi until the 1990s.