United States History Student Edition

BIOGRAPHY HIRAM REVELS (1822–1901) In 1870, Hiram Revels became the first African American to be elected to the U.S. Senate. Revels was born in the South, but he was educated in Indiana and Ohio. The son of a Baptist preacher, Revels

make money illegally. Yet there is no evidence that corruption in the South was greater than in the North. Resistance to Reconstruction Life during Reconstruction was difficult for African Americans. Most Southern whites did not want African Americans to have more rights. White landowners often refused to rent land to freed people. Store owners refused to give them credit. Many employers would not hire them. Of the jobs available to African Americans, many were those that whites were unwilling to do. Secret societies, such as the Ku Klux Klan, posed a serious danger to freed people. The Klan formed in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1865. These groups used fear and violence to deny rights to freed men and women. Disguising themselves in white sheets and hoods, Klan members threatened, beat, and killed thousands of African Americans and the whites who supported them. Klan members burned African American homes, schools, and churches. Many Democrats, planters, and other white Southerners supported the Klan. Some saw violence as a way to oppose Republican rule. In 1870 and 1871, Congress passed several laws to try to stop the growing Klan violence. These laws were not always effective. White Southerners often refused to testify against those who attacked African Americans and their white supporters. 7 CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING 1. Explaining Why did many Southerners resent scalawags and carpetbaggers? 2. Summarizing How did Reconstruction affect African Americans in the South? Schools and Sharecropping GUIDING QUESTION What were some improvements and some limitations for African Americans? During the early days of Reconstruction, African Americans built their own schools. In the 1870s, Reconstruction governments created public schools for both races. Soon about 50 percent of white children and 40 percent of African American children attended school in the South. African Americans also made gains in higher education. Northerners set up academies in the South. These academies grew into a network of colleges and universities for African Americans, including Howard University in Washington, D.C.

himself became a pastor and educator in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. In the early part of his career, he traveled around the country working to educate free African Americans. During the Civil War, Revels organized African American volunteers in Maryland, Missouri, and Mississippi to fight on the side of the Union. In Mississippi, he served as a chaplain, or army religious official, to a regiment of African American soldiers. After the war ended, Revels moved to Mississippi, where he became interested in local and state politics. Revels was a Republican, but he had a reputation as a moderate rather than a radical. One of the main reasons for this was that he supported efforts to bring former Confederates back into civil society. However, he was aligned with the Radicals in their efforts to desegregate schools and educate formerly enslaved African Americans. Republicans also had the support of many Northern whites who moved to the South after the war. White Southerners called these Northerners carpetbaggers after the cheap suitcases some carried. Some carpetbaggers were dishonest people looking to take advantage of the South’s difficulties, but most were not. Many sincerely wanted to help rebuild the South. White Southerners accused Reconstruction governments of corruption (kuh•RUHP•shuhn)— dishonest or illegal actions. Some officials did corruption dishonest or illegal actions 486 Citing Text Evidence How did Hiram Revels work to support African Americans?

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