US History › Section H · Civil War and Reconstruction › Topic H.8
The collapse of Reconstruction
Within about ten years of the war's end, white Southern Democrats had regained power across the South through economic pressure, terror and a weakening Northern commitment. Reconstruction collapsed in 1877, but the amendments it left behind would later become the legal foundation of the civil rights movement.
In this topic
- Why did Reconstruction end?
- Land, labour and sharecropping
- Worked example: the debt cycle
- Terror: the Klan and its allies
- The federal response
- The North loses interest
- The courts narrow the amendments
- The disputed election of 1876
- Worked example: was there a deal?
- What came after
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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