The 1876 United States presidential election was the 23rd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 1876, in which Republican nominee Rutherford B. Hayes faced Democrat Samuel J. Tilden. It was one of the most contentious presidential elections in American history, and gave rise to the Compromise of 1877 by which the Democrats conceded the election to Hayes in return for an end to Reconstruction and the withdrawal of federal troops from the South. After a controversial post-election process, Hayes was declared the winner.
The Reconstruction era, the period in American history that lasted from 1865 to 1877 following the American Civil War (1861–65), marked a significant chapter in the history of civil rights in the United States. Reconstruction ended the remnants of Confederate secession and abolished slavery, making the newly freed slaves citizens with civil rights ostensibly guaranteed by three new constitutional amendments. Reconstruction also refers to the attempt to transform the 11 Southern, former Confederate states, as directed by Congress, and the role of the Union states in that transformation.
The Radical Republicans were a faction of American politicians within the Republican Party of the United States from around 1854 until the end of Reconstruction in 1877. They called themselves "Radicals" because of their goal of immediate, complete, permanent eradication of slavery, without compromise. They were opposed during the War by the moderate Republicans, and by the pro-slavery and anti-Reconstruction Democratic Party as well as liberals in the Northern United States during Reconstruction. Radicals led efforts after the war to establish civil rights for former slaves and fully implement emancipation. After weaker measures in 1866 resulted in violence against former slaves in the rebel states, Radicals pushed the Fourteenth Amendment and statutory protections through Congress. They disfavored allowing ex-Confederate officers to retake political power in the Southern United States, and emphasized equality, civil rights and voting rights for the "freedmen", i.e. people who had been enslaved by state slavery laws within the United States.
From the first United States Congress in 1789 through the 116th Congress in 2020, 162 African Americans have served in Congress. Meanwhile, the total number of all individuals who have served in Congress over history is 12,348. Of African Americans, 152 have served in the House of Representatives, 9 have served in the Senate, and 1 has served in both chambers. Voting members have totaled 156, with 6 serving as delegates. Party membership has been, 131 Democrats, and 31 Republicans. While 13 members founded the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971 during the 92nd Congress, in the 116th Congress (2019-2020), 56 have served, with 54 Democrats and 2 Republicans.
The Compromise of 1877 was an unwritten deal, informally arranged among U.S. Congressmen, that settled the intensely disputed 1876 presidential election. It resulted in the United States federal government pulling the last troops out of the South, and ending the Reconstruction Era. Through the Compromise, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was awarded the White House over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden on the understanding that Hayes would remove the federal troops whose support was essential for the survival of Republican state governments in South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana.
In United States history, the Redeemers were a political coalition in the Southern United States during the Reconstruction Era that followed the Civil War. Redeemers were the Southern wing of the Democratic Party. They sought to regain their political power and enforce white supremacy. Their policy of Redemption was intended to oust the Radical Republicans, a coalition of freedmen, "carpetbaggers", and "scalawags". They generally were led by the rich former planters, businessmen, and professionals, and they dominated Southern politics in most areas from the 1870s to 1910.
Joseph Hayne Rainey was an American politician. He was the first Black person to serve in the United States House of Representatives and the second Black person to serve in the United States Congress. His service included time as presiding officer of the House of Representatives. Born into slavery in South Carolina, he and his family were freed in the 1840s when his father purchased their freedom. Revels and Rainey were both members of the Republican Party.
Robert Brown Elliott was an African-American member of the United States House of Representatives from South Carolina, serving from 1871 to 1874.
Scholars have identified more than 1,500 African American officeholders who served during the Reconstruction Era (1865–1877) after passage of the Reconstruction Acts in 1867 and 1868 as well as in the years after Reconstruction before white supremacy, disenfranchisement, and the Democratic Party fully reasserted control in Southern states. Historian Canter Brown, Jr. noted that in some states, such as Florida, the highest number of African Americans were elected or appointed to offices after 1877 and the end of Reconstruction. The following is a partial list some of the most notable of the officeholders pre–1900.
Joseph Barton Elam, Sr., was a two-term Democratic U.S. representative for Louisiana's 4th congressional district, whose service corresponded with the administration of U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes.
Mary Elliott Flanery was an American progressive era social reformer, suffragist, politician, and journalist who is best remembered as the first woman elected to the Kentucky General Assembly and first woman elected to a state legislature south of the Mason–Dixon line. Flanery was an advocate for equal rights for women, and actively worked to pass legislation that would give women the right to vote.
Joseph Crews was an American state legislator and Reconstructionist militia leader from Laurens County, South Carolina, during the Reconstruction era. He was the state's highest-ranking military official in the 1870s, and was put in charge of the state militia whose main purpose was to protect African-American voters. African-Americans were 58.9% of the population of South Carolina in 1870. He was reportedly murdered by Democrats in the run-up to the 1876 South Carolina gubernatorial election.
Samuel Benjamin Thompson was a Reconstruction Era politician in South Carolina. He was a member of the 48th general assembly one of the four representatives for Richland County. He was a delegate to the 1865 South Carolina Constitutional Constitutional Convention. He served as a state legislator for six years as well as a justice of the peace for eight years.
Simeon Farr was an American politician who was elected as a state representative in 1868 in South Carolina during the Reconstruction era. He represented Union County, South Carolina. His photograph was used in a composite of Radical Republican officials from South Carolina. His name is spelled Simon Farr in an 1868 House document.
Samuel Nuckles was a legislator in South Carolina during the Reconstruction era. He represented Union County. A Republican, he gave testimony about a campaign of intimidation used by Democrats and the Ku Klux Klan in the 1870 election. In 1871 he was part of a delegation sent to Washington D.C. requesting federal troops to address "outrages". He testified that he was a former slave and could read a little and write his name. He also testified that he was a refugee from Union County due to threats of violence and Ku Klux Klan attacks.
Powell Smythe was a member of the South Carolina General Assembly during the Reconstruction era. He represented Clarendon County, South Carolina.
Sancho Saunders was a member of South Carolina's House of Representatives during the Reconstruction era. He represented Chester County, South Carolina. He was documented as a literate Baptist minister who was a slave before the American Civil War. He was African American. His photograph was included in a montage of Radical Republican South Carolina legislators.
Henry L. Shrewsbury was an American teacher and Reconstruction era state legislator in South Carolina. He was described as a free mullato, and represented Chesterfield County in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1868 until 1870.
John B. Wright was a tailor and legislator in South Carolina during the Reconstruction era. He served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1868 until 1872 representing Charleston. Researchers documented him as being Black, free before the Civil War, and literate. He was a president of the Colored Young Men's Christian Association. His photograph was included in a montage of Radical Republican South Carolina legislators.
Alfred Rush was a state representative in South Carolina during the Reconstruction era, serving two non-consecutive terms between 1868 and 1876. Rush was one of four men who represented Darlington County, South Carolina, three of whom were African Americans and one was white. Rush was elected to serve just a few years after the Civil War (1861–1865). He was ambushed and murdered on May 13, 1876.
