Redemption period
The "Redemption period" refers to the era following Reconstruction in the post-Civil War South, characterized by the reestablishment of conservative Democratic control. This period began in the late 1860s as Northern troops withdrew, allowing local Democrats to reclaim power in southern state legislatures. By 1877, all Confederate states were under the governance of redeemer Democrats, who aimed to reduce government influence, reject debts, promote the interests of landlords, attract Northern investments, and enforce white supremacy. During this time, the advancements made by African Americans during Reconstruction began to erode significantly, as their voting rights were systematically dismantled through fraud and discriminatory practices like poll taxes and literacy tests. The economic landscape was dominated by sharecropping, affecting both Black individuals and impoverished Whites. Furthermore, racial violence surged, including widespread lynchings, and laws enforcing segregation became entrenched following the Supreme Court's Plessy v. Ferguson decision in 1896. This period laid the groundwork for a rigid racial caste system that would persist in the South for decades.
Redemption period
Redemption refers to the reestablishment of conservative Democratic political dominance in the post-Reconstruction South. During Reconstruction (1863–77), northern forces rebuilt the governments in the southern states after the South’s defeat in the Civil War. The seeds of redemption were sown in the late 1860s as Union troops began gradually withdrawing from the South and Democrats organized locally to reclaim state legislatures and governorships. By 1877, all eleven states of the old Confederacy were controlled by conservative political interests. The chief political goals of these redeemer Democrats were reduction of government, debt repudiation, expansion of the rights of landlords, encouragement of northern capital investment, and the promotion of white supremacy.
Under redeemer state governments, the paltry advances that African Americans had made under Reconstruction were systematically reversed. Black suffrage was first nullified through electoral fraud and later circumscribed through poll taxes, literacy tests, and “grandfather clauses” that prevented all but a handful of southern Black individuals from voting. Sharecropping defined economic life for increasing numbers of Black and low-income White individuals. Violence against African Americans escalated throughout the redemption period; by the 1890s, lynchings of Black men had become commonplace in many southern localities. By the turn of the century, Jim Crow legislation inspired by the Supreme Court’s Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) decision had given legal sanction to segregation and a racial caste system that would dominate southern society well into the twentieth century.
Bibliography
Dray, Philip. At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America. Modern Lib., 2003.
Durden, Robert F. "Redeemer Democrats." Encyclopedia of North Carolina. U of North Carolina P, 2006.
Emberton, Carole. Beyond Redemption: Race, Violence, and the American South after the Civil War. U of Chicago P, 2013.
Lemann, Nicholas. Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War. Farrar, 2006.
"Reconstruction vs. Redemption." National Endowment for the Humanities, www.neh.gov/news/reconstruction-vs-redemption. Accessed 2 Nov. 2024.
Riser, R. Volney. Defying Disfranchisement: Black Voting Rights Activism in the Jim Crow South, 1890-1908. Louisiana State UP, 2010.
Stewart, Bruce E. Redemption from Tyranny: Herman Husband’s American Revolution. U of Virginia P, 2020.