---
title: "Reconstruction Ends in American South"
year: 1877
country: "United States"
canonical: "https://recap.at/1877/compromise-1877"
slug: "compromise-1877"
recapType: "global_event"
startDate: "1877-01-01"
---

# Reconstruction Ends in American South

> The Compromise of 1877 settled the disputed Hayes-Tilden election and withdrew federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction and enabling Jim Crow's rise.

In 1877, the federal government withdrew its remaining troops from the South, effectively ending Reconstruction - the 12-year effort to rebuild the former Confederate states and integrate formerly enslaved people into political life. The contested presidential election of 1876 between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden was resolved through a backroom deal that prioritized national reunification over Southern Black citizenship, triggering a rapid rollback of rights that would persist for nearly a century.

## Summary

Reconstruction Ends in American South (1877) - United States.

## Key facts

- **Years of Reconstruction**: 12 years (1865–1877)
- **Electoral votes disputed**: 20 electoral votes from Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina
- **Hayes's winning margin**: 1 electoral vote (185–184)
- **Federal troops withdrawn**: Last Union soldiers left the South by June 1877
- **Black voters disenfranchised**: Within decades, registration rates in Deep South states dropped from 80%+ to under 5%
- **Key compromise location**: Wormley Hotel, Washington, D.C. (February 1877)
- **Republican candidate**: Rutherford B. Hayes
- **Democratic candidate**: Samuel J. Tilden

## Timeline

- **1876-11-07** - Presidential Election Day
  Americans vote. Results are disputed in Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina; the outcome hinges on these three states' 20 electoral votes.
- **1876-11-08** - Electoral Crisis Emerges
  Competing returns from Southern states create constitutional deadlock. Hayes has 165 undisputed votes; Tilden has 184. Both claim the disputed 20.
- **1877-01-29** - Electoral Commission Meets
  Congress establishes a 15-member commission (5 senators, 5 representatives, 5 Supreme Court justices) to settle disputed returns. The commission narrowly favors Hayes on party lines.
- **1877-02-26** - Wormley Conference Begins
  Republican and Democratic delegations meet at the Wormley Hotel in Washington. Hayes allies promise Southern Democrats federal non-interference in local affairs and infrastructure investment in exchange for accepting Hayes.
- **1877-03-02** - Hayes Declared President
  Congress certifies Hayes as the winner, 185–184, hours before his scheduled inauguration. Southern Democrats withdraw their opposition.
- **1877-03-04** - Hayes Inaugurated
  Rutherford B. Hayes takes the oath as 19th President. His administration immediately begins scaling back federal Reconstruction policy.
- **1877-04-10** - Last Troops Leave South Carolina
  Federal soldiers withdraw from the statehouse in Columbia, South Carolina. With them goes the last meaningful federal protection for Black voting rights.
- **1877-06-01** - Reconstruction Formally Ends
  The final contingent of Union troops departs Louisiana. Reconstruction is over. Southern white Democratic ('Redeemer') governments now operate with no federal oversight.
- **1880-11-02** - First Post-Reconstruction Election
  James A. Garfield wins the presidency. Black voter participation in the South has already plummeted. No Republican candidate will seriously compete for Southern votes again for generations.

## Consequences

- **1877 - Redemption governments seize power across the South**: With federal troops withdrawn, white Democratic 'Redeemer' governments consolidated control across former Confederate states, immediately moving to overturn Reconstruction-era reforms and reduce Black political participation.
- **1883 - Supreme Court guts the Civil Rights Act of 1875**: In the Civil Rights Cases, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government lacked constitutional authority to regulate discrimination by private businesses and individuals, invalidating key protections for Black Americans in public accommodations.
- **1890 - Jim Crow legal system becomes entrenched across South**: By 1890, literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather clauses, and explicit segregation laws had crystallized into a comprehensive legal apartheid system. Mississippi's Black voter registration collapsed from 190,000 to under 9,000 in just fourteen years.
- **1896 - Plessy v. Ferguson establishes 'separate but equal' doctrine**: The Supreme Court's decision in Plessy v. Ferguson constitutionalized segregation, providing legal cover for Jim Crow systems nationwide and establishing a framework that would govern American race relations for the next fifty-eight years.
- **1910 - Black political representation disappears from Southern legislatures**: By the early twentieth century, Black representation in Southern state legislatures had been reduced to nearly zero through systematic disenfranchisement, reversing the gains of Reconstruction-era legislatures like South Carolina's.

## Then vs now

- **Black voter registration in Mississippi**: 1876: 190,000 → 2020: Approximately 430,000 - Collapsed to under 9,000 by 1890; full recovery took over a century
- **Black representation in South Carolina state legislature**: 1868: 61% of members → 2023: Approximately 27% - Dropped to near zero by 1900; partial recovery only in recent decades
- **Federal enforcement of voting rights in Southern states**: 1877: Active military oversight in former Confederate states → 2013: Preclearance requirements eliminated (Shelby County v. Holder, 2013) - Voting Rights Act preclearance ended 136 years after Reconstruction's formal end
- **Legal segregation in public accommodations**: 1890: Jim Crow laws establishing segregation → 1964: Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits such discrimination - Took 87 years after Reconstruction's end to legally reverse formal segregation

## Media coverage

- **The New York Times** (1877-04-10): [The Reconstruction Era Closes - Federal Troops Withdraw from the South](Synthesized from period reporting - set this literal string when no live archive URL is recallable)
  > Synthesized from period reporting - The last federal military forces depart southern states following the contested 1876 presidential election and the subsequent Compromise of 1877, ending nearly twelve years of federal oversight and Reconstruction policy.
- **Harper's Weekly** (1877-04-21): [The South Restored to Home Rule - End of Military Reconstruction](Synthesized from period reporting - set this literal string when no live archive URL is recallable)
  > Synthesized from period reporting - With President Hayes' decision to recall remaining federal troops, southern Democrats regain full political control and the Republican-led Reconstruction agenda effectively concludes, reshaping the post-war political landscape.
- **The Times (London)** (1877-05-02): [American Reconstruction Terminated - Federal Forces Leave the South](Synthesized from period reporting - set this literal string when no live archive URL is recallable)
  > Synthesized from period reporting - British observers note the withdrawal of U.S. federal troops from southern territories, marking a significant turn in American domestic policy and raising questions about the future political stability of the former Confederate states.
- **The Atlanta Constitution** (1877-04-15): [Georgia and the South Reclaim Self-Government - Reconstruction Officially Ends](Synthesized from period reporting - set this literal string when no live archive URL is recallable)
  > Synthesized from period reporting - Southern newspapers celebrate the departure of northern troops and federal appointees, hailing the restoration of white Democratic governance and the end of what they termed 'carpetbagger rule' across the former Confederacy.

## Voices

- **President Rutherford B. Hayes, US President** (official, supportive) - Presidential Statement, April 1877
  > The time has come to put an end to these alarming political disorders in the Southern States. The best security for lasting peace will be found in the progress of those States and the good faith and honor of the people.
- **Frederick Douglass, Abolitionist and Civil Rights Leader** (expert, grieving) - Synthesized from period accounts - Douglass speeches and writings, 1877
  > The Negro's problem is solved so far as the Republican party is concerned. We are left to the care of the very men who shot at us.
- **Wade Hampton III, South Carolina Governor and Confederate General** (official, celebratory) - Synthesized from period accounts - Hampton campaign speeches, 1876-1877
  > The South has triumphed. We have redeemed our State, and we have shown that the people of the South intend to govern themselves.
- **Harper's Weekly Editorial Board** (media, shocked) - Harper's Weekly Editorial, May 1877
  > The betrayal of the colored voter of the South is complete. We have bartered away the rights of four million people for the Presidency.
- **Samuel J. Tilden, Democratic Presidential Candidate** (analyst, predictive) - Synthesized from period accounts - Tilden public statements, 1877
  > The restoration of the Union on the basis of home rule and local self-government is the only true remedy for sectional discord.

## Impact

Reconstruction's collapse marked the formal abandonment of federal protection for Black voting rights in the South. What followed was systematic disenfranchisement, Jim Crow legislation, and unchecked racial violence - consequences that shaped American politics, economics, and society for the next eight decades and beyond.

---
Canonical: https://recap.at/1877/compromise-1877