Texas is readmitted to the Union following Reconstruction.
The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (18611865); it lasted from 1865 to 1877 and marked a significant chapter in the history of civil rights in the United States. Reconstruction, as directed by Congress, abolished slavery and ended the remnants of Confederate secession in the Southern states. It proclaimed the newly freed slaves (freedmen; black people) citizens with (ostensibly) the same civil rights as those of whites; these rights were nominally guaranteed by three new constitutional amendments: the 13th, 14th, and 15th, collectively known as the Reconstruction Amendments. Reconstruction also refers to the general attempt by Congress to transform the 11 former Confederate states and refers to the role of the Union states in that transformation.
Following the assassination of President Abraham Lincolnwho led the Republican Party in opposing slavery and fighting the warVice President Andrew Johnson assumed the presidency. He had been a prominent Unionist in the South but soon favored the ex-Confederates and became the leading opponent of freedmen and their Radical Republicans allies. His intention was to give the returning Southern states relatively free rein in deciding the rights (and fates) of former slaves. While Lincoln's last speeches showed a grand vision for Reconstructionincluding full suffrage for freedmenJohnson and the Democrats adamantly opposed any such goals.
Johnson's Reconstruction policies generally prevailed until the Congressional elections of 1866, following a year of violent attacks against blacks in the South. These included the Memphis riots in May and New Orleans massacre in July. The 1866 elections gave Republicans a majority in Congress, power they used to press forward and adopt the 14th Amendment. Congress federalized the protection of equal rights and dissolved the legislatures of rebel states, requiring new state constitutions to be adopted throughout the South which guaranteed the civil rights of freedmen. Radical Republicans in the House of Representatives, frustrated by Johnson's opposition to Congressional Reconstruction, filed impeachment charges; the action failed by just one vote in the Senate. The new national Reconstruction laws incensed many whites in the South, giving rise to the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan intimidated, terrorized, and murdered Republicans and outspoken freedmen throughout the former Confederacy, including Arkansas Congressman James M. Hinds.
In nearly all ex-Confederate states, Republican coalitions came to power and directly set out to transform Southern society. The Freedmen's Bureau and the U.S. Army both aimed to implement a free-labor economy to replace the slave-labor economy that had existed until the end of the Civil War. The Bureau protected the legal rights of freedmen, negotiated labor contracts, and helped establish networks of schools and churches. Thousands of Northerners came to the South as missionaries and teachers as well as businessmen and politicians to serve in the social and economic programs of Reconstruction. "Carpetbagger" became a derisive term used to attack supporters of Reconstruction who travelled from the North to the South.
Elected in 1868, Republican President Ulysses S. Grant supported congressional Reconstruction and enforced the protection of African Americans in the South via the Enforcement Acts recently passed by Congress. Grant used the Acts to combat the Ku Klux Klan, the first iteration of which was essentially wiped out by 1872. Grant's policies and appointments were designed to promote federal integration, equal rights, black immigration, and the Civil Rights Act of 1875. Nevertheless, Grant failed to resolve the escalating tensions inside the Republican Party between Northern and Southern Republicans (the latter group would be labeled "scalawags" by those opposing Reconstruction). Meanwhile, white "Redeemers", Southern Bourbon Democrats, strongly opposed Reconstruction.Eventually, support for continuing Reconstruction policies declined in the North. A new Republican faction emerged that wanted Reconstruction ended and the Army withdrawnthe Liberal Republicans. After a major economic recession in 1873, the Democrats rebounded and regained control of the House of Representatives in 1874. They called for an immediate end to the occupation. In 1877, as part of a congressional bargain to elect a Republican as president following the disputed 1876 presidential election, federal troops were withdrawn from the three states (South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida) where they remained. This marked the end of Reconstruction.
Reconstruction has been noted by historians for many "shortcomings and failures" including failure to protect many freed blacks from Ku Klux Klan violence prior to 1871, starvation, disease and death, and brutal treatment of former slaves by Union soldiers, while offering reparations to former slaveowners but denying them to former slaves. However, Reconstruction had four primary successes including the restoration of the Federal Union, limited reprisals against the South directly after the war, property ownership for black people, and the establishment of national citizenship and a framework for eventual legal equality.
Texas (, also locally ; Spanish: Texas, Tejas) is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by both area (after Alaska) and population (after California). Texas shares borders with the states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south and southwest; and has a coastline with the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast.
Houston is the most populous city in Texas and the fourth-largest in the U.S., while San Antonio is the second most populous in the state and seventh-largest in the U.S. Dallas–Fort Worth and Greater Houston are, respectively, the fourth- and fifth-largest metropolitan statistical areas in the country. Other major cities include Austin, the second most populous state capital in the U.S., and El Paso. Texas is nicknamed the "Lone Star State" for its former status as an independent republic, and as a reminder of the state's struggle for independence from Mexico. The "Lone Star" can be found on the Texas state flag and on the Texas state seal. The origin of Texas's name is from the Caddo word táyshaʼ meaning 'friends'.Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, Texas contains diverse landscapes common to both the U.S. Southern and the Southwestern regions. Although Texas is popularly associated with the U.S. southwestern deserts, less than ten percent of Texas's land area is desert. Most of the population centers are in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests, and the coastline. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, and finally the desert and mountains of the Big Bend.
The term "six flags over Texas" refers to several nations that have ruled over the territory. Spain was the first European country to claim and control the area of Texas. France held a short-lived colony. Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming the Republic of Texas. In 1845, Texas joined the union as the 28th state. The state's annexation set off a chain of events that led to the Mexican–American War in 1846. A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U.S. in early 1861, and officially joined the Confederate States of America on March 2 of the same year. After the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation.
Historically, four major industries shaped the Texas economy prior to World War II: cattle and bison, cotton, timber, and oil. Before and after the U.S. Civil War, the cattle industry—which Texas came to dominate—was a major economic driver for the state, and created the traditional image of the Texas cowboy. In the later 19th century, cotton and lumber grew to be major industries as the cattle industry became less lucrative. It was ultimately, though, the discovery of major petroleum deposits (Spindletop in particular) that initiated an economic boom which became the driving force behind the economy for much of the 20th century. Texas developed a diversified economy and high tech industry during the mid-20th century. As of 2015, it has the second most Fortune 500 company headquarters (54) in the United States. With a growing base of industry, the state leads in many industries, including tourism, agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, computers and electronics, aerospace, and biomedical sciences. Texas has led the U.S. in state export revenue since 2002, and has the second-highest gross state product. If Texas were a sovereign state, it would have the 10th-largest economy in the world.