How did the Compromise of 1877 affect the former slaves?

The
Compromise of 1877 had a major effect on the former slaves. There was a dispute over electoral
votes in the election of 1876. The South agreed to let the Republican candidate, Rutherford B.
Hayes, win the election in order to get federal troops out of the South that were enforcing
Reconstruction. This should have been a sign that the southerners were planning to make major
changes once Reconstruction ended.

Once Reconstruction ended, the federal
troops left the South. Many white southerners got elected to office. This led to many laws being
passed that took away the rights of the former slaves or separated the races. The South passed
laws called Jim Crow Laws that segregated the South. There were separate bathrooms, separate
seating sections on train cars, and separate schools just to name a few examples. People had to
pass a literacy test or pay a poll tax in order to be allowed to vote. To exempt whites that
could not pass the literacy test or could not pay the poll tax, they allowed a person to be
exempt from the requirements if the persons father or grandfather had voted before the Civil
War.

Additionally, the Ku Klux Klan began to dominate the South. They would
terrorize, intimidate, and threaten African-Americans. They often went unprosecuted because they
were tied to the Democratic Party, and the Democrats controlled southern politics after
Reconstruction ended. The ending of Reconstruction was a huge blow to the former slaves, as
things really got bad for them after Reconstruction ended.