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• 1 media/Election of 1876.jpg 2018-03-05T02:03:36-08:00 Left to the Wolves 16 image_header 2018-06-17T20:03:27-07:00 Meanwhile, the Freedmen’s Bureau’s demise signaled an even worse situation for blacks in the South. Without the Bureau's help in negotiating and enforcing labor contracts, landowners forced tenants into deeper indebtedness. Since the landowner determined the value of their tenant’s crops, they often exploited the laborer’s ignorance by devaluing their crop, overcharging for deducts, and forcing them to work longer to pay off their debts. Violence and exploitation were commonplace in the South by 1875.

  When Governor Ames of Mississippi sought military assistance to put down rioting, US Attorney General Edward Pierrepoint responded “the whole public are tired out with these annual, autumnal outbreaks in the South.” The North was ready to wash its hands of racial problems in the South. Their intent was to preserve the Union; they had succeeded. The 1876 Presidential election between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden resulted in ballot discrepancies for Louisiana, South Carolina and Florida.  Desperate to retain the White House, the Republicans negotiated a backroom deal, agreeing to withdraw all federal troops from the South in exchange for the election. With military presence gone, the South rose again.