Editing Reconstruction era (section)

===Panic of 1873===
{{Main|Panic of 1873}}
The Panic of 1873 (a [[Long Depression|depression]]) hit the Southern economy hard and disillusioned many Republicans who had gambled that railroads would pull the South out of its poverty. The price of cotton fell by half; many small landowners, local merchants, and cotton factors (wholesalers) went bankrupt. Sharecropping for Black and White farmers became more common as a way to spread the risk of owning land. The old abolitionist element in the North was aging away, or had lost interest, and was not replenished. Many northern whites returned to the North or joined the Redeemers. Blacks had an increased voice in the Republican Party, but across the South it was divided by internal bickering and was rapidly losing its cohesion. Many local Black leaders started emphasizing individual economic progress in cooperation with White elites, rather than racial political progress in opposition to them, a conservative attitude that foreshadowed [[Booker T. Washington]].{{sfnp|Foner|1988|pp=545–547}}

Nationally, President Grant was blamed for the depression; the Republican Party lost 96 seats in all parts of the country in the [[United States House election, 1874|1874 elections]]. The Bourbon Democrats took control of the House and were confident of electing [[Samuel J. Tilden]] president in 1876. President Grant was not running for re-election and seemed to be losing interest in the South. States fell to the Redeemers, with only four in Republican hands in 1873: Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina. Arkansas then fell after the violent [[Brooks–Baxter War]] in 1874 ripped apart the Republican Party there.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Panic of 1873 |url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/panic-of-1873-6385/ |access-date=2025-03-11 |website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |language=en-US}}</ref>