Ku Klux Klan

The South would have to remain under federal control until it was deemed safe to leave matters to the southern state governments. This probationary period of federal control was termed “Reconstruction.”

With the introduction of universal manhood suffrage in 1867, Randolph joined in Reconstruction politics as an active Republican. He rose rapidly through the leadership ranks. He represented Orangeburg County in the 1868 constitutional convention.

A staunch Democrat, from 1864 to 1866 Aiken represented Abbeville District in the S.C. House of Representatives. During Reconstruction, the link he had earlier made between southernism and agrarianism grew stronger.

In April 1865 Confederate First Lady Varina Howell Davis and her family stayed in the Burt home for twelve days after they fled Richmond. They left Abbeville two days before Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War John C. Breckinridge, and the Confederacy’s senior military advisers arrived. On May 2, 1865, at Burt’s house, the leaders held their final council of war. On advice from his advisers, Davis agreed that further resistance was impossible and that the Confederate cause was lost.

His election to the governor’s chair in 1877 effectively ended Reconstruction in the state, and in the eyes of white South Carolinians, Hampton was more than a victorious political candidate. He was their savior.