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Radicals Wanted A Total Southern Remake
- Radical Republicans saw the Civil War as an opportunity to remake southern society through strong federal action.
- Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner pushed to transform labor, law, and political power to guarantee rights for freed people.
Sea Islands Experiment Dismantled By Policy Shift
- Freedmen's land experiments like Tunia Campbell's on the Georgia Sea Islands were dismantled when federal policy restored land to former owners.
- Davis Tilsen replaced sympathetic officials and used troops to evict armed freedpeople and force labor contracts.
Southern Violence Pushed Congress Toward Intervention
- Congressional investigations exposed widespread violence and terror against Black southerners, uniting moderates with radicals for stronger intervention.
- Hearings led Congress to extend the Freedmen's Bureau and pass the 1866 Civil Rights Act.