Fed up with the scandals of the Grant Administration, Republicans find a new leader in Rutherford B Hayes. To keep the White House Republican, Hayes will have to get the best of a do-gooder Democrat from New York with a reputation for uncompromising honesty: Samuel J Tilden. With the election too close to call, and the country in chaos, Republicans and Democrats in Congress strike a back room bargain that has disastrous consequences for the millions of newly freed Black Americans in the South.

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