What were the terms and consequences of the Compromise of 1877?

• A. It ended the Civil War and abolished slavery in new territories.
• B. It resolved the 1876 election in favor of Rutherford B. Hayes, pulled federal troops from the South, and ended Reconstruction.
• C. It guaranteed Black voting rights nationwide.
• D. It established the Freedmen's Bureau as a permanent agency.

Answer: (B)

The main idea this question tests is what the Compromise of 1877 actually delivered and what it meant for Reconstruction. The agreement settled the disputed 1876 presidential race in favor of Rutherford B. Hayes in exchange for concessions to the Southern states, and its most lasting consequence was the withdrawal of federal troops from the South. With federal enforcement gone, Reconstruction governments in the former Confederacy collapsed, and white Southern leaders rolled back many of the gains won for Black Americans, paving the way for the Jim Crow era and greatly reducing federal protection of civil rights in the region.

That broader impact is why this option is correct: it pinpoints both the electoral settlement and the crucial troop withdrawal, which together ended Reconstruction as a federal policy. The other choices miss the mark: the war ended long before, slavery in new territories was settled earlier and not the focus of this bargain; there was no nationwide guarantee of Black voting rights from this agreement; and the Freedmen’s Bureau was not made permanent.