The Compromise of 1877 was an unwritten agreement after the American Civil War between leaders of the Democrats, who mostly ruled the South, and the Republicans, who mostly ruled the North. The Democrats agreed to settle the Presidential election of 1876 by allowing Rutherford B. Hayes to become President and not their own candidate, Samuel J. Tilden.

The Republicans promised to remove the Army from the occupied territory of the South, thus ending the Reconstruction era. The Democrats promised they would maintain African American rights.