Transcript Chapter 15 PP

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Crops grown by farmers not for their personal use but to be sold
for cash.
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During the Gilded Age, many southern white leaders envisioned a modernized economy that
included not only agriculture but also mills and factories. Henry Grady was among those who called
for a “New South” that would use its resources to develop industry.
Before the Civil War, the South had shipped its raw materials – including cotton, wood, and iron ore
– abroad or to the North for processing into finished goods. In the 1880s, northern money backed
textile factories in western North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, as well as cigar and lumber
production, especially in North Carolina and Virginia. During this time, farming also became
somewhat more diversified, with an increase in grain, tobacco, and fruit crops. The landscape of
farming changed as smaller farms replaced large plantations.
Southern rail lines expanded, joining rural areas with urban hubs such as Mobile and Montgomery
in Alabama and the bustling ports of New Orleans, Louisiana & Charleston, South Carolina. Yet, by
the 1880s, only 2 rail lines – from Texas to Chicago & from Tennessee to Washington D.C. – linked
southern freight to northern markets.
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Closure Question #1: What positive steps did the South take to
industrialize after the Civil War?
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Local organizations of farmers across the USA which came
together to negotiate as a group for lower prices for supplies
and lower transportation costs to ship their crops to market.
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Cotton remained the centerpiece of the southern agricultural economy. Although at the end of the
Civil War cotton production had dropped to about 1/3 of its prewar levels, by the late 1880s, it had
rebounded. However, during the war, many European textile factories had found suppliers outside
the South, and the price of cotton had fallen. Now, the South’s abundance of cotton simply
depressed the price further.
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Dependence on one major crop was extremely risky. In the case of
southern cotton, it was the boll weevil that heralded disaster. The boll
weevil, a beetle which could destroy an entire crop of cotton,
appeared in Texas in the early 1890s. Over the next decade, the yield
from cotton cultivation in some states dropped by more than 50%.
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Faced with serious difficulties, Texas farmers in the 1870s began to organize and to negotiate as a
group for lower prices for supplies. The idea spread. Local organizations linked together in what
became known as the Farmers’ Alliance. Farmers’ Alliance members tried to convince the
government to force railroads to lower freight prices so members could get their crops to markets
outside the South.
Closure Question #2: How did southern agriculture suffer from the
domination of cotton?
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Guaranteed African Americans the right to ride trains and use
public facilities such as hotels; however, in 1883 the Supreme
Court ruled that who could use public accommodations was a
local issue, to be governed by state or local laws.
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The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments had changed African Americans’ legal status. Over time, however, these legal
gains were pushed back by a series of Supreme Court decisions.
Citizenship afforded black southerners the right to vote in local and federal elections, and for a few black people it
provided the means to serve their country in government or in the military. Some African Americans opened urban
businesses and bought farmland. In developing the Farmers’ Alliances, white leaders in some places invited black
farmers to join, reasoning that the alliances would be stronger if all farmers took part. Hundreds of basic-literacy
schools and dozens of teachers’ colleges, supported by the federal government or by northern philanthropists,
enabled African Americans to learn to read and write.
Many realities of southern black lives did not change much, however. Some white southerners focused their own
frustrations on trying to reverse the gains African Americans had achieved during Reconstruction. Groups such as
the KKK used terror and violence to intimidate African-Americans. Churches that were once integrated became
segregated. New laws supported the elimination of black government officials.
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Closure Question #3: How did southern African Americans both gain
and lose civil rights after the Civil War?
Working in groups of 4, use your notes from
Chapter 15, Section 1 to answer the following
questions:
1. What positive steps did the South take to
industrialize after the Civil War?
2. How did southern agriculture suffer from the
domination of cotton?
3. How did southern African Americans both gain
and lose civil rights after the Civil War?
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Specific areas set aside by the government for Native Americans to
use; By the late 1860s, the majority of tribes had been forced onto
reservations by federal troops.
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By the end of the Civil War, about 250,000 Indians lived in the region west of the Mississippi River referred to
as “The Great American Desert”. Although they were lumped together in the minds of most Americans as
“Indians”, Native Americans embraced many different belief systems, languages, and ways of life.
Geography influenced the cultural diversity of Native Americans. In the Pacific Northwest, the Klamaths,
Chinooks, and Shastas benefited from abundant supplies of fish and forest animals. Farther south, smaller
bands of hunter-gatherers struggled to exist on diets of small game, insects, berries, acorns, and roots. In the
arid lands of New Mexico and Arizona, the Pueblos irrigated the land to grow corn, beans and squash. They
built adobe homes high in the cliffs to protect themselves from aggressive neighbors. The more mobile
Navajos lived in homes made of mud or in hogans that could be moved easily. The most numerous and
nomadic Native Americans were the Plains Indians, including the Sioux, Blackfeet, Crows, Cheyenne, and
Comanches. The Plains Indians were expert horsemen and hunters. The millions of buffalo that roamed the
Plains provided a rich source for lodging, clothing, food, and tools.
Indian cultures, however, shared a common thread – they saw themselves as part of nature and viewed
nature as sacred. By contrast, many white people viewed the land as a resource to produce wealth. These
differing views sowed the seeds of conflict.
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Closure Question #1: Why did Native Americans and white settlers clash? (At
least 2 reasons)
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Colorado militiamen attacked an unarmed camp of Cheyenne and
Arapaho Indians who were under U.S. Army protection. Men,
women, and children were killed. News of the massacre sparked
more warfare between Plains Indians and White Settlers.
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In the early 1800s, the government carried out a policy of moving Native Americans out of the way of
white settlers. President Jackson moved the Cherokees off their land in Georgia and onto the Great
Plains. To white settlers, Native Americans were welcome to this “Great American Desert”, so called as it
was thought to be uninhabitable. To limit conflict, an 1834 law regulated trade relations with Indians and
strictly limited the access of white people to this Indian Territory. White settlement generally paused at
the eastern rim of the territory and resumed in the Far West.
By the 1850s, however, federal policy toward Native Americans was challenged by new circumstances.
Gold and silver had been discovered in Indian Territory as well as settled regions further west. Americans
wanted a railroad that crossed the continent, and railroad owners, newspapers, and even some
scientists were promoting the idea that “rain followed the plow” – a belief that if one farmed in arid
areas, the rains would come. In 1851, therefore, the federal government began to restrict Indians to
smaller areas. No longer free to roam the Plains, Indians faced suppression and poverty.
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Closure Question #1: Why did Native Americans and white settlers clash? (At
least 2 reasons)
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Union Colonel during the Civil War, Custer led a 250-man U.S.
Cavalry column into ambush at Little Big Horn. In the battle
Custer and all of his men were killed.
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The rapid industrial development and expansion following the Civil War set Native Americans and white settlers on a
collision course. Advances in communication and transportation that supported industrial growth also reinforced
faith in manifest destiny. Generally ignored was the fact that Native Americans inhabited half of the area of the
United States.
In 1862, while the Civil War raged in the East, a group of Sioux Indians had resisted threats to their land rights by
attack settlements in eastern Minnesota. In response, the government waged a full-scale war against the Sioux,
who then were pushed west into the Dakotas.
The Sioux rebellion sparked a series of attacks on settlements and stagecoach lines as other Plains Indians also saw
their way of life slipping away. Each battle took its toll, raising the level of distrust on all sides. Once the Civil War
ended, regiments of Union troops – both white and African American – were sent to the West to subdue the Indians.
Recruitment posters for volunteer cavalry promised that soldiers could claim any “horses or other plunder” taken
from the Indians. The federal government defended its decision to send troops as necessary to maintain order.
As the Plains Indians renewed their efforts to hold onto what they had, the federal government announced plans to
build a road through Sioux hunting grounds to connect gold-mining towns in Montana. In 1866, the legendary
warrior Red Cloud and his followers lured Captain William Fetterman and his troops into an ambush, killing them all.
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Closure Question #1: Why did Native Americans and white settlers clash?
(At least 2 reasons)
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Leader of the Lakota Sioux Indians at the Battle of Little Big Horn
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The human costs of the war with the Sioux drew a public outcry and called the governments Indian policy into
question. As reformers and humanitarians promoted education for Indians, westerners sought strict control over
them. The government-appointed United States Indian Peace Commission concluded that lasting peace would
come only if Native Americans settled on farms and adapted to the civilization of the whites.
In an effort to pacify the Sioux and to gain more land, the government signed the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. The
government agreed not to build the road through Sioux territory and to abandon three forts. The Sioux and others
who signed the treaty agreed to live on a reservation with support from the federal government. An agent
appointed by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs was responsible for distributing land and adequate supplies to
anyone willing to farm as well as for maintaining peaceful relations between the reservation and its neighbors. A
school and other communal buildings were also promised by the treaty.
As often happened, some Indians could not live within the imposed restrictions and many drifted away from the
reservations to resume hunting. Unfortunately, many Indian agents were unscrupulous and stole funds and
resources that were supposed to be distributed to the Indians. Even the most well-meaning agents often lacked
support from the federal government or the military to enforce the terms of the treaties that were beneficial to
Native Americans.
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Closure Question #2: How did Native Americans try but fail to keep their
land? (At least 2 examples)
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Massacre of U.S. Cavalry Unit by Sioux warriors in Montana; The
massacre led to cries for revenge from Americans, leading to
harsher treatment of Native Americans.
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The conditions facing Native Americans had all the ingredients for tragedy. Indians were confined to isolated and
impoverished areas, which were regularly ravaged by poverty and disease. Promises made to them were eventually
broken. Frustration, particularly among young warriors, turned to violence. Guns replaced treaties as the
government crushed open rebellions.
The Red River War, a series of major and minor incidents, led to the final defeat of the powerful southern Plains
Indians, including the Kiowas and Comanches. It marked the end of the southern buffalo herds and the opening of
the western panhandle of Texas to white settlement. At the heart of the matter was the failure of the United States
government to abide by and enforce the terms of the 1867 Treaty of Medicine Lodge.
White buffalo hunters were not kept off Indian hunting grounds, food and supplies from the government were not
delivered, and white lawlessness was not punished. Hostilities began with an attack by Indians on a group of Texans
near the Red River in June 1874. They came to an end in June 1875 after the last Comanche holdouts surrendered to
U.S. troops.
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Closure Question #2: How did Native Americans try but fail to keep their land?
(At least 2 examples)
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Final battle of the Ghost Dance War; the U.S. Cavalry massacred
over 100 men, women and children who had been followers of
Sitting Bull. Wounded Knee sealed the demise of Plains Indians.
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With the loss of many leaders and the destruction of their economy, Native Americans’ ability to resist
diminished. In response, many Indians welcomed a religious revival based on the Ghost Dance. Practitioners
preached that the ritual would banish white settlers and restore the buffalo to the Plains. As the popularity of the
movement spread, government officials became concerned about where it might lead.
In 1890, in an effort to curtail these activities, the government ordered the arrest of Sitting Bull. In the
confrontation, he and several others were killed. Troops then set out after the group of Indians as they fled.
Hostilities broke out at Wounded Knee South Dakota, when the well armed cavalry met and outgunned the
Indians.
It was the lure of gold, not animal hides, that led to the defeat of the Indians in the northern Plains. The Black Hills
Gold Rush of 1875 drew prospectors onto Sioux hunting grounds in the Dakotas and neighboring Montana. When
the Sioux, led by chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, assembled to drive them out, the U.S. Army sent its own
troops against the Native Americans.
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Closure Question #2: How did Native Americans try but fail to keep
their land? (At least 2 examples)
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Leader of the Nez Perces in Idaho; attempting to avoid being moved to a
reservation, In 1877 Joseph led his tribe 1,300 miles north before being
captured by U.S. Cavalry. At the time of his capture Joseph made the
statement, “I will fight no more forever.”
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In 1877, the federal government decided to move the Nez Perce to a smaller reservation to make room for white
settlers. Many of the Nez Perces were Christians and had settled down and become successful horse and cattle
breeders. They had pride in themselves and a great deal to lose.
Trying to evade U.S. troops who had come to enforce their relocation, the Nez Perces’ leader Chief Joseph led a
group of refugees on a trek more than 1,300 miles to Canada. Stopped just short of the border, Chief Joseph
surrendered with deeply felt words: “I will fight no more forever.”
Banished with his tribe to a barren reservation in Oklahoma, Joseph traveled twice to Washington D.C. to lobby for
mercy for his people.
By the late 1800s, most Native Americans had been pushed onto reservations where their religion, sacred
ceremonies, folklore, and even spoken language were banned. To further rid them of their tribal cultures, some
reformers removed young Indians from their homes and sent them to distant boarding schools to learn academics
and a trade, but primarily to be “like all other Americans.” The forced assimilation, especially of Indian students,
had disastrous results. Ultimately these children were rejected by both cultures.
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Closure Question #3: What steps were taken to foster assimilation of Native
Americans? (At least 2 steps)
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Replacing a minority’s native culture with the culture of the majority; in the
late 19th century U.S. Government officials attempted to assimilate Native
Americans into mainstream American culture by removing children from
their homes and sending them to boarding schools where they were forced
to adopt white American culture.
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The reservation policy was a failure. Making Indians live in confined areas as wards of the government was costly in
human and economic terms. Policy makers hoped that as the buffalo became extinct, Indians would become
farmers and be assimilated into national life by adopting the culture and civilization of whites.
Established in 1879, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania was one of the first boarding schools for
Native Americans. Students there were required to change their traditional hairstyles, dress, and language to that
of the white American culture.
A few outspoken critics defended the Indians’ way of life. In A Century of Dishonor, Helen Hunt Jackson decried the
government’s treatment of Native Americans: “There is not among these three hundred bands of individuals one
which has not suffered cruelly at the hands either of the Government or of white settlers. The poorer, the more
insignificant, the more helpless the band, the more certain the cruelty and outrage to which they have been
subjected… it makes little difference where one opens the record of the history of the Indians; every page and
every year has its dark stain…” – Helen Hunt Jackson, 1881
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Closure Question #3: What steps were taken to foster assimilation of Native
Americans? (At least 2 steps)
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Replaced the Native American reservation system with an
allotment system. Under the act, each Indian family was granted
160 acres of land in the western United States.
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In 1871, Congress had passed a law stating that “no Indian nation or tribe within the United States
would be recognized as an independent nation, tribe or power with whom the United States may
contract by treaty.” Indians were now to be treated as individuals.
Partly in response to reformers like Susette La Flesche and Helen Hunt Jackson, and partly to
accelerate the process of assimilation, Congress passed the Dawes Act. It replaced the reservation
system with an allotment system. Each Indian family was granted a 160-acre farmstead. The size of
the farm was based on the eastern experience of how much land was needed to support a family. In
the arid West, however, the allotment was not big enough.
To protect the new Indian owners from unscrupulous speculators, the Dawes Act specified that the
land could not be sold or transferred from its original family for 25 years. Congress hoped that by the
end of that time, younger Indians would embrace farming and individual landownership. To further
speed the assimilation, missionaries and other reformers established boarding schools, to which
Indian parents were encouraged to send their children. Indian children were to learn to live by the
rules and culture of white America.
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Closure Question #3: What steps were taken to foster assimilation of Native
Americans? (At least 2 steps)
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Working in groups of 4, use your notes
from Chapter 15, Section 2 to answer the
following questions:
1. Why did Native Americans and white settlers
clash? (At least 2 reasons)
2. How did Native Americans try but fail to keep
their land? (At least 2 examples)
3. What steps were taken to foster assimilation
of Native Americans? (At least 2 steps)
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Rapidly constructed communities established in the western
United States following the discovery of gold or silver; examples
of towns include Carson City, Nevada & Pikes Peak, Colorado.
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Mining was the first great boom in the West. Gold and Silver were the magnets that attracted a vast number of
people. Prospectors from the East were just a part of a flood that included people from all around the world.
From the Sierra Nevada to the Black Hills, there was a similar pattern and tempo in the development of mining
regions. First came the discovery of gold or silver. Then, as word spread, people began to pour into an area that
was ill prepared for their arrival. Mining camps sprang up quickly to house the thousands of people who flooded
into the region. They were followed by more substantial communities. Miner dreamed of finding riches quickly and
easily. Others saw an opportunity to make their fortune by supplying the needs of miners for food, clothing, and
supplies.
The first western mining was done by individuals who extracted minerals from the surface soil or a streambed. By
the 1870s, the remaining mineral wealth was located deep underground. Big companies with the capital to buy
mining equipment took over the industry. Machines drilled deep mine shafts. Tracks lined miles of underground
tunnels. Crews – often recruited from Mexico and China – worked in dangers conditions underground.
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Closure Question #1: How did mining in the West change over time?
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Self-appointed law enforcers who punished lawbreakers in
mining towns and other western communities.
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The rough-and-tumble environment of mining towns called out for order. To limit violence and administer justice in
areas without judges or jails, miners set up rules of conduct and procedures for settling disputes. As towns
developed, they hired marshals and sheriffs, like Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson, to keep the peace. Churches set
up committees to address social problems.
Some mining towns – like Leadville, Colorado and Nevada City, Montana – were “boomtowns”. They thrived only
as long as the gold and silver held out. Even if a town had developed churches and schools, it might become a
ghost town, abandoned when the precious metal disappeared. In contrast, Denver, Colorado; Boise, Idaho; and
Helena, Montana were among the cities that diversified and grew.
The arrival of the big mining companies highlighted an issue that would relentlessly plague the West; water and its
uses. Large-scale mining required lots of water pumped under high pressure to help separate the precious metals
from silt. As the silt washed down the mountains, it fouled water being used by farmers and their livestock. Despite
these concerns, the federal government continued to support large mining companies by providing inexpensive
land and approving patents for new inventions. Mining wealth helped fuel the nation’s industrial development.
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Closure Question #1: How did mining in the West change over time?
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A rail link between the Eastern and Western United States; the
first Transcontinental Railroad was completed by the Central
Pacific and Union Pacific in 1869 at Promontory Point, Utah. It
connected Omaha, Nebraska with Sacramento, California.
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As industry in the West grew, the need for a railroad to transport goods increased as well. The idea of a
transcontinental railroad was not new. Arguments over the route it should take, however, had delayed
implementation. While the Civil War kept the South out of the running, Congress finally took action.
Unlike Europe, where railroads were built and owned by governments, the United States expected its railroads to be
built by private enterprise. Congress supported construction of the transcontinental railroad in two ways: It
provided money in the form of loans and made land grants.
Simultaneously in 1863, the Central Pacific started laying track eastward from Sacramento, California, while the
Union Pacific headed westward from Omaha, Nebraska. Constructed proved to be both difficult and expensive. The
human cost of building the railroad was also high. Starved for labor, the Central Pacific Company brought recruits
from China and set them to work under harsh contracts and with little regard for their safety. Inch by inch, they
chipped and blasted their way through the granite-hard Sierra Nevada and Rockies.
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Closure Question #2: How did railroads contribute to the settlement and
growth of the West?
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Gifts of land made by the Federal Government to railroad
companies to facilitate construction of railroad tracks; the land
was used for construction of the railroad and was also sold by
the railroad companies to settlers.
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The effects of the railroad were far reaching. They tied the nation together, moved products and
people, and spurred industrial development. The railroads also stimulated the growth of towns and
cities. Speculators vied for land in places where new railroad might be built, and towns already in
existence petitioned to become a stop on the western rail route.
Railroads intensified the demand for Indians’ land and brought white settlers who overwhelmed
Mexican American communities in the Southwest. There was no turning back the tide as waves of
pioneers moved west. The addition of states to the Union exemplifies the West’s growth.
Requirements for statehood included a population of at least 60,000 inhabitants. Between 1864
and 1896, ten territories met those requirements and became states.
Cattle ranching fueled another western boom. This was sparked by the vast acres of grass suitable
for feeding herds of cattle. Once the railroad provided the means to move meat to eastern markets,
the race was on for land and water.
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Closure Question #2: How did railroads contribute to the settlement
and growth of the West?
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System of cattle ranching in which owners marked (branded)
their cattle so they could be identified, then allowed them to
graze on communal property that was not fenced in.
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Long before the arrival of eastern settlers in the West, Mexicans in Texas had developed and efficient system for
raising livestock. The Texas longhorn, which originated in Mexico, roamed freely and foraged for its own feed.
Though ranchers claimed ownership and knew the boundaries of their property, cattle from any ranch grazed freely
across those boundaries. When spring came, the ranchers would hire cowboys to comb thousands of acres of open
range, “rounding up” cattle that had roamed all winter. The culture of the cowboy owed its very existence to the
Mexican vaqueros who had learned to train horses to work with cattle and had developed the roping skills, saddle,
lariat, and chaps needed to do the job.
Once cows were rounded up, cowboys began the long cattle drive to take the animals to a railroad that would
transport them to eastern markets. The trek from Texas, Colorado, or Montana to the nearest junction on the
transcontinental railroad could take weeks or even months. The cowboys’ work was hard, dangerous, low-paying,
lonely – often involving months of chasing cattle over the countryside. A band of cowboys often included a mix of
whites, Mexicans, & African Americans.
Cattle drives concluded in such railroad towns as Dodge City, Kansas, where the cattle were sold and the cowboys
were paid. These cow towns gave rise to stories about colorful characters such as Wild Bill Hickok, Doc Holliday,
Wyatt Earp and Jesse James. They were also the site of rodeos, competitions based on the cowboys’ skills, roping
and wrestling cattle.
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Closure Question #3: How did economic and cultural diversity cause
conflicts in the West?
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Law under which the government offered farm plots in the west
of 160 acres to anyone willing to live on the land, dig a well, and
build a road.
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The Great Plains were the last part of the country to be heavily settled by white people. It was originally set aside for
Indians because it was viewed as too dry for agriculture. Yet, with the coming of the transcontinental railroad,
millions of farmers moved into the West in the last huge westward migration in the mid- to late 1800s.
The push-and-pull factors that encouraged settlement were varied. Like the miners and cattle ranchers, farmers
were looking for a better life. Railroads advertised land for sale, even sending agents to Europe to lure new
immigrants, especially from Scandinavia. Other immigrants fled political upheavals in their native lands.
Mining, railroad building, and cattle herding were generally male occupations, so much of the western migration
was led by men. But women arrived, too. Everyone had a job to do, either tending the family and farm or working as
an entrepreneur running a boardinghouse, laundry, or bakery.
The life of homesteaders was hard. Windstorms, blizzards, droughts, plagues of locusts, and heart-rending
loneliness tested their endurance. On the treeless plains, few new arrivals could afford to buy lumber to build a
home. Instead, they cut 3-foot sections of sod and stacked them like bricks, leaving space for a door and one
window. The resulting home was dark, dirty, & dingy.
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Closure Question #3: How did economic and cultural diversity cause
conflicts in the West?
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A group of African-American agricultural migrants organized by
Benjamin Singleton who came to Kansas and Oklahoma after
the end of Reconstruction, founding several all-black towns.
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The Exodusters took their name from the biblical story of Moses leading the exodus of the Jews out of bondage
and into a new life in the “Promised Land”
The various ways that settlers sought to use western land were sometimes at odds with one another. Conflicts
between miners, ranchers, and farmers led to violence and acts of sabotage. And no matter who won, Native
Americans lost. Grazing cattle ruined farmers’ crops, and sheep gnawed grass so close to the ground that cattle
could not graze the same land. Although miners did not compete for vast stretches of grassland, runoff from largescale mining polluted water that ran onto the Plains – and everyone needed water.
Ethnic tensions on the western frontier often lurked beneath the surface. Many foreign-born white people ought
their fortunes on the American frontier, especially in the years following the mid-century revolutions in Europe.
Their multiple languages joined the mix of several dozen Native American language groups. Differences in food,
religion, and cultural practices reinforced each groups’ fear and distrust of the others.
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Closure Question #3: How did economic and cultural diversity cause
conflicts in the West?
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Working in groups of 4, use your notes from
Chapter 15, Section 3 to answer the following
questions:
How did mining in the West change over
time?
2. How did railroads contribute to the
settlement and growth of the West?
3. How did economic and cultural diversity
cause conflicts in the West?
1.