America in the Gilded Age: 1870-1900

1. America in the Gilded Age: 1870-1900 The South: Still recovering from the Civil War but was no longer forced to “reconstruct”

2. The “New South”? Sharecropping Jim Crow reigned supreme as whites legally segregated the South into 2 distinct societies

3. America in the Gilded Age: 1870-1900 The North: Experienced a “2nd Industrial Revolution,” mass immigration, & urbanization

4. Railroads, Steel, & Oil

5. America in the Gilded Age: 1870-1900 The West: Manifest Destiny continued after 1865 as miners homesteaders, & ranchers headed West

6. The United States by 1890 Washington North Dakota Montana Idaho Established new states & closed the frontier by 1890 South Dakota Colorado Wyoming

7. ..but this came at the expense of Native Americans Western raw materials fueled eastern factories

8. Crushing the Native Americans

9. The Plains Indians In 1865, 2/3 of all Indians lived on the Great Plains Their culture was dependent upon the buffalo & the horse Tribes of several 1,000 people were subdivided into bands of 100s which made it difficult for the U.S. to negotiate treaties

10. Searching for an Indian Policy • Before the Civil War, the West was “one big reservation” • The Indian Intercourse Act (1834) forbade whites from entering “Indian country” without a license

11. Searching for an Indian Policy • But…rapid Western expansion in the 1850s brought a new Indian “concentration policy” with distinct boundaries for each tribe “as long as the waters run and grass grows”

12. Searching for an Indian Policy “Kill and scalp all, big and little” Congress investigated & condemned Chivington’s attack • Concentration did not last as whites ignored these boundaries: • Sand Creek Massacre (1864)—Col John Chivington attacked 700 sleeping Indians in CO after a peace agreement was signed • Sioux War (1865-1867)—gold miners wanted a Bozeman Trail (across Sioux hunting grounds) to connect mining towns; Sioux murdered 88 U.S. soldiers

13. Searching for an Indian Policy • In 1867, the U.S. formed the Indian Peace Commission : • Ended Bozeman Trail plans • Made “small reservations” in the Dakota & Oklahoma territories • Few Native Americans settled into these reservations peacefully: • Red River War (1874) • Little Big Horn (1876) • WoundedKneeMassacre(1890) The discovery of gold in South Dakota led a Sioux army of 2,500 to ambush & kill Lt Col Custer & his 197 soldiers “Custer’s Last Stand” set off demands for revenge among Americans Black soldiers in the U.S. army called “buffalo soldiers” were used to fend off Indian attacks in the West The U.S. army was ordered to stop Sioux “ghost dances” & machine gunned 200 men, women, & children

14. The End of Tribal Life “Kill the Indian and save the man” —Richard Pratt, founder of Carlisle • In 1871, the U.S. adopted its 4th Indian policy: Assimilation • U.S. citizenship was offered to all Indians who farmed, lived away from their tribe & “adopted the habits of civilized life” • Dawes Severalty Act in 1887 offered farms (160 acres to families & 80 to men) & the protection of U.S. laws

15. The End of Tribal Life • The final blow to Indian culture came with annihilation of buffalo: • Began with the construction of the transcontinental RR in 1860s • From 1872 to 1874, 3 million buffalo were killed each year

16. 1 hunter = 100 buffalo per day

17. Settlement of the West

18. Rails Across the Continent • In 1862, Congress authorized the transcontinental railroad: • Union Pacific worked westward from Nebraska (Irish laborers) • Central Pacific worked eastward from CA (Chinese immigrants) • May 10, 1869 the 2 tracks met at Promontory Point in Utah • By 1900, 4 more lines were built to the Pacific

19. Federal Land Grants to Railroads by 1871 The national gov’t doled $65 million & millions of acres in land grants (received reduced rates for shipping)

20. The Transcontinental Railroad “Pullman cars” & “refrigeration cars” In 1870, RR companies developed the 1st time zones to better schedule the RR system; the US would not adopt time zones until 1918

21. Railroad Construction, 1830-1920

22. The Farming Bonanza 2/3 of all homesteaders failed to farm their land • The U.S. gov’t offered incentives for farmers to settle the West: • Homestead Act (1862)—gave 160 acres of land if families pledged to live there for 5 years • Other gov’t acts helped develop western lands by planting trees & building irrigation systems • Due to land grants, RRs were the largest western landowners 500 million acres doled to businesses but only 80 million to homesteaders

24. The Farming Bonanza • In 1870, homesteaders pushed West & adapted to the harsh farming conditions: • Farmers used dry farming techniques & planted tougher varieties of wheat • New machinery sped harvesting & planting; led to bonanza farms • By 1890, the U.S. became a major crop exporter A pioneer sod house

25. Homestead Sales, 1870-1940 In 1900, the West made up 30% of the U.S. population (was 1% in 1850)

26. The Mining Bonanza • Mining was the 1st magnet to attract settlers to the West • CA (1849) started the gold rush, but strikes in Pikes Peak, CO & Carson River Valley, NV (1859) set off wild migrations to the West: • Comstock Lode = $306 million • John Mackay’s Big Bonanza made him richest man in world

27. Mining Regions of the West Created need for local gov’t, law enforcement, sanitation, businesses, prostitutes Individual “placer miners” took little skill or money to start, but could not reach deep lodes Corporations had the expensive machinery to extract most of the gold in the West Discoveries of gold & silver led to overnight mining towns

28. Mining Bonanza "Courts of Justice Closed to Chinese Extra Taxes to 'Yellowjack'" • ¼ to ½ of the mining population was foreign born: • Latin American miners brought experience & new techniques • Chinese brought a tireless ethic • Led to hostility & riots: • Foreign Miners’ Act in 1852 charged a monthly mining fee • Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 suspended Chinese immigration Pacific Chivalry: “Encouragement to Chinese Immigration”

29. The Cattle Bonanza A cattle bought for $4 in Texas sold for $40 in Kansas In the 1860s, cattle ranching boomed Ranchers used the “open range” to graze longhorns By 1867, ranchers started using trains to ship cattle to Chicago

30. The Cattle Bonanza • ½ of all cowboys were black & ¼ were Mexican • By 1880, the “open range” was ending: • Wheat growers, homesteaders, & barbed wire blocked the range • Many switched to raising sheep

31. Exodusters • Exodusters were black farmers who moved West to escape Southern crop liens & Jim Crow Laws

32. The Final Fling “Sooners” couldn’t wait until noon • In 1889, Congress responded to demands to open the Oklahoma Territory to white settlement • On April 22, 1889, about 100,000 “Boomers” & “Sooners” flooded into the last “Indian land” • White migrants claimed 2 million acres in Oklahoma homesteads • Moved out Creeks & Seminoles Oklahoma “Boomers” waiting for noon

33. Indian Reservations Today Lands Lost by Native Americans (1894)

34. The Myth of the West • Frederick Jackson Turner • Frontier Thesis • Literature • Dime novels – cowboys, gunslingers, lawmen, outlaws, bank robbers • More myth than reality • Still shapes our concept of west

35. Conservation Movements • Movement to protect land from development, mining, deforestation, etc. • Land used for parks (Yellowstone, Yosemite, etc.) • John Muir leader of movement