January 21, 2014 – The New West

1. January 21, 2014 – The New West Do Now: • Complete the review over the chapter using your notes. Homework: • Read, annotate, and prepare for discussion over Chief Joseph vs. Theodore Roosevelt speeches • Office Hours W/Th this semester • Tuesday by appt. • No BR passes  new policy

2. The Last West and the New South, 1865-1900 Chapter 16

3. The West: Settlement of the Last Frontier Before… After…. By 1900  bison almost extinct N.A.  lost traditions, many died Settlement Ranches, railroads, homesteads, town 10 states • 15 million bison (buffalo) • 250,000+ Native Americans • “Great American Desert” • Apprehensive to settle  • hot, dry summers • blizzard winters • Few trees • Low precipitation

4. Railroad Construction

5. Transcontinental Railroads Construction Consequences for the Great Plains Railroads played key role in near extinction of buffalo herds Huge blow to culture of Plain’s Indians Brought tidal wave of troops, farmers, miners, and cattlemen to Great Plains As settlers built farms, range-fed cattle replaced now decimated buffalo herds • 1st transcontinental railroad completed 1869 • 5 transcontinental railroads were constructed during 19th century • Irish & Chinese workers played key roles in construction

6. Promontory Point, UT(May 10, 1869)

7. Mining Centers: 1900

8. Mining (“Boom”) Towns--Now Ghost Towns Bust. Boom to…

9. The Cattle Trails • Open-range cattle ranching at the end of the nineteenth century declined b/c: • Excessively cold winters • A drop in cattle prices at stockyards • Overgrazing • Production of crops for distant markets

10. Land Use: 1880s

11. Barbed Wire Joseph Glidden

12. Cowboys… Romanticized Reality

13. Legendary Gunslingers & Train Robbers Jesse James Billy the Kid

14. Frontier Settlements: 1870-1890

15. 1887 LandPromotionPosterfor the Dakota Territories Life on the Plains! • Homestead Act of 1862 • Permitted any citizen or prospective citizen to claim 160 acres of public land and to purchase it for small fee after living on it for 5 years • Played a role in encouraging settlement of frontier

16. The Fading Frontier A Watershed Report Frederick Jackson Turner • 1890 – superintendent of the census reported that for the first time in American history, the frontier line no longer existed • The “closing” of the frontier inspired Frederick Jackson Turner to write one of the most influential essays in American history – “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”

17. An Influential Thesis Turner argued that the existence of cheap, unsettled land had played a key role in making American society more democratic He said the frontier: helped shape distinctive American spirit of democracy and egalitarianism Acted as safety valve that helped Eastern factory workers & immigrants escape bad economic conditions and find new opportunities Played a key role in stimulating American nationalism and individualism Prevented American from having hereditary aristocracy (can always move west to start over) High probability of being on AP test….

18. Transformation of Plains Indians Key Causes • Virtual extermination of buffalo doomed Plain’s Indians way of life • Plains Indians ravaged by diseases • Transcontinental railroads transformed economy of entire region

19. The Battle of Little Big Horn, 1876 • The Second Sioux War was caused by: • The extension of the route of the Northern Pacific Railroad • The gold rush in the Black Hills • Corruption within the Department of the Interior • Overland migration of settlers to the Pacific Northwest Gen. GeorgeArmstrong Custer Chief Sitting Bull

20. Publication of Century of Dishonor, 1881 High probability of being on AP test…. Helen Hunt Jackson • Effect  • Produced public awareness of the federal government’s long record of betraying and cheating Native Americans

21. Dawes Act of 1887 Goals Consequences Ignored the inherent reliance of traditional Indian culture on tribally owned land By 1900, Indians has lost 50% of 156 million acres of land they held 2 decades earlier The forced-assimilation doctrine of Dawes Act remained the cornerstone of the govt’s official Indian policy for almost 50 years Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 partially reversed Dawes Act by restoring tribal basis of Indian life • Inspired by Century of Dishonor, the Dawes Act was a misguided attempt to reform the government’s Native American policy • Legislations goals = Assimilate Native Americans into mainstream American life by dissolving tribes as legal entities and eliminating tribal ownership of land

22. Dawes Severalty Act (1887):Assimilation Policy Carlisle Indian School, PA

23. “Ghost Dance” • The dance was a sacred ritual expressing a vision that the buffalo would return & White civilization would vanish • Army attempted to destroy it at the so-called Battle of Wounded Knee (1890), fearing the ceremony would cause an uprising • As many as 200 Indian men, women, and children were killed at the Battle of Wounded Knee (actually massacre)

24. The New South Economic Development Political Repression of African Americans New South advocates supported the withdrawal of federal troops while ignoring rise of KKK and increase in lynching African Americans who migrated to Kansas were known as exodusters Exodusters were: African Americans who fled violence of Reconstruction South in 1879 & 1880 Most migrated to Kansas • Proponents of the New South supported building a more diversified Southern economy • New South advocates championed the expansion of Southern industry • Didn’t happen b/c poorly educated work force and late start at industrialization

25. The Rise of Jim Crow Segregation Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896) • Case involved a dispute over the legality of segregated railroad cars in Louisiana • It upheld that segregation by approving “separate but equal” accommodations for African Americans • Led to establishment of separate school systems • Doctrine of “separate by equal” was reversed in 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka Disenfranchising Black Voters Literacy tests and poll taxes were used to deny African Americans the right to vote “Grandfather clause” said only anyone whose forebear had voted in 1860 could vote Electoral districts gerrymandered to favor Democratic party The 1883 Civil Rights Cases • Weakened protections given to African Americans under 14th amendment • Much of Civil Rights Act of 1875 was declared unconstitutional • Cases declared 14th amendment prohibited only govt violations of civil rights, not the denial of civil rights to individuals

26. Booker T. Washington • Atlanta Compromise Speech, 1895 • Called African Americans to seek opportunities rather than political rights • Declared, “In all things purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress” • Key Positions • Supported black economic self-help • Supported accommodation to white society • Supported vocational education • Supported racial solidarity • Opposed public political agitation