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The Last West and the New South, 1865-1900. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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THE LAST WEST AND THE NEW SOUTH, 1865-1900
American social development has been continually beginning over again on the Frontier. This perennial rebirth, this fluidity of American life, this
expansion westward with its new opportunities, its continuous touch with the simplicity of primitive society, furnish the forces dominating
American character. The true point of view in the history of this nation is not the Atlantic coast, it is the Great West.
- Frederick Jackson Turner, 1893
Manifest Destiny
Louisiana Purchase (1803)
Lewis & Clark Expedition (1804-1806)
Mexican-American War (1846-1848)
The Civil War
Manifest Destiny – no more
Concentration is on war
The West: Settlement of the Last Frontier
Postbellum Period People begin to move
West Known as the “Great
Desert” 1900 – Heavily inhabited
Buffalo population is down by 95%
Railroads choking out Native American lands
Groups of Settlers: Miners Cattlemen Farmers
Miners Gold Rush – 1848 Settled much of CA and OR
Colorado Pike’s Peak – 1859 100,000 inhabitants
Nevada Comstock Lode (1864)
Speculators Placer mining Deep-shaft mining
Investment and capital
Boomtowns Virginia City, NV San Francisco, CA Sacramento, CA Denver, CO
Problems in CA: Immigration – mostly
Asian
Miner’s Tax $20/mo ALL foreign-born miners
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 Eliminated immigration
from China Renewed in 1892
The Cattle Frontier Economic opportunities
Railroad Postwar – opened up East to
the West Cow Towns
Abilene, TX Dodge City, KS Chicago, IL
“Long-Drive” Chisholm Trail Goodnight Loving Trail
Conditions: Workers
Mexican immigrants/blacks (exodusters)
$1.00/day
Farming/grazing methods 1880s – overgrazing 1885-1886 – massive
drought Killed 90% of cattle on
Plains Privatization of property
Joseph Glidden (1874)
The Farming Frontier Homestead Act of 1862
160 acres 500,000 moved west 2.5 million had to buy land
from RRs
Problems: No building materials Extreme hot and cold No water
Solutions: Sodbusters – sod bricks “Dry farming”
Russian Wheat
“Hurrah for Greer County! The land of the
free,
The land of the bedbug, grasshopper, and flea;
I’ll sing of its praises, I’ll tell of its fame;
While starving to death on my government
claim.”
Searching for an Indian Policy Antebellum: “one big
reservation” “Indian Country” –
government nomenclature
1834 – Indian Intercourse Act Whites must have a
“license” to move to the West
Changes in 1848
Native Americans Removal of Native
Americans 65% live on Great Plains Tribes:
Sioux Blackfoot Cheyenne Crow Comanche
Conflicts with U.S. Govt.
Reservation Policy Used to open terrain Settlers moved West Transcontinental RR
being built Native American
philosophies: Family NO Private Property
U.S. government attitude towards indigenous: Reservations! Treaty of Fort Laramie
(1851/1868)
Indian Wars November 1864 –
Massacre at Sand Creek John Chivington “Nits make lice”
1867 – Great Sioux War 7th Cavalry loses big! Battle of Little Bighorn
Col. George A. Custer Custer’s Last Stand
“Assimilationists” Respond Dawes Act (1887)
Wanted Native Americans to assimilate
Give up Ghost Dance Become “civilized” U.S. Govt. divides up tribal
lands 47 million acres FAILURE
Carlisle School, 1901
Battle of Wounded Knee December 28, 1890 Wounded Knee Creek,
SD 7th Cavalry – rounds up
350 starving Sioux Demand Sioux to give up
weapons Last of the Indian Wars
Frederick Jackson Turner “The Significance of the
Frontier in American History” (1893)
Argument: Frontier played a significant
role in forming American identity
Individualism and ruggedness
West was a safety valve for East
By 1890 – West was closed
Exact Exam Essay Question… In your opinion, was Reconstruction a
success or a failure? Did southerners receive a “New South” or was it the same old “Reconstruction South”? In your answer be sure to discuss social, political, and economic issues that “Reconstructionists” faced during this time period.
What do these documents say about Reconstruction/New South? With the people around you, identify:
What this document is saying about the South?
How does the document describe the conditions in the South (social/cultural, economic, and political)?
Does this document exhibit or demonstrate the potential for a New South or is it just the Reconstruction South?
The “New South”
Still recovering from Civil War
Henry Grady Pro-industrialization Pro-transcontinental RR Atlanta Constitution
article
Economic Process Cities
Birmingham, AL Major symbol of
“New South” Steel center
Richmond, VA Tobacco center
Memphis, TN Lumber capitol
CHEAP LABOR! Textile industry
Georgia, SC, and NC Made more cloth and
textiles than New England 1865 – 12 small cotton mills 1900 – 400 cotton mills
100,000 workers
Continued Poverty Mostly agriculture Poorest region in the
country Northern investors
controlled ¾ of RRs Money went to bankers
and to the North – not Southerners
Poverty caused by: Late entry into
industrialization Poorly educated work force
Agriculture Cotton prices drop
drastically Farmers lost lands Per capita income
declined By 1900 – 50% of whites
were tenant farmers – 75% blacks
George Washington Carver
Farmers Unite!
1890 – Farmers’ Southern Alliance 1 million members
Colored Farmers’ Southern Alliance 250,000 members
Both wanted political and economic reforms
Poor whites and black united for a common goal
Segregation 1877 – Federal troops exit
South No more protection for
blacks
Democrats come into local power White supremacy Separate races KKK
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Jim Crow Laws Grandfather clause Poll tax Literacy tests
Voting numbers fall Louisiana
1896 – 130,334 1904 – 1,342
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