The South and the West Transformed1865-1900

This chapter will discuss how the society, culture, and economy of the South and West changed after the Civil War. It will focus on life in the New South after the end of Reconstruction, how new settlers in the West affected American Indians, and how the West was transformed.

Chapter Introduction

• Section 1: The New South

• Section 2: Westward Expansion and the American Indians

• Section 3: Transforming the West

The South After Reconstruction

• Explain how the southern economy changed in the late 1800s.

• Analyze how southern farmers consolidated their political power.

• Describe the experience of African Americans in the changing South.

Objectives

Terms and People

• cash crop – crop such as cotton and tobacco that is grown not for its own use but to be sold for cash

• Farmers’ Alliance – network of farmers’ organizations that worked for political and economic reforms in the late 1800s

• Civil Rights Act of 1875 – law that banned discrimination in public facilities and transportation

How did the southern economy and society change after the Civil War?

In the postwar years, railroads crisscrossed the South and industries grew.

Yet challenges remained—for the South’s economy and for its people.

In the years following the Civil War, southern leaders hoped to build a “New South.”

They worked to modernize the economy by:

• supporting industries

• diversifying agriculture

Textile factories and lumber mills sprang up.

So did iron, coal, and steel processing plants.

Workers outside ironworks in Alabama

Railroad construction boomed.

New rail lines connected urban hubs with rural areas, cities with towns.

• Railroads moved people and products.

• Cities grew.

Yet economic expansion in the South lagged behind the rest of the country.

• War damage was extensive.

• The South lacked a well-trained labor force, and wages were low.

• A lack of capital led to a dependence on northern bankers.

Life was especially difficult for southern farmers.

Despite efforts to diversify, most farmers still depended on cash crops.

The price of cotton, their main crop, plummeted after the war.

Boll weevils wiped out entire crops.

For many farmers, it was a struggle just to survive.

Along with falling prices, cotton farmers faced another disaster.

• Worked to negotiate better prices on supplies, freight charges, and loan rates

• Connected farmers in the South and West

Faced with serious problems, farmers joined together to form the Farmers’ Alliance.

Most importantly, they gained:

• the right to vote

• access to education

Black southerners made important political and economic advances in the postwar years.

In time, however, many of the gains were reversed.

• Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan terrorized African Americans.

• Newfound freedoms were stripped away.

• Segregation was enforced.

The Civil Rights Act of 1875 banned discrimination in public facilities and transportation.

The Supreme Court, however, ruled in a series of cases decided in 1883 that such decisions were local issues.

Southern towns and cities used the ruling to further limit the rights of African Americans.

Native American Struggles

• Compare the ways Native Americans and white settlers viewed and used the land.

• Describe the conflicts between white settlers and Indians.

• Evaluate the impact of the Indian Wars.

Objectives

Terms and People

• reservation – specific area set aside by the federal government for the Indians’ use

• Sand Creek Massacre – 1864 incident in which a Colorado militia killed a camp of unarmed Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians

• Sitting Bull – Sioux chief respected as a fighter and spiritual leader

• Battle of the Little Big Horn – 1876 battle in which the Sioux defeated American troops led by Colonel George Custer

Terms and People (continued)

• Chief Joseph – leader of the Nez Percés who surrendered after trying to lead a group of Indian refugees to Canada

• Wounded Knee – 1890 confrontation between U.S. cavalry and the Sioux that marked the end of Indian resistance in the Ghost Dance War

• assimilate – to adopt the culture and civilization of the dominant group in a society

• Dawes General Allotment Act – 1887 law that divided reservation land into private family plots

How did the pressures of westward expansion impact Native Americans?

As American settlers continued to push westward, they increasingly came into conflict with Native Americans.

Such conflict often led to violence, with tragic results.

1) Colonial Period (1492-1789)• European nations negotiated treaties with

Indian tribes.

• Treaties are agreements between two sovereign governments and are considered to be the supreme law of the land.

• Treaties accorded tribes an equivalent status to that of the colonial governments.

Indian Tribal Locations

7 D’s of Colonial America• “Discovery”• “Disease”• “Discrimination”• “Devotionals”• “Dependency”• “Defense”• “Dispossession”

Discovery vs. Encounter

Disease & Depopulation

Indian Settlement before European ColonizationPopulation: b/w 50-60 million(Present US geopolitical boundary: 1500 A.D.: 15 M; 1900 A.D. 250,000)

The Indian East

Discrimination & Enslavement

Devotionals• White Man’s God versus Nature

– Reformation, Reconquista, Great Awakening– Christian vs. Heathen– Civilized vs. Savage (hostile/noble)

• Conversions

Indian Religion & Prophets

El Pope; Neolin; Handsome Lake; Tenskwatawa; Sitting Bull; Black Elk; WovokaLame Deer; Rolling Thunder; Sun Bear

Dependency -Alliances

-Manufactured Goods

-Resource Exploitation & Depletion

Defending the Homeland• Opechancanough (1622; 1644)• Pequot War (1630s)• Metacom/King Phillip’s War; (1675-76)• Pueblo Revolt (1680)• French & Indian War (1754-1763)• Pontiac’s Rebellion (1763)• Lord Dunmore's War (1774-75)

Dispossession

Doctrine of Discovery• Provided that by law and divine intention European

Christian countries gained power and legal rights over indigenous non-Christian peoples immediately upon their “discovery” by Europeans.

• European monarchs developed this principle to benefit their own countries.

• Theological grants were the legal foundation for claims of sovereignty by all colonial powers in America. “Christian princes” could take lands “unknown to all Christian peoples.”

Land Ownership & Property Rights• Different notions of land ownership and use

• Fee-Simple Title (absolute dominion over land and people)

• Preemptive Rights– Claimed by European “Discoverers”

• Build Forts/Settlements• Requerimiento • Mapping/Naming/Publishing/Proclaiming

– Sole and exclusive right of purchasing by treaty or by right of conquest through “just” wars

• Right of Occupancy– Indians retained right of the soil “occupancy”

Treaty-making Era (1789-1871)• U.S. follows Europe’s pattern by negotiating treaties with

Indian tribes.

• Treaties are agreements between two sovereign governments; considered the supreme law of the land.

• Treaties accorded tribes an equivalent status to colonial governments.

• Treaties formalize a nation-to-nation relationship between the federal government and the tribes.

• U.S.-tribal treaties are indexed in international law with treaties made by all other nations. [370 Ratified Treaties]

The U.S. Constitution* Recognizes Indian tribes as distinct, sovereign governments.

Article. I.• Section 2: Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the

several States . . . excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.

• Section 8: The Congress shall have Power … To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

Article II. • Section 2: grants power to the President to make treaties with the "advice

and consent" of two-thirds of the Senate. This is different from normal legislation which requires approval by simple majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Complexity of Indian-White Relations

Indian Nations

State GovernmentFederal Government

Indian-White Diplomacy

Indian Nations

Legislation Treaties Court Decisions

Bison

• Vast herds in the millions

• Native Americans hunted sustainably

• Settlers and professional hunters drove the bison almost to extinction

• U.S. government actively supported hunting

Bison grazing on the Great Plains

Indian Reservations

• U.S. government supported continuing removal onto reservations

• Attempts to “civilize” Native Americans

• Treaties• Forced relocation Indians on a reservation in the early 20th

century

The Indian Wars• U.S. government

entered into armed conflict with tribes

• Sand Creek Massacre (1864)

• Battle of the Little Bighorn (1876)

• Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)

• Apache conflicts

The Sand Creek Massacre

• Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851)

• Gold discovered in Colorado

• Treaty of Fort Wise (1861)

• Chivington’s attack on Sand Creek (1864)

• Aftermath included increased attacks on settlers

Artist’s conception of Chivington’s attack

The Battle of the Little Bighorn

• 1876• Custer’s 7th Cavalry

attacked a Cheyenne and Lakota encampment

• 7th Cavalry defeated; Custer killed

• Custer celebrated as a hero

• Controversy continues over what happened

An illustration depicting Custer’s Last Stand

The Wounded Knee Massacre • 1890• Ghost Dance• Sitting Bull’s

arrest• The

massacre• End of the

Indian Wars Dead Lakota after the Wounded Knee Massacre

“Buffalo Soldiers”

• African American army regiments in the West

• Fought in the Indian Wars

• Very successful in battle; some earned medals of honor

Members of an African American regiment

White Attitudes TowardNative Americans

• Various views and attitudes • Portrayals of Native Americans in literature, drawings,

cartoons, etc.• Edward Curtis photographs

The Indian as an uncivilized threat (political cartoon)

The Indian as “noble savage” (Edward Curtis photo)

Cowboys

• Vaqueros• Mexican and

Native American cowboys

• Civil War soldiers• Former slaves• Difficult and

lonely work

A vaquero about to rope a steer

Cattle Drives• Led cattle to trains

headed east• Meatpacking

industry expanded in Chicago

• Chisholm Trail• Chuck wagon and

wranglers• Era ended by 1890s

Cowboys herding cattle on the prairie

Romantic Notions of the West

• Arts and media stoked public fascination

• “Anything goes” spirit

• Cowboys and Indians

• Buffalo BillA poster advertising Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show

Paintings of the West• Hudson River

School• Albert Bierstadt• Thomas Moran• Moran’s paintings

played a role in the creation of Yellowstone National Park in 1872 The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,

as painted by Thomas Moran

Turner’s “Frontier Thesis”

• Frederick Jackson Turner, 1893—“The Significance of the Frontier in American History”

• Western frontier shaped the American identity

• As a result we are more democratic, optimistic, and individualistic

• Frontier as a safety valve notion

• The frontier was now closedFrederick Jackson Turner

After the Civil War, about 250,000 Indians lived in the lands west of the Mississippi.

• Had different belief systems

• Spoke different languages

• Lived in different types of houses

• Ate different types of foods

Native Americans came from many diverse cultures.

The diverse Indian peoples, however, shared a common view toward nature—a view that conflicted with that of many white Americans.

Native Americans saw themselves as part of nature and viewed nature as sacred.

Many white Americans viewed the land as a resource to produce wealth.

During the 1800s, the government carried out a policy of moving Indians out of the way of white settlers.

At first, Indians in the East were moved west, into the Plains.

As frontier settlers continued pushing west, however, this plan changed.

Indians were forced into reservations. No longer free to roam the Plains, they faced suppression and poverty.

Two other crises also threatened Native American civilizations.

Disease

Loss of the buffalo

Settlers introduced diseases to which Indians had no immunity.

Settlers slaughtered buffalo herds.

Some Native Americans fought to defend their lands.

At the Sand CreekMassacre, a Colorado militia killed an unarmed camp of Indians who were under U.S. Army protection.

But attacks and retaliation led to distrust—and to tragedy.

Promises were made and peace treaties were signed, but they often were broken.

Frustration turned to violence as the government moved to crush Indian resistance.

• The Red River War led to the defeat of the Southern Plains Indians.

• The Sioux were victorious at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

• Chief Joseph and the Nez Percés surrendered after attempting to retreat to Canada.

Fearful of insurrection, government officials tried to ban the practice.

The ritual preached that white settlers would be banished and the buffalo would return.

As their way of life slipped away, some Indians turned to a religious revival based on the Ghost Dance.

However, he was killed in a confrontation with U.S. troops.

More than 100 Indians who fled were killed at Wounded Knee.

The Indian Wars were over.

In an effort to end the Ghost Dance, the government attempted to arrest Sitting Bull.

Boarding Schools

Kill the Indian; Save the Man…

Native Americans were forced to assimilate.

Though they had been pushed onto reservations where their native cultures were banned, some reformers believed Native Americans needed to be sent to boarding schools to be “like all other Americans.”

Before and after entering Carlisle Indian School

• Replaced the reservation system with an allotment system

• Granted each Indian family their own plot of land

• Specified the land could not be sold for 25 years

In 1887, Congress passed the Dawes General Allotment Act to encourage assimilation.

Dawes Act of 1887138 million acres (1887)

to52 m. acres (1934)

Head of household: 160 acres;

single or 18/orphan; 80 acres; others: 40 acres

Land held in “trust” for 25 years;

“surplus lands” sold off to homesteaders

Tens of thousands of Native Americans died in battle or on squalid reservations.

Only a small number were left to carry on their legacy.

Native Americans’ struggle to retain their homeland, freedom, and culture proved tragic.

• When the Native Americans were placed on reservations, one of the last barriers to western expansion was lifted.

• The railroad could get people where they wanted to go, and the resources of the West seemed boundless.

• How did the typical Westerner make a living?

• Although migrant settlers had skills too numerous to mention, the most dominant Western industries were mining, ranching, and farming.

• When the Native Americans were placed on reservations, one of the last barriers to western expansion was lifted.

• The railroad could get people where they wanted to go, and the resources of the West seemed boundless.

• How did the typical Westerner make a living?

• Although migrant settlers had skills too numerous to mention, the most dominant Western industries were mining, ranching, and farming.

Westward Expansion After 1865

• Analyze the impact of mining and railroads on the settlement of the West.

• Explain how ranching affected western development.

• Discuss the ways various peoples lived in the West and their impact on the environment.

Objectives

Terms and People

• vigilante – self-appointed law enforcer

• transcontinental railroad – rail link between the eastern and western United States

• land grant – land designated by the federal government for building schools, roads, or railroads

• open-range system – system in which ranchers did not fence in their property, allowing cattle to roam and graze freely

Terms and People (continued)

• Homestead Act – 1862 law in which the government offered farm plots of 160 acres to anyone willing to live on the land for five years, dig a well, and build a road

• Exodusters –African Americans who migrated from the South to the West after the Civil War

What economic and social factors changed the West after the Civil War?

In the late 1800s, miners, rail workers, ranchers, and farmers moved to the frontier in hopes of building better lives.

The industrial and agricultural booms they created helped transform the West.

New Territories• New territories

organized in the 1860s• No territorial

constitutions• Territorial governments

under direct federal control

• Eventually became states

African Americans Migrating From the South

• Difficulties for Southern African Americans after the Civil War

• Migration westward, particularly to Kansas

• “Exodusters”• Mostly remained poor,

yet better off than if they had stayed in the South

“Exodusters” en route to Kansas

The Pony Express• Mail could take over six

months to arrive from the East

• Pony Express started in 1860

• Mail transmitted by riders on horseback

• Ended in 1861

An advertisement for Pony Express riders

The Telegraph• Transmitted written

messages over electrical wires

• Connected many places in the East by 1850

• Pacific Telegraph Act of 1860

• First transcontinental telegraph in 1861

Men installing telegraph poles on the prairie

The Transcontinental Railroad• Coast-to-coast

railroad line• Would facilitate

trade and western settlement

• Chinese and Irish immigrant labor

• Completed in 1869

The driving of the golden spike, Promontory Point, Utah, 1869

The Transcontinental Railroad: Outcomes

• Increased westward migration

• Bison nearly exterminated

• Loss of bison helped keep Native Americans on reservations

Hunters shooting at a herd of bison from a train and along the tracks

The discovery of gold and silver created the first great boom in the West—mining.

• With each new find, prospectors rushed to the site, hoping to strike it rich.

• Others followed, bringing food and supplies.

Mining camps quickly sprang up.

Many camps grew into thriving communities.

• In the early days, vigilantes took the law into their own hands.

• As towns grew, they hired marshals and sheriffs.

Because they had no judges or jails, miners often set their own rules for administering justice.

Some towns, however, disappeared as quickly as they appeared. Boomtowns turned to ghost towns when the gold and silver ran out.

• They could afford the heavy equipment needed to bring mineral ores out from deep underground.

• They were supported by the government, which provided them with inexpensive land.

Large companies soon took over the mining business from individual prospectors.

The railroads soon began work to fulfill a longtime goal—to build a transcontinental railroad linking the East and the West.

As industries grew in the West, so did the need for railroads to transport goods and people.

The government supported this goal through loans and land grants.

In 1863, the Central Pacific headed eastward from Sacramento. The Union Pacific headed westward from Omaha.

They finally met at Promontory, Utah, in 1869.

• Tied the nation together

• Moved products and people

• Spurred industrial development

• Stimulated the growth of towns and cities

• Encouraged settlers to continue to move west

Work on the railroad had been difficult and dangerous. But it brought tremendous changes to the country.

The railroad boom encouraged another western boom—the cattle boom.

For years, Mexican ranchers had used an open-range system for raising livestock.

• Property was not fenced in.

• Cattle were branded, then grazed freely.

• Cowboys rounded up the cattle each spring.

Cowboys drove the cattle north to the rail lines, so they could be transported to market.

The long, hard cattle drives could last for months.

They ended at railroad towns, called cow towns.

Reasons the open- range system ended

The invention of barbed wire made fencing cheap.

The supply of beef exceeded demand, and prices dropped.

Extreme weather led to the death of herds.

By the mid-1880s, however, the cattle boom was coming to an end.

Like miners and ranchers, farmers also moved west, looking for a better life.

Railroad companies encouraged pioneer settlement. So did the government.

Under the 1862 Homestead Act, the government gave land to farmers willing to tend it.

Easterners, Exodusters, and immigrants soon poured onto the Great Plains.

The Homestead Act• 1862• Families could

settle 160 acres

• Fierce competition for land

• Displaced more Native AmericansHomesteaders in front of their log cabin–

style house

• By far, the most numerous of western pioneers were the farmers.

• Seeking a dream of stable existence working a homestead of their own, thousands of migrant families had their dreams dashed by the harsh realities of western life.

• Nature, isolation, politics, and economics all seemed to

work against the hopeful farmer.

Life on the Plains was difficult and lonely.• With little wood

available, homesteaders made houses from sod.

• Storms, droughts, and locusts ruined crops.

• Weather issues

• Mental health issues

• Threat of Indians

Life on the Frontier

• All family members had to work

• Settlers built their own homes and made various household items from scratch

• Houses built of sod due to scarcity of trees

A sod house in North Dakota

Farming on the Frontier• Terrain made farming

difficult• Steel plow (1837) made

agriculture much more efficient

• Corn, wheat, livestock, and hunting

• Great risk of disease and injury“Plowing on the Prairie Beyond the

Mississippi”

Immigrants on the Frontier• Immigrants settled

the frontier• Mostly Europeans,

including Germans and Scandinavians

• Representatives traveled to Europe to entice people to emigrate

The Haymakers, by Herbjørn Gausta, a Norwegian immigrant

Women on the Frontier• Women settled

with their husbands and children

• Played a central role in their new homes

• Kept traditional roles and added new ones

Frontier women standing before a sod house

New inventions and farming methods, however, made life easier.

• Barbed wire

• Stronger plow

• Grain drill

• Windmill

• Dry-farming techniques

For many Americans, the West was a place to build new lives. But it also was a place of conflict.

• Cattle destroyed crops• Sheep ruined grasses• Mining runoff polluted water• Control of resources disputed

Economic rivalries

Social conflicts• Prejudice• Discrimination• Ethnic tensions

The last land rush took place in 1889, when the government opened the Oklahoma Territory to homesteaders.

“Boomers” lined up to stake claims.

“Sooners” sneaked in early to take the best land.

In 1890, the government declared that there was no land left for homesteading. The frontier closed.

Chapter Summary

Section 1: The New South

Section 2: Westward Expansion and the American Indians

• After Reconstruction ended, the South remained mostly agricultural and poor despite some industrial successes. The region fell behind because it lacked capital investment and an educated labor force. Black southerners made gains and experienced white backlash.

• White settlers moved in great numbers to land west of the Mississippi after the Civil War, putting pressure on Native Americans living there. Rebellion by American Indians led to tragedy, as many lost their lives trying to preserve their land.

Chapter Summary (continued)

Section 3: Transforming the West

• The West changed greatly after the Civil War. Miners came first, followed by settlers and cattle ranchers. The transcontinental railroad linked East and West, and white settlement closed the frontier by 1900.