Transformation of the South and West

1. Transformation of the South and West

2. Cash Crop Closure Question #1: What positive steps did the South take to industrialize after the Civil War? Crops grown by farmers not for their personal use but to be sold for cash. 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.

3. Farmers’ Alliance Closure Question #2: How did southern agriculture suffer from the domination of cotton? 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. 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. 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%. 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.

4. Civil Rights Act of 1875 Closure Question #3: How did southern African Americans both gain and lose civil rights after the Civil War? 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. 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.

5. Closure #4 Working in groups of 4, use your notes from Chapter 15, Section 1 to answer the following questions: What positive steps did the South take to industrialize after the Civil War? How did southern agriculture suffer from the domination of cotton? How did southern African Americans both gain and lose civil rights after the Civil War?

6. Reservations Closure Question #1: Why did Native Americans and white settlers clash? (At least 2 reasons) 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. 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.

7. Sand Creek Massacre (Fall 1864) Closure Question #1: Why did Native Americans and white settlers clash? (At least 2 reasons) 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. 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.

8. George A. Custer Closure Question #1: Why did Native Americans and white settlers clash? (At least 2 reasons) 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. 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.

9. Sitting Bull Closure Question #2: How did Native Americans try but fail to keep their land? (At least 2 examples) Leader of the Lakota Sioux Indians at the Battle of Little Big Horn 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.

10. Little Big Horn – June 1876 Closure Question #2: How did Native Americans try but fail to keep their land? (At least 2 examples) 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. 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.

11. Wounded Knee – South Dakota, 1890 Closure Question #2: How did Native Americans try but fail to keep their land? (At least 2 examples) 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. 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.

12. Chief Joseph Closure Question #3: What steps were taken to foster assimilation of Native Americans? (At least 2 steps) 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.” 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.

13. Assimilated Closure Question #3: What steps were taken to foster assimilation of Native Americans? (At least 2 steps) 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. 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

14. Dawes General Allotment Act - 1887 Closure Question #3: What steps were taken to foster assimilation of Native Americans? (At least 2 steps) 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. 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.

15. Closure #5 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)

16. Mining Towns Closure Question #1: How did mining in the West change over time? 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. 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.

17. Vigilantes Closure Question #1: How did mining in the West change over time? Self-appointed law enforcers who punished lawbreakers in mining towns and other western communities. 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.

18. Transcontinental Railroad Closure Question #2: How did railroads contribute to the settlement and growth of the West? 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. 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.

19. Land Grants Closure Question #2: How did railroads contribute to the settlement and growth of the West? 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. 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.

20. Open-Range System Closure Question #3: How did economic and cultural diversity cause conflicts in the West? 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. 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.

21. Homestead Act - 1862 Closure Question #3: How did economic and cultural diversity cause conflicts in the West? 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. 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.

22. Exodusters Closure Question #3: How did economic and cultural diversity cause conflicts in the West? 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. 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 large-scale 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.

23. Closure #6 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? How did railroads contribute to the settlement and growth of the West? How did economic and cultural diversity cause conflicts in the West?