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