APUSH Chapter 17 (The West and South During the Gilded Age) – Flashcards

frontier largely vanished; great buffalo herds had been wiped out; open western lands were fenced in by homesteads and ranches, crisscrossed by steel rails, and modernized by new towns; ten new western states had been created; rush for West's natural resources nearly exterminated buffalo and seriously damaged the environment; Native Americans in the region paid a high human and cultural price as land was settled by miners, ranchers, and farmers

California Gold Rush began a feverish quest for gold and silver that helped settle much of the region; series of gold and silver strikes kept a steady flow of hopeful prospectors pushing into western mountains; discovery of gold near Pike's Peak, Colorado brought nearly 100,000 miners into the area; discovery of Comstock Lode (gold) was responsible for NV entering the Union; Idaho and Montana received early statehood largely because of mining booms; CA's gold rush set the pattern for other rushes; individual prospectors looked for traces of gold in the mountain streams by a method called placer mining in which people used simple tools such as shovels and pans; methods eventually gave way to deep-shaft mining that required expensive equipment and resources of wealthy investors and corporations; strikes created boomtowns that became famous for saloons, dance-hall girls, and vigilante justice; became ghost towns after the gold and silver ran out; stimulated settlement of the West but also reshaped the economics and politics of the nation; vast increase in the supply of silver created a crisis over relative value of gold and silver backed currency which became a political issue; left environmental scares; Natives lost lands to miners

most mining towns that endured and grew were more like industrial cities; as mines developed mining companies employed miners from Europe, Latin America, and China; half the population was foreign in many mining towns; about 1/3 of western miners were Chinese immigrants; Native-born Americans resented competition; in CA hostility to foreigners took form of a Miner's Tax of $20 per month on foreign born miners; political pressure from western states moved Congress to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act which prohibited further immigration to the US by Chinese laborers; first major act of Congress to restrict immigration based on race and nationality

ranchers realized economic potential of open grasslands; cattle had been raised and rounded up in TX on a small scale by vaqueros (Mexican cowboys); traditions of cattle business were borrowed from Mexicans; business was easy to get into because cattle and grass were free; construction of railroads into KS after the war opened eastern markets up for TX cattle; Joseph G. McCoy built first stockyards in KS to hold cattle destined for Chicago where they could be sold; Dodge City and other cow towns sprang up along railroads to handle millions of cattle driven up the Chisholm, Goodnight-Loving, and other trails out of TX; many cowboys were Mexican or black and received about a dollar a day for their dangerous work; long cattle drives began coming to an end in the 1880s; overgrazing destroyed the grass and a blizzard and drought killed off 90% of cattle; arrival of homesteaders meant the use of barbed wire fencing to cut off access to the range; wealthy cattle owners turned to developing huge ranches and using scientific ranching techniques; raised new breeds of cattle that produced more tender beef by feeding them hay and grains

encouraged farming on the Great Plains by offering 160 acres of public land free to any family that settled on it for a period of five years; promise of free land combined with promotions of railroads and land speculators induced thousands of families to attempt to farm the Great Plains between 1870 and 1900; five times that number had to purchase their land because the best public lands ended up in the hands of railroad companies and speculators

first sodbusters on plains often built homes of sod bricks; extremes of hot and cold weather, grasshopper plagues, and lonesome life on the plains challenged families; water was scarce and wood for fences was rare; homesteaders learned that 160 acres was not adequate for farming the Great Plains; long spells of severe weather along with falling prices for crops and the cost of new machinery caused failure of 2/3 of homesteaders' farms by 1900

invention of barbed wire by Joseph Gladden helped farmers to fence in their lands on plains; using mail-order windmills to drill deep wells provided some water; those who survived adopted "dry farming" and deep-plowing techniques to use the moisture available; learned to plant hardy strains of Russian wheat that withstood extreme weather; dams and irrigation saved many western farmers as humans reshaped rivers and physical environment of the West to provide water for agriculture

historian Frederick Jackson Turner wrote influential essay called "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" reacting to the closing of the frontier; argued that 300 years of frontier experience and shaped American culture by promoting independence and individualism; frontier was a powerful social leveler that broke down class distinctions and fostered social and political democracy; challenges of frontier life caused Americans to be inventive and practical but wasteful in their attitude toward natural resources; Turner was troubled by closing of the frontier; saw the availability of free land on the frontier as a safety valve for harmlessly releasing discontent in American society; frontier had always held the promise of a fresh start; wondered if the US would follow the patterns of class division and social conflict in Europe once the frontier closed

Jackson's policy of removing eastern Natives to the West was based on belief that western lands would remain "Indian country" permanently; expectation proved false as wagon trains moved west on the Oregon Trail and plans were made for a transcontinental railroad; in councils at Fort Laramie and Fort Atkinson the federal government began to assign Plains tribes large tracts of land, reservations with definite boundaries; most tribes refused to restrict their movements to the reservations and continued to follow migrating buffalo

settlement of thousands of miners, ranchers, and homesteaders on Native lands led to violence; fighting between US troops and Plains Natives was brutal and the Army was responsible for several massacres; during the Sioux War an army column under Captain William Fetterman was wiped out by Sioux warriors; after these wars another round of treaties attempted to isolate the Plains Natives on smaller reservations with federal agents promising government support but gold miners refused to stay off Native lands if gold was found on them as it was in the Dakotas' Black Hills; minor chiefs not involved in treaty-making and younger warriors denounced treaties and tried to return to ancestral lands

ended recognition of tribes as independent nations by the federal government and nullified previous treaties made with the tribes; conflicts included the Red River War against the Comanche in the southern plains and a second Sioux War led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse in the northern plains; before Sioux were defeated they ambushed and destroyed Colonel George Custer's command at Little Big Horn in 1876; Chief Joseph's effort to led a band of the Nz Percé into Canada ended in defeat and surrender in 1877; constant pressure of US army forced tribe after tribe to comply with Washington's terms; slaughter of most of the buffalo by early 1880s doomed way of life of Plains people

final effort of Natives to resist US government control through a religious movement; leaders of movements believed it could return prosperity to Natives; in government's campaign to suppress the movement the famous Sioux medicine man Sitting Bull was killed during his arrest; in December 1890 the US Army gunned down over 200 Natives in the Battle (massacre) of Wounded Knee in the Dakotas; marked the end of the Indian Wars

injustices done to Native Americans were chronicled in a best-selling book by Helen Hunt Jackson called "A Century of Dishonor"; created sympathy for Natives especially in the eastern US but also generated support for ending Native culture through assimilation; reformers advocated formal education, job training, and conversion to Christianity; set up boarding schools such as the Carlisle School in PA to segregate Native children from their people and teach them white culture and farming and industrial skills

new phase in the relationship between the US government and Natives; act was designed to break up tribal organizations because many felt that they kept Natives from becoming "civilized" and law-abiding citizens; divided tribal lands into plots of 160 acres depending on family size; citizenship granted to those who stayed on the land for 25 years and "adopted habits of civilized life"; government distributed 47 million acres of lands to Natives; 90 million acres of former reservation land (often the best land) was sold over the years to white sellers by the government, speculators, or Natives; new policy proved a failure; by the turn of the century disease and poverty reduced Native population to 200,000 people, many of whom lived as ward to the federal government

Spanish-speaking landowners in CA and the Southwest were guaranteed property rights and granted citizenship after the Mexican War; drawn-out legal proceedings often resulted in the sale or loss of lands to new Anglo arrivals; Latino culture was preserved in dominant Spanish-speaking areas such as NM territories, border towns, and barrios of CA; Mexican Americans moved to find work such as to the sugar beet fields and the mines of Colorado and the building of western railroads; before 1917 the border with Mexico was open and few records were kept for seasonal workers or permanent settlers

concerns over deforestation sparked the conservation movement; paintings and photos of western landscapes helped push Congress to preserve western icons like Yosemite Valley as a CA state park and dedicate Yellowstone area as the first National Park; Carl Schurz as Secretary of the Interior in the 1880s advocated creation of forest reserves and a federal forest service to protect federal lands from exploitation; Presidents Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland reserved 33 million acres of national timber; Americans grew increasingly concerned about the loss of public lands and the natural treasures they contained; Forest Reserve Act of 1891 and the Forest Management Act of 1897 withdrew federal timberlands from development and regulated their use; most conservationists believed in scientific management and regulated use of natural resources; preservationists such as John Muir went a step further and aimed to preserve natural areas from human interference; education efforts of Arbor Day, Audubon Society, and the Sierra Club were another sign of a growing conservation movement

growth of cities, the textual industry, and improved railroads, symbolized efforts to create a new South; Birmingham, AL became a leading steel producer in the US; Memphis, TN became a center for the South's growing lumber industry; GA, NC, and SC took over New England as chief producers of textiles; South converted to standard-gauge rails used in the North and West and was integrated into the national rail network; had 400 cotton mills with over 100,000 employees

poorest region in the country; Northern investors controlled 3/4 of southern railroads and controlled South's steel industry by 1900; large share of profits from new industries went to northern banks and financiers; industrial workers in the South earned half the national average and worked longer hours; most Southerners remained in traditional roles and barely got by as sharecroppers

South's late start at industrialization and a poorly educated workforce; only a small number of Southerners had the technological skills needed for industrial development; failed to invest in technical and engineering schools as did the North; political leadership in the South provided little support for education of the poor; without education the southern workforce faced little opportunity

economy remained tied mainly to growing cotton; umber of acres planted in cotton doubled between 1870 and 1900; glut of cotton on world markets caused cotton pieces to decline by more than half by the 1890s; income in the South declined and many farmers lost their farms; over half of white farmers and 3/4 of black farmers were sharecroppers by 1900 and made a living off of 15-20 acres; shortage of credit forced farmers to borrow supplies from local merchants in the spring with a mortgage on their crops to be paid at harvest; some farmers like George Washington Carver at Tuskegee Institute in AL wanted to escape dependence on cotton; Carver promoted the growing of crops like peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans; played important role in shifting the South's agriculture to a more diversified base; most small farmers remained in the cycle of debt and poverty; Farmers' Southern Alliance had over a million members by 1890; Colored Farmers' National Alliance had 250,000 members; both organizations rallied behind political reforms to solve farmers' economic problems

federal laws protected southern blacks from discrimination by local and state governments during Reconstruction; Supreme Court struck down one Reconstruction act after another applying to civil rights; in the Civil Rights Cases of 1883 the Court ruled that Congress could not legislate against discrimination practiced by private citizens including railroads, hotels, and other businesses used by the public; in Plessy v. Ferguson the Supreme Court upheld a LA law requiring separate but equal accommodations on railroads because it did not rule against the 14th amendment; federal court decisions supported a wave of segregation laws called Jim Crow laws; required segregated washrooms, drinking fountains, park benches, and other facilities in public places

political and legal devices were invented to prevent southern blacks from voting; literacy tests, poll taxes, and political party primaries for whites only were among the most common obstacles; grandfather clauses allowed a man to vote only if his grandfather had cast ballots in elections; Supreme Court upheld a state's right to use literacy tests to determine qualifications for voting; blacks were barred from serving on juries and were often given stiffer penalties than whites if they were convicted of crimes; in some cases blacks were not given court-ordered sentences; economic discrimination kept most southern blacks out of skilled trades and factory jobs; while poor whites and immigrants learned industrial skills that would help them rise to the middle class blacks remained engaged in farming and low-paying domestic work

Ida B. Wells, editor of a black newspaper called the Memphis Free Speech, campaigned against lynching and Jim Crow laws; death threats and destruction of her printing press forced her to carry on her work from the North; Bishop Henry Turner formed the International Migration Society to help blacks emigrate to Africa; many blacks moved to KS and OK; Booker T. Washington established an industrial and agricultural school for blacks in Tuskegee, AL where blacks learned skilled trades while Washington preached virtues of hard work, moderation, and economic self-help; organized the National Negro Business League which established 320 chapters across the country to support businesses owned and operated by African Americans; Washington's emphasis on racial harmony and economic cooperation won praise from many whites including Andrew Carnegie and Teddy Roosevelt; some criticized Washington for being too willing to accept discrimination

became more commercialized and specialized; Northern and western farmers concentrated don raising single cash crops; farmers began to procure food from stores in town and their manufactured goods from mail-order catalogs sent by Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck; farmers became more dependent on large and expensive machines such as steam engines, seeders, and reaper-thresher combines; larger farms were run like factories and smaller farms were driven out of business because they could not afford the new equipment

increased American production and increased production in Argentina, Russia, and Canada drove prices down for wheat, cotton, and other crops; since the money supply was not growing as fast as the economy each dollar became worth more; put more downward pressure on prices; as prices fell farmers with mortgages faced high interest rates and the need to grow more and more to pay off old debts; increased production only lowered prices; results were more debts, foreclosures by banks, and more independent farmers forced to become tenants and sharecroppers

farmers felt victimized by the larger national economy; industrial corporations could keep prices high on manufactured goods by forming monopolistic trusts; wholesalers and retailers (middlemen) took their cut before selling to farmers; railroads, warehouses, and elevators took what little profit remained by charging high or discriminatory rates for the shipment and storage of grain; railroads often charged more for short hauls on lines with no competition than for long hauls with competition; taxes seemed unfair to farmers because local and state governments taxed property and land heavily but did not tax income from stocks and bonds; tariffs protecting various American industries were viewed as another unfair tax paid by farmers and consumers for the benefit of industrialists

National Grange of Patrons of Husbandry was organized by Oliver H. Kelley as a social and educational organization for farmers and their families; as it expanded it became active in economics and politics to defend members against middlemen, trusts, and railroads; established cooperatives (businesses owned and run by farmers to save costs charged by middlemen); Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin successfully lobbied state legislatures to pass laws regulating rates charged by railroads and elevators; other Granger laws made it illegal for railroads to fix prices by means of pools and to give rebates to privileged customers; in Munn v. Illinois the Supreme Court upheld the right of a state to regulate businesses of a public nature such as railroads

state laws regulating railroad rates ran into many legal problems, especially with railroads that crossed state lines; state could regulate only local or short-haul rates; interstate commerce was a federal issue and railroads companies adapted to the Granger laws by raising their long-haul (interstate) rates; Supreme Court ruled that individual states could not regulate interstate commerce in Wabash v. Illinois and nullified many state regulations achieved by the Grangers; Congress responded to outcry of farmers and shippers by passing the first federal effort to regulate railroads; required railroads to be reasonable and just; set up the first regulatory agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission, which had the power to investigate and prosecute pools, rebates, and other discriminatory practices; helped railroads more than the farmers; new commission lost most of its cases in the federal courts; helped railroads by stabilizing rates and curtailing destructive competition

state and regional groups farmers used to express discontent; taught about scientific farming methods; alliances always had the goal of economic and political action; had potential for creating an independent national political party

national organization of farmers (the National Alliance) met in Ocala, FL to address the problems of rural America; alliance attacked major parties as subservient to Wall Street bankers and big business; delegates supported direct election of US senators, lower tariff rates, a graduated income tax, and a new banking system regulated by the federal government; demanded that Treasury notes and silver be used to increase the amount of money in circulation, which farmers hoped would create inflation and raise crop prices; proposed federal storage for farmers' crops and federal loans which would free farmers from dependency on middlemen and creditors; stopped short of forming a political party; backing of local and state candidates who pledged support for alliance goals were decisive in elections of 1890