C26 - The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution 1865-1896 Flashcards
Mary Elizabeth Lease
Outspoken Populist speaker.
Granger Laws
Late 1860s/early 1870s, these laws made Railroad rates more favorable for small rural farmers.
James B. Weaver
Ran in Presidential election of 1880 for the Greenback Labor party.
eighty-niners
People who poured into Oklahoma in 1889 after the US Govt. made this fertile land available for settlers.
Patrons of Husbandry
Also known as the Grange: Organized in 1867 by Oliver H. Kelley, a MN farmer. His goal was to enhance the lives of isolated rural farmers through social, educational and fraternal activities.
He organized picnics, lectures and concerts.
Their goals evolved as they tried to influence politics and push for laws and regulations that would benefit the small farmer. Their “Granger laws” were fought and eventually reversed in the Wabash Case in the Supreme court decision of 1886.
George A. Custer
US military leader who is known for great successes during the Civil War: Battle of Bull Run and Appomattox Campaigns.
He was later sent to fight in Indians wars in the west. He was killed during the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 by Indians led by Sitting Bull.
This became known as Custer’s last stand.
Helen Hunt Jackson
Author who wrote “ A Century of Dishonor” in 1881, covering the US government’s cruelty toward Native Americans.
Farmers’ Alliance
Formed in late 1870s in Texas. Farmers came together to socialize, but mostly to break the grip of Railroaders and Manufacturers through cooperative selling.
Out of this group came the People’s party, or Populists, formed in the 1890s.
Homestead Act
1862: Law allowed a settler to acquire 160 acres of land by living on it for 5 years, improving it and paying a fee of $30.
Great opportunity for some farmers who wanted to settle West, but there was also a lot of corruption.
Many homesteaders couldn’t make it on 160 acres because there was so little water.
Sioux Wars
Series of conflicts between Sioux Indians and US government from 1850s to 1890. Last was the 1890 Ghost Dance War.
Sitting Bull
Great Indian (Lakota) tribal leader who led Indians in their resistance to US government policies.
In 1876, he led his people to victory in the Battle of Little Bighorn against US troops led by George Armstrong Custer. After this, he fled to Canada until 1881 when he returned to the US.
Sitting Bull was killed in 1890 during a conflict in South Dakota. US govt. officials were trying to arrest him to keep him from supporting the Ghost Dance movement.
Greenback Labor Party
1878, this movement was at its highest. Attracted rural farmers and those interested in the lot of labor.
Oliver H. Kelley
founded the Grange (Natl. Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry) in 1867.
Comstock Lode
1859 discovery of large amount of gold and silver in Nevada.
Nevada had been scarcely populated, but was quickly made a state in 1864.
Nez Perc
Native American people living in Pacific Northwest.
Chief Joseph
Nez Perce Indian leader.
Ghost Dance
1884, Zealous Christians who wanted to persuade the Indians toward Christianity and military men persuaded the Federal government to outlaw the Indians’ sacred sun dance.
Apache
Indian tribe/people.
Geronimo
Prominent Indian leader who fought with the Apache Indians against US and Mexican movement onto Apache lands.
Daws Severalty Act
1887 law that dissolved many tribes as legal entities and wiped out their land ownership. Indian families were granted some free land that they could only keep if they civilized themselves in the White man’s way of life. Full citizenship was not given to all Indians until 1924.
Land not given to Indian families was given to RRs and white settlers.
Joseph F. Glidden
1874 he invented barbed wire, which solved the problem of how to build fences in the treeless prairies.
Populists
Political party formed in 1890 - emerged out of the Farmers Alliance. They attacked Wall Street and the money trusts. They called for nationalizing the railroads and telephone companies and creating a new program to provide financial help to farmers.
They also wanted free and unlimited coinage of silver, which would help people who are in debt.
Mary Elizabeth Lease was an outspoken Populist.
They argued that farmers and laborers were being victimized by an oppressive economic and political system.
Battle of Wounded Knee
1890: bloody battle where the US stamped out Sioux Indians.
Long Drive
Referred to cowboys driving cattle from the west to Railroad stops where live cattle could be herded onto RR cars and shipped to meat processing companies. After meat was processed, the meat could be loaded onto refrigerated RR cars and sold in the east.
