CHAPTER 18 A TRANSFORMED NATION: THE WEST AND THE NEW SOUTH, 1865–1900 Flashcards
I. An Industrializing West
A. The Homestead Act
B. Railroads
C. Chinese Laborers and the Railroads
D. The Golden Spike
E. Railroads and Borderlands Communities
F. Mining
G. Cattle Drives and the Open Range
H. The Industrialization of Ranching
I. Industrial Cowboys
J. Mexican Americans
K. Itinerant Laborers
L. Homesteading and Farming
M. The Experience of Homesteading
N. Gender and Western Settlement
II. Conquest and Resistance: American Indians in the Trans-Mississippi West
A. Conflict with the Dakota Sioux
B. Suppression of Central Plains Indians
C. The “Peace Policy”
D. The Dawes Severalty Act and Indian Boarding Schools
E. The Ghost Dance
F. Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill: Popular Myths of the West
III. Industrialization and the New South
A. Race and Industrialization
B. Southern Agriculture
C. Exodusters and Emigrationists
D. Race Relations in the New South
E. The Emergence of an African American Middle Class
F. The Rise of Jim Crow
IV. The Politics of Stalemate
A. Knife-Edge Electoral Balance
B. Civil Service Reform
C. The Tariff Issue
1862
Sioux uprising in Minnesota, 38 Sioux executed
1864
Colorado militia massacres Cheyenne in village at Sand Creek, Colorado
1866
Cowboys conduct first cattle drive north from Texas
1869
President Grant announces his “peace policy” toward Indians
1876
Sioux and Cheyenne defeat Custer at Little Big Horn
1880
James A. Garfield elected president
1881
Garfield assassinated; Chester A. Arthur becomes president
1883
Pendleton Act begins reform of the civil service
1884
Grover Cleveland elected president
1887
Dawes Severalty Act dissolves Indian tribal units and implements individual
ownership of tribal lands
1888
Benjamin Harrison elected president
1889
Government opens Indian Territory (Oklahoma) to white settlement
1890
Wounded Knee massacre; New Mississippi constitution pioneers black
disfranchisement in South; Republicans try but fail to enact federal elections bill to
protect black voting rights; Congress enacts McKinley Tariff
1892
Grover Cleveland again elected president
1895
Booker T. Washington makes his Atlanta Compromise address
1896
Plessy v. Ferguson legalizes “separate but equal” state racial segregation laws
1898
Williams v. Mississippi condones use of literacy tests and similar measures to restrict
voting rights
industrializing of the West.
The need to close the vast distances of the frontier for settlement and commerce led to the
industrializing of the West.
Homestead Act
From 1865 to 1890, the frontier changed markedly. Encouraged by legislation such
as the Homestead Act, the white population of the West increased dramatically.
railroads
The construction of railroads, one of the main agencies of westward expansion, was
facilitated by the government as well as the corruption of the railroad owners.
Chinese laborers
Drawn to California by the Gold Rush, Chinese laborers would face intense
discrimination. Still many would preserve and find success. They would also become
the main source of construction labor for the Central Pacific railroad.
golden spike
The completion of the transcontinental railroad would be symbolized by the driving
of a final “golden spike” into the connecting track.
borderland communities
Railroads adversely altered the economic dynamics of borderland communities in
the Southwest, leaving them poorer as a result.
Mining
Silver and copper enticed miners westward (gold had done so before). Mining
became highly capitalized, with savage labor relations and the most militant of
unions.
cattle drives
Cowboys engaged in cattle drives and lived on the open range, setting the stage for
a popular mythologization of their profession.
industrialization of ranching
As open-range grazing declined, the industrialization of ranching expanded.
Industrial cowboys
Industrial cowboys rode the extensive Miller and Lux landholdings.
Mexican Americans
Mexican Americans lost both property and power to white settlers. They faced
discrimination and were classified as foreigners in what had once been their lands.
itinerant laborers
Mobility was one of the hallmarks of the frontier and a diverse army of itinerant
laborers roamed the west in search of employment.
Homesteading and farming
Homesteading and farming was fraught with challenges on the Plains and nearly
half of the homesteaders would ultimately give up.
experience of homesteading
The experience of homesteading on the flat, treeless Plains led settlers to construct
sod houses out the same earth they sought to cultivate crops.
gender of western settlement
The gender of western settlement was decidedly male. Some women homesteaded
but more took part, some by force, in prostitution.
conquest and resistance of American Indians
in the Trans-Mississippi West
The frontier expansion of settlers shaped the conquest and resistance of American Indians
in the Trans-Mississippi West. The downward spiral of Plains Indians began before the
Civil War and accelerated after its conclusion.
conflict with the Sioux
The most famous of Indian fights involved a conflict with the Sioux. It began in the
1860s with the Santee uprising and reached an apex with the defeat of Custer in
1876.
suppression of other Plains Indians
The suppression of other Plains Indians doomed them to be concentrated on
limited, undesirable reservations.
Peace Policy
President Grant’s “Peace Policy” in the 1870s advocated “civilizing” the Indians and
ending the treaty system
Dawes Severalty Act and Indian boarding schools
The Dawes Severalty Act and Indian boarding schools called for individual
allocations of land, the dissolution of tribal entities, and a rapid Indian assimilation of
white American culture.
Ghost Dance
A religious movement swept through Plains tribes in 1890. The slaughter of Indians
that followed the “Ghost Dance” symbolized the end of the Plains Indian culture.
popular myths of the West (Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill)
Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill were part of the popular myths of the West that
turned the destruction of Plains Indians by white encroachment and warfare into
dramatic and action-filled commercial entertainment.
New South
The “New South” brought a region, according to Henry Grady, more hospitable to
industrialization and northern investment.
race and industrialization
Southern attitudes and practices regarding race and industrialization prevented
blacks from reaping much of the economic benefits in the “New South.”
southern agriculture
The crop-lien system kept most practitioners of southern agriculture mired in even
more severe poverty.
exodusters” and emigrationists
Faced with persistent poverty and overwhelming racism, thousands of blacks became
“exodusters” and emigrationists from the South.
Race relations
Race relations in the New South were characterized by a whitewashing of the
history of slavery and a sustained wave of lynchings to suppress blacks in all
manners of society.
emergence of an African American middle class
Despite crushing racism, the emergence of an African American middle class
signified to some blacks hope for “racial uplift.
rise of Jim Crow
As Southern states passed legalizing segregation, the rise of Jim Crow showed that
the black experience as post-war “free people” was far from a reality.
politics of stalemate
Paralysis gripped the government from 1873 to 1893. Problems were left unaddressed amid
the politics of stalemate.
knife-edge electoral balance
A knife-edge electoral balance between the two major parties left both without the
power to innovate and encouraged the avoidance of controversial issues.
civil-service reform
The assassination of President James Garfield served as an odd catalyst for civil-
service reform via the Pendleton Act of 1883
tariff issue
The “tariff issue” culminated with McKinley’s tariff in 1890, which raised duties on
a large range of products to an average of almost 50 percent.
closing of the frontier
White Americans long believed that the chance to go west and start a new life
symbolized liberty and equality. The “closing” of the frontier with the approach of the new
century, coupled with a variety of unaddressed problems, portended chaos in ensuing years.
Homestead Act
Homestead Act (p. 496): Legislation that took effect on January 1, 1863, to provide free land for
western settlers.
Chinese Exclusion Act
Chinese Exclusion Act (p. 498): Suspended Chinese immigration for 10 years with the exception of
a few job categories.
Western Federation of Miners (WFM)
Western Federation of Miners (WFM) (p. 499): Association of union mine workers established in
1893 to protect their rights.
Chisholm Trail
Chisholm Trail (p. 500): Trail used to get longhorn cattle from Texas to Abilene, Kansas, where
they were loaded into railcars and shipped to Kansas City or Chicago.
vaqueros
vaqueros (p. 500): Mexican cowboys who rounded up cattle, branded them, and drove them to San
Francisco.
soddies
soddies (p. 503): Houses built by Great Plains settlers made from prairie sod that was cut into
blocks and stacked to form walls.
Battle of Little Bighorn
Battle of Little Bighorn (p. 507): A battle in eastern Montana Territory on the bluffs above the Little
Big Horn River on June 25, 1876.
Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull (p. 507): Hunkapapa Lakota (Sioux) chief and holy man who led warriors against the
U.S. Army in Montana Territory in 1876, culminating in the Battle of Little Big Horn.
Sand Creek massacre
Sand Creek massacre (p. 507): Attack led by Colonel John Chivington that killed 200 Cheyenne
Indians that returned in peace to their Colorado reservation.
Dawes Severalty Act
Dawes Severalty Act (p. 508): 1887 legislation that called for the dissolution of Indian tribes as
legal entities, offered Indians citizenship, and allotted each head of family 160 acres of farmland or
320 acres of grazing land
Ghost Dance
Ghost Dance (p. 508): Indian ritual involving days of worship expressed in part through dance.
Wounded Knee
Wounded Knee (p. 510): Site of a shootout between Indians and Army troops at the Pine Ridge
Indian reservation in southwestern South Dakota
sharecroppers
sharecroppers (p. 512): Tenant farmers who gave up a portion of their crops, primarily as rent to
the owners of the land they worked
Exodusters
Exodusters (p. 512): Name given to the 20,000 African Americans who moved to Kansas believing
rumors of free land for settlers and supplies from the government in 1879.
Ida B. Wells
Ida B. Wells (p. 513): Anti-lynching activist who wrote and spoke in protest, gaining the attention
of the North only after taking her campaign to England.
Jim Crow laws
Jim Crow laws (p. 514): Laws passed by southern states mandating racial segregation in public
facilities of all kinds.
Plessy v. Ferguson
Plessy v. Ferguson (p. 514): 1896 Supreme Court case that sanctioned Jim Crow laws as long as the
separate facilities for blacks and whites were equal.
Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington (p. 514): Founder of Tuskegee Institute and most famous for his
controversial speech at the 1895 Atlanta Exposition.
W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois (p. 515): Leader of the NAACP, the editor of its newspaper, The Crisis, and an
outspoken critic of Booker T. Washington and his accomodationist approach to race relations.
