Crime And Lawlessness Flashcards
What were the causes of crime in the early settlement of the Plains(1835-1862)?
No law and order until a territory reaches 60,000 people
Claim jumping and salting a claim
Drunken violence
Racist crime(growth of Chinese immigrants)
Unemployment of miners
Horseback was the fastest way to travel and news took a long time to reach law officers
When was Billy the Kid born?
1859
What was the ‘solution’ to crime in 1851?
Vigilante committees form in San Francisco to ‘tackle crime’
They hang 89 suspects despite having no authority
How did the Civil War(1861-1865) cause lawlessness?
Deserters(soldiers who ran away) would hide out in Western territories with little law and order
Who were the Reno Gang?
A group of Civil War deserters
Carried out train robberies in 1866, 1867 and 1868
Their 4th robbery netted them $96,000
Who were the Pinkerton Agency?
Set up in 1850
Private law enforcement agency
Used to track down outlaws and bring them to justice
Role declined as the years went by and the West became more civilised, decreasing lawlessness
What were ‘Hell on Wheels’?
The nickname given to new towns that developed along the railroad lines
Also called cow towns
Often these towns tried to build jail houses, however drunken cowboys would tear them down again
Why were cow-towns a centre of lawlessness in 1867?
Cow-towns like Abilene often had cowboys who had been on the long drive for months and got paid once they reached the towns
They would spend their money on alcohol, gambling and prostitutes, which led to violence
It was legal to kill a man in ‘self defence’
What was the impact of the Homestead Act?
From 1862 onwards more families moved to the West by buying 160 acres from the Homestead Act
This reduced violence in the west as the families were more stable and less violent than the early frontiersman and gold miners who were often outlaws, loners or violent men
Why did lawlessness decrease in the late 1870s and 1880s?
Towns developed more
People wanted their businesses and families to be secure
The West became more civilised over time
Why did lawlessness decrease in 1869?
Frontier towns further West were connected to bigger towns by rail and electric telegraph
The likes of Billy the Kid and Wyatt Earp became the exception not the rule
How did Abilene try to solve lawlessness in their town in 1871?
Abilene hired ‘Wild Bill’ Hickok as the town marshal
He was feared by cowboys but spent most of his time drinking in saloons, so was fired
The mayor decided the only way to keep law and order in Abilene was to ban the cowboys
What happened in the Lincoln County War in 1878?
There was a conflict between a cattle baron called John Chisum and smaller ranchers
Billy the Kid’s friend Murphy was killed and Billy swore to get revenge
Billy and his gang hid out across the country escaping justice until Pat Garratt tracked him down
What happened when ranching became more popular than the long drive to the cow towns in the 1870s and 1880s?
They life of the cowboys changed and became more settled
This reduced the drunken violence in the West
Some cattle barons even banned alcohol on their ranches
How did the cattle barons try to control the beef market during the ‘beef bonanza’ years in the 1870s and 1880s?
They bought land which Homesteaders were living on
They tried to ruin sheep farmers by killing sheep as the didn’t want the market in lamb to become more popular than beef
They bought land surrounding water supplies so thatHomesteaders and farmers could not access water
These things caused tension
