Dawn Of The Century

Question 1

The populist era 1890-1900

Answer 1

1890s - Farmer’s Alliance became People’s Party (Populists)
1892 - Presidential Election (Populist candidate James Weaver - 1 million votes, strong support from West and South
1896 - Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan adopted Populist platform but loses to Republican William McKinley
1890-1920 - The Progressive Era (industrialisation, urbanisation, immigration, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson)
- Agriculture faces recurring depressions during 19th century, American farmers are not getting the prices they used to get, they perhaps would lose their land and take on more debt if they were smaller farmers. Time of boom and bust, there is foreign competition. Farmers in the west took out a loans to buy more seeds, fertiliser and tools which they then face debt when they cant pay back the bank.
- Federal governed disadvantage the farmers with their policies.
- Hence, they organise into collective bodies and biggest one was Farmer’s alliance, large citizen movement, founded in Texas in late 1870s and by late 1890s, it has spread 43 states. In the south this farmers organisation is racially divided, national farmers alliance and industrial union founded in 1875, 3 mill members and coloured farmers national alliance and cooperative union and has 2 mill members in 1887, and turns into the populist party in the 1890s. This is threatening, against nationalist elites and federal gov, and the party is quite successful on state and national level.

Question 2

The Reconstruction Amendments

Answer 2

• The 13th Amendment (proposed and ratified in 1865), abolished Slavery. About how people born in America are American citizens
• 14th Amendment (1866, ratified 1868) granted civil rights and recognised birth right. It’s about civil rights. Anyone born in America becomes a US citizen, but also forbids states from denying a person in its jurisdiction protection from the law.
• 15th Amendment, proposed 1869, ratified 1870, is all about voting rights
• Takes almost 100 years for these rights to actually become reality.
• Reconstruction ends in 1877, when the last of the federal troops are withdrawn from the south, this means the former confederacy is returned to home rule, governed by itself. This paves the way for the rise of Jim crow.
• When reconstruction ends, it opens the opportunity for a new racial order called the ‘Redeemers’ southern democrats who dominate southern politics after 1877, they claim they are redeeming the south from the corrupt management of northern Republican rule. They slash state budgets, reduce taxes, close public facilities and radically defund schools, in Louisiana the rate of whites being able to read declines dramatically from 1880-1900
• AA schools that have been created throughout reconstruction are systematically closed and suffer the most. Huge gap between expenditures, between black and white pupils due to white wealth landowners don’t want African educated work force.

Question 3

Henry Grady and ‘A New South’

Answer 3

• He believes the south can become prosperous, there should be industrial expansion and agricultural diversification, works to some extent. Planters, merchants prosper but the region sinks into poverty, and is apparent in the 1870s.
• Dependant on the north doing well, for capital and manufactured goods.
• New system for agricultural labour called share cropping, this means black farmers pay rent on farmland in order to grow crops on it. The farmers get no wages and share cropping ensures former slaves remain poor and trapped in debt and tied to the land.
• AA farmers organise own famers alliance, prohibited from joining white southern farmer alliance in 1886, and is successful with 1 mill members within 5 years. Shows many AA want to become politically engaged.
• However, most AA in deep south are disadvantaged as they own a smaller percentage of land in 1900 then they had at the end of the reconstruction.
• Post re-construction, there is a new merging very small black middle class, new AA elite in the south and is full of professionals such as teachers, doctors and businessmen. But majority of AA have a labour market that is rigidly divided along racial lines. Many women work as domestics servants.

Question 4

Wimington, North Carolina 1898

Answer 4

• Nearly a generation after reconstruction, despite fraud and violence, AA southern continue to pass ballards. Some states the republican party manages to remain competitive, the republican party is the party of Lincoln.
• Spectre of biracial alliance, AA and whites coming together for political aids. This is very threatening to ruling democrats and used racist violence, such as Wilmington North Carolina in 1898, where white democrat who overthrow a legitimately elected government. It is a violence coup of 2,000 white men, they burn down the building and destroy the neighbourhood and kill schools of AA. These riots are initially called race riots.
• This attacks the AA community permanently, have 2000 AA leave the city permanently. It turns Wilmington into a white majority city which was actually black majority before and eliminates the AA voter. Moved from reconstruction to segregation.
• 1890s when events happened like this often, between 1890 and 1906 every southern states enact laws or constitutional provisions that circumvent the 15th amendment, to eliminate black voting. These laws look colour-blind on the surface and ways to regulate voting but they are designed to end black people voting.
• Poll tax, fee that every citizen has to pay to retain the right to vote which targets the poor people and AA were in general among the poor class. Literacy tests were also used as it targets the poor and those who have very limited education, such as schools were attacked after the end of reconstruction and stopped being funded stopping AA getting a education.
• Democrats get away with this by continuously going on about negro domination, in Louisiana the state reduced the number of blacks registered to vote from over 130,000 in 1894 to 1300 in 1904, between 1894-1904 shed over 100,000 black voters. By 1940 only3% of African Americans could vote

Question 5

Segregation

Answer 5

• Latter half of the 19th century, millions of immigrants arrive in America from Asia, Europe etc often coming from places where there is famine and crop failures, job shortages, political prosecution -> they are coming over for work and new opportunities.
• West coast there was a lot of Asian immigration but a lot of opposition which lead to the Chinese exclusion act 1882, this shuts down all immigration of Chinese labourers and only appealed in 40s.
• 70% of immigrants enter through New York City in this era, and in 1892 the federal ov opens a new immigration process centre in Ellis Island in NY harbour.
• 1870sand 1880s, these immigrants comes from the same places as before the Civil War, but changes drastically after ‘New Immigration.’
• New immigration is a movement of enormous scale, 1880-1920 there are 20 mill people arrive in America. Largest wave of immigration in US history and is a huge issue. The people coming now are different than before.
• Technology -> steam ships, bring more people to America -> golden/terrifying age of immigration. A lot of these people go to the cities in America to seek employment in the expanding urban economies in the bulk of industrial labour pool. This allows US to industrialise. This is when the US becomes an economic giant.
• Doesn’t please everyone, for businessmen this is fantastic, but a lot of people don’t see the southern and eastern Europeans as white. By 1890s, white native rich born Americans worry about the quality of the racial stock. 1894, group of antiimmigration Americans form the immigration restriction league and want to achieve a severe curtailment of immigration. This leads to 1924, passing of immigration act, restricts number of immigrants and where they come from. Gives preference form northern and western Europe and limits from southern and eastern Europe and Asia etc.
• Whites worry about race affecting their health
• The civil war had been very successful for innovation and led to expansion of industry but what also happened in late 1th century was new labour relations. Increase in labour activity, forming of unions, new political radicalism, socialists and anarchists all come to the US and leads to the violence crackdown on leftist labour organization.

Question 6

The Transcontinental Railroad 1869

Answer 6

• First transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, huge achievement, 2000 miles of track made in just 6 years. It opens up the west, leads to increase settlement and transforms the economy.
• People can be transported more easily
• Increases settlement
• Expansion of agriculture in late 19th century as well as industry. By 1900 there are 5.7 million farms

Question 7

Progressive Reform

Answer 7

• Populism is related to the transformation of American industry, whilst progressivism is connected to immigration and the social question. Progressivism connects with all the problems that come out of all these transformations and is an urban movement, mostly middle-class reformers who are from these new academic and managerial elites.
• Progressives are racial liberals, but not anti-racist, have difficult relationship with organised labour.
• Progressivism 1890-1920, it is about shaping public policy and trying to manage vast changes labour conditions, campaign for: shorter working hours for woman and children, fighting infectious diseases, bad conditions that immigrants live in, housing reform, hygiene, environment, protect water and air, educate immigrants, Americanise immigrants. Interested environment, keep US beautiful and anted to educated and Americanise immigrants. Solve problems of Urban America. Roosevelt etc are progressives.
• Robert La Follette: Wisconsin, child-care facilities is experimented out in this state, they focused on reform
• Jane Addams: Gets a lot of her ideas from Britain’s, a transatlantic reformer
• Fight for women suffrage, 1920 amendment extended women’s suffrage and women are given the vote but are still disenfranchise in the South.