Unit 6: 1865 - 1898 Flashcards
What are examples of the Mechanization of Agriculture? How did it change the economic situation of farmers?
- Mechanical Reaper
- Combine Harvester
- replaced human and animal power as primary means of planting and harvesting crops
- production of corn and wheat roughly doubled between 1870-1900
- increasing obsolescence of small farmers (many closed due to bigger farms buying out or taking over)
-prices on crops declined - all farmers were feeling some economic pain
What is industrial trusts? How did it impact farmers?
- made sure prices remained high on manufactured goods
- farmers spent all their time farming so they had to buy manufactured goods like clothes and furniture
- trouble for farmers to pay for these needs
How did the railroads impact farmers?
- they relied on railroads and trains to ship their crops to market for sale
- BUT railroad owners were charging unnaturally high prices for these services
What movement was created because of farmer discontent? When was it created? What did they do?
NATIONAL GRANGE MOVEMENT (1868)
- a collective aimed at bringing isolated farmers to gather for socialization and education
- became political quickly
- pushed many Midwestern States to pass laws for regulating railroad rates for carrying freight
- made abusive corporate practices that hurt farmers ILLEGAL
- GRANGER LAWS
What was Commerce Act of 1886? What did it lead to?
- required railroad rates to be reasonable and just and established a federal agency to enforce the said reasonable laws
- led to …
INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION: - government excited to move and expand west, so the New Technology of Railroads allowed for mass migration of Americans
What were the 2 sets of laws that made westward expansion possible?
PACIFIC RAILROADS ACT:
- federal gov. granted huge lands to railroad companies to build a transcontinental railroad
- 1869 Promontory Summit, Utah, a golden spike was driven into the meeting of two rails the stretched from the east to the west coast
- 4 more transcontinental railroads built later on
HOMESTEAD ACT OF 1862 - granted potential migrants a 160 acres of land for free on conditions that they settle and farm on it for several years
– not a good idea because :
1) small farmers got eventually taken over by bigger ones
2) 160 acres in west was not nearly enough land for a farmer to make a living
How did precious metals motivate expansion westward? What was Pikes Peak? What are some examples of Boom Towns that popped up, and what was unique about them?
PRECIOUS METALS: far back as 1858 for Gold Rush
- continue for next 4 decades
PIKES PEAK 1869: gold discovered
- influx of over 100,000 into surrounding regions
- BOOM TOWNS: ex. Denver City, Boulder City
– extremely diverse
Why was westward expansion important to Americans?
- starting in 1865, Americans began pushing westward again, in hopes of achieving self sufficiency and independence
- by 1900, the vast frontier was mostly settled
How did Cowboys came to be, and how did they dissipate? What act cause this?
- settlers brought many cattle with them to the Great Plains Region
- construction of railroads in Kansas facilitated cattle trade in the eastern markets (Cowboys)
- from 1860’s -1880’s, cowboys drove massive herds of cattle across the plains to markets
HOMESTEADERS ACT - hurt the cowboys
– land was granted free from gov. and put in barbed wire fences
– ended open cattle drives (originally there was no wood to make fences or the technology for barb wires)
What were Sodbusters? Did they ALL really get what they were promised?
- what the Homesteaders were called
- realistically only 1/5 got land for free
– others got it from railroad companies who had gotten it cheap/ free from gov.
When did the US Census Bureau declare the closing of the frontier? Who and why did some people respond negatively to this situation?
- 1890
FREDERICK JACKSON TURNER: - “Significance of the Frontier in American History” published 1893
- cause for concern, not celebration, for the closing of the frontier
- westward expansion always had been done illegally or unsafely + was means of releasing American discontent
- its “fresh start” was mythic + the west was a democratizing force
- this largely leveled class and social hierarchy
- Frederick worried these would lead to class conflicts like in Europe, who had no ‘west’ to push into
What happened to the Oklahoma Territory?
It became Indian Territory
What was the Reservation system? What complications did the Natives face? How did they react and what did it lead to? Why were the Natives finally kicked out completely?
- Indian populations were assigned to live on tracts of land with strict boundaries
- DID NOT suit many Indians since their lives were based around the movement Buffalo herd through plains
– HOWEVER Americans decimated buffalo populations - Indians were basically wards of fed. gov. until they “learned to be like white people”
- some Indians resisted
SIOUX WARS : - beginning in 1854
- beat an entire US Army division handily
- fed. gov. made only more treaties with Indians and trying to restrict them on smaller and smaller reservations
- when gold was discovered on their land, Americans were impossible to keep away
What was the Indian Appropriation Act of 1871? What did it lead to?
What was the Dawes Act of 1887?
INDIAN APPROPRIATION ACT:
- officially ended federal recognition of sovereignty of Indian Nations
- NULLIFIED ALL TREATIES MADE BEFORE
- led to another SIOUX WAR
- war with Comanches
DAWES ACT:
- federal gov. officially abandoned the reservation system and divided reservation lands in 160 acre plots to be farmed by the Indians
- allowed Natives to become American Citizens IF they settled on the land and assimilated into American society
What was the Assimilation movement? How did the Natives respond?
- attempt to put an end to distinct Indian cultures through education, vocational training, and Christianizing them
Response:
GHOST DANCE MOVEMENT: developed by Indian prophet in Northwest named Wavoka
- spread across continent
- “If Indians participated in ritualistic dance, then the ghost of their ancestors would return and finally ‘drive the white man from their lands’”
What was the Battle of Wounded Knee 1890? What did it result in?
- South Dakota
- US Army trying to disarm a group of Lakota Indians when old man rose to perform the Ghost Dance, a gun went off, and in the end the Army killed more than 200 people
- Indian resistance brought to an end?
Who came up with visions of a ‘new South’? What were some of the other visions for this ‘new South’?
What was their reasoning for the Southern loss in Civil War?
- post Civil War
HENRY GRADY: editor of a newspaper called the Atlantic Constitution - coined the phrase “NEW SOUTH”
- one of the reasons the South suffered in the war was because the North was more advanced industrially
- envisioned a future for the South based on economic diversity, industrial growth, and laissez fair capitalism
Did the South make any new gains in their attempt to becoming the ‘New South’?
- Southern states at some point surpassed New England states in terms of textiles
- population and miles of new railroads constructed equalled or surpassed that any other place in US
HOWEVER:
- despite many gains in South, it only took hold in a few places in the Southern States
- mostly still remained agricultural (reluctance to change)
What was Plessy V. Ferguson?
- insistence on white and black separation reached climax in landmark supreme court case
PLESSY V FERGUSON:
- 1896
- Louisiana required separate railcars for black and white passengers
- in 1892, a man named HOMER PLESSY challenged this law
- turned out to be 7/8 white and 1/8 black, so under Louisiana law, he was black
- went to supreme court after arrest
RULING:
- Racial segregation was constitutional as long as the separate facilities were equal in kind and quality
- “Separate but Equal”
- white supremacists could plead innocence regarding 14th Amendment
- “Equal Protection Under the Law”
What were Jim Crow Laws? How did this impact black gains from reconstruction? What are some examples?
- segregated EVERYTHING
- equal in kind BUT NOT EQUAL IN QUALITY
- black people lost many of the gains they had made during reconstruction
- forbidden to serve on Jury or run for office
- could be accused of crimes but not given dignity of court appearance
- in 1890’s alone, more than 1,000 black people were violently lynched
How was the resistance towards segregation and violence?
Who was Ida B. Wells?
Who was Henry Turner?
Who was Booker T. Washington?
- along with violence came resistance
IDA B. WELLS: editor of a black newspaper in South
- against lynching and Jim Crow laws
- when pressed were destroyed by mob, she escaped North to continue
HENRY TURNER: founded International Migration Society in 1814
- black migration to Africa (Liberia)
- was not sustainable because of Liberias economy + disease
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON:
- controversial view
- black people DID NOT need to fight political level, but to instead be self sufficient economically
- this would equal to power
- deemed impractical by many
What are some changes in economy and society in US because of Railroads? How did the fed. gov. contribute?
RAILROAD: quick and easy means of transportation of goods
- NATIONAL MARKER: mass production and mass consumption
- Americans began mass producing goods to be sold all over the world
–BEFORE: made things either for themselves or to be sold locally
- Fed. gov: provided land grants and loan subsidies to railroad companies
– around 170 million acres of land
– PURPOSE: further connecting various parts of the country to strengthen the economy
- 4 new transcontinental railroads added ADDITIONALLY to the first built in 1869
What was the Bessemer Process? What were its impacts? How was it able to do this?
- makes steel stronger by blasting air through molten iron to get a much higher quality steel
- allowed manufacturers to make more quantity + quality
- Greater access to resources facilitated all of this
What were the significance of the technological innovations and resources? (Coal, Oil, Telegraph, Telephone)
COAL: first major source of energy for industrialization, both in factories and in locomotives, especially the hard coal known as anthracite coal found mainly in western Pennsylvania
OIL: later surpassed coal as main fuel in industry
TELEGRAPH: invented by Samuel Morse in 1844 for communication BUT during this period telegraph wires were multiplied significantly
- during this period they laid a trans-Atlantic cable connecting America to Europe
– international market for basic goods
TELEPHONE: made by Alexander Graham Bell
- within a year of its development, Bell funded Bell Telephone Company
- by 1888, there was like 50,000 telephones in use in America
What is Industrialism? What is the Gilded Age?
INDUSTRIALISM: refers to the change in the way things are made, specifically toward mass production and mass consumption of foods
GILDED AGE: seems golden, but there was also corruption underneath the gold
Who was John D. Rockefeller, and what did he own? What form of tactic did he use to be successful?
- one of first millionaires in America
- Standard Oil Company
HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION: forced competitors to sell their companies to him, eliminating the competition - by 1880’s, Standard Oil controlled 90% of oil industry
Who was Andrew Carnegie, and what did he own? What form of tactic did he use to be successful?
- one of the first millionaires in America
- Steel Industry
VERTICAL INTEGRATION: a company acquires all the complementing industries that support its business (ex. mining, distribution, etc.) - ## this also meant no room for competition
Why did companies begin looking for foreign markets?
- industry leaders looked abroad for new opportunities of markets and natural resources, since many people did not have the intention of making America an empire
- these men grew extremely wealthy
Why were industrial leaders able to get away with anything?
- laissez faire economy
- prevented gov. intervention or regulation
– some might have believed this idea, but more were bribed to keep their mouths shut - these capitalist leaders relied on underpaid laborers, mostly minority (NOT for equality, but for cheap labor)
What was Social Darwinism and its use in this period?
- similar to biological darwinism
- “survival of the fittest”
- started to apply to society
– strong nations eat the week nations
– strong companies eat the weak companies - the worlds wealth will be concentrated to the hands of those deemed to be the fittest
What did normal people view the wealthy as?
- “Captains of Industry” for those who admired them
- “Robber Barons” who were against their methods of becoming wealthy
How did the wealhty people live during this time? What did economicst Thornstein Veblen say about this?
- largely surppased previous generations in terms of wealth
- liked to put it on display
- Veblen called this CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION
Wwhat the Baltimore House? How did this compare with the working class lifestyle?
- completed construction in 1895
- largest private residence in the nation
- on the opposite end was poverty
– struggled with barely livable wages
What was the Panic of 1873 and 1893? How did this impact different classes in society?
- the wealthy class insulated, but the working class wages dropped severely
- costs on items decreased and wages ‘rose’ even if they were very little
HOWEVER: even if the wage gap was increasing, many peoples standard of living was also increasing
What was the working conditions during this period? What did the workers do in response?
- still very bad
- thousands injured or killed
- could not get their concerns heard since they could be easily fired
- built labor unions
What tactic did labor unions use?
- political action
- slow downs
- strikes
What was the Great Railroad Strike of 1877? How did the government respond?
- railroad companies cut wages to save money during a recession
- unionis went on strike
- spread to eleven states and shut down more than 60% of nations railroads
- eventually violence broke out
- President Hayes sent fed. troops
– in the end, 100 people died
What was the Pullman Strike? Who was Eugene Debs? How did the government respond?
- when the panic occurred, Pullman decided that the best way to save money was to cut the wages of workers
- fired anyone who said anything about it
EUGENE DEBS: directed members of his union to not work for any trains that had pullman cars
- railroaders were on Pullmans side, so they made a scheme to hoop up Pullman cars to federal mail trains
– workers who interfered had to answer to the fed gov.
- Eugene Debs and others eventually jailed for hindering federally authorized trains
