USA- 1850 to 1880 Flashcards
What were some of the difficulties faced by the Homesteaders? Try to give six points
Building a House Dirt & Disease HouseWork Isolation Law & Order Farming Drought Food Fencing Pests
What were some of the solutions that the Homesteaders came up with? Try to give six points
- There were little to no trees for wood so they built houses out of sod bricks (mud)
- Difficult to clean the house which led to diseases like diptheria so they used whitewash and clay on the walls to stop the bugs
- No wood for fuel and no shops to buy items like candles and soap. SO the women made soaps and candles, collected buffalo chips for fuel Travelling tinkerers might travel through and fix items but usually they would have to make do
- People had to make the most out of every trip to their nearest town. NO medical professionals
- Some early Law Men were worse than bandits, so law courts and sheriffs such as Wyatt Earp slowly established law and order
- Hard crust on the soil made it hard to start farming, so ‘sodbusters’ using steel ploughs did the first farming. After 1880 thresher teams would follow the harvest, they could be hired by farmers for a few days.
- There wasn’t a lot of rainfall and hot summers evaporated dampness from the land. The well driller and wind pump allowed deep wells to be dug, which gave water
- New methods of dry farming were invented
- There was no wood so farmers could not keep buffalo off of their land. Barbed wire solved this problem
- Modern insecticides solved the problem of pests. Colorado beetle destroyed potato crops, Grasshoppers stripped cornstalks bare
Why did many Southerners support slavery? Try to give six points
- The Southern economy was based on the continuation of free labour ( Didn’t want to pay for the work)
- The south was no industrialised, so they wanted to continue to grow crops as they made money
- Southerners believed slavery was the natural order of society and wanted it to continue
- They believed in the uniqueness of the ‘peculiar institution’ of slavery- It worked for them
- Southerners were worried about the economic consequences of emancipation
- Southerners feared the political consequences of emancipation
- Southerners said the bible justified slavery
- Southerners say Slavery as a way of ‘civilising slaves’
- Southerners argued that slaves were being better treated than Northern industrial workers and actually benefited from Slavery
What was life like on slave plantations in the South?
JOBS
- Planting crops between March and April
- Hoeing - cutting up the grass and cotton from May to July
- Picking crops from the end of August onwards. Sacks were fastened to the slaves necks/backs that they had to fill with crops
- Worked from ‘sun up’ to ‘sun down’ with a fifteen minute break for lunch
- Weighed in crop in the gin house (engine-house). If there was less than the previous day’s crop picked the slaves would be punished
TREATMENT OF SLAVES
- Fed very little from their masters
- Separated from families
- Working from sun up to sun down
- Slaves could have a muzzle put on them
- Slaves would be whipped if they didn’t pick enough cotton or if they had resisted the masters orders
- Some slaves were put in stocks
- Slaves were forced to wear neck rings or collars, sometimes with sharp spikes sticking out of them
- Slaves sometimes had to climb a treadmill until they collapsed with exhaustion
What were the three civil war amendments to the constitution and the acts that introduced black right?
13th Amendment 1865 - Banned slavery and all involuntary servitude, except in the case of punishment for a crime
14th Amendment 1865 - Defined a citizen as any person born in or naturalised in the US , overturning the Dred Scott judgement in 1857
15th Amendment 1870 - Stopped the government from denying US citizens the right to vote based on race ,colour or past servitude
Civil Rights Act 1866 => All former slaves were to be citizens of the US and to have the same rights as white people
Reconstruction Act 1867 => The southern states were divided into military districts under the control of Army Generals. Elections were to be held under army supervision and former slaves were allowed to vote.
What were the aims of the Freedmen’s Bureau?
- Setting up of a health programme and opening hospitals
- distributing rations
- Setting up schools
- Offering legal assistance to former slaves
- Setting confiscated or abandoned land
What work did the Freedmen’s Bureau Do?
- Helped solve everyday problems of freed slaves such as water,healthcare,family,jobs and provided food rations
- Set up over 4000 schools; helped them to read and write
- set up colleges, e.g Howard University in Washington D.C
- Helped former slaves buy land for farming
- Helped them find employment
- Helped set up 40 hospitals to provide healthcare
- Blacks now had the right to vote and stand for election
- Blacks could own land, build churches and create free Black communities
Why was there conflict between white settlers and Native Americans?
Clash of cultures - many White Americans saw Native Americans as savages/inferior (they thought westward expansion was their right)
Native Americans wanted freedom to roam/hunt: white Americans wanted to farm
Treaties with the Native Americans were broken- felt betrayed due to regularly broken promises
White settlers has a ‘property attitude’ towards land/ Native Americans did not/ believed that Great Spirit had created land for their care
Government grants to encourage gold prospecting alarmed Native Americans (Colorado and Montana)
Many White Americans favoured setting up reservations/ Native Americans objected to reservation life - not enough government support
White/Native American tension led to atrocities /massacres / wars (e.g. Fetterman Massacre in 1866 and Battle of Little Big Horn 1876)
hunting/sacred grounds disturbed by settlers / miners / railroads crossing Native American Territory on the way to California and Oregon.
Destruction of buffalo herds brought further conflict - took away Native American means of supporting life on the Plains
What was life like on the reservations for the Native Americans after 1880?
Indians were no longer allowed to leave the reservation to hunt buffalo
the Land was poor farming land
Indians are hunters not Farmers
difficult to feed themselves so they relied on government handouts
people were punished for offences without trial
Indians were demoralised, underfed, sick and couldn’t fight back
Describe the Events of the SandCreek Massacre
Chivington launched an attack on unsuspecting Native Americans, scattering and hunting down men,women and children
None of Chivington’s men were killed but 148 of the Native Americans were slaughtered. Many women and children whose bodies were mutilated
In the press at the time the massacre were portrayed as a victory against the Cheyenne but eyewitnesses discredited chivington and his men when it became clear that they had perpetrated a massacre
Further Increased tension between the Native Americans and the White settlers
