Chapter 15
“The South and West Transformed”
How did the economy, society, and culture
of the South and West change after the
Civil War?
The New South
Section 1
• How did the southern economy and
society change after the Civil War?
• Vocabulary:
cash crop
Civil Rights Act of 1875
Farmers’ Alliance
Industries and Cities Grow
• New industries spread through the
South
– textiles, lumber, cigars, coal, iron, and
steel processing
• More diversified farming with smaller
farms
• Railroads link cities and towns
• Southern economic recovery is
limited
– War damage, lack of capital, limited
education, few southern banks
Southern Farmers Face Hard Times
• Cotton that once dominated agriculture
– Price was depressed and boll weevil appeared
in the 1890s
• Farmers band together: Farmers’ Alliance
tried to convince government to force
railroads to lower the freight prices and
regulate interest charged by banks
Black Southerners Gain and Lose
• Political and economic gains
– Citizenship allowed the right to vote (14th and 15th
amendment)
• Some opened businesses or bought farms
• African Americans had access to education
• White blacklash
– KKK used terror and freedoms were whittled away
• Civil Rights Act of 1875
– Guaranteed African Americans the right to ride trains and
use public facilities
• Supreme Court ruled in 1883 that these were local
issues to be decided by state or local law
• Southern governments rolled back rights of African
Americans
Westward Expansion and the
American Indians
• How did the pressures of westward
expansion impact Native Americans?
• Vocabulary:
reservation
Wounded Knee
Sand Creek Massacre assimilate
Sitting Bull
Chief Joseph
Dawes General Allotment Act
Battle of Little Big Horn
Railroads and Settlers
• Railroads brought
swarms of settlers,
who took Native
American lands
– Some signed treaties,
selling their lands and
went to reservations
– Others fought, or did
not stay on the
reservations
Diverse Native Cultures Destroyed
• Native Americans viewed
land and nature as sacred
• Settlers viewed land as a
resource to produce wealth
– Buffalo killed off
– Native Americans are forbidden
to practice their religions
• Their land is lost when the
Dawes Act gave each male a
plot; many sold the land.
– The amount of land owned by
Indians shrank by 65% by
1934.
The Sand Creed Massacre
• Sioux rebellion, which began in 1862, inflamed Indians
and whites
• In 1864, Colorado militia, under the command of John
Chivington, attacked unarmed Cheyenne and Arapaho
Indians, killing many men, women, and children
• Army continued the fight on the Plains
The Final Destruction
• Navajo and Apache wars began in 1865 and continued until
Geronimo surrendered in 1886
• The First Sioux War in 1865 occurred when the government
decided to build a road through Sioux hunting lands in
Montana
– Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868: U.S. would not build the road; Sioux
would live on a reservation with U.S. support
• Red River War: defeat of Comanches and Kiowas
• The Second Sioux War began in 1875 when miners went to the
Black Hills in SD. Chief Sitting Bull left the reservation
Sitting Bull and the Fall of the Sioux
• Lt. Colonel George
Armstrong Custer was sent
to locate the Indians
• In the Battle of the Little
Bighorn, Custer and more
than 200 soldiers were killed.
Sitting Bull escaped to
Canada, but returned to the
reservation five years later.
• In 1890, more than 200
unarmed Sioux are
massacred at Wounded
Knee.
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce
• Tribe located in the
Northwest
• Youth attacked settlers
to get Nez Perce horses
• Chief Joseph tried to
escape with his people
and got to within 40
miles of Canada.
• Finally settled on a
reservation in Oklahoma
The Fate of Indian Territory
• Nearly 70 Indian nations had
been forced into Indian
Territory
• In 1889 Congress opened 2
million acres to settlers
• At noon on April 22,
hundreds of homesteaders
rushed across the border
• Known as Boomers; those
who sneaked in early were
known as Sooners.
Wounded Knee
• Religious revival:
Ghost Dance to
banish whites and
restore buffalo
• 1890 Sitting Bull
was killed
• Army killed over
100 at Wounded
Knee in South
Dakota
NOTE TAKING
Reading Skill: Recognize Sequence
INFOGRAPHIC
Assimilation by Force
Infographic: Assimilation by Force
Government Promotes Assimilation
• Reformers criticize policy:
Helen Hunt Jackson
fought for recognition of
Indian rights in the courts
• Congress passes the
Dawes General Allotment
Act in 1887: Replaced the
reservation system with
the allotment system; each
Indian family was given a
160-acre farm, but with the
arid land, the farms were
too small
• Many Indian children were
sent to boarding schools
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TRANSPARENCY
Progress Monitoring Transparency
Transforming the West
Section 3
Transforming the West
• What economic and social factors
changed the West after the Civil War?
• Vocabulary:
vigilante
Homestead Act
open range
land grant
transcontinental railroad
Exodusters
Transforming the West
Miners Hope to Strike It Rich
Main Idea: Mining was the first great boom in the West. Gold and silver were the magnets
that attracted a vast number of people. Prospectors from the East were just a part of a flood
that included people from all around the world.
Railroaders Open the West
Main Idea: As industry in the West grew, the need for a railroad to transport goods
increased as well. The effects of the new railroads were far reaching. They tied the nation
together, moved products and people across the continent, and spurred industrial
development.
Ranchers Build the Cattle Kingdom
Main Idea: Cattle ranching fueled another western boom. This was sparked by the vast
acres of grass suitable for feeding herds of cattle. Once the railroad provided the means to
move meat to eastern markets, the race was on for land and water.
Farmers Settle on Homesteads
Main Idea: The Great Plains were the last part of the country to be heavily settled by
whites. It was originally set aside for Indians because it was viewed as too dry for
agriculture. Yet, with the coming of the transcontinental railroad, millions of farmers moved
into the West.
Mining Frontier
•
•
•
•
Sutter’s Mill in CA
Pikes Peak
Comstock Lode
Placer mining: shoveled dirt
into a pan and washed it in
water, looking for gold or
silver
• Large corporations will move
in with mining equipment,
placing a burden on the water
supply.
• Mining will help the
industrial development
TRANSPARENCY
Boom Town
Big Business Receives Land
 Pacific Railway Acts of
1862 and 1864 gave the
Union Pacific and
Central Pacific railroad
companies 10 square
miles on each side of the
tracks.
 Sold land to settlers who
wanted farms
The Cattle Industry
• Americans adopted Mexican
ranching ways, equipment,
and dress.
• Huge demand for beef
• Long drive: transporting
cattle from ranges to the cow
towns
• Chisholm Trail linked Texas
to Kansas and the railroad
• Barbed wire will end the
open-range system
Two Land Laws
• Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862: provide support for state
colleges; the federal government distributed millions of acres of
western lands to state governments; the land was sold to fund
agricultural colleges
• Homestead Act, 1862: offered 160 acres of land to those who met
the requirements
1. 21 years old
2. American citizens or have filed for citizenship
3. Pay $10
4. Build a house and live in it at least 6 months a year
5. Farm the land for 5 consecutive years
• Problems: Many too poor, no farming experience, fraud
Settlers Work Together
• Water was scarce,
contaminated; 1880s had
well-drilling equipment
• Backbreaking labor
• Men often had to leave and
work in towns for cash,
leaving families alone
• Families cooperated in
building houses, barns,
sewing quilts, corn-husking,
caring for the sick
Farming on the Plains
• Challenging conditions
• New technology-dry farming,
planting crops that do not
require much water
• Agricultural knowledge
• Bonanza farms: controlled by
big businesses
• Farm debt: machines were
costly, land speculation, and
low prices for crops
TRANSPARENCY
Cattle Drive
African Americans
• Exodusters: 50,000 African
Americans who moved to the
West
• Benjamin “Pap” Singleton led
a group
• Life was hard due to poverty,
lack of experience with
prairie crops like wheat and
corn
• Most were happier than if
they had stayed in the South
Women on the Frontier
• Long periods alone
• Men often had to leave
to find jobs for cash
• Women stayed to protect
homestead from
squatters
• Western women led the
fight for the right to vote
• 1890 Wyoming was the
first state to give women
the right to vote
NOTE TAKING
Reading Skill: Identify Main Ideas
Competition, Conflict, and Change
• Economic Rivalries: Conflicts between miners,
ranchers, sheepherders, and farmers led to
violence; biggest losers were Native Americans
• Prejudices and discrimination: West was most
diverse area of country with Asian, Mexican and
Mexican American, and Native American
residents
The West by 1900
• Number of tenant
farmers grew in the
West
• Corporations owned
many large farms
• Farmers were deeply in
debt
• Census of 1890: frontier
ended
Frederick Jackson Turner
• Frontier closed; claimed
that the frontier had
played a central role in
forming the American
character
• Frontier had produced
individualistic, restless,
and socially mobile
Americans who were
ready for adventure
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TRANSPARENCY
Progress Monitoring Transparency