The American West in
th
the Late 19 Century
The West in the late 19th Century
More than is commonly portrayed, the “Wild West” was:
Law-abiding
Industrialized
Obsessed with civilizing as soon as possible
Shaped by large, distant, impersonal institutions
(Big government, big corporations)
Racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse
East Coast urban fantasy about the outdoors
Not a uniquely U.S. experience
Cowboys in Historical Context
Spanish, Mexican culture and technology
• Ranchero/hacienda culture from Spain
(Plus Arab and N. African influence on Spain)
• Spanish colonies introduce cattle to Americas
• Vaqueros (cowboys) in Cuba, 1530’s
• Latin American icon first
Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina (gauchos)
• U.S. a late arrival to cattle industry
• American cowboy slang from Hispanic roots
• vaquero  “buckaroo”
• rodeo  rodeo
Cowboys in Historical Context
Multiracial workforce
• 1870’s – at least 50% of cattle workers were
African American, Mexican American, or Native
American
• Later becomes symbol of whiteness and contrast
to Native Americans: “Cowboys vs. Indians”
Changing image – like “log cabin” mythology earlier
• Early 19th C – beneath contempt, not mentioned in
polite company
• Late 19th C – romanticized, heroic image
• Teddy Roosevelt pretended to be one
• Mid-20th C – “American male” symbol
Monument Valley
Free / CORBIS)
(Royalty-
Open Range Cattle Drives
1866-1887
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show
in honor of Queen Victoria, 1887
Sitting Bull
and Buffalo
Bill
“The Turner Thesis”
“The existence of an area of free land, its continuous
recession and the advance of settlement westward,
explain American Development.”
Frederick Jackson Turner, 1893
Turner Thesis
FJT one of the first professional historians
“The Significance of the Frontier for American
History,” 1893
• “Frontier” a very distinct place
• U.S. history = the history of the frontier
• Having a frontier helped make American
civilization possible
• Frontier maintained democracy and
stability
• If the frontier disappears….?
Territorial Legacy
• After statehood, still large % of western land in Federal
control
• More than half of Oregon, for example
• Common across the West
• Federal gov’t not a latecomer to the West
• Shaped the West, even more than shaped the East
In the Pacific Northwest, most Federal land…
has been Federal land since 1818.
Homesteading
1862 Homestead Act, passed by Congress
Based on “Free Soil” ideal of Northerners
More or less free land for just about any adult male
(Twice as much land given to a married man)
Details:
• 160 acres of federally-owned land
• Pay small fee
• Develop the land in some way
• After 10 years, you own it
• NOT required to be white, be a citizen, or understand
English
• Attracted many immigrants from Europe
Homesteading
Challenges
• Land could be infertile or isolated
• Corrupt land agents, fraud, speculation
• Still had to pay your own start-up costs
• Government agents often discriminated
based on race and ethnicity
• Land quickly changed hands, big farmers
bought out smaller farmers
• Many homesteaders went from failed farm
to failed farm
• Climate change, ecological changes
Railroads
• Small, local companies, then consolidation
• Crucial for economic success
• Transporting raw materials
• Transporting products into the region
• RR a major consumer, employer
• Farmers affected by rail freight rates
• Politically powerful – most powerful in
West
• Tacoma and Seattle competed for rail
contract
Railroads, 1870-1890
RR land grant checkerboard pattern
Homestead Act + RR land grants =
Massive U.S. gov’t subsidy for western settlement
Map of the Northern Pacific Railroad
Big Business Interests in the West
Railroads the best example
In late 1800’s, railroads were:
• First large-scale corporations, first “big business”
• Biggest consumers of steel, coal, wood, paper
• Biggest employers in the country
• One of biggest private landowners
• Most powerful business lobby in politics
• Western governors worked for the RR’s and
mining companies as much as their state
government
• Millions of acres of free government land
Industrialization
• Mass production
• Machine manufacturing
• Increasing reliance on machines
• Steam power (later, diesel power)
• Standardized parts
• High demand for “industrial” raw materials
• Coal, oil, wood, iron ore, tin, rubber
• Heavy environmental impact
• Clock-based system, wage labor
Industrialization
• Effects all across the economy, not just
manufacturing
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Agriculture – harvesters
Timber industry – giant mills
Ranching – barbed wire, meatpacking factories
Fishing – canning machines
• Demographic effects
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Decreasing birth rate
Lower mortality rate
Higher life expectancy
Longer time in school
Immigration
• Changing patterns, late 19th C. U.S.
• Increasing scale – biggest in relative terms
• More diverse origins
• Surge in immigration from Asia, 1870’s
• Increasingly from E. Europe, S. Europe
• Growing contrast w/ W. European roots
• Catholics, Orthodox, Jews
• Latin-based and Slavic languages
• Cyrillic alphabets
• Increasingly, wage workers more than farmers
Immigration
• Nativism
• Hostility towards immigrants
• Favors strict limits on immigration or no immigration
• Very specific definition of “American”
19th Century nativist preference:
White, Protestant, English-speaking
(Nativist fears of Catholic schools)
• Not “native” in the sense of “Native American” or
“American Indian”
Thomas Nast, “This is a White Man’s Government,” 1868
Thomas
Nast,
“The Chinese
Question,”
1871
Columbia: “Hands off,
gentlemen! America
means fair play for all
men.”
“A National Menace,” 1903
Immigration
Two main historical myths/models
• Melting Pot
• 19th Century definition of “melting pot”:
Immigrants assimilate, become just like everyone
else
• Mosaic
• Immigrants represent their home countries
and maintain distinct cultures
• Diversity adds up over time
Immigration
• Neither model completely accurate
• Enormous generational differences
• Both assimilation AND distinction
• Not just top-down cultural dominance (melting
pot)
• Not just cultural independence (mosaic)
• Most common: cultural hybrids
• “Exotic”  mainstream
• Spaghetti, hot dogs, pizza, tacos, “General
Tso’s chicken”
• Ethnic holidays  national holidays
• St. Patrick’s Day, Columbus Day
Asian Immigration
• Chinese immigrant workers on railroads
• Japanese immigrant workers in farming
• Increasingly strict laws against Asian
immigrants on West Coast
• Laws limiting occupations, housing, legal rights
• Restricted to “Chinatown” neighborhoods
• Restricted to certain industries
• Laundries (considered un-masculine)
• Canneries (considered too disgusting)
• Canning machine nicknamed “the iron chink”
Early Chinatown (Library
of Congress)
A Chinese Family in
San Francisco
Immigration
• Increasing white hostility to Asian
immigrants on West Coast
• Employers encouraged white workers to blame
Chinese workers for low wages
• Anti-Chinese riots in Portland and Tacoma
• Original “Chinatown” in both cities never
recovered
• Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882
Immigration
Results:
Asian immigrants in highly segregated areas
Nativism’s self-fulfilling prophecy:
Asian immigrants are too foreign,
So they can’t assimilate,
So segregate them,
Which means they can’t assimilate.
See? They can’t assimilate!
Meanwhile, many European immigrant groups
becoming more assimilated, more mainstream
Urbanization
• History of the Far West as much about
cities as about “wide open spaces”
• Cities w/ disproportionate influence
• PNW, like rest of country, urbanizing in late
19th C
• Incr. percentage live in cities
• Cities getting bigger
• Growing first, organizing and planning later
• No professional “urban planning” before 1890’s
• Seattle fire, 1889
• “Growing pains” nowadays associated with
developing countries
Urbanization
• Incr. percentage live in cities
• Cities getting bigger
• 1920 U.S. Census:
50/50 urban/rural split
(“urban” = 10,000 people)
Urbanization
• Some of densest population in history
• 1890, NYC south of Wall Street: 1.5 million
people
• “Urban planning” in infancy
• Few municipal agencies in 1890
• No blanket coverage of police, fire, sanitation
• Sometimes private police and firefighters
• Poor sanitation
• NYC in 1900: 100,000 horses
• 2.5 millions pounds of manure daily
• “Clean” streets = neat piles
• Replaced by cars, buses, trains
Urbanization
• “Urban planning” in infancy
• Few zoning laws, building regulations
• Running water, sewer optional
• Unregulated living conditions
• Services dependent on neighborhood
politicians
• Traffic control a novelty
• 1000’s of deaths annually from horse vs.
pedestrian accidents
Downtown Chicago, 1909
Urbanization
• Urban problems a main focus of the
Progressive movement, 1890-1917
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New professionals and experts
Social work
“Muckraking” journalism
Moral crusade against “vice”
• Alcohol, prostitution, gambling
(Prohibition was a Progressive creation)
• “Clean up” the cities
• Sanitation
• Politics
• Municipal services
Urbanization and Technological Change
• Stronger, cheaper steel
• Skyscraper architecture
• Shift from stone and brick to steel frames
• Steel stronger, lighter, more flexible than stone
• Entirely new shapes and scale for buildings
• Mass-produced bicycles, automobiles
• Suspension bridges – Brooklyn Bridge
• Elevators
• Social change: higher floors are better
• Before elevators: lower floors are better
• Electricity
Radical Labor
• Late 19th Century w/ many violent labor
strikes and violent strikebreaking
• In some cases, pitched battles between
workers and police/military
• Sometimes, National Guard and U.S. Army
troops called in to break up strikes
• Far West had some of the most violent
clashes between workers and employers
• Especially in mining and timber industries
• PNW will get a reputation for radical labor
groups
• 19th C labor unions very different from
present-day unions
Industrial Context
• Nature of “work” changing in late 19th
century
• Increasingly mechanized, machines getting
bigger
• Increasing pace of work
• No regulations about workplace safety
• Work increasingly dangerous
• 1890’s U.S.:
• 35,000 workers killed on the job each year
• 500,000 injured each year
• 1890’s – still traditional “fellow servant” law:
Assumed workers were to blame for injury
Company could charge dead worker’s family for
expenses
Industrial Context
• Nature of “work” changing in 19th century
• Dangerous work often made radical, fearless
laborers
• Companies larger, more impersonal
• Greater difference/distance between owner and
worker
• Less power or influence of individual worker
• Not just factory work changing
Also:
Logging camps, canneries, fishing fleets,
mines
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
• Nicknamed “Wobblies”
• No conclusive explanation for the name
• Created in 1905
• Most popular in Pacific Northwest
• Especially in timber industry and urban
factories
• Claimed to speak for all workers -- “one
big union”
• IWW critical of capitalism
• Argument: capitalism naturally exploits
workers
• Argument: capitalists and workers basically
IWW Radicalism
• Idea: real reform can only come from radical
change
• Voting, negotiation, pleading have not done enough
• Other labor unions compromised too much
• Embraced radical tactics, including violence
• Strikes, walkouts, even for small goals
• Sabotage, vandalism, assault
• Goals:
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Free speech for union organizers
Safer working conditions
Higher wages, better benefits
More worker control over production decisions
IWW Radicalism
• Militant on labor issues, but
• Pacifist in foreign policy. Their view:
• War exploits workers for capitalist profits
• War gives excuses to limit freedom
• Workers should be unified across borders
• Nationalism, patriotism are capitalist tricks
• Outspoken critics of World War I
• “Rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight”
• Capitalism = inventing new ways for
workers to kill each other
Wobbly Slang
• Stiff: Worker
• California Blankets: Newspapers used for
bedding
• Fink: An informer or strikebreaker
• Rattler: Fast freight train
• Scab: Person who takes the job of a striking
union member
• Skid Road
• Originally: sloped road in Portland and Seattle
where logs skidded down to the water
• Became synonymous w/ poverty, homelessness,
unemployment
The Everett Massacre
• Everett, 1916
• A boat of 2-300 Wobblies landed to support
a strike
• Police and vigilantes vs. Wobblies and
supporters
• Gunfight breaks out
• 5 workers, 2 vigilantes killed, 50 total
wounded
• 74 Wobblies were charged with murder, but
no one could tell who fired the first shot
• All 74 released
THE WEST AFTER
THE CIVIL WAR
Large foreign born population in West
• One third of all Californians
• 40% of Nevadans
• Half of residents of Idaho and Arizona
• Large populations of Spanish-speaking Americans of
Mexican origin all over the Southwest
• Chinese and Irish laborers poured into California by
the thousands
• Substantial number of Germans in Texas
• Germans, Scandinavians and other Europeans were
also numerous on the High Plains
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PNW in Late Nineteenth
century
Statehood
Homesteading
Railroad lines
Industrialization
Big business interests
Increasing Pacific trade
Increased immigration
Urbanization
Radical labor movements
Statehood
• Required a minimum number of residents
• Required drafting of state constitution
• OR, WA, ID w/ very different state constitutions
• Constitutions reflect historical differences
• Every constitution is a historical document
revealing the context in which it was created.
• Oregon, 1859
• Washington, 1889
• Idaho, 1890
Oregon constitution, 1859
• Oregon Territory voters thinking of national
issues
• Pre-Civil War context – slavery, race, etc.
(Eligible voters: white males over 21)
• Territorial voters polled about what they
wanted the new state constitution to look like
• By large margin, said Oregon would not allow
slavery
• By even bigger margin, banned blacks from state
• Abolitionism not necessarily about racial equality
• In the state constitution until 1926
• Oregon did not ratify 15th Amendment until 1959
Railroads
• Cultural and social influence
• “Space” and “time” revolutionized
• Travel times dropped 80%
• Transportation costs dropped 95%
• Country seemed much smaller
• RR companies created the 4 main time zones,
1882
• National markets, leads to national brands
• Symbol of:
• Progress
• Human engineering triumphing over nature
• American greatness
Trans-Pacific trade
• PNW-Hawai’i-Alaska network
• 1897 – Yukon gold rush
• Seattle outfitters the main suppliers
• Seattle one of first places gold was spent
• 1868 Burlingame Treaty allows Chinese
immigration
• Japan rapidly industrializes in late 19th century
• High demand for PNW lumber products
• SW Washington exports giant, square-ended
boards
• Crucial for large wooden buildings
• Even in 1941
• Called “jap logs” until the 1960’s
Statehood
More incorporation into U.S. national politics
• 2 Senators, plus at least 1 member of House of
Representatives
• Minimum 3 votes in Electoral College
Also, more political independence
• “Territory” status = ruled by U.S. Congress,
governor appointed by U.S. government
• State = vote for own governor, own
representatives to Washington, D.C.
(U.S. Senators chosen by state legislatures
before 1900)