Unit 10 notes
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Racism (437)
o After 1848 a flood of Chinese immigrant arrived in America
 1880, more than 200,000 Chinese came to the US
 Mostly in California
 They were a tenth of the pop.
 For a time, they were being seen as hard working people
 Very quickly white opinion became hostile
o Chinese were very industrious and successful
o Early 1850s many Chinese worked in gold mines
 Some enjoyed success
 1852 California legislature tried to remove Chinese from working the gold mines
 Foreign miner’s tax
 1850, series of other laws were designed to limit Chinese immigration
Building the transcontinental railroad (438)
o As mining declined, railroad employment grew
o Beginning in 1865 over 12,000 found work in railroad
 Chinese workers formed 90 percent of the labor force
 Responsible for construction of the western part of the new road
 Chinese were preferred more than white men
o Worked hard, little demand, life was accepted low wages
o 1866 5,000 Chinese railroad workers went on strike for more wage and shorter work
days
 Company isolated them
 Surrounded them with strikebreakers
 Starved them into submission
 Strike failed
o 1869 the railroad was finished
 Thousands of Chinese were out of work
 Some hired themselves out on vast drainage and irrigation projects
 Some became agricultural laborers
 Some became tenant farmers
Establishment of Chinatown (439)
o Largest single Chinese community was in san Fran.
 Community life was revolved around powerful organizations
 Led by prominent merchants
 Organized elaborate festivals and celebrations that was an important
lifestyle in Chinatown
 Other Chinese organizations were secret societies
 Known as tongs
o Some were violent criminal organizations
o Life was hard for urban Chinese
 The Chinese usually occupied the lower rungs of the employment ladder
 Some established their own small businesses
 Most were laundries
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Moved into this business because there were few laundries in
China
Anti-Coolie club
o As Chinese communities grew larger anti-Chinese sentiment among white residents
became strong
 Anti coolie clubs emerged in the 1860s and 1870s
 Wanted a ban on employing Chinese
o Organized boycotts of products made with Chinese laborers
o Attacked Chinese workers and set fires to factories
o Soon the democratic party took up the call
o And the workingmen’s party of California
 Soon gained a lot of political power in the states
 By the mid-1880s agitation towards the Chinese spread
Chinese exclusion act (440)
o 1882 congress passed the Chinese exclusion act
 The exclusion act banned Chinese from coming into the US and denied
citizenship to Chinese in the US
 Growing fear of unemployment
o Believed that by excluding Chinese immigrants this would
protect American workers
 Help reduce class conflict
 Renewed the law in 1892
 Made it permanent in 1902
 Chinese population declined by 40 percent
Chinese resistance
o Chinese felt insulted that they put them together with AM and Indians
o Letting in everyone but the Chinese
 Believed that Chinese are clean, educated, industrious
Homestead act
o Homestead act of 1862: permitted settlers to buy plots of 160 acres for a small fee. If
they occupied the land for five years and improved, it
 Intended as a progressive measure
 Give a small farm to any American who won’t one
o Homestead act rested on a number of misperceptions
 Framers of the law thought that land can sustain a family
 Did not recognize the increasing mechanization of agriculture and cost of
running a farm
 160 acres of land was too small for grain farming
 Many people abandoned their land before 5 years
Government assistance
o Westerners looked towards the government to help
 Congress increased the homestead allotments
 Timber culture act gave 160 acres of additional land to the one that they
originally owned if they planted 40 acres of trees on them
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The desert land act provided that claimants could buy 640 acres of land at
$1.25 but they have to irrigate part of their holdings within 3 years
 Stone act: applied to nonarable land. Authorized sales at $2.50 an acre
 These laws made it so that people can buy a lot of land for very little
price
 Fraud ran rampant in the administration of the acts
o Companies employed dummy registrants and using other illegal
devices, seized millions of acres of land
o After the admission of Kansas 1861 Wash, New Mexico, Utah, Nebr, were divided into
smaller units
 Easier to organize
 By the 1860s territorial gov. were in the new provinces of Nevada, Col, Dak, Ari,
Idaho, Mon, and Wyoming
Mexican origins (444)
o Wester cattle industry was Mexican and Texan by ancestry
 Mexican ranchers created techniques and equipment’s that cowboys use
 Roundups, roping, and gear of the herders
o Americans in Texas learned these methods and carried it to the
northernmost ranges of the cattle kingdom
 animals were descended from imported Spanish stocks
o At the end of the civil were 5 mill cattle roamed Texas
 Eastern markets wanted to buy these cattle
 Challenge was getting the animals from the range to the railroad
centers
 Early in 1866 some began driving their combined herds
o Only a fraction of the animals arrived to Sedalia due to bumps
along the road
 Proved that cattle could be driven to the market
 The drive started an explosion of the creation of the
cattle kingdom
Chisholm Trail (445)
o Next step was finding an easier route
 Through accessible countries
 Market facilities grew up at Abilene Kansas
 The town was the top of the cattle kingdom
 Between 1867 and 1871 cattlemen drove nearly 1.5 mill up Chisholm
trail to Abilene
 By mid 1870s agriculture in western Kansas was taking the open range lands
 Cattlemen had to develop other trail and other market outlets
Competition with farmers (446)
o As settlement of plains increase new forms of competition arose
 Sheep breeders from California and Oregon compete for grass
 Farmers in the east threw fences around their claims
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Series of range wars between sheep men and cattlemen, between ranchers and
farmers rose in tension
o Great profit was in the cattle business
 Increasingly, the cattle economy became corporated
 Problem was that there was not enough grass to support the drive
 Two sever winter in 1885-1886 and 1886-1887 with hot summer killed a
lot of cattle
Political gains for women (447)
o Women won vote earlier in west than any other nation
 Utah: Mormons granted women suffrage to repel criticism of their practice of
polygamy
 Some state women persuaded men by telling men that they could bring a moral
voice into religion and strengthen sense of community in west
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Rocky mountain school
o Allure of the west was due to the diversity of the landscapes
o Best known painter from RMS were Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran
 Painted the new west
 Some were taken on tour
o The paintings inspired tourism
 Hotels began to appear near beautiful landscapes
 Easterners began staying longer
Myth of the cow boys
o Many people thought of the west as a rugged, free spirited lifestyle
 Many people started romanticizing about the figure of the cowboy
 Transformed him from low wage into powerful mythical figure
o Admiring Americans thought of the dismal life of a cowboy
o In novels they tend to romanticize about their freedom from social constraints
 Cowboy was the most widely admired popular hero in America
 And powerful and enduring symbol of the important American ideal of
the natural man
Romantic image of the west
o Many Americans thought it was the last frontier
 With all the land being taken the image exercised a stronger pull
o Mark twain, an American writer
 He gave voice to the romantic vision of the frontier in books
 Created characters that rebel against the constraints of society
Turner’s frontier thesis (452)
o One of the most influential and clearest statements were from Frederick Jackson turner
 1893 turned paper to a meeting of the American historical society
 Argued that the end of the frontier meant ending the most important
democratizing forces in American life
o Turner’s assessments were inaccurate and premature
 He thought the frontier was an empty uncivilized land awaiting settlement
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 But white migrants had already established societies and culture
 Unoccupied land remained in the west for many years
 Much of the best farming and grazing land was now taken
Psychological loss
o Most Americans knew that it was the end of their most cherished myths
 As long as they believed that the west was an empty open land, it was possible
to opportunity in American life
 Now there was a vague and ominous sense of opportunity
 Psychological loss was more intense because of Henry Nash smith
 Called it the virgin land
o West had the potential to be a virtual garden of Edan
 A place where life can begin anew
 Ideals of democracy could be restored
“Concentration” policy (453)
o By the early 1850s the idea of creating one big community where all the tribes lived
together got destroyed
 By white demand for Indian territory
 Created new reservation policies known as the concentration
 1851 each tribe were assigned its own defined reservation, confirmed
with separate treaties
 Treaties were often illegitimately negotiated with unauthorized
representatives chosen by whites
 Had many benefits for whites and not a lot for Indians
o Easier to control
o Force tribes into scattered locations
o Took over the most desirable lands
o 1867 in a series of bloody conflicts, congress created the Indian peace commission
 Recommended a new and presumably permanent Indian policy
 Wanted to remove the concentration policy and move the Indians into one big
land
Poorly administered reservation
o This solution worked better than other one
 White management of Indian matters was entrusted to the bureau of Indian
affair
 Responsible for distributing land, making payments, and supervising the
shipment of supplies
 Record was horrible
 Agents were bad at their job
o Economic warfare by whites: slaughtered buffalo herds that supported the tribes
 Even in the 1850 whites had been killing buffalo for food and supplies for
migrants
 After civil war buffalo hide was really popular
 Prof. hunter came to the plains to shoot the buffalo
Decimation of the buffalo (454)
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The disappearance of plains due to migrants decimated the buffalo population
 Southern herd was exterminated by 1875
 Within a year the northern fate also disappeared
 By destroying buffalos, it was destroying the Indians’ source of food and
supplies
Indian resistance
o A lot of fighting between whites and Indians between the 1850s to 1880s
 Indians go in groups of 30-40 men and attacked wagon trains, stagecoaches, and
isolated ranches
 US army became more deeply involved
 The tribes focus more of their attacks on soldiers
o Small scale fighting sometimes led to a war
 During civil war, the eastern Sioux in Minnesota, there were corrupt agents and
inadequate reservation
 Rebelled against the restrictions
o Led by little crow, killed more than 700 whites before being
subdued
Sand creek massacre
o Fighting also started in eastern Colorado
 Indians were coming into conflict with white miners
 Bands of Indians attacked stagecoach lines and settlement to regain lost lands
 Whites called up a large militia
 Governor urged all friendly Indians to congregate at army posts
 Colonel Chivington led a volunteered militia to the camp and killed 133
people
“Indian hunting” (455)
o White vigilante also threatened the tribes
 Was known as Indian hunting
 Tracking down and killing Indians
o Some thought it was a sport
 Some offered rewards to those who killed Indians
o Brought back skulls as proof
 Sometimes the killing was in response to Indian raids
 Lots of whites believed in the literal elimination of Indians
 Believed in the inhumanity of Indians and impossibility of whites
coexisting with Indians
o Indians eventually fought back
Little bighorn
o Three army columns set out to round them up and force them back onto the reservation
 Little bighorn: most famous conflict between the Indians and the whites
 Tribal warriors surprised Custer and the members of his regiment
 Surrounded them and killed every man
 Chiefs had gathered 2,500 warriors
 One of the largest Indian armies ever assembled
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Indians did not have the pol. Organization or supplies to keep their troops united.
 Warriors soon drifted off in bands
 The power of the Sioux was soon broken
 Crazy horse and sitting bull accepted defeat
Chief joseph
o Persuaded his followers to flee from retribution
 American troops pursued and attacked them
 Joseph moved with 200 men and 350 women, children, and elders
 Effort to reach Canada
 Indians covered 1321 miles in 75 days
 Finally caught just off the Canadian boarder
 Finally gave up
 He surrendered in exchange for a promise that his band could return to
nez Perce
 Gov. refused to honor the promise
o Last Indians to organize resistance was the Chiricahua apaches
 Fought from 1860 to 1880
 Led by mangas colorados and cochis
o Mangas was murdered in the civil war
 In 1872 cochis agreed to peace in exchange for a reservation that
included traditional land
o Died in 1874
 Geronimo refused to give up
Ghost dances (456)
o The current prophet was Wovoka, a Paiute
 Inspired an ecstatic spiritual awakening
 New revival emphasized the coming of a messiah
 Most conspicuous feature was a mass, emotional Ghost dance
 Believed that the white people will retreat and the buffalo will come
back
Wounded knee
o In 1890 the seventh cavalry tried to round up 350 could and hungry Sioux at wounded
knee
 Fighting broke out
 200 Indians died
 Indian made the first shot but it was a massacre
 Turned new machine guns at them
Assimilation (457)
o The Dawes severalty act of 1887 provided fir the gradual elimination of tribal
ownership land
 Gave them to individual families
 Could not gain full title to their property for 25 years
 Acts applied to most of the western tribes
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The dawes act promoted the idea of assimilation from the bureau of Indian
affairs
 Took Indian children away from their families and sent them to
boarding schools run by whites
o Believed that the young can abandoned the tribal ways
 Spread to stop Indian religion rituals
o Encouraged Christianity
Key role of the railroad (458)
o Railroad companies promoted settlement
 Provide customers
 Increase the value of their vast landholdings
 Set rates so low that anyone can afford the trip west
 Sold land at very low price
o Temporary change in the climate of the great plains also helped the great surge
 Beginning in 1870, rainfall in plains was above avg
 Whites now rejected the idea that the region was a desert
 Some believed that cultivation of plains encouraged rainfall
Barbed wire (459)
o Farming on plains presented problems
 Problem of fencing
 Had to protect away from herds of open range cattlemen
 Wood and stone are too expensive
 1873, joseph H. Glidden and Isaac L. Ellwood created barbed wires
 Second problem was water
 Much of the land had very little rain
o Some were desert
 Depended heavily on irrigation
o water was diverted from rivers and streams and into
farmlands
o some drilled wells
Drought
o After 1887 a series of dry seasons began
 Lands that had been fertile turned into desert
 Some used deep wells to deal with this problem pumped by steel
windmills
 Planting drought resistant crops
 Large scale irrigation could save endangered farms
Hard times for farmers
o Most of the people who moved had been farmers elsewhere
 During the late 1880s the crop prices dropped
 Production was becoming more expensive
 Many farmers couldn’t pay debts and had to leave their farm
 Most moved back into the east
Commercial agriculture
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Sturdy, independent farmers were being replaced by commercial farmers
 Attempting to do what industrialists have done in the manufacturing economy
o Commercial farmers were not self sufficient
 Specialized in cash crops
 Sold in national or world markets
 Bought household supplies and food
 Raised living standards when it was successful
 Made them dependent on bankers and interest rates, railroads, and
freight rates
Consequences of overproduction
o Beginning in the 1880s worldwide overproduction led to a price drop for most
agricultural goods
 Led to great economic distress for more than 6 mill people
 1890s, 27 percent of the farms were mortgaged
o 1910, 33 percent
 1880, 25 percent of all farms had been operated by tenants
o 1910, 37 percent
Farmer’s grievances
o Farmers resented banks, loan companies, and insurance corporations
 Farmers had to take loan on whatever terms they could get
 Due to few credits in the west and south
 Interest rates ranging from 10 to 25 percent
o Third grievance was prices for products and prices they paid for goods
 Farmers sold their products in a competitive world market
 Had no control
 Had no advanced knowledge
 Prices could drop in matter of moments
 Farmer’s fortune is unpredictable
Isolation
o These economic difficulties produced a series of social and cultural resentment
 Farm families in some parts of the world were virtually cut off from the outside
world and human companionship
 Many farmers lacked access to basically anything that might give them a sense
of being members of a community
Crash course 25
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1890, farm prices made a comeback
o Many people went to the west
o More than a million filed land claims on the homestead act
o Many people moved to the west because agriculture was increasing due to the growth
of cities
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In 20 years America became one of the biggest industrial countries
o Turned from rural to urban
o products spread
o New York had over 6 mill
o Reversed the flow of the Chicago river
Much of the growth was due to immigration
o Much more diversity
Irish tended to stay in cities in America
o Tended to be low waged unskilled laborers
o Over time they had more varied jobs
Most German speakers became farmers
o Many went to the Midwest
 Some became brewers
By 1890s half of the immigrants came from southern and eastern Europe
o They were mostly Jewish and catholic
o Faced scientific theory
Immigration constriction league was formed in 1894
Discriminated the Chinese
o Came since the 1850s
o 105,000 Chinese before 1882
 San Fran refused to educate Chinese
o Asian immigration face discrimination from vigilantes
o 13 million immigrants came to America
Mary antin stated that immigrants came to the US for opportunity
o Industrialization meant that there were jobs in America
Crash Course 29
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Strong Nat. gov. was seen as an alt to people’s lives being controlled by provincial city and state
gov.
o Roosevelt was the model of the 20th century
o Roosevelt felt it was the fed gov’s responsibility to break up large gov.
o Leg. And executive managed to work together and congress passed the Hepburn act of
1906
 Gave the interstate commerce commission the power to regulate railroad rates
Roos. Was the conservationists
o Preserve the environment from economic exploitation
Taft was a hard core trust buster
o Ordered prosecution that broke up standard oil in 1911
o Supported the 16th amendment
 Income tax
 Led to 18th amendment
Teddy Roosevelt founded the bull moose party so that he could run again
o 1912 there were four candidates
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 Roosevelt, Taft, Debs and Wilson
Debs did not support abolishing capitalism
o Public ownership of railroads
Wilson’s program: new freedom was supposed to reinvigorate democracy by restoring market
competition
Roosevelt created new nationalism
o Included heavy taxes on personal and corporate fortune
o Greater federal regulation of industry
Bull moose believed in women’s suffrage, federal regulation, labor and health legislation, 8 hr.
days and living wage, social insurance,
o Roosevelt thought his platform was one of the most important document in the history
of mankind
o He lost
o Taft and Roosevelt split the votes
Wilson won the presidency
o new freedom won out
o congress passed gradual income tax on the richest 5% of Americans
o others included the clayton act
 exempted union from antitrust laws and made it easier for them to strike
o Keating Owen act
 outlawed child labor in manufacturing
o Adamson act
 mandated an 8 hr. workday for railroad workers
o Wilson’s new freedom ended up similar to new nationalism
o