The South and West Transformed
Chapter 8
The New South
8.1
Industries and Cities Grow
• Better transportation
– Increase in R.R.’s
– Cities like Mobile, Nashville, and Atlanta grow as a
result.
– Growth of shipping ports help New Orleans grow.
• New industries spread
– Investments in iron-, coal-, and steel-processing
– New crops increase: grain, fruit, tobacco grown
Southern Economy Lags
• Even though the South witnessed an
economic transformation, it was still plagued
by the C.W. and the damages it had caused.
• There were not many willing to invest their
money in the economy of the South nor were
there enough laborers due to poor wages.
• Few southern banks remained after the C.W.
 Northern banks were depended upon.
Southern Farmers’ Hard Times
• Lots of cotton and few
buyers  low prices.
• The Bowl Weevil destroyed
many cotton crops.
• Dependence on one crop
was too risky.
• The Farmers’ AllianceWanted the gov’t to lower
train costs to leave more
room for farmers’ profits.
Black Southerners
•
•
•
•
Opportunities for education after the C.W.
Political involvement
A.A.’s in the Military
However, groups like the KKK and local
southern gov’ts sought to reverse the
advances that A.A.’s had made during
Reconstruction.
Westward Expansion
8.2-8.3
Manifest Destiny
John Gast
American
Progress
ca. 1872
Nature vs. Progress
• Conflict among N.A.’s and whites stems from a
difference in ideology.
• N.A.’s see land/nature as a precious gift that
must be cared for.
• Whites see land/nature as something to make
$$ off of.
Native Americans
• were “in the way of progress”
• Big question: What to do with them??
• Under President Jackson (1830’s), they were
moved to the Plains (aka Great American
Desert).
Native Americans cont’d
• Now white settlers wanted to move further
west in hopes of striking gold or staking a
claim of land.
• This meant breaking land promises to the N.A.
tribes.
• N.A.’s eventually put onto reservations
Native Americans Fight Back
• Battle of Little Big Horn- Gold discovered in
Sioux lands  white prospectors come 
Sioux tried to run them away.
• Fed. Gov’t sends Gen. Custer and men to fight
the Sioux, but they are outnumbered. The
Sioux win.
Native Americans Fight Back (cont’d)
• Nez Perce Tribe
• Leader, Chief Joseph
• They had assimilated into white society
(Christians, Sedentary).
• In 1877, Feds wanted to move them to smaller
reservations for more room for settlers.
• Chief Joseph and followers tried to hide from
troops. Later, they were found and sent to OK.
N.A.’s Fight Back (cont’d)
• Wounded Knee- US gov’t attempts to end a
sacred “ghost dance” which the N.A.’s believe
would keep settlers from their lands.
Assimilation for N.A.’s
• Boarding schools such as Carlisle (in Carlisle,
PA) and Haskell Indian Nations (in Lawrence
KS) were est. in order to help the process of
assimilation.
• Dawes Act- passed in 1887. N.A.’s were no
longer treated as tribal people, but as
individuals. Each N.A. family was allotted 160acre plots of land to farm.
Transforming the
West
Prospecting
As more gold/silver was
discovered, more people moved
west along with businesses to
cater to them.
Mining Centers: 1900
Mining (“Boom”) Towns-Now Ghost Towns
Many towns only
lasted as long as
the gold did. Once
all the gold was
mined, the town
was abandoned
Calico, CA
Driving Cattle to Market
· After the Civil War, growing cities in the East increased their
demand for beef.
· Texas ranchers began to drive herds of longhorns
hundreds of miles north to the railroads, where they were
shipped east.
The
Cattle
Trails
The Cowhand’s Life
Cowhand – responsible for driving the cattle north to the
railroads
• Cowhands learned their
trade from Spanish
vaqueros.
· Cowhands had to
worry about
stampedes, cattle
thieves, and the dry,
hot weather.
· Cow towns developed near the railroads, offering cowhands
hotels, saloons, and restaurants.
Abilene, Kansas (late 1800’s)
Dodge City, Kansas, 1874
"Kansas has but one Dodge City, with a broad expanse of
territory sufficiently vast for an empire; we have only room
for one Dodge City; Dodge, a synonym for all that is wild,
reckless, and violent; Hell on the Plains."
-- A Kansas Newspaper in the 1870's
Cattle Boom
· Cattle roamed free on the plains.
Cowboys at
the end of an
1897
roundup in
Ward
County,
Texas, pose
with their
herd of
almost 2,000
cattle.
Barbed Wire
Joseph Glidden
Cow hands were no longer
able to drive their herds openly
through homesteaders lands.
The frontier became sectioned
off. In addition, harsh weather
in the 1880’s and low prices for
beef (b/c of high quantity)
ended the cattle driving boom.
The Homesteaders
• People who moved to the Plains to live and
farm.
• Little House on the Prairie
• Homestead Act
Life on the Homestead
• OK, KS, NE, ND, SD (mainly)
• Unpredictable weather  unpredictable
harvest
• Sod houses were dingy, insect-infested, dirty
• Little civilization nearby
Oklahoma Territory Opened
• Last major land rush in 1889.
• “Boomers” awaited the opening of the lands
for claiming.
• But some sneaky people broke the rules and
claimed the best lands first.
Oklahoma City, OK 1889
Sooners
• Because “greedy, land-stealing cheaters”
doesn’t fit on a jersey.
Just say