The South and the West
Transformed
1865-1900
Chapter Introduction
This chapter will discuss how the society, culture, and
economy of the South and West changed after the Civil
War. It will focus on life in the New South after the end
of Reconstruction, how new settlers in the West affected
American Indians, and how the West was transformed.
•
Section 1: The New South
•
Section 2: Westward Expansion
and the American Indians
•
Section 3: Transforming the West
The South After Reconstruction
Objectives
•
Explain how the southern economy changed
in the late 1800s.
•
Analyze how southern farmers consolidated
their political power.
•
Describe the experience of African Americans
in the changing South.
Terms and People
cash crop – crop such as cotton and tobacco that is
grown not for its own use but to be sold for cash
• Farmers’ Alliance – network of farmers’ organizations
that worked for political and economic reforms in the late
1800s
• Civil Rights Act of 1875 – law that banned discrimination
in public facilities and transportation
•
How did the southern economy and society
change after the Civil War?
In the postwar years, railroads crisscrossed the
South and industries grew.
Yet challenges remained—for the South’s economy
and for its people.
In the years following the Civil War, southern
leaders hoped to build a “New South.”
They worked to modernize the economy by:
•
supporting industries
•
diversifying agriculture
Textile factories and lumber mills sprang up.
So did iron, coal, and steel processing plants.
Workers outside ironworks in Alabama
Railroad construction boomed.
New rail lines
connected urban
hubs with rural
areas, cities
with towns.
Railroads moved
people and products.
• Cities grew.
•
Yet economic
expansion in the
South lagged
behind the rest of
the country.
•
War damage was
extensive.
•
The South lacked a
well-trained labor force,
and wages were low.
•
A lack of capital led
to a dependence on
northern bankers.
Life was especially difficult for
southern farmers.
Despite efforts
to diversify,
most farmers
still depended on
cash crops.
The price of
cotton, their
main crop,
plummeted
after the war.
Along with falling
prices, cotton farmers
faced another
disaster.
Boll weevils wiped out
entire crops.
For many farmers, it
was a struggle just to
survive.
Faced with serious problems, farmers joined
together to form the Farmers’ Alliance.
•
Worked to negotiate better prices on
supplies, freight charges, and loan rates
•
Connected farmers in the South and West
Black southerners made important political and
economic advances in the postwar years.
Most importantly, they
gained:
•
the right to vote
•
access to education
In time, however, many of
the gains were reversed.
•
Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan
terrorized African Americans.
•
Newfound freedoms were
stripped away.
•
Segregation was enforced.
The Civil
Rights Act of
1875 banned
discrimination
in public
facilities and
transportation.
The Supreme
Court, however,
ruled in a series
of cases decided
in 1883 that such
decisions were
local issues.
Southern towns and cities used the ruling to
further limit the rights of African Americans.
Native American Struggles
Objectives
•
Compare the ways Native Americans and
white settlers viewed and used the land.
•
Describe the conflicts between white settlers
and Indians.
•
Evaluate the impact of the Indian Wars.
Terms and People
•
reservation – specific area set aside by the federal
government for the Indians’ use
•
Sand Creek Massacre – 1864 incident in which a
Colorado militia killed a camp of unarmed Cheyenne and
Arapaho Indians
•
Sitting Bull – Sioux chief respected as a fighter and
spiritual leader
•
Battle of the Little Big Horn – 1876 battle in which the
Sioux defeated American troops led by Colonel George
Custer
Terms and People (continued)
•
Chief Joseph – leader of the Nez Percés who
surrendered after trying to lead a group of Indian
refugees to Canada
•
Wounded Knee – 1890 confrontation between U.S.
cavalry and the Sioux that marked the end of Indian
resistance in the Ghost Dance War
•
assimilate – to adopt the culture and civilization of the
dominant group in a society
•
Dawes General Allotment Act – 1887 law that divided
reservation land into private family plots
How did the pressures of westward
expansion impact Native Americans?
As American settlers continued to push westward,
they increasingly came into conflict with Native
Americans.
Such conflict often led to violence, with tragic results.
1) Colonial Period (1492-1789)
• European nations negotiated treaties with
Indian tribes.
• Treaties are agreements between two
sovereign governments and are considered
to be the supreme law of the land.
• Treaties accorded tribes an equivalent
status to that of the colonial governments.
Indian Tribal Locations
7 D’s of Colonial America
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
“Discovery”
“Disease”
“Discrimination”
“Devotionals”
“Dependency”
“Defense”
“Dispossession”
Discovery vs. Encounter
Disease & Depopulation
Indian Settlement before European Colonization
Population: b/w 50-60 million
(Present US geopolitical boundary: 1500 A.D.: 15 M; 1900 A.D. 250,000)
The Indian East
Discrimination & Enslavement
Devotionals
• White Man’s God versus Nature
– Reformation, Reconquista, Great Awakening
– Christian vs. Heathen
– Civilized vs. Savage (hostile/noble)
• Conversions
Indian Religion & Prophets
El Pope; Neolin; Handsome Lake;
Tenskwatawa; Sitting Bull; Black Elk; Wovoka
Lame Deer; Rolling Thunder; Sun Bear
Dependency
-Alliances
-Manufactured Goods
-Resource Exploitation & Depletion
Defending the Homeland
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Opechancanough (1622; 1644)
Pequot War (1630s)
Metacom/King Phillip’s War; (1675-76)
Pueblo Revolt (1680)
French & Indian War (1754-1763)
Pontiac’s Rebellion (1763)
Lord Dunmore's War (1774-75)
Dispossession
Doctrine of Discovery
• Provided that by law and divine intention European
Christian countries gained power and legal rights over
indigenous non-Christian peoples immediately upon
their “discovery” by Europeans.
• European monarchs developed this principle to
benefit their own countries.
• Theological grants were the legal foundation for
claims of sovereignty by all colonial powers in
America. “Christian princes” could take lands
“unknown to all Christian peoples.”
Land Ownership & Property Rights
• Different notions of land ownership and use
• Fee-Simple Title (absolute dominion over land and people)
• Preemptive Rights
– Claimed by European “Discoverers”
• Build Forts/Settlements
• Requerimiento
• Mapping/Naming/Publishing/Proclaiming
– Sole and exclusive right of purchasing by treaty or by right of
conquest through “just” wars
• Right of Occupancy
– Indians retained right of the soil “occupancy”
Treaty-making Era (1789-1871)
• U.S. follows Europe’s pattern by negotiating treaties with
Indian tribes.
• Treaties are agreements between two sovereign
governments; considered the supreme law of the land.
• Treaties accorded tribes an equivalent status to colonial
governments.
• Treaties formalize a nation-to-nation relationship between
the federal government and the tribes.
• U.S.-tribal treaties are indexed in international law with
treaties made by all other nations. [370 Ratified Treaties]
The U.S. Constitution
* Recognizes Indian tribes as distinct, sovereign governments.
Article. I.
• Section 2: Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the
several States . . . excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.
• Section 8: The Congress shall have Power … To regulate Commerce with
foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
Article II.
• Section 2: grants power to the President to make treaties with the "advice
and consent" of two-thirds of the Senate. This is different from normal
legislation which requires approval by simple majorities in both the Senate and
the House of Representatives.
Complexity of Indian-White Relations
Indian Nations
Federal Government
State Government
Indian-White Diplomacy
Indian Nations
Legislation
Treaties
Court Decisions
Bison
Bison grazing on the Great Plains
• Vast herds in the
millions
• Native Americans
hunted sustainably
• Settlers and
professional hunters
drove the bison
almost to extinction
• U.S. government
actively supported
hunting
Indian Reservations
• U.S. government
supported
continuing removal
onto reservations
• Attempts to
“civilize” Native
Americans
• Treaties
• Forced relocation
Indians on a reservation in the early 20th
century
The Indian Wars
• U.S. government
entered into armed
conflict with tribes
• Sand Creek
Massacre (1864)
• Battle of the Little
Bighorn (1876)
• Wounded Knee
Massacre (1890)
• Apache conflicts
The Sand Creek Massacre
• Treaty of Fort Laramie
(1851)
• Gold discovered in
Colorado
• Treaty of Fort Wise
(1861)
• Chivington’s attack on
Sand Creek (1864)
• Aftermath included
increased attacks on
settlers
Artist’s conception of Chivington’s attack
The Battle of the Little Bighorn
• 1876
• Custer’s 7th Cavalry
attacked a Cheyenne
and Lakota encampment
• 7th Cavalry defeated;
Custer killed
• Custer celebrated as a
hero
• Controversy continues
over what happened
An illustration depicting Custer’s Last
Stand
The Wounded Knee Massacre
Dead Lakota after the Wounded Knee Massacre
• 1890
• Ghost Dance
• Sitting Bull’s
arrest
• The
massacre
• End of the
Indian Wars
After the Civil War, about 250,000 Indians
lived in the lands west of the Mississippi.
Native
Americans
came from
many diverse
cultures.
•
Had different belief systems
•
Spoke different languages
•
Lived in different types of
houses
•
Ate different types of foods
The diverse Indian peoples, however, shared a
common view toward nature—a view that conflicted
with that of many white Americans.
Native
Americans saw
themselves
as part of
nature and
viewed nature
as sacred.
Many white
Americans
viewed the
land as a
resource to
produce
wealth.
During the 1800s, the government carried out
a policy of moving Indians out of the way of
white settlers.
At first, Indians in the East
were moved west, into the
Plains.
As frontier settlers continued
pushing west, however, this
plan changed.
Indians were forced
into reservations.
No longer free to
roam the Plains, they
faced suppression
and poverty.
Two other crises also threatened
Native American civilizations.
Disease
Loss of the buffalo
Settlers introduced
diseases to which Indians
had no immunity.
Settlers slaughtered
buffalo herds.
Some Native Americans fought to defend
their lands.
But attacks and
retaliation led to
distrust—and to
tragedy.
At the Sand Creek
Massacre, a Colorado
militia killed an
unarmed camp of
Indians who were under
U.S. Army protection.
Promises were made and peace treaties were
signed, but they often were broken.
Frustration turned to violence as the government
moved to crush Indian resistance.
•
The Red River War
led to the defeat of
the Southern Plains
Indians.
•
The Sioux were
victorious at the
Battle of the Little
Big Horn.
•
Chief Joseph and
the Nez Percés
surrendered after
attempting to retreat
to Canada.
As their way of life slipped away, some Indians turned to
a religious revival based on the Ghost Dance.
The ritual preached that white settlers would be banished
and the buffalo would return.
Fearful of insurrection, government officials
tried to ban the practice.
In an effort to end the Ghost Dance, the government
attempted to arrest Sitting Bull.
However, he was killed in a
confrontation with U.S. troops.
More than 100 Indians who fled
were killed at Wounded Knee.
The Indian Wars were over.
Boarding Schools
Kill the Indian; Save the Man…
Native Americans were forced to assimilate.
Though they had been pushed onto reservations where their native
cultures were banned, some reformers believed Native Americans
needed to be sent to boarding schools to be “like all other Americans.”
Before and after entering Carlisle Indian School
In 1887, Congress passed the Dawes General
Allotment Act to encourage assimilation.
•
Replaced the reservation system with
an allotment system
•
Granted each Indian family their own
plot of land
•
Specified the land could not be sold
for 25 years
Dawes Act of 1887
138 million acres (1887)
to
52 m. acres (1934)
Head of household: 160 acres;
single or 18/orphan; 80 acres; others: 40 acres
Land held in “trust” for 25 years;
“surplus lands” sold off to homesteaders
White Attitudes Toward
Native Americans
• Various views and attitudes
• Portrayals of Native Americans in literature, drawings,
cartoons, etc.
• Edward Curtis photographs
The Indian as an uncivilized threat
(political cartoon)
The Indian as “noble savage”
(Edward Curtis photo)
Native Americans’ struggle to retain their
homeland, freedom, and culture proved tragic.
Tens of thousands
of Native
Americans died in
battle or on
squalid
reservations.
Only a small
number were left
to carry on their
legacy.
“Buffalo Soldiers”
Members of an African American regiment
• African
American army
regiments in the
West
• Fought in the
Indian Wars
• Very successful
in battle; some
earned medals
of honor
Cowboys
• Vaqueros
• Mexican and
Native American
cowboys
• Civil War soldiers
• Former slaves
• Difficult and
lonely work
A vaquero about to rope a steer
Cattle Drives
• Led cattle to trains
headed east
• Meatpacking
industry expanded
in Chicago
• Chisholm Trail
• Chuck wagon and
wranglers
• Era ended by 1890s
Cowboys herding cattle on the prairie
Romantic Notions of the West
A poster advertising Buffalo Bill’s Wild West
Show
• Arts and
media stoked
public
fascination
• “Anything
goes” spirit
• Cowboys and
Indians
• Buffalo Bill
Paintings of the West
• Hudson River
School
• Albert Bierstadt
• Thomas Moran
• Moran’s paintings
played a role in
the creation of
Yellowstone
National Park in
1872
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,
as painted by Thomas Moran
Turner’s “Frontier Thesis”
• Frederick Jackson Turner,
1893—“The Significance of
the Frontier in American
History”
• Western frontier shaped the
American identity
• As a result we are more
democratic, optimistic, and
individualistic
• Frontier as a safety valve
notion
• The frontier was now closed
Frederick Jackson Turner
• When the Native Americans were placed on reservations, one
of the last barriers to western expansion was lifted.
• The railroad could get people where they wanted to go, and
the resources of the West seemed boundless.
• How did the typical Westerner make a living?
• Although migrant settlers had skills too numerous to mention,
the most dominant Western industries were mining, ranching,
and farming.
Westward Expansion After 1865
Objectives
•
Analyze the impact of mining and railroads
on the settlement of the West.
•
Explain how ranching affected western
development.
•
Discuss the ways various peoples lived in the
West and their impact on the environment.
Terms and People
•
vigilante – self-appointed law enforcer
•
transcontinental railroad – rail link between
the eastern and western United States
•
land grant – land designated by the federal
government for building schools, roads, or railroads
•
open-range system – system in which
ranchers did not fence in their property, allowing cattle to
roam and graze freely
Terms and People (continued)
•
Homestead Act – 1862 law in which the government
offered farm plots of 160 acres to anyone willing to live
on the land for five years, dig a well, and build a road
•
Exodusters –African Americans who migrated from the
South to the West after the Civil War
What economic and social factors changed
the West after the Civil War?
In the late 1800s, miners, rail workers, ranchers, and
farmers moved to the frontier in hopes of building better
lives.
The industrial and agricultural booms they created helped
transform the West.
New Territories
• New territories
organized in the 1860s
• No territorial
constitutions
• Territorial governments
under direct federal
control
• Eventually became
states
African Americans Migrating From the South
• Difficulties for Southern
African Americans after
the Civil War
• Migration westward,
particularly to Kansas
• “Exodusters”
• Mostly remained poor,
yet better off than if
they had stayed in the
South
“Exodusters” en route to Kansas
The Pony Express
• Mail could take over six
months to arrive from
the East
• Pony Express started in
1860
• Mail transmitted by
riders on horseback
• Ended in 1861
An advertisement for Pony Express riders
The Telegraph
• Transmitted written
messages over
electrical wires
• Connected many
places in the East by
1850
• Pacific Telegraph Act
of 1860
• First transcontinental
telegraph in 1861
Men installing telegraph poles on the prairie
The Transcontinental Railroad
The driving of the golden spike,
Promontory Point, Utah, 1869
• Coast-to-coast
railroad line
• Would facilitate
trade and
western
settlement
• Chinese and Irish
immigrant labor
• Completed in
1869
The Transcontinental Railroad: Outcomes
• Increased
westward
migration
• Bison nearly
exterminated
• Loss of bison
helped keep
Native
Americans on
reservations
Hunters shooting at a herd of bison from a
train and along the tracks
The discovery of gold and silver created
the first great boom in the West—mining.
•
•
With each new find,
prospectors rushed to
the site, hoping to
strike it rich.
Others followed, bringing
food and supplies.
Mining camps
quickly
sprang up.
Many camps
grew into
thriving
communities.
Because they
had no judges
or jails, miners
often set their
own rules for
administering
justice.
•
In the early days,
vigilantes took the
law into their own
hands.
•
As towns grew, they
hired marshals and
sheriffs.
Some towns, however, disappeared as quickly as
they appeared. Boomtowns turned to ghost towns
when the gold and silver ran out.
Large companies soon took over the mining
business from individual prospectors.
•
They could afford the heavy
equipment needed to bring
mineral ores out from deep
underground.
•
They were supported by the
government, which provided
them with inexpensive land.
As industries
grew in the West,
so did the need
for railroads to
transport goods
and people.
The railroads soon
began work to fulfill a
longtime goal—to
build a
transcontinental
railroad linking the
East and the West.
The government supported this goal through
loans and land grants.
In 1863, the Central Pacific headed eastward from
Sacramento. The Union Pacific headed westward
from Omaha.
They finally
met at
Promontory,
Utah, in
1869.
Work on the railroad had been difficult and dangerous.
But it brought tremendous changes to the country.
•
Tied the nation together
•
Moved products and people
•
Spurred industrial development
•
Stimulated the growth of towns and cities
•
Encouraged settlers to continue to move west
The railroad boom encouraged another
western boom—the cattle boom.
For years, Mexican
ranchers had used
an open-range
system for raising
livestock.
•
Property was not
fenced in.
•
Cattle were branded,
then grazed freely.
•
Cowboys rounded up
the cattle each spring.
Cowboys drove the cattle north to the rail lines, so
they could be transported to market.
The long, hard
cattle drives
could last for
months.
They ended at
railroad towns,
called cow
towns.
By the mid-1880s, however, the cattle boom
was coming to an end.
The invention of barbed wire made fencing cheap.
Reasons the
open- range
system
ended
The supply of beef exceeded demand, and prices
dropped.
Extreme weather led to the death
of herds.
Like miners and ranchers, farmers also moved
west, looking for a better life.
Railroad companies
encouraged pioneer
settlement. So did
the government.
Under the 1862
Homestead Act,
the government
gave land to farmers
willing to tend it.
Easterners, Exodusters, and immigrants soon
poured onto the Great Plains.
The Homestead Act
Homesteaders in front of their log cabin–
style house
• 1862
• Families could
settle 160
acres
• Fierce
competition
for land
• Displaced
more Native
Americans
• By far, the most numerous of western pioneers were
the farmers.
• Seeking a dream of stable existence working a
homestead of their own, thousands of migrant families
had their dreams dashed by the harsh realities of
western life.
• Nature, isolation, politics, and economics all seemed to
work against the hopeful farmer.
Life on the Plains was difficult and lonely.
• With little wood
available,
homesteaders
made houses from sod.
• Storms, droughts, and
locusts ruined crops.
• Weather issues
• Mental health issues
• Threat of Indians
Life on the Frontier
• All family members
had to work
• Settlers built their
own homes and
made various
household items
from scratch
• Houses built of sod
due to scarcity of
trees
A sod house in North Dakota
Farming on the Frontier
“Plowing on the Prairie Beyond the
Mississippi”
• Terrain made farming
difficult
• Steel plow (1837) made
agriculture much more
efficient
• Corn, wheat, livestock,
and hunting
• Great risk of disease
and injury
Immigrants on the Frontier
• Immigrants settled
the frontier
• Mostly Europeans,
including Germans
and Scandinavians
• Representatives
traveled to Europe
to entice people to
emigrate
The Haymakers, by Herbjørn Gausta, a
Norwegian immigrant
Women on the Frontier
Frontier women standing before a sod
house
• Women settled
with their
husbands and
children
• Played a central
role in their new
homes
• Kept traditional
roles and added
new ones
New inventions and farming methods,
however, made life easier.
•
Barbed wire
•
Stronger plow
•
Grain drill
•
Windmill
•
Dry-farming techniques
For many Americans, the West was a place to
build new lives. But it also was a place of conflict.
Economic rivalries
Social conflicts
•
Cattle destroyed crops
•
Sheep ruined grasses
•
Mining runoff polluted water
•
Control of resources disputed
•
Prejudice
•
Discrimination
•
Ethnic tensions
The last land rush took place in 1889, when the
government opened the Oklahoma Territory to
homesteaders.
“Boomers”
lined up to
stake claims.
“Sooners” sneaked
in early to take
the best land.
In 1890, the government declared that there
was no land left for homesteading. The
frontier closed.
Chapter Summary
Section 1: The New South
• After Reconstruction ended, the South remained mostly
agricultural and poor despite some industrial successes. The
region fell behind because it lacked capital investment and
an educated labor force. Black southerners made gains and
experienced white backlash.
Section 2: Westward Expansion and
the American Indians
• White settlers moved in great numbers to land west of the
Mississippi after the Civil War, putting pressure on Native
Americans living there. Rebellion by American Indians led to
tragedy, as many lost their lives trying to preserve their
land.
Chapter Summary (continued)
Section 3: Transforming the West
• The West changed greatly after the Civil War. Miners came
first, followed by settlers and cattle ranchers. The
transcontinental railroad linked East and West, and white
settlement closed the frontier by 1900.