Looking to the West, 1860-1900

Great Plains, Pacific Northwest, and the Southwest develop

Start a new life

Own a farm

Move west

Pacific Railways Acts of 1862 and 1864

Passed during the Civil War when the Northern Republics dominated the Congress (no Southern opposition)

Union Pacific and Central Pacific RailroadsReceived huge land grants from the federal

government10 square miles of public land on each side of

trackRailroads profited from selling land near

tracks Farmers needed railroads to transport goods to city

Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862

Created to provide

support for state colleges

Millions of acres to state

governments to be sold to

support state colleges

Sold to land speculators(people who bought large

sections of land to make a profit

Homestead Act 1862 – 160 acres of public land to anyone who met these requirements

21 or head of a family

Citizen or applied for citizenship

$10 registration fee

Build house and live there

6 months a year

Had to farm for 5 yrs to get

ownership

By 1900 – 600,000 claims of 80 million acresPROBLEMS

Expensive to make homestead liveable (cost nearly $1000)

Prairie sod was hard to plow, water was scarce, and

climate was harsh

Many gave up before 5 years Hard to survive

No farming experience

Fraud – speculators

purchased the property illegally

Life in the West

Water

Used buckets from rivers

Used cisterns to collect rainwater

Dug wells

“prairie fever” (typhoid fever)

Many men left homesteads to seek work to supplement crops

Women stayed behind to make clothing, soap, candles, preserved food

African Americans in the West

Most settlers were white, but 1000s of African Americans moved West to escape violence

1879 – Benjamin Singleton – Exodus to the WestExodusters – 50,000 Af. Americans

Had little money and possessions, lacked farming experience,

couldn’t escape racial hatred

Frontier Women

Filed land claims on their own!

Endured long periods of solitude

Ran the homestead while husbands were

away

Women’s Suffrage in the West

• Syracuse – all female town council

• Argonia – first female mayor

1887Kansas

• 1st state with a constitution giving females the right to vote!!

1890 Wyoming

Native Americans – 1830s Jackson removed… to the Great Plains

Cherokee

Choctaw

CreekChickasaw

Seminoles

Indian Territory

Located in today’s Oklahoma

Page 181 – Look at Map

Railroads and Settlers

Settlers felt they had a right to the landSome settlers signed treaties with natives,

but both sides had different intentions of what the treaties meant

The Federal Government wanted to place natives on Reservations (federal land set aside for natives)

Navajo

• 1865• Agreed to

reservation in New Mexico

Apache

• Surrendered 1871-1873

• Continued raids until Geronimo surrendered in 1886

Cheyenne

• Surrendered in Colorado after a massacre at Sand Creek

Sioux – fought westward expansion!

1865 – 1st Sioux War•Federal Government to build a

road through Sioux land•Sioux ambush and slaughter 80

soldiers in December 1866

Agreed to move to reservation in Dakota Territory

1875 – 2nd Sioux War (Chief Sitting Bull)•Miners into Black Hills - search

of gold

1876•Lt. Col Custer •Sent to round up the Sioux

Battle of Little Big Horn•200 soldiers killed plus

Custer

Federal government sends more soldiers•1876 – Sioux captured•1881 – Sitting Bull captured

Battle of Wounded Knee 1890

After Sitting Bull’s Death

Soldiers attempt to

arrest followers

who left the reservation

Shots fired – 200 Sioux

killed

Nez Perce - Northwest

1850s-1860s

• Many Nez Perce sign treaties

• NOT ALL!

Largest group refused to give

in• Idaho,

Washington, Oregon

• Chief Joseph

Ordered to an Idaho

Reservation• Nez Perce

attack white horse thieves

• Fled to Montana where soldiers attacked

Chief Joseph of the Nez

Perce

September 30, 1877Nez Perce headed to Canada, but was

blocked by the militaryMany died while being held in the Indian

territory, including all of Joseph’s childrenEventually Nez Perce were moved to a

reservation in Washington state

Change in Culture of the West

Buffalo began to disappear by 1870s

Christian missionaries ran

schools on reservations

1884 – crime for natives to

practice their own religions

National rights movement for

natives developed

Dawes Act of 1887

Gave separate plots of land to native families headed by a male

But, natives had no interest in farming and no experience

1887-1934 land ownership among natives actually shrank

Indian Territory (Oklahoma)

Congress gave permission for

settlers to settle 2 million acres in Indian territory

April 22, 1889 Oklahoma land

rushBoomers – staked off 100s of claimsSooners – snuck across the line

early and staked a claim

May 2, 1890 – Oklahoma Territory eventually open to settlers completely

Farming on the Plains

Rainfall unpredictable

Extremes in weather

drought

Grasshoppers, locusts, boll

weevils

Farming

Dry farming – crops that do not require a great deal of water

1870s – improvements – plow, harrows to break ground, seed drills

1875 – steam powered threshers1890s – corn huskers and corn binders

1862 – Department of Agriculture – added under the Morrill Act

1880s and 1890s – formulated statistics on markets, studied crop and plant diseases

Distributed publications on crop rotation, hybridization, topsoil

Bonanza farms – farms controlled by large businesses and managed by professionals

Single cash cropsSurplus – prices fell

Debt

Farmers bought to much land and had to mortgage

1849 – California Gold Rush (Sutter’s Mill, California 1848)

1859 – rumors of gold strikes in the area of Pike’s Peak, Colorado

“Pikes Peak or Bust!”Nevada – Comstock Lode

Mining towns led to gambling and drunkeness

Mining Techniques

placer mining – shoveled loose dirt into boxes and ran through water

1850s and 1860s – deeply buried gold which was harder to get

Larger companies had to do the mining

Cattle Industry

Texas – early 1800sLonghorn cattle1860s and 1870s – booming periodPlains – areas to pastureDemand for beef in large citiesRailroad aided in cattle industryLong drive – cowboys would move cattle from

place to place (18 hours in the saddle)

Changes in the cattle industry by the 1880s

1874 – Joseph Glidden – invented barbed wireOverstocking of cattle1885 – beef prices began to fall

1885 – 1886 – hard winter (loss of 85% of cattle)

Problems

Competition from other

nations

Crop prices down

Debt

up

Tariffs

Tariffs – encourage the sale of goods produced at home by taxing imports

Hurt farmers Raised price of manufactured goods Foreigners had no $ to buy American crops

Helped farmers Protecting them from farm imports from other

countries

Money Issue

Value of money is linked to amount in circulation

If money supply goes up =value of money goes down

CAUSES INFLATION

Reduce the supply of money and the value of money goes up

CAUSES DEFLATION

After Civil War – period of deflation

Monetary policy – printing/producing money or not

Disagreement over which is best

Inflation

Deflatio

n

Farmers want more money in circulationManufacturers and other businesses want

less money in circulation

1873 – nation went on the Gold Standard

Silverites were mad! Silver miners and western farmers are furious.

Want free silver – unlimited coining of silver to increase the supply of money

1878 – Bland Allison Act – required government to purchase and coin more silver, increase $ supply, and cause inflation

Vetoed by President HayesCongress Overrode his veto

However, the treasure refused to buy more than the minimum under the law and refused to circulate silver dollars

1890 – Sherman Silver Purchase Act

Government was required to purchase an amount of silver each month

Repealed in 1893

1867 – The Grange (Patrons of Husbandry)Farms form cooperativesSave money by buying in large quantities

Greenback Party – wanted to circulate more paper money to cause inflation

Elected 14 members to Congress in 1878Power faded because of the focus on silver

Farmer’s Alliances

Attacked monopolies

Wanted railroad

regulation

Wanted more money in

circulation

Wanted state department

of agriculture

Wanted farm credit

Natural Disasters with no Federal Help

1882 – Mississippi flooded1886 – 1887 – drought1887 - blizzard

1876-1892 – no president won a majority of the popular vote

Not powerful presidents – usually protected American industry

1887 – Texas Seed Bill – seed grain to aid drought victims

Grover Cleveland vetoed it“though the people support the government,

the government shouldn’t support the people”

1887 – Interstate Commerce ActRegulated railroad pricesIllegal to give special ratesDeveloped the Interstate Commerce

Commission

1890 Sherman Anti-trust ActCurb power of trusts and monopoliesLax enforcement

Populists

1890s – success in the SouthPeople’s Party – Populists1. increased circulation of $2. unlimited minting of silver3. progressive income tax – percentage

increases4. government ownership of communication

and transportation5. 8 hour workday – opposed use of

Pinkertons (private police forces)

Populists

Focused on poor whites and blacks

1892 – James Weaver – won barely a million votes

Grover Cleveland won Angered laborers when he ended the Pullman strike Angered farmers by supporting gold Angered manufacturers by supporting tariff

1893 – depression – millions out of work

1896 – William McKinley vs. William Jennings Bryan

McKinley – for the gold standardBryan – for silver – LOST

Bryan – most known for his “Cross of Gold” speech

Silver movement diedReturned to gold standard (more gold found

worldwide)Farm prices rosePopulism died

Progressivism developed

Frontier - disappearing

1900 – West U.S. territories, state constitutions, statehood

Frontier fading

Tenant farming on the rise 1872 – Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming,

Montana, Idaho) 1st National Park 1890 – Superintendent of the census declared the end

of the frontier

Turner Frontier Thesis 1893

Frederick Jackson TurnerSpeech detailing the importance of the

frontier and the end of the frontier

Frontier – individualistic, restless, socially mobile America

Didn’t take into account women, minorities, government

Frontier Realities

Men and womenWhites, African Americans, Chinese, and

JapaneseChinese – railway workers9,000 African American cowhands“buffalo soldiers” – all black regiments1883 – Buffalo Bill Cody – Wild West Shows

1912 – Juliet Low – Girl Scouts – girls have been made too soft