AP United States History
Mr. M. Pecot
Bailey, Chapter 27: The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution, 1865-1890
I. Indians in the West
a) White population in the West
1. In the 1865, almost no whites lived between the frontier line & California
2. Exceptions are the Mormons in Utah, a few mining camps, occasional trading posts, and a few Spanish-Mexican settlements in the SW
3. Huge land area -- a giant square measuring 1000 sq. miles on each side
4. By 1890 -- the area will be converted into states and four territories: Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma as pioneers flood in.
b) Indians Population in the West
1. Native American pop = 360,000 in 1860, most in the vacant territory west of the Mississippi
2. 1860-1890, white settlers pressing from both directions
3. "an inevitable clash…between an acquisitive civilization and a traditional culture" looms.
c) Plains Indians
1. Numerous tribes of buffalo-hunting Indians on the Great Plains
2. Introduction of the horse by the Spaniards in the 16th century had transformed these cultures: more nomadic and more inter-tribal warfare
3. Skilled riders and fighters
II. Relations with the Indians
a) Environmental factors undermine Indian culture
1. White settlers spread cholera, typhoid, smallpox
2. Reduction of the buffalo herds through hunting and grazing of livestock on the plains
3. Reduction of herds leads tribes to compete for an ever-diminishing supply, leads to increased warfare
§ e.g., Sioux Indians -- pushed from Minnesota to the Dakotas by displaced Chippewas; expand and conflict with Crow, Kiowas, and Pawnees.
§ Pawnee seek refuge from the Sioux by moving to a reservation in 1873
b) Relations with the US Gov't
1. 1850s: Treaties of Ft. Laramie (1851) and Ft. Atkinson (1853)
§ these mark the beginning of the reservation system in the West
§ separate each tribe into boundaries, create large "colonies" of Indian tribes in the Northern and Southern Plains
§ concepts of confinement into an established area entirely foreign to Indian nations.
2. 1860s: intensification of the this process
§ Indians herded into ever smaller reservations: the Great Sioux Reservation in the Dakotas and the Indian Territory (Oklahoma)
3. In exchange for removal to reservations, US Gov't promises food, supplies, and that Indians will be left alone
§ corrupt Indian Agents often abuse their authority and supply tribes with defective provisions
§ settlers continue to flood into Indian lands - leads to conflict
III. The Indian Wars
a) Non-stop warfare between mid-1860s to 1890
1. fighting is fierce, occurs in various places throughout the west
2. atrocities committed by both sides
§ Indians mutilate victims, attack migrants passing through
§ Whites often kill innocent Indians in revenge, for sport, or to make sure they don't cause trouble
b) The Indian Fighters
1. mostly Civil War veterans
§ immigrants
§ blacks = 1/5th of the soldiers on the frontier
§ Generals include William T. Sherman, Phillip H. Sheridan, and George Armstrong Custer (demoted to colonel after the Civil War)
2. face a tougher "enemy" than the colonists did
§ Plains Indians are highly mobile, better riders, and are often better-equipped than US soldiers (use repeating rifles, not muzzle loaders)
c) Significant events in the Indian Wars
1. 1864 - Sand Creek Massacre
§ Colonel J.M. Chivington
§ killed 400 Indians while under a flag of truce at Sand Creek, Colorado
§ men, women, children killed and mutilated
2. 1866 - Fetterman Massacre
§ Sioux Indians attempt to block construction of the Bozeman Trail to Montana's goldfields
§ ambush Capt. William J. Fetterman's command; kill 81 soldiers and civilians
§ leave no survivors, grossly mutilate the corpses
3. 1868 - 2nd Treaty of Ft. Laramie
§ Gov't abandons construction of the Bozeman Trail, promise to not impede on the Great Sioux Reservation
4. 1874 - Gold discovered in the Black Hills
§ expedition led by Col. George A. Custer
§ leads to swarms of settlers and prospectors streaming in the Black Hills (Sioux territory)
§ Sioux determined to fight; Sitting Bull among their leaders
5. 1876 - Battle of Little Bighorn
§ Custer and 7th Calvary given task of suppressing the Sioux and returning them to their reservation
§ all 264 of his officers and men (including Custer) were wiped out when they attacked 2500 Sioux at the Little Big Horn River
d) Subduing the Tribes in the Far West & the Southwest
1. Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce
§ Gold discovered on the Nez Perce reservation in 1877
§ prompts US Gov't to reduce the Nez Perces territory by 90%
§ 700 Nez Perce led by Chief Joseph attempt to evade US authorities -- flee to the Canadian border where they hoped to join with Sitting Bull
§ surrender after a 3-month, 1700-mile trek, only 30 miles from the Canadian border
§ told they would be returned to Idaho, but are instead sent to Oklahoma - 40 % die of disease
2. The Apache in the Southwest
§ the most difficult tribes to subdue
§ under Geronimo, they leave the reservation and are pursued by federal agents for 5 years
§ finally suppressed in 1886
IV. The Destruction of Indian Civilization
a) Factors contributing to the demise of the Indian way of life
1. Railroads
§ cut through Indian territory
§ bring unlimited #'s of settlers, supplies, troops, farmers, cattlemen, shepherds, miners
2. Disease
3. Extermination of the buffalo
§ 15 million in western plains in 1865
§ demand for buffalo hides and meat (especially tongues) leads to mass hunting of herds (railroads allow for these to be shipped back east)
§ some killed simply for sport; shot from passenger trains
§ By 1885, only a few thousand were left
4. White efforts to "civilize the Indians" -- Forced Assimilation
§ Helen Hunt Jackson's A Century of Dishonor (1881) helps create sympathy for Indians
§ misguided do-gooders try to help the Indians by getting them to "walk the white man's road"
§ Christian (especially Catholic) reformers run education operations on the reservations with little regard to Native American culture or religion
§ e.g. = The Carlisle Indian School in PA.: children sent away to learn English, white customs, etc.: Motto: "Kill the Indian and save the man"
5. Dawes Severalty Act (1887)
§ an attempt to civilize the Indians "for their own good"
§ dissolves many tribes as legal entities & wipes out tribal ownership of land
§ sets up individual land ownership by granting 160 acres to family heads
§ promises full citizenship and full possessing of the land grant, if the Indians behave like "good white settlers" for 25 years.
§ land not sold used to fund efforts to educate and civilize the tribes -- boarding schools and field matrons
§ A failure…by 1900 Indians had lost 50% of the 156 million acres allotted.
V. The Mining Frontier
a) New discoveries in the west encourage migration
1. 1858 discoveries of gold and silver in Colorado: "Pikes Peak or Bust"
2. Nevada - Comstock Lode - $340 million dollars of gold and silver; mined extensively from 1860-1890
3. smaller "lucky strikes" happen in Montana, Idaho, and other western states
b) Boom and bust
1. "Helldorados" -- boom towns emerge to mine the miners
§ 1 of 3 cabins is a saloon, full of rot-gut liquor and accommodating women
§ Lynch law and vigilante justice prevail
§ when supply of gold is cashed; boom towns become ghost towns
c) Mechanization of the Industry
1. Panning methods and pick-axes gobble up surface gold -- machines are needed to smash gold-bearing quartz
2. Requires large amounts of capital, turns mining into big business
d) Role of Mining in subduing the frontier
1. Attracted population and wealth
2. the amassing of gold and other precious metals funded the Civil War, facilitated the building of railroads, and intensified the conflict between whites and Indians
3. new discoveries of gold and silver into the treasury allowed to gov't to resume specie payments (the Specie Resumption Act of 1879) and created the "silver issue"
4. "Silver Senators" from the west yield disproportionate influence
VI. The Cattle Frontier
a) Long-Horns in Texas
1. In 1865, several million long-horned cattle roamed free on the southern plains of Texas
§ wild ancestors of cattle imported to Mexico by the Spaniards in the 16th century
2. Prior to the Railroad, killed primarily for their hides…there was no way to transport meat to markets in the east
3. Railroad construction solves problem of transporting the cattle for meat
§ cattle could be "driven" to rail-lines, and then shipped to stockyards
§ "beef barons" such as Armour and Swift (both in Chicago) turn meat-packing into a highly industrialized business
§ processed meat then shipped via refrigerator cars to East Coast
b) The Long Drive
1. "Cowboys" drive cattle herds from 1000 to 10,000 head large over the unfenced, unpeopled plains
§ follow established routes, such as the Goodnight-Loving Trail, Western Trail, and the Chisholm Trail, allowing cattle to graze on the grass as they go
§ From 1866-1888 4 million steers driven northward
§ Approximately 1 of 4 cowboys is black; another 10% are Mexican
2. Favored terminuses
§ Dodge City, Abilene (KS), Ogallala (NE), and Cheyenne (WY)
c) Demise of the Cattle Drive
1. Railroad makes and breaks the cattle industry
§ carries cattle to meat-packing plants, but also carries farmers and sheepherders to the west
2. Barbed Wire
§ Joseph Glidden invents an alternative and effective form of fencing for the treeless plains
§ Homesteaders and sheepherders fence in their land.
3. Environmental calamities
§ Winter of 1886-1887: blizzards and extreme temperatures (-68 F) wipe out the herds
§ overgrazing of the land and drought in the 1880s take toll
4. Cattle Ranching replaces Cattle herding
§ breeding allows for meatier cattle, therefore less to transport
VII. The Farming Frontier
d) The Homestead Act (1862) encourages settlement of the Plains
1. Law authorizes giving settlers 160 acres of land for either:
§ FREE -- if settler consistently improves on the land for 5 years, and pays a nominal fee of approx. $30
§ or $1.25/acre -- after the settler has been on the land 6 months
§ all land acquired is free from attachment for debt
2. A drastic shift in federal land policy
§ Prior to the HA, land had primarily been sold to raise revenue
§ Under the HA, land is virtually being given away to encourage population growth in the west
3. 500,000 families take advantage of this act between 1862-1900
§ A large #, but 5X as many purchase their land from RR companies, land companies, and from the states
e) Difficulties with the Homestead Act
1. Perhaps 2/3 of the homesteaders fail to remain on land
§ 160 acres in the arid plains was inadequate
§ drought, insects, take toll on farmers
2. Fraud
§ Much of the land falls into the hands of land-speculators, not farmers
§ "Dummy Homesteaders" used to claim valuable properties
f) Promoting Western agriculture
1. Railroads encourage commercial agriculture in the west
§ RR's enable farming to be profitable, carry crops to eastern (and western) markets
§ "induced colonization" -- actively recruit immigrants
§ Northern Pacific RR, has 1000 paid agents in Europe distributing leaflets
2. "Sodbusters" bust the myth of the "Great American Desert"
§ treeless plains previously thought to be sterile because they did not support large forests
§ "the plow that broke the plains" -- iron and steel plows break through heavy sod, find remarkably fertile soil
3. Rising wheat prices encourage settlement
§ Crop failures in Europe push prices up
g) Taming the western desert
1. "Dry farming" techniques push settlement farther west
§ west of 100th meridian, average rainfall drops from 20-30 in. per year to 10-20 in. per year
§ early settlements west of the 100th (W. Kansas; E. Colorado) meridian fail as drought conditions prevail in the 1880s -- 50% of western Kansas' population leaves b/w 1888-1892
§ dry farming techniques (shallow cultivation) allow agriculture to flourish, but will have disastrous effects on the environment & lead the Dust Bowl in the 1930s
2. New crops, resistant to cold and drought cultivated
§ Russian wheat, sorghum, and other grains replace corn
3. Barbed wire solves problem of fencing in plains
§ Joseph Glidden, 1874
VIII. The Vanishing Frontier
a) Population Growth in the West
1. Constant growth 1870-1890
2. New States enter the Union
§ Colorado (1876) - The Centennial State
§ N. Dakota, S. Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming all admitted 1889-90
§ Utah (1896) - Mormons abolish polygamy in 1890, open door for statehood
3. The Oklahoma Land Rush - 1889
§ last great land giveaway by the Federal gov't
§ "sooners" - settlers illegally squatting on land in the Ok. Territory
§ April, 1889 - territory officially opened to settlement, 50,000 boomers rush to stake claims
§ population of Oklahoma mushrooms to 60,000 by 1890 -- becomes a state in 1907
b) The Closing of the Frontier
1. 1890 - US census declares that US no longer has a discernable frontier
§ leads to Frederick Jackson Turner's "Frontier Thesis" in The Significance of the Frontier in American History (1893)
c) The "idea" of the frontier significant
1. A national symbol of opportunity
2. Marks an end of American mobility
3. The frontier as a "safety valve"
§ ability for population to move westward in times of depression (the actual statistics behind this suggest that this is overstated, but the psychological impact & the lure that cheap land on the frontier had on immigrants are important aspects of this)
§ Ironically, the western cities that emerge (e.g., Chicago - America's "second city") are more safety valves for busted farmers and miners than the frontier is a safety valve for unemployed workers.
4. Turner - "American history has been in a large degree the history of the colonization of the Great West."
d) The Mechanization of Agriculture
1. High crop prices for wheat and corn encourage large scale, single crop production in the west
§ foodstuffs and supplies purchased
§ manufactured items purchased in towns or via mail order catalogs such as Montgomery Ward (1872)
2. Large-scale farming becomes a "business"
§ need capital to purchase expensive machinery
§ the "combine" - a combined reaper-thresher, pulled by 40 horses, speeds harvesting immensely in the 1880s
§ new techniques and high costs require strong management skills
3. Emergence of "bonanza" farms
§ mechanization pushes smaller farmers off the land -- move to the cities to work in industries
§ large business operations (some wheat farms in the Dakotas were over 15,000 acres) worked by hired hands. In California, the large fruit and vegetable plantations are raised by bands of poorly paid Chinese and Mexican labor
§ "grain factories"
IX. Agrarian Unrest
a) Difficulties facing western farmers
1. One-crop economy makes farmers dependent on high prices
§ competition from foreign competitors (Argentina, Russia, etc.) effects price
§ in 1860s-70s, failures in Europe keep price high; 1880s-90s rebound of foreign grain drives prices down
§ Wheat = $1/ bushel in 1855; 50¢ in 1890.
2. Deflation
§ 1870: $19.42 in circulation for every person in US; 1890: $22.67
§ business activity and industrialization intensify scramble for available currency
§ deflationary effect, drives prices downward -- means farmers have to produce more in order to pay back fixed debts
3. Mortgages and foreclosures
§ Farmers caught in debt cycle -- produce more to pay off loans, but increased production continues to drive prices downward
§ 1890: 100,000 farms mortgaged in Nebraska; with rates of 8-40%
§ Farm tenancy replaces farm ownership; by 1880: ¼ of all Am. farms are operated by tenants
4. Environmental disasters
§ Grasshoppers in the West, and the "boll-weevil" in the south decimate crops in the 1890s
§ Soil depletion in the South -- leads to erosion of good topsoil , requiring expensive fertilizers to keep agriculture going
§ A long succession of droughts in the West begin in 1887
5. Gov't Policies favor urban/industrial classes and hurt farmers
§ local property taxes (land can't be concealed -- easterners hide their stocks and bonds)
§ Protective tariff on manufactures, none on agriculture -- farmers must sell in a competitive market, but buy goods in a protected one.
6. Farmers at the mercy of corporations, trusts, and agents
§ machinery, fertilizer, barbed-wire -- all controlled by trusts
§ middlemen that supply the farmers take a cut of sales - keep prices high
§ storage rates for grain in warehouses and grain elevators pushed up by operators
§ RR's - freight rates going up
b) The Emergence of the Farmers Movement
1. Early organization -- the Greenback mov't
§ in 1868, a decline in prices leads farmers to join movement for inflation
2. The Grange (aka: National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry) - 1867
§ Oliver H. Kelley founds in 1867
§ objective is to stimulate farm life through social, educational, and fraternal activities
§ by 1875: 800,000 members -- meet in schoolhouses; hear lectures on latest farming techniques, have picnics and socials, etc.
§ Gradually shift from "individual" improvement to collective improvement of farmers' lives: attempt to form cooperatives for consumers and producers (buy and sell in bulk, negotiate collectively with RR's, warehouses, etc.)
3. The Grange in Politics
§ encourage states to enact legislation to regulate railway rates and storage fees
§ successful in upper midwest, especially Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota
§ "Granger Laws" - fought by corporate interests
§ Wabash v. Illinois (1886) - Supreme Court decision brings about demise of Grange's political effectiveness
4. The Farmers' Alliances (1880s)
§ like the Grange, organize farmers socially, economically, and politically
§ Alliances appear in the North and South, include blacks and whites
§ approx. 1 million members by 1890
5. The Populist Party
§ emerges in the 1890s to represent the interests of farmers
§ founded by Ignatius Donnelly, a fiery speaker from Minnesota, elected to US Congress three times
§ Mary Elizabeth Lease - "The Kansas pythoness" -- Populist stump speaker -- "raise less corn and more hell" -- denounces eastern interests