birth of modern america chapter 3
TRANSCRIPT
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*Most felt the Plains
could not be farmed.
*It was suited for
cattle.
*Vast OPEN RANGE of
grasses.
*Long Horns well
adapted to dry plains.
*Why the cattle drives?
*Had to get cattle from
Texas to rail roads
further north.
*Many RXR’s built in the
1860’s & 70’s.
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*1850’s and RXR’s given 28 million acres of
public land.
*This helped them finance the RXR’s.
*By the 1860’s and 1870’s this public Land Grant
Program had given away 120 million acres.
*This equals the size of all the New England
states, New York and Pennsylvania!
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*Homestead Act-160 acres.
*RXR’s provided new inroads to the Plains.
*New “Dry” farming methods.
*These farms will make America a huge exporter
of grains.
*New farming methods will lead to Dust Bowl.
*Native peoples were killed
and put on Federal
reservations.
* Armed conflicts with N.A.
occurred as Americans
pushed westward.
*N.A’s resented reservations
and would leave.
*Many Americans wanted to absorb and ASSIMALATE the N.A.
*Many N.A. children sent east to boarding schools to become “Americans.”
* They were forbidden to speak their native language or practice their customs.
*Assimilation
*Industrial Revolution takes off after Civil War.
*South not able to stop northern polices to industrialize.
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*Natural resources.
*Large semi skilled work force.
*Free enterprise/Laissez-Faire.
*English capital/money.
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*Rail Roads.
*Telegraphs.
*Telephones. Alexander Graham Bell.
*Light bulb. Edison.
*Phonograph. Edison.
*Electric generator. Edison.
*Battery. Edison.
*Motion Picture. Edison.
* Ice Machine.
*Standardization.
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*Wealthy RXR tycoons had a bad reputation as
being looters of the system and swindlers of
the government and taxpayers.
*Corporations grew to gigantic sizes.
*Many corporations had monoplies OR
oligopolies.
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* Conditions for workers:
*Twelve hour day.
*Seven hour workday.
*Unsafe work places.
*Child labor.
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*Anti American. “Pull yourself by your own
bootstraps.”
*Yellow Dog Contracts.
*Lock outs.
*Black lists.
*Government anti union.
*The use of violent strike breakers O.K.
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*Founder: Samual Gompers. “More!”
*Pushed for CLOSED SHOP. Now illegal.
*Goals for unions:
*Eight hour day.
*40 hour week.
*Safer working conditions.
*End child labor.
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*Push - Pull Theory.
*U.S. Open Door policy.
*Industrial Revolution needed unlimited low
paying jobs.
*Resurgence of Nativism.
*American cities explode in population.
*“Americanization.” Melting pot v. tossed salad.
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*Why did social critics call it the “Gilded Age?”
*“Rugged “Individualism.” No matter how
humble your start. you can become wealthy.
*Herbert Spencer and “Social Darwinism.
*Darwin HATED this idea!
*S.D. and Spencer gave capitalism and its bad
social conditions legitimacy. Social Darwinism
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*Plessy v. Freguson. 1896.
*“Separate but equal.”
*Legitimized Jim Crow laws for the next 50
years.
*Poll tax or literacy test to vote.
*80% of all racial lynchings occurred in South.
*Feds REFUSED to pass laws against it.
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*Ida B. Wells. Organized crusade against
lynchings.
*Booker T. Washington. Promoted education and
vocational traning.
*W.E.B. Du Bois. Fought for full civil rights.