change and conflict in the american west

Change and Conflict in the American WestWhat opportunities and conflicts emerged as Americans moved westward?

Introduction

Thousands of Americansmigrated west in the mid- to late1800s, stowing their goods incovered wagons for the extendedoverland journey. Although manyaspired to reach Oregon orCalifornia, others eventuallysettled on the Great Plains.

By the mid-1800s, it was evident that many Americans felt the need for a freshstart. These Americans migrated westward in search of opportunity, like the earlysettlers who previously crossed the Appalachians.

Entire families packed their belongings into covered wagons and ventured out onthe westward trail. Eventually, these caravans crossed the Mississippi River. Fromthe perspective of migrating Americans, this mighty river was the frontier, orboundary, marking the beginning of wilderness. “I do remember my emotionsafter we were all landed on the [other] side of the river,” one traveler recalled. “Ifelt as if we had left all civilization behind us.” And in many ways, they had.

Overland travelers would spend weeks or months on what amounted to a lengthy,challenging expedition. On the journey, traveling groups were pressed to adaptthemselves to the demands of living on the trail: repairing wagons, handling oxen,and tending to other livestock. In addition, they had to learn how to cook and clean

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under strenuous circumstances.

This engraving illustrates theprocess of westward migrationpushing American Indians fromtheir ancestral land.

Increasing the expedition’s difficulty, the travelers had to survive with limitedresources. Unfortunately for the migraters, water, wood, and food were extremelyscarce on the plains. Families packed very little to eat besides flour, bacon,beans, salt, and coffee. As one woman remarked in her journal, “About the onlychange we have from bread and bacon is bacon and bread.”

Many of the new migrants were farmers, but people of other occupations alsosought opportunity in the West. Miners searched for gold, silver, and otherminerals in the hills and mountains. On the grassy plains, ranchers hired cowboysto herd their cattle. Immigrant workers found jobs laying rail lines, and railroadowners made profits shipping western goods to market. However, this rising tideof migration instigated further conflict with American Indians. In particular, thetribes of the Great Plains would fight determinedly against the massive invasion oftheir lands and thorough destruction of their way of life.


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Some miners panned for goldusing the simple placer method,whereby they shoveled soil from astreambed into a shallow pan andthen washed away the sand andgravel with stream water. If theywere successful, this methodresulted in heavier gold particlesremaining in the pan. Otherplacer miners used moresophisticated washing methods.

1. Mining and Ranching Opportunitiesin the WestThe earliest settlers heading west from the Mississippi Valley sought to reach theremote, rich farmlands of the Far West. To accomplish their western ambitions,migrators moved as fast as they could across the Great Plains, and thenstruggled to crest the Rocky Mountains. Most travelers stopped for good onlywhen they reached the fertile fields and valleys of Oregon and California.Fourteen thousand people had braved this journey by 1848, a trickle of migrationwhich would soon spike in response to the discovery of gold in California.

Miners: In Search of the Big Strike In 1848, landowner John Sutter was



overseeing construction of a sawmill on the American River in California’s CentralValley. In January of that year, Sutter’s workers unearthed gold near the mill.Though Sutter tried to keep it secret, word quickly spread, and men deserted theirwork along the Pacific Coast in order to head for Sutter’s Mill. By the year’s end,gold fever had gripped the entire nation, even spreading abroad. The Californiagold rush was on.

In the spring of 1849, some 40,000 migrants from the East traveled overland toCalifornia, and approximately 40,000 more people boarded steamships bound forSan Francisco. These people, dubbed “forty-niners,” soon swarmed California’sshores. About nine out of ten were men, most of them young. Many came fromMexico, and thousands more arrived from Europe and China. They were allmotivated by one unifying desire—to strike it rich.

Few of these prospectors and treasure hunters knew anything about mining.Luckily, California’s gold was not embedded in solid rock, as water erosion haddislodged much of the gold over time and carried it down into streambeds. Thistype of gold, coined by miners as placer gold, was easily mined using simpletools, such as pans and shovels. However, other prospectors still searched forveins of gold and silver in solid rock. Often working in groups, they utilized handtools and weak explosives to extract the metal. Their efforts were concentrated ondiscovering thick veins of metal, known to miners as lodes, as every prospector’sdream was to find the “mother lode” that would produce untold riches.

California’s population rose from approximately 93,000 to over 380,000 between1850 and 1860. Prospectors set up tent camps near their claims, and merchantsof various industries followed closely on their heels. As stores, banks, saloons,and restaurants were established, some camps swelled into fledgling towns.When a site no longer proved profitable, most prospectors moved on.

For three decades after the California gold rush, miners chased their dream ofriches from Mexico to Alaska and east as far as the Black Hills of Dakota. Theyendured backbreaking work and conditions that were dismal and sometimesdangerous. However, very few prospectors ever struck it rich. After years ofsearching, most would likely concur with the saying, “Gold is where I ain’t!”

By the early 1850s, most of the ore that could be easily mined in California hadbeen discovered. Individual prospectors eventually gave way to large miningcompanies that used hydraulic machines to wash away whole hillsides in searchof gold. In the process, they damaged the environment, destroying natural



habitats, polluting rivers, and leaving behind large piles of debris on which nothingcould grow.

Ranchers and Cowboys Find a Home on the Range While miners uncoveredthe West’s valuable stores of gold, silver, and other minerals, cattle ranchersfound opportunity in a different kind of natural resource: grass. Their beef cattlethrived on the abundant grasses and open range of the Great Plains.

Cowboys spent a great amount of time outdoors, tending to cattle. Their regularduties required rounding up calves and using a hot branding iron to mark themwith the special insignia of the particular ranch, and to herd mature cattle tomarket on the long drive.

Plains cattle ranching had started in Texas prior to the Civil War. It had a longtradition in the region going back to the first Spanish settlers. Mexican vaquerosoriginally established many cowboy customs: they rode horses, wore boots withpointed toes and wide-brimmed hats, and rounded up and branded cattle.

Many Texas ranchers went off to fight in the Civil War and never returned.Untended, their cattle multiplied. By the mid-1860s, several million longhorn cattle



lacking ownership roamed wild on the open plains. Some Texans began to roundup unbranded cattle to drive, or herd, them north to market.

In 1866, Charles Goodnight andOliver Loving blazed a cattle trailfrom south Texas to Denver,where they sold their herd andgenerated a large profit. Soonafterwards, other Texans beganto drive herds of cattle to variouscow towns located on railroadlines, where the cattle were thenshipped to meatpacking plants inChicago and other eastern cities.

Because the growing populations of eastern cities had increased the demand forbeef, the ranchers’ timing was opportune. In the East, ranchers could get $40 ahead for cattle that sold for $5 or less back in Texas. At this time, railroad



companies had also begun extending rail lines west from Missouri into Kansas,and as a result, cowhands could drive their herds to “cow towns” that sprang upalong the rail lines. The increased potential for large profits made the lengthycattle drive to one of these cow towns seem well worth the effort.

The formal era of the long drive began in 1867, when cowboys following theChisholm Trail drove longhorns north from San Antonio, Texas, to Abilene,Kansas. At the conclusion of this journey, the live cattle were shipped in rail carsfrom Abilene and other cow towns to great meatpacking centers like Chicago.Working as a team, a dozen cowboys were capable of driving more than 1,000cattle at a time along the trail. African Americans and Mexican Americans madeup at least a quarter of all cowboys on these long drives.

Cowboys led rough lives, working outdoors and sleeping on the ground in alltypes of weather. Not only did they have to be prepared to defend their herdsagainst people who wanted to steal their cattle, but they had to guard againstAmerican Indian attacks, as well as monitor the constant threat of stampede.

The long drive ended once rail lines expanded into cattle country during the1880s. These new lines not only transported cattle to market, but also deliveredfarmers to the plains. The newcomers fenced off their farms with barbed wire,effectively closing the open range. Nature dealt cattle ranchers an even harsherblow when the blizzards of 1886 and 1887 killed thousands of cattle, forcing manyranchers into bankruptcy. Those who survived destitution chose to fence in theirranches, raising only as many cattle as their land could support.

2. Railroads Open the West to RapidSettlementAn easterner bound for the California goldfields in 1849 could not have made ithalfway to the Mississippi River by train alone. Before the 1850s, most railroadswere short lines, connecting cities and towns in just one region, which a flurry ofrail building in the 1850s drastically changed. By 1860, rail lines extended fromthe Atlantic Coast across the Mississippi. This expansion enabled the exposureand settlement of western lands, and in essence linked the East and West coastsby rail.

The gold rush had produced a population explosion in the Far West, yet this



growing region remained in isolation, essentially separated from the rest of thenation. During the 1850s, many people indicated the necessity of bettertransportation and communication between East and West. In particular,merchants demanded a faster way to transport goods across the Great Plainsand the Rockies. Their desire for a transcontinental railroad, one that spannedthe continent, presented railroad builders with a considerable opportunity.

The First Transcontinental Railroad Creates Huge Challenges In 1861, fourwealthy merchants in Sacramento, California, founded the Central PacificRailroad Company. The “Big Four,” as they were known, sought governmentsupport for a transcontinental railroad. One of the Four, C. P. Huntington, traveledto Washington as a lobbyist in order to advocate for a railroad bill. Like otherlobbyists, Huntington worked to persuade legislators to pass laws favorable togroups he represented. In this case, he aimed to further the interests of theCentral Pacific Railroad Company.

By 1900, there were more than 200,000 miles of railroad track in the country,including four transcontinental lines. Long-distance rail travel required betterways of keeping time. As such, the railroads adopted a system in 1833 thatdivided the nation into the four time zones illustrated here.



Debate in Congress over whether to follow a northern or southern route hadhalted plans for a transcontinental railroad thus far. However, the South’ssecession and the onset of the Civil War influenced Congress’s approval of anorthern route that would unite California and Oregon with the rest of the Union.The Pacific Railway Act, passed in 1862, directed the Central Pacific and thenewly created Union Pacific Railroad Company to construct railway and telegraphlines from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. The Union Pacific would startin Omaha, Nebraska, and work its way west, while the Central Pacific wouldbegin in Sacramento and head east.

Building the first transcontinental railroad posed tremendous challenges, one ofwhich was raising adequate funds. Under the Pacific Railway Act, the governmentpledged to help each company by granting it 6,400 acres of land and up to$48,000 in loans for each mile of track laid. Once the laying of rails began, theowners could sell the land to settlers to offset construction costs. Unfortunately,they needed startup money, and the Union Pacific had so much difficulty raisingfunds that the first rails were not laid until 1865.

This contemporary engravingdepicts Chinese laborers workingon the last mile of the CentralPacific Railroad in 1869. Chineselaborers made up four-fifths of thelabor force for the construction ofthe Central Pacific railway line,which stretched from SanFrancisco to Utah.

The Union Pacific also faced conflicts with some of the tribes that lived on theGreat Plains, as its route followed the Platte River through territory controlled by



the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Lakota Sioux. These three tribes had been battlingthe U.S. Army for years, and their attacks on railroad workers sometimes haltedconstruction.

For the Central Pacific, rough terrain proved a considerable challenge , as crossingthe Sierra Nevada was an epic engineering feat. Not only did the rail line have topass over, and sometimes through, towering mountain passes, but it also had tobridge deep canyons. On some days, progress was measured in inches. Beyondthe Sierra Nevada lay the Great Basin: a vast, dry region with blistering hotsummers.

Working on the Railroad: Jobs and Hardships for Immigrants Ultimately,the two railroad companies owed much of their success in overcomingconstruction challenges to immigrant labor. Both companies faced a severe laborshortage, facing a deficit of thousands of workers due to the Civil War and thegold rush, which had siphoned off a great portion of the labor pool.

When the Central Pacific began construction in 1865, it too faced a shortage ofworkers, and in desperation, decided to hire workers from China, despitewidespread prejudice against the Chinese. The company advertised in China,promising impoverished workers good pay. By 1868, the Central Pacific wasemploying approximately 10,000 Chinese workers, who made up four-fifths of itslabor force. Chinese workers were paid lower wages than white workers and weretargets of racism.

Working on the railroad was both strenuous and dangerous. Some workers werekilled in Indian attacks, dynamite used to blast tunnels through the Sierra Nevadaresulted in injuries and deaths, extreme cold in winter left many workers withfrostbite, and snow avalanches killed others. Nonetheless, the workers whosurvived had money in their pockets.



On May 10, 1869, workerscompleted the first railroad thatwould span the continent. Thispicture displays the celebrationthat took place as the Union andCentral Pacific lines were joinedtogether at Promontory Summit,Utah, enabling the start ofpassenger service from Omaha toSan Francisco.

Railroads Become Lifelines in the West Both companies eventuallyovercame these great obstacles, converging lines on May 10, 1869 at PromontoryPoint, Utah. This day marked a clear turning point in the history of the West. Thecompletion of the railroad reduced travel time between the Pacific and Atlanticcoasts from four months to ten days. To mark the occasion, two officials, onefrom each company, drove ceremonial spikes of gold and silver into the railroadties.

Once the first transcontinental railroad had been completed, railroad constructioncontinued elsewhere with a fury. This rapid expansion made many “railroadbarons,” like the Big Four, extraordinarily wealthy, and encouraged settlement bymaking land available to farm families. As a result, towns soon developed alongthe routes. In addition, railroads served the transportation needs of newindustries, such as mining and lumbering. Perhaps most importantly, they unitedEast and West.

For many people in the West, the railroads became lifelines. But because farmersdepended on them, the railroads could charge excessive rates to ship their cropsto market. Such policies led to growing demands for some government controlover the railroad companies.



By the early 1870s, the U.S. Armyhad forced the Apache of Arizonaand New Mexico ontoreservations. Chief Geronimo,shown here, refused to cooperatewith the Army, choosing tocontinue fighting in order toprotect his homeland. Heeventually surrendered to theArmy in 1886, and undertookfarming in the Oklahoma territory.

3. Indian Wars Shatter Tribal CulturesTo many people, the railroad represented great progress, but for the AmericanIndians on the Great Plains, it posed a threat to their very existence. The railroadintersected their hunting grounds, disturbing the bison, their main source of food,clothing, and shelter. It also brought ranchers, farmers, and soldiers to theirhunting grounds. In response, many tribes fought the railroad, waging war to stopthe surge of settlement that jeopardized their ways of life. Their battle for survivalrepresented the latest round of what are known as the Indian Wars.



Cultures Clash on the Great Plains From the perspective of a nation intent onexpanding westward, the many American Indian tribes in the West presented aproblem. Many refused to alter their customs to conform to the settlers’ culture.For example, they believed that tribes or villages had rights to areas of land.However, they did not believe that land could be owned, bought, or sold.

Disputes between American Indians and settlers over land catalyzed conflict earlyin the nation’s history. These conflicts continued as settlers crossed theAppalachians and laid claim to tribal lands in the Ohio and Mississippi rivervalleys. To end such conflicts, the Indian Removal Act of 1830 forced the largesttribes living east of the Mississippi to relocate west to Oklahoma Territory on theGreat Plains. When settlers began to populate the West after the Civil War, theyclashed further with native peoples. As one government official stated, the Indianswere still considered “an obstacle to the progress of settlement and industry.”

A complex clash of cultures occurred on the Great Plains. Nomadic tribes, whohad roamed the plains freely for centuries in pursuit of bison, had little in commonwith eastern tribes, who had been conquered and “removed” to the plains in the1830s. These differences led to conflict between nomadic tribes that desired openland and settled tribes that aimed to protect their farmland.



In 1850, American Indians lived freely in the western half of the United States.Over time, the federal government forced them onto smaller and smallerreservations, although many tribes fought to save their lands. PresidentRutherford B. Hayes admitted in 1777, “Many, if not most, of our Indian warshave had their origin in broken promises and acts of injustice upon our part.”



As part of its assimilation policy,the federal governmentestablished boarding schools forAmerican Indian children. TheDirector of the Carlisle IndianIndustrial School in Pennsylvaniastated that his goal was to “kill theIndian and save the man.”

Larger conflicts arose with the advance of white civilization. As settlers movedwestward, they slaughtered millions of bison, endangering a vital element of tribalcultures. Many tribes refused to give up their homelands and cultures without afight, and thus their warriors began attacking settlers.

The U.S. Army responded with attacks on the plains tribes. In 1864, troops raideda party of Cheyennes and Arapahos who had camped at Sand Creek, Colorado,with permission from the commander of a nearby fort. More than 150 people,many of them women and children, were killed during this attack. The Sand CreekMassacre sparked a general uprising among the plains tribes.

In an effort to end conflict and open up land for settlers, the federal governmentsought to confine most western tribes to reservations, or areas of federal landreserved for American Indian tribes. Federal officials promised to protect thesetribes. However, instead of protecting them, the government oftentimes assistedprospectors and settlers who invaded reservations. For example, a gold strike inthe Black Hills of the Dakota Territory brought hordes of miners onto the Siouxreservation in the 1870s. The government ignored the invasion, even though theTreaty of Fort Laramie, signed in 1868, guaranteed the Sioux exclusive rights tothe land.

Many tribes, from the Apaches and Comanches in the south to the Sioux,



Cheyennes, and Arapahos in the north, refused to stay within reservations. Bandsof raiders moved out onto the plains, where they fought to stop the expansion ofsettlements. In 1876, Sioux and Cheyennes camped near the Little Bighorn Riverin Montana came under attack by U.S. Cavalry troops under George ArmstrongCuster. The much larger American Indian force, led by Sioux chiefs Sitting Bulland Crazy Horse, wiped out Custer’s troops.

After the Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as “Custer’s Last Stand,” federalforces hunted down and captured approximately 3,000 Sioux warriors. Over thenext few years, the army subdued the other major tribes of the Great Plains.

Adaptation and Efforts to Assimilate American Indians The settlement ofthe West was disastrous for large numbers of American Indians. Many died as aresult of violence, disease, and poverty, and others still clung to a miserableexistence on reservations.

The survivors struggled to adapt to their changed circumstance. Some attemptedagriculture—the eastern tribes that had been removed to Oklahoma becamesuccessful farmers—and many tribes established their own government andschools.

At the same time, the U.S. government adopted policies aimed at speeding theassimilation, or absorption, of American Indians into the dominant white settlerculture. Federal officials set up about two dozen boarding schools to educateAmerican Indians in “white men’s ways.” Congress furthered the assimilation pushby enacting the Dawes Act of 1887. Under this law, a tribe could no longer ownreservation lands as a group. Instead, the government began distributing land toindividuals within a tribe. Each family was granted its own plot of land, which itcould hold or sell. This change eroded a cornerstone of American Indian cultures—the belief that land could not be bought or sold. Land sales, both free andforced, greatly decreased the amount of American Indian-owned land.



Novel farm machinery, such asthe threshing machine, helped totransform the Great Plains intothe nation’s breadbasket.However, in order to afford suchmachines, most farmers had toborrow money, leading to anincrease in debt. Supplementedby years of drought on the plains,this rising debt led to manybankruptcies. By the 1890s, tensof thousands of homesteadershad “gone bust.”

4. Settling the Great PlainsDespite resistance from tribes of the Great Plains, settlers continued to migrate tothe region during the second half of the 19th century. They ventured on foot, onhorseback, and in ox-drawn wagons. Later, they would also arrive by rail. Mosthad one goal: successfully developing a plot of grassland into a working farm.

Opportunities and Challenges on the Great Plains The Great Plains,originally a place to simply pass through en route to the West Coast, weretransformed into a shining land of opportunity. Perhaps most influential was thesteady expansion of the railroad system, which carried settlers onto the plains.Railroad companies were also able to sell settlers land that the government hadgranted to the companies. Families also felt safer migrating west because theU.S. Army had successfully mitigated the threat of attack by plains tribes.

Another important influence on the Great Plains’ transformation was the passageof two federal laws in 1862, known as the Homestead Act and the Morrill Land-



Grant Act, which both encouraged further settlement. The Homestead Act wasengineered to provide tracts of land, called homesteads, to settlers in the West.The Act promised 160 acres of public land for a small fee to anyone who waswilling to work the land and live on it for five years. The Homestead Act enticedapproximately 600,000 farmers, who in total claimed more than 80 million acres ofland by the end of the 19th century. The Morrill Land-Grant Act, in turn, providedeach state with large tracts of public land to help finance the establishment ofagricultural colleges. In order to raise the funds necessary to build these colleges,states then sold homesteads to settlers.

In 1879, a rumor caused a surgein black migration to Kansas. Therumor held that the federalgovernment would award freeland and $500 to every blackfamily that moved there. About6,000 African Americans madethe trek, but the rumored aidnever materialized. This imagedepicts African Americans atMississippi preparing to moveWest.

In essence, the plains offered settlers a fresh start. The settlers knew by the lookand smell of the rich soil that their crops would thrive in this land. However, inorder to succeed, they would first have to overcome difficult challenges. The firstof these challenges was constructing houses on the largely treeless plains. Tocompensate for the lack of lumber, some homesteaders simply dug a hole in theside of a hill as shelter. Other settlers fashioned houses out of the tough plainsturf, or sod, which were thus called “soddies.” Sod blocks, which were cut out ofthe ground with a shovel or an ax, formed the walls, and most roofs were made of



sod as well. Once farmers could afford lumber delivered by train, they replacedtheir dugouts and soddies with wood-frame houses.

Another challenge was the environment, as the Great Plains region typically hasan arid climate. The settlers who flocked to the area in the 1870s and 1880sarrived during an abnormally wet period, where the unusual amounts of rainhelped crops to flourish. Unfortunately, farmers also had to contend with thewinter’s deep cold, piercing winds, and blizzard snows. By the early 1890s,drought conditions had returned, particularly in Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, andthe Dakotas. As the soil dried up, wheat, corn, and other crops failed. Farmersalso had to contend with grasshoppers. Great clouds of these pests, denseenough to darken the sky, descended on fields with little warning, and chewed fordays on everything edible, destroying entire crops.

In the face of these hardships, many farmers abandoned the plains. The sides oftheir covered wagons bore the words “In God We Trusted, In Kansas We Busted.”Others worked to overcome the harsh conditions by using dry-farming techniques.To conserve soil moisture, they plowed and planted a field one year and left ituncultivated the next. Also, tools had made farm life easier. The steel plow,invented in 1837, had simplified cutting through the thick prairie sod in order toprepare it for planting. The mechanical reaper neatly cut and bound sheaves ofgrain at harvesttime. Windmills pumped water from deep wells for household useand irrigation.



On April 22, 1889, approximately 50,000 people assembled on the Oklahomaborder because the federal government had decided to open nearly 2 millionacres of Indian Territory for purposes of settlement. At the signal, the Oklahomaland rush began. The homesteaders, known as “boomers,” raced to stake theirclaims, and by nightfall, they had claimed nearly all the available land. Settlerswho had legally entered the territory days earlier were called “sooners.”

African Americans See the Plains as the “Promised Land” The women andmen who settled the West represented a broad range of Americans. Many ofthese settlers were native-born white farm families from the Midwest, some hadrelocated at least once before, and others were emigrants from Europe.Oftentimes, settlers were lured by railroad agents’ empty claims since they wereexperts in exaggeration. Another portion of settlers were former slaves looking forthe opportunity to own and cultivate their own land.

After the Civil War, many African Americans fled the South in search of betterlives elsewhere, and thus thousands joined the westward movement. Somefreedmen worked as cowboys in Texas, while others joined the army, helping toprotect settlers. However, most African Americans who traveled west becamefarmers.

Former slaves such as Henry Adams and Benjamin “Pap” Singleton encouragedAfrican Americans to establish farm communities on the Great Plains. Theseleaders helped organize a postwar migration to Kansas and beyond, where these



migrants became known as Exodusters. Exodusters, a direct reference toExodus, the second book of the Bible, cites the Israelites’ escape from slavery inEgypt and the beginning of their journey to the “Promised Land.”

Offered the opportunity to succeed or fail on their own terms as independentfarmers, thousands of African Americans braved the trek to Kansas. There, somebought farmland and formed new communities, including Nicodemus, a town ofabout 700 black settlers from Kentucky. Others found work in towns and on farmsin Texas, Oklahoma, and various other plains states.

Despite their rising numbers and the independence of owning land, AfricanAmericans in the West were still plagued by racism. For example, when a groupof black migrants from Mississippi attempted to settle in Lincoln, Nebraska, whitetownspeople worked tirelessly to drive them away. The migrants persisted,however, and Lincoln eventually accepted black residents into the community.

This promotional print for theNational Grange organizationdepicts idealized scenes of farmlife. Founded in 1867 by OliverHudson Keeley, the Grangemovement helped give farmers apolitical voice.



5. Farmers Rise Up in ProtestFarmers transformed the grasslands of the Great Plains into bountiful croplands.Their hard work, aided by improved farm machinery, greatly increased agriculturalproductivity. However, many of these farmers did not prosper financially. To buycostly machinery, many had taken out bank loans at high interest rates. They alsoowed money to merchants for the seeds they bought on credit every year and torailroad companies, who continued to increase shipping rates. Crop prices alsodeclined as supply outstripped demand at home and in the global market. Withtheir incomes reduced, farmers found it difficult to pay their debts. As their debtsmounted, so did their anger.

Farmers’ Frustrations Give Rise to Populism In 1867, Oliver Hudson Kelleystarted an educational and social organization to assist farmers in Minnesota.Known as the National Grange, it soon spread throughout the country, andhelped farmers find their political voice. They channeled their anger into a protestmovement based on populism, a political philosophy that favors the commonperson’s interests over those of wealthy people or businesses.

In the early 1870s, several states passed “Granger laws” to regulate railroadrates. In 1886, the Supreme Court ruled in the case Wabash, St. Louis and PacificR.R. v. Illinois that only the federal government has the right to regulate interstatecommerce. In response, Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887,which established the Interstate Commerce Commission to ensure that railroadsset “reasonable and just” rates.

Farmers also took action via other organizations. One of these groups, theGreenback Party, was formed in the mid-1870s with the intention of raising cropprices and relieving farmers’ debts. The Greenbackers’ goal was to increase theamount of greenbacks, or paper money, in circulation by changing thegovernment’s monetary policy, which is aimed at controlling the supply andvalue of a country’s currency.

At that time, the amount of money flowing through the U.S. economy wascontrolled by a monetary policy known as the gold standard. According to thispolicy, every paper dollar in circulation had to be backed by a dollar’s worth ofgold in the U.S. Treasury. The gold standard guaranteed the value of U.S.currency but limited the amount of money the government could print.



The Greenbackers wanted the government to increase the money supply byissuing greenbacks backed by both gold and silver. By increasing the moneysupply, Greenbackers hoped to fuel inflation, or a general rise in prices, includingcrop prices. Higher crop prices would provide farmers more income with which topay off their debts. The Greenback Party failed to achieve its main goal, but it didinform many Americans of the farmer’s plight.

In the 1880s, farmers in the South and Midwest formed local organizations calledFarmers’ Alliances, which later led protests against railroads, banks, and otherpowerful interests centered in the East. In the 1890 election, many Democraticand Republican candidates claiming to support policies proposed by Farmers’Alliances won elections at the state level and for Congress. However, theyenacted only a few Alliance proposals into law. In response, disappointed Alliancemembers vowed to create their own national political party.

At the 1896 Democraticconvention, William JenningsBryan gave his “Cross of Gold”speech to populist acclaim. In thespeech, Bryan demanded an endto the gold standard in order toincrease the money supply.



The Populist Party By 1892, populism’s appeal had spread beyond farmers toinclude industrial workers. That year, farm and labor leaders met in Omaha,Nebraska, to launch the People’s Party, also known as the Populist Party, whichcalled for a government that served the so-called “plain people.” Populist JamesB. Weaver ran for president in 1892 on a platform demanding governmentownership of railroads, the coinage of silver to increase the money supply, andvarious other reforms intended to support working-class people. More than amillion Americans voted for Weaver, about 8.5 percent of the total vote.

The money supply remained a major issue during the 1890s , and the opposingsides of the debate became known as “silverites” and “gold bugs.” TheRepublicans generally favored the gold standard, while the Democrats weredeeply divided. However, the silverites prevailed when the election of 1896approached and William Jennings Bryan won the Democratic presidentialnomination with a moving speech that condemned the gold standard. In abooming voice, he declared, “You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”

Rather than promote their own candidate, the populists endorsed Bryan. After theDemocrats lost the election, the Populist Party faded from the political scene, butthe anger and idealism that had given rise to populism did not fade. During theparty’s short life, many Americans began to rethink the government’s obligationsin promoting opportunity for all. “The power of government— in other words thepower of the people—should be expanded,” declared the populists’ OmahaPlatform, to end “oppression, injustice, and poverty.” Soon, this vision wouldinspire a new generation of reformers.

SummarySettlement of the West in the mid- to late 1800s brought opportunities formany Americans but also sparked conflict as settlers invaded AmericanIndian homelands.

Mining Gold-rush fever galvanized a rush of prospectors to move West.Although few fortunes were made, this migration helped populate California andother western regions.

Ranching Following the Chisholm Trail and other routes, cowboys herded cattlenorth to be shipped to meatpacking plants in cities like Chicago.



Transcontinental railroad Building the first rail line to California was a hugeundertaking that relied on government support and immigrant labor. The spread ofrailroads across the West brought wealth to railroad barons and opened theregion to settlement.

Indian wars The tribes on the Great Plains fought to preserve their way of life.To prevent conflict and open lands for settlement, the government moved tribesonto reservations. Through the Dawes Act, it also worked to assimilate AmericanIndians into white culture.

Homestead Act The Homestead Act brought more farmers to the Great Plains,including African Americans who called themselves Exodusters. Farmers in theplains region faced such challenges as crop-eating insects and drought.

Protests by farmers Burdened by falling crop prices and large debts, farmersformed political organizations such as the Grange. Their protest movements gaverise to the Populist Party.

Land Ordinances and the Settlementof the Northwest TerritoryUnder the terms of the Treaty of Paris, the United States gained all the territoryeast of the Mississippi River that was south of Canada and north of Florida. At thattime, there was no orderly way to divide and sell this land. Settlers walked into thewilderness and claimed the land they liked. Disagreements over who owned whatclogged the state courts.

The Land Ordinances of 1784 and 1785

To end the confusion, Congress passed two land ordinances in 1784 and 1785.The Land Ordinance of 1794 divided the territory into districts that would governthemselves. This law also determined the population levels that would make eachdistrict eligible to send a representative to Congress. (This part of the LandOrdinance of 1784 would later be changed by another law that you will read aboutin a minute.)

With the Land Ordinance of 1785, Congress specifically decided the public andprivate ways in which the land could be used. Available land was divided into six-



mile squares called townships. Each township was then divided into 36 sectionsof 640 acres each. One section of each township was to be set aside for thesupport of public schools. This section would be rented to a settler, and themoney from that rent would be used to pay to educate the children in thetownship. (The actual land was not always the place where a school was built.)The remaining sections in a township were considered private land that would besold to settlers.

Americans began to lay out townships in the Ohio Valley, then known as theNorthwest Territory. By 1787, the government was ready to sell sections tosettlers. This raised the question of how these areas should be governed. Werethey to be U.S. colonies? Or were they to be new states?

The Northwest Ordinance

Congress answered this question in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. This lawdivided the Northwest Territory into smaller territories. Under the NorthwestOrdinance, each territory had to follow a three-step plan before it could become astate.

The first step was for the territory to set up a government. Congress wouldchoose a governor and four other leaders. These five officers would set up thelaws for the territory. They would choose them from the laws already set up byother states. Congress had the power to approve the laws selected by theterritory.

The second step was for the territory to reach a population of 5,000 free adultmales. Then the territory could elect its own legislature, or lawmaking body.

The third and final step was for the territory to reach a population of 60,000. Thenthe territory could apply to Congress to become a state.

Five states formed from the Northwest Territory. Ohio was the first state to jointhe Union under the plan set out by the Northwest Ordinance. Ohio became astate in 1803. Indiana was next. It became a state in 1816. Illinois joined theUnion in 1818. Michigan won statehood in 1837.The last state to organize fromthe Northwest Territory was Wisconsin. It became a state in 1848.

The decision that Congress made about public and private land played a criticalrole in the development of our nation. The Land Ordinance of 1785 and theNorthwest Ordinance of 1787 would determine how land would be divided into



states. These laws also allowed private citizens to become landowners. Onehistorian believes that the United States might not have become a successfulcountry if Congress had made a different choice. He thinks that making some ofthe land private kept the territories from becoming permanent colonies of the U.S.government. The expert also views Congress’s action as a way to ensure that theland would be controlled by those who could get the best use out of it, whichwould then increase the land’s value.

Democracy, Slavery, and Education in the States of the NorthwestTerritory

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 set up a process for how new states could jointhe Union. The law also established important democratic ideals, or beliefs. TheNorthwest Ordinance guaranteed, or protected, the rights of settlers living in theNorthwest Territory. These rights included freedom of speech, freedom of religion,and the right to a trial with a jury. These same rights became part of the U.S.Constitution in 1791 when the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution. TheBill of Rights is the group of the first ten amendments, or changes, to theConstitution. They protect the rights and liberties of American citizens.

Slavery was banned in the Northwest Territory and in any state created from landin the Northwest Territory. Therefore, Ohio and the four other states created fromthe territory—Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin—all joined the Union asfree states. Southerners who supported slavery went along with the NorthwestOrdinance because they hoped that white settlers from the South would chooseto come live in the new states. These people would not be able to own anyslaves, but Southern slavery supporters thought they would not be against slaverylike many states were in the North.

Another reason that historians and experts consider the Northwest Ordinance tobe significant is because it is often regarded as one of the founding documents forpublic education in this part of the nation. The law established a purpose foreducation and why it was needed at that time. It stated that schools and educationwould be encouraged because a base of religion, morality, and knowledge wereconsidered “necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind.” Manypeople from New England settled in the Northwest Territory, and they broughttheir views about education with them. These ideas shaped the attitudes that thearea’s residents had about education for years to come.



The Northwest Ordinance Affects American Indians

The system of applying for statehood set out by the Northwest Ordinance servedthe nation well. Over time, the United States would continue to add states fromterritories as it spread to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. But the large number ofnew settlers was not good for the American Indians who lived in those lands. TheNorthwest Ordinance sounded as if it would protect the land for the AmericanIndians who lived there. It said:

The system of applying for statehood set out by the Northwest Ordinance servedthe nation well. Over time, the United States would continue to add states fromterritories as it spread to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. But the large number ofnew settlers was not good for the American Indians who lived in those lands. TheNorthwest Ordinance sounded as if it would protect the land for the NativeAmericans who lived there. It said:

Art. 3: The utmost good faith shall always be observed toward theIndians, their lands and property shall never be taken from themwithout their consent; and in their property, rights, and liberty, theyshall never be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful warsauthorized by Congress; but laws founded in justice and humanityshall from time to time be made, for preventing wrongs being doneto them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them.

Despite the words of the law, settlers were eager to take over American Indianland. In 1789, the U.S. Constitution gave the federal government the right to maketreaties with American Indian tribes. Many of these treaties resulted in the tribeslosing their land. The federal government did not actually try to negotiate with theAmerican Indians. Instead, the United States wanted to pay for the land. From thegovernment’s point of view, this was the way to treat the American Indians fairly.Then white settlers could continue to settle in the new lands.

The American Indians did not agree with this. For them, the issue had nothing todo with money. They believed that the U.S. government did not have any right tosell the land at all. Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory, met withrepresentatives from the Six Nations in 1788. These were representatives fromsix different American Indian tribes. The Six Nations wanted the Ohio River to bethe border of the lands where whites were allowed to settle. St. Clair refused thisrequest and threatened war. Wanting to avoid conflict and feeling like they had noother choice, the Six Nations signed a peace treaty with Governor St. Clair.



Not all American Indian tribes felt that avoiding war was the solution. Blue Jacketof the Shawnee tribe and Little Turtle of the Miami tribe formed a confederacy, orgroup, of American Indian peoples who were willing to use force to stop whitesettlement in the area. One of the names for this conflict that was fought between1785 and 1795 is the Northwest Indian War. The confederacy launched twodevastating battles that killed more than 800 soldiers. These were the worstdefeats that American Indians ever inflicted on U.S. troops. President GeorgeWashington then gave General Anthony Wayne command of a new army.General Wayne’s forces were able to defeat the American Indian confederacy,and the white settlement of the Northwest Territory continued.

American Indians Lose More Land

Within a few decades, several Supreme Court cases and a federal law pushedAmerican Indians further away. One such court case was Johnson v. M'Intosh in1823. The Illinois and Piankeshaw tribes had sold their land to an individual, butthe government tried to stop it. The dispute traveled through the court system allthe way to the Supreme Court. There, the justices said that the tribes did not owntheir homeland and had no rights to sell it. The government, though, could sell itfrom under the American Indians and force them to leave.

The government found even more reasons to take over American Indian landwhen, in 1828, gold was discovered on Cherokee land in Georgia. In 1830,Congress passed the Indian Removal Act which allowed President AndrewJackson to set aside land west of the Mississippi River as Indian Territories andmove the American Indians to this land.

Throughout this time period, many tribes fought to stay on their land. The Saukand Fox, led by their leader Black Hawk, fought the U.S. military in Illinois. TheSeminoles, led by their chief Osceola fought in Florida in what became the mostexpensive military action for the U.S. government up to that time.

In spite of their long fight to keep their homes, the American Indians were unableto hold onto their land.

The Growth of a National Literature“To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.” So wrote HermanMelville, the author of the famous novel Moby Dick. As American literature grew



to maturity in the 19th century, American authors chose mightier and mightierthemes. Their efforts quickly led to a distinctive national literature. It didn't go asfar back as European literary traditions, but it was just as ambitious and varied.And with the coming of Mark Twain, Americans could boast that their literaturehad developed a writer equal to any in the world.

Pictured here is a portrait ofauthor Herman Melville.

Herman Melville

Herman Melville's “mighty themes” came from his own experiences. Born in NewYork City in 1819, he showed little promise as a child. He failed at several jobsuntil he enlisted as a sailor on a whaling ship and spent four years at sea. Backhome, he charmed his family with stories of his adventures. He realized he wason to something, and began writing.

Melville published his greatest novel, Moby Dick, in 1851. The hero, CaptainAhab, had lost a leg trying to catch a huge white whale called Moby Dick. Ahabsets off to confront the whale again.



Melville wrote in a slow, wandering style. But to the readers of 1850, who hadnever seen a TV show or a movie, Moby Dick was a rip-roaring adventure story. Itwas also a thoughtful study about wanting something you shouldn't. In the end,Ahab's ship tracks down Moby Dick—and Ahab dies trying to kill the whale. Onlyone crewmember survives to tell the story.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

While composing Moby Dick, Melville moved to Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Therehis neighbor was another writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne had been bornto a Puritan family in nearby Salem, the site of witch burnings in 1692. Shamed bythis part of his heritage, Hawthorne made the dark side of Puritan society hismighty theme. He used a high-sounding, elegant style to portray early NewEngland life in such novels as The House of the Seven Gables and The ScarletLetter.

Hawthorne's tales often had a spooky feel. In his short story Young GoodmanBrown, the hero meets the devil. Is it a nightmare? Is it his imagination? Or is itreal? Whichever, the devil tells him, “I helped your grandfather, the constable[policeman], when he lashed the Quaker woman so smartly through the streets ofSalem; and it was I that brought your father a pitch-pine knot, kindled at my ownhearth, to set fire to an Indian village.” Through such haunting passages,Hawthorne exposed the violence underlying America's Puritan ancestry.

Louisa May Alcott



Pictured here is a portrait ofLouisa May Alcott.

In the early 1840s, Hawthorne lived at Brook Farm, near Boston. The group thatstarted Brook Farm tried to live by the Transcendentalist philosophies of RalphWaldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Everyone shared equally in the workand profits. Among the farm's leaders was Amos Bronson Alcott. Hawthornehelped inspire Alcott's young daughter, Louisa May, to become a writer herself.

Alcott's mighty theme was the everyday life of half of America's people: girls andwomen. Unlike Hawthorne and the Transcendentalists, she wrote in an easy,natural style. Her biggest success was Little Women. The book sold so well thatshe wrote several sequels. It remains popular today.

Little Women is the story of four young sisters and their mother, whom they callMarmee. Each chapter presents a typical adventure for outgoing girls of Civil Wartimes, and usually ends with a lesson.

In one chapter, the sisters decide they don't want to do their chores. They get sobored that when Marmee decides she won't do any housework either, theyeagerly take her role, only to botch it completely. In the end, Marmee reminds herdaughters to “have regular hours for work and play, make each day both usefuland pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing itwell.” Alcott's warm portrayal of sturdy, independent women contributed to



America's growing sense that all people are equal.

Mark Twain

American literature truly reached maturity with Missouri-born Mark Twain in thelast half of the 19th century. Twain's real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens.His pen name comes from a term used by boat pilots on the Mississippi River tonote the water's depth.

Many people consider Twain to be America's greatest writer. Like Melville, heoften wrote about life on the water—in his case, the Mississippi. Like Hawthorne,he often wrote about America's shameful past—in his case, slavery. And likeAlcott, he often wrote about ordinary people—in his case, the residents of smallwestern towns. Twain then added a few mighty themes of his own and tied themall together with a biting sense of humor.

Perhaps Twain's most famous book is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn .Published in 1884, it tells a story that takes place before the Civil War endedslavery. Though widely praised, its depictions of child abuse, juveniledelinquency, and race relations make it controversial even today.

The book's hero, Huck Finn, sails down the Mississippi River in a raft with Jim, arunaway slave. At one point Jim is returned to slavery, putting Huck in a no-winsituation. He can let Jim go and lose a true friend, or he can rescue Jim andcommit a crime, since helping a slave escape is illegal (and, to most peoplearound Huck, morally wrong as well). Finn tells the reader, “I was a-trembling,because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied aminute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: ‘All right, then, I'll go tohell.'" He and his friend Tom Sawyer then work together to free Jim.

Mark Twain tackled American themes in a distinctively American style. At thesame time, like all great writers, he wrote about subjects and individuals thatpeople everywhere can recognize and appreciate.

Broken Promises: Treaties withAmerican IndiansThe land that grew into the United States had been home to American Indians



long before Europeans stepped foot on the continent. At first, it seemed possiblethat the European newcomers could peacefully share the land. But that was notpossible at all. As more and more white settlers desired to build homes and farms,they demanded that their government move the Americans Indians out.

The federal government made more than 370 treaties with various AmericanIndian tribes. These agreements were designed to move the tribes off their land inexchange for money, goods, and other promises. Examine the wording fromsome of the treaties to try to determine what each side is giving up and what eachside is gaining in these agreement.

Treaty with Six Nations, January 9, 1789

(This treaty mentions an earlier treaty at Fort Stanwix on October 22, 1784, madebetween the U.S. government and tribes in northern New York.)

ARTICLE 1. WHEREAS the United States, in congress assembled,did, by their commissioners, Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler, andArthur Lee, esquires, duly appointed for that purpose, at a treatyheld with the said Six Nations, viz: with the Mohawks, Oneidas,Onondagas, Tuscaroras, Cayugas, and Senekas, at fort Stanwix, onthe twenty-second day of October, one thousand seven hundredand eighty-four, give peace to the said nations, and receive theminto their friendship and protection: And whereas the said nationshave now agreed to and with the said Arthur St. Clair, to renew andconfirm all the engagements and stipulations entered into at thebeforementioned treaty at fort Stanwix: and whereas it was then andthere agreed, between the United States of America and the saidSix Nations, that a boundary line should be fixed between the landsof the said Six Nations and the territory of the said United States,which boundary line is as follows, viz: Beginning at the mouth of acreek, about four miles east of Niagara, called Ononwayea, orJohnston's Landing Place, upon the lake named by the IndiansOswego, and by us Ontario; from thence southerly, in a directionalways four miles east of the carrying place, between lake Erie andlake Ontario, to the mouth of Tehoseroton, or Buffalo creek, uponlake Erie; thence south, to the northern boundary of the state ofPennsylvania; thence west, to the end of the said north boundary;thence south, along the west boundary of the said state to the riverOhio. The said line, from the mouth of Ononwayea to the Ohio, shall



be the western boundary of the lands of the Six Nations, so that theSix Nations shall and do yield to the United States, all claim to thecountry west of the said boundary; and then they shall be secured inthe possession of the lands they inhabit east, north, and south ofthe same, reserving only six miles square, round the fort of Oswego,for the support of the same. The said Six Nations, except theMohawks, none of whom have attended at this time, for and inconsideration of the peace then granted to them, the presents theythen received, as well as in consideration of a quantity of goods, tothe value of three thousand dollars, now delivered to them by thesaid Arthur St. Clair, the receipt whereof they do herebyacknowledge, do hereby renew and confirm the said boundary linein the words beforementioned, to the end that it may be and remainas a division line between the lands of the said Six Nations and theterritory of the United States, forever. And the undersigned Indians,as well in their own names as in the name of their respective tribesand nations, their heirs and descendants, for the considerationsbeforementioned, do release, quit claim, relinquish, and cede, to theUnited States of America, all the lands west of the said boundary ordivision line, and between the said line and the strait, from themouth of Ononwayea and Buffalo Creek, for them, the said UnitedStates of America, to have and to hold the same, in true andabsolute propriety, forever.

ARTICLE 2. The United States of America confirm to the SixNations, all the lands which they inhabit, lying east and north of thebeforementioned boundary line, and relinquish and quit claim to thesame and every part thereof, excepting only six miles square roundthe fort of Oswego, which six miles square round said fort is againreserved to the United States by these presents.

ARTICLE 3. The Oneida and Tuscarora nations, are also againsecured and confirmed in the possession of their respective lands.

ARTICLE 4. The United States of America renew and confirm thepeace and friendship entered into with the Six Nations, (except theMohawks), at the treaty beforementioned, held at fort Stanwix,declaring the same to be perpetual. And if the Mohawks shall, withinsix months, declare their assent to the same, they shall beconsidered as included. . . .



After the Treaty

The Onondaga, Seneca, Oneida, and Tuscarora remained in New York,eventually settling on reservations. A few decades later, a large group of Oneidamoved to Wisconsin. Others moved to Canada along with the Mohawk and theCayuga. The U.S. has kept one promise made in a 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua.Every year, the government follows Article 6 of that treaty, which says that thegovernment will provide goods worth $4,500, “which shall be expended yearlyforever.” The government sends bolts of cloth to distribute to tribal citizens.

Treaty with the Cherokee, July 2, 1791

ARTICLE 1. There shall be perpetual peace and friendship betweenall the citizens of the United States of America, and all theindividuals composing the whole Cherokee nation of Indians.

ARTICLE 2. The undersigned Chiefs and Warriors, for themselvesand all parts of the Cherokee nation, do acknowledge themselvesand the said Cherokee nation, to be under the protection of the saidUnited States of America, and of no other sovereign whosoever;and they also stipulate that the said Cherokee nation will not holdany treaty with any foreign power, individual state, or withindividuals of any state.

ARTICLE 3. The Cherokee nation shall deliver to the Governor ofthe territory of the United States of America, south of the river Ohio,on or before the first day of April next, at this place, all persons whoare now prisoners, captured by them from any part of the UnitedStates: And the United States shall on or before the same day, andat that same place, restore to the Cherokees, all the prisoners nowin captivity, which the citizens of the United States have capturedfrom them.

ARTICLE 4. The boundary between the citizens of the UnitedStates and the Cherokee nation, is and shall be as follows:Beginning at the top of the Currahee mountain, where the Creekline passes it . . .

ARTICLE 5. It is stipulated and agreed, that the citizens andinhabitants of the United States, shall have a free and unmolested



use of a road from Washington district to Mero district, and of thenavigation of the Tennessee river.

ARTICLE 6. It is agreed on the part of the Cherokees, that theUnited States shall have the sole and exclusive right of regulatingtheir trade.

ARTICLE 7. The United States solemnly guarantee to the Cherokeenation, all their lands not hereby ceded.

ARTICLE 8. If any citizen of the United States, or other person notbeing an Indian, shall settle on any of the Cherokees' lands, suchperson shall forfeit the protection of the United States, and theCherokees may punish him or not, as they please.

ARTICLE 9. No citizen or inhabitant of the United States, shallattempt to hunt or destroy the game on the lands of the Cherokees;nor shall any citizen or inhabitant go into the Cherokee country,without a passport first obtained from the Governor of some one ofthe United States, or territorial districts, or such other person as thePresident of the United States may from time to time authorize togrant the same. . . .

After the Treaty

After Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, the Cherokee could nolonger hold onto their promised land. Nearly 7,000 U.S. soldiers forced as manyas 16,000 Cherokee from their homes, which the soldiers then robbed andburned. The Cherokee along with other eastern tribes had to walk to theirassigned land in Indian Territory, which today is in northeastern Oklahoma.

Treaty with the Chickasaw, September 20, 1816

ARTICLE 1. Peace and friendship are hereby firmly established,and perpetuated, between the United States of America andChickasaw nation.

ARTICLE 2. The Chickasaw nation cede to the United States (withthe exception of such reservations as shall hereafter be specified)all right or title to lands on the north side of the Tennessee river, andrelinquish all claim to territory on the south side of said river, and



east of a line commencing at the mouth of Caney creek running upsaid creek to its source, thence a due south course to the ridgepath, or commonly called Gaines's road, along said road southwestwardly to a point on the Tombigby river, well known by thename of the Cotton Gin port, and down the west bank of theTombigby to the Chocktaw boundary.

ARTICLE 3. In consideration of the relinquishment of claim, andcession of lands, made in the preceding article, the commissionersagree to allow the Chickasaw nation twelve thousand dollars perannum for ten successive years, and four thousand five hundreddollars to be paid in sixty days after the ratification of this treaty intothe hands of Levi Colbert, as a compensation for any improvementswhich individuals of the Chickasaw nation may have had on thelands surrendered; that is to say, two thousand dollars forimprovements on the east side of the Tombigby, and two thousandfive hundred dollars for improvements on the north side of theTennessee river.

After the Treaty

In 1837, U.S. soldiers removed the Chickasaw from Mississippi, Kentucky,Alabama, and Tennessee. The Chickasaw were forced to join other tribes inIndian Territory. Unlike some other tribes, the Chickasaw negotiated to receivemoney for their lost land. The U.S. paid them more than $500,000.

Treaty With the Six Nations, signed at Fort Harmar, January 9, 1789.

Entire Selection: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/six1789.asp

Accessed March, 2017

Treaty With the Cherokee, signed at Holston, July 2, 1791.

Entire Selection: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/chr1791.asp


Treaty With the Chickaswa, signed at the Chickasaw council house, September20, 1816.



Entire Selection: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/nt004.asp


The Power of Land: Californios andthe California Constitution of 1849Once the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in 1848, war between theUnited States and Mexico ended. California was now part of the United States. Aconvention was held at Monterey in 1849. California needed to form agovernment and write a constitution so this new territory could become a state.

Forty-eight delegates, or representatives, attended the Convention. Eightdelegates were native-born Californios. Californios were wealthy, Spanish-speaking people who had lived in California when it was under Spanish orMexican rule. Spain had given people land grants in the late 1700s to encouragecolonization in the area. Mexico also promoted settlement by giving out more than500 of its own land grants after it gained independence from Spain in 1821. Overtime, Californios and their families had become part of an elite and powerful socialclass. Many were rancheros who controlled hundreds of thousands of acres ofprime ranch land.

There was a strong cultural tie between land ownership and those who were ofSpanish or Mexican descent. Mexican law not only allowed both men and womento own property, but a woman’s property was considered to be separate from herhusband’s land. The importance of land was reflected in specific language thatwas borrowed from Mexico and used in California’s first constitution.

All property, both real and personal, of the wife, owned or claimedby marriage, and that acquired afterwards by gift, devise, ordescent, shall be her separate property; and laws shall be passedmore clearly defining the rights of the wife, in relation as well to herseparate property, as to that held in common with her husband.Laws shall also be passed providing for the registration of the wife'sseparate property.

Paper Rights but Lost Status



Other delegates at the Convention were lawyers, merchants, and even soldiers.During their first meeting, the delegates decided that they needed morerepresentatives to account for the many gold miners who were arriving inCalifornia at the time. However, during the actual Convention, the significantinfluence that gold miners and other groups would later have on California wasnot that obvious. It seemed like Californios would play a role in shaping theirstate’s future.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had granted Californios full United Statescitizenship and promised that their property would be "inviolably respected."California’s 1849 Constitution had guaranteed the right to vote to every white malecitizen of Mexico who was at least 21 years old, had decided to become anAmerican citizen under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and had lived inCalifornia for at least six months before an election. Convention delegates alsodecided that English and Spanish would both be official languages in California.

However, even with these promises and provisions, the once-elite Californiosslowly lost their power, authority, and land. Mexico’s land grants were veryinformal claims, so Californios had a difficult time when they tried to legallychallenge miners, squatters, and homesteaders when they began to stream ontoCalifornio-owned property. Even when Californio families won court battles thatgave them legal ownership of their lands, many actually lost their financialfortunes because they had to pay for attorney's fees or taxes. One Californiofamily from the East Bay owned 49,000 acres of land, but they eventually wereable to only keep control of 700 acres. The rest had been lost to lawyers, taxes,squatters, and speculators. As the years passed and the amount of land thatCalifornios controlled continued to shrink, their political power in the state alsodeclined.

Women and Gender Roles in theFrontier WestLife for women living in the frontier West could be complicated. Some groups hadsocial, political, professional, or economic power in the region. Others did not.Sometimes, a woman’s skills and contributions were hidden, misunderstood, oreven illegal. The western frontier of the United States stretched across manystates and territories, and many types of women helped define and shape itshistory.



Female Homesteaders and Landowners

To encourage women to settle in the Great Plains, thousands of single, divorced,or widowed women were given an opportunity that they did not have in other partsof the nation. The 1862 Homestead Act allowed these women to own 160 acres ofland in their own names. Usually, men were the ones who controlled land. Manyfemale homesteaders had European or Scandinavian roots. They were womenfrom English, Scottish, Italian, German, Danish, Swedish, and several otherbackgrounds. There were also women who were African-American, Jewish-American, and Lebanese.

North Dakota was a popular destination for female homesteaders. Children cameto places like Hettinger County and Bowbells with their mothers because mostwomen brought family or friends with them. Some women arrived in the areaalone. A few were there to help out their male relatives, and those womenreceived some sort of payment for their efforts. Female homesteaders did workthe land, but it was not uncommon for them to also pursue outside careers. Somedid traditional types of work like teaching or nursing, while others chose moreunconventional paths like journalism, photography, and managing real estate.There is evidence that female landowners in North Dakota rented their land toothers, sold their original land in order to buy land in another location, or tradedtheir land for commercial buildings or businesses.

In California, María Rita Valdez operated Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas, which satin what is now the glamorous area of Beverly Hills. (Famous Rodeo Drive takesits name from this ranch.) Other Latina women and their families controlled land inSouthern California and San Francisco, as well as in places outside the state likePhoenix and Santa Fe. These women believed in defending their property rightsin court, and they turned to the legal system to help them exercise their authority



and protect their rights as landowners.

Three Women and Their Work

Though not a homesteader, Linda Slaughter arrived in the Dakota Territory fromOhio in 1872. She became involved with the journalism, history, and education ofthe area. Slaughter served as a deputy school superintendent and wrote for morethan one of the Territory’s newspapers. At first, she was against women havingthe right to vote, but by 1888, she had changed her mind and become a supporterof the women’s rights movement.

Susanna Madora Salter, known by the first name Dora, also came west fromOhio. She moved to Kansas with her family when she was 12 and enrolled incollege when she was 16. Less than eight years after she graduated, Dora Salterwas elected mayor of the town of Argonia. Historical accounts show that shenever campaigned for the office. In fact, there is speculation that her name wasplaced on the ballot as a joke. Whether that is true or not, there is no doubt thatDora Salter received two-thirds of the vote in the election for mayor, and sheserved as Argonia’s leader for a year. This political accomplishment not onlymade her the first female mayor in Kansas, but some experts believe that shewas likely also the first female mayor in the nation.

Kate Cleary was born in Canada, but she came to Nebraska with her husband in1884. More of a writer than a journalist, Cleary wrote novels, stories, and poemsthat appeared in well-known newspapers and magazines of the time. Much of herwork was about pioneer life in the rural villages of Nebraska. Sometimes shewrote about nature or about the hardships that people endured on the Plains.Other writings were more humorous and gently mocked society.

A Woman Transformed

Charley Parkhurst came west to California and worked as a stagecoach driver, butnot even his friends knew his closely-guarded secret until his death in 1879.Some were so shocked by the secret that they refused to believe it was true.Charley Parkhurst was actually a woman who had spent life out West living andworking as a man. He even voted as a man. No one knows for sure why Charleymade the choice he did. Driving a stagecoach was a dangerous job that womenwould not have been allowed to do, but some historians think Charley could havemade the decision to live as a man after he had a fight with an uncle back East.Other experts have suggested the theory that he might have been disappointed



about a romantic relationship.

Whatever his reasons, Charley Parkhurst became a skilled stagecoach driver whotransported mail, gold, and passengers. Although the routes were dangerous,people used stagecoaches to travel long distances and to communicate withfaraway communities. Charley was able to lead his team of horses over roughterrain. Historical accounts say that Charley was robbed many times, and he waseven forced to shoot someone who tried to rob him twice. He also drank whiskeyand chewed tobacco, which probably helped cause the tongue cancer that killedhim at the age of 67.

A Female Outlaw

Belle Star did not transform herself in the same way that Charley Parkhurst did,but she did take advantage of an opportunity in the same way that many men inthe West did. The only problem was that the opportunity was not a lawful one.The story of the western outlaw is told in many examples of stories, tales,newspaper accounts, and historical records, but the word outlaw does not alwaysmean the person was a man. Belle Starr was born as Myra Belle Shirley in 1848.She and her family lived a respectable middle-class life on a small farm nearCarthage, Missouri where her father ran a business as an innkeeper. Then theCivil War erupted, which caused the death of Belle’s brother, led to financial ruinfor the inn, and prompted her family to leave Missouri for Texas.



Belle Starr

There, Belle started to become romantically involved with men who wereconsidered to be of “questionable character” because they were robbing banksand trains. In 1866, she married one of them, a man named James Reed. By1869, Belle was committing crimes with her husband. She helped him to stealcattle, horses, and money in the area around Dallas. Belle wore plumed hats andvelvet skirts as she rode on her mare and led her outlaw life. This is how shecame to be known as the “Bandit Queen.”

Reed was killed by a member of his own gang in 1874, and Belle was then on herown and in trouble with the law. She ended up in the Oklahoma Indian Territory,where she again started stealing cattle and horses. Belle also met a Cherokeeman named Sam Starr who became her new husband and partner in crime. Thetwo of them lived this way for almost ten years until both were arrested in 1883 forstealing horses and sentenced to five months in federal prison.

Sam Starr also died a violent death in 1886, and Belle became involved with athird man who liked to commit robbery. When he was arrested three years laterand sent to Arkansas to face charges, Belle went with him on this journey. Forsome reason, however, she decided to turn back before they reached Arkansas.As she was returning home in February 1889, Belle was fatally ambushed by twoshots to the back. No one was ever convicted of her murder.



The Different Statuses of Non-White Women

American Indian women who were from Great Plains tribes had a great manyresponsibilities. These included work like clearing fields, planting, hoeing, andharvesting crops, digging pits for storing food, collecting wild plants and firewood,cooking, hauling water, washing dishes, and raising children. White travelers whoencountered these American Indians and usually only saw them for a very shorttime, were amazed at the amount of work that American Indian women had to docompared to the work that men did.

What the travelers did not understand was how the Plains Indians divided theirlabor and viewed the concepts of ownership and authority. Since men were oftenaway doing dangerous fighting or hunting, women were highly respected for themany tasks that they did to maintain village life. In the Pawnee and Omaha tribesof Nebraska, women owned the lodge, tepee, and its contents. They were also incharge of the fields, the seeds, the farm equipment, and the decision to tradesurplus crops. Women had the authority to choose where to camp during a bisonhunt. They also had the right to divorce, and since women claimed ownership ofthe lodge, an unkind husband could be left with his horse and weapons but haveno place to live.

By contrast, many female Chinese immigrants traveled to the western regions ofthe United States during the late 19th century, but they did not spend their timebeing politicians, driving stagecoaches, or writing stories. They also did notreceive a great deal of respect either. These women were forced to work in theinns, laundries, and saloons of the mining camps that were spread throughoutCalifornia, Idaho, and the Rocky Mountains. Most came from extremely poorfamilies who had sold the women into this type of “unofficial” slavery.

Arranged marriages were also not uncommon with Asian and American Indianwomen. Chinese and Japanese women came as "picture brides" from their



homelands to be married to men who had only seen grainy photographs of them.Historians believe such marriages usually happened due to pressure to marryfrom a woman’s parents, as a means to escape poverty, or for the purpose ofhiding a damaged reputation. Men were expected to pay for all costs, includingthe woman's travel to the United States and any wedding expenses. The PlainsIndians frequently handled an arranged marriage with the help of a middlemanand the payment of a "bride price." This was intended as a method ofcompensation since the woman's family would lose her labor.

Victoria Bartolomea Comicrabit (Victoria Reid)

Born in 1808, Victoria was a member of the San Gabriel Indians of California.Spanish friars introduced her to Hispanic customs and traditions. When shemarried another American Indian named Pablo Maria, the two of them convertedto become Catholic and were given mission land. Under the Spanish colonialsystem, Victoria owned the property and had social status that was equal to otherprominent California families. When her husband died, Victoria inherited thecouple’s land.

Victoria then married Scottish trader Hugo Reid in 1836, which would turn out tocost her dearly. In the Spanish colonial system, it would have been better forVictoria if she had remained a widow. She would have kept the right to work herland, maintained her respected status in the community, and had the means tocare for her four children. Her marriage to Reid gave him the ability to waste theincome from her land, and Victoria became penniless upon his death.

The Explorations of Jedediah Smithand Kit CarsonIn the early 1800s, many trailblazers answered the call of Manifest Destiny,setting out west to look for opportunity and new beginnings. Among thesetrailblazers were Jedediah Smith and Kit Carson.

Jedediah Smith



This painting depicts JedediahSmith’s trek through the MojaveDesert in 1826.

Jedediah Smith was born in 1789 in Bainbridge, New York. When he was 22,Smith began his travels west when he joined General William Ashley on a fur-trapping expedition to Missouri. Smith soon set out on a fur-trapping expeditionfurther west when he passed through the Black Hills region in South Dakota.From there, he trekked through the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming where heencountered a group of Crow Indians who informed him about a path that wouldeasily take him through the range. This path would later be called the “SouthPass.” Many other fur trappers and explorers would follow in Smith's footstepsand cross the Rockies through the South Pass.

A few years later, in 1826, Smith led the first overland expedition to Californiathrough the southwest by traveling from the Great Salt Lake in Utah and crossingthrough the Mojave Desert and San Bernardino mountains. Smith then returnedfrom California by crossing the Great Basin, which was so hot that Smith and theother members of his party had to bury themselves in sand to stay cool.

Upon his return in 1827, Smith summarized his expedition in a letter to thesuperintendent of Indian Affairs. This is how he describes his return to the GreatSalt Lake:

After travelling twenty days from the east side of Mount Joseph, Istruck the S.W. corner of the Great Salt Lake, travelling over acountry completely barren and destitute of game. We frequentlytravelled without water sometimes for two days over sandy deserts,where there was no sign of vegetation and when we found water insome of the rocky hills, we most generally found some Indians whoappeared the most miserable of the human race having nothing to



subsist on (nor any clothing) except grass seed, grass-hoppers, etc.When we arrived at the Salt Lake, we had but one horses and onemule remaining, which were so feeble and poor that they couldscare carry the little camp equipage which I had along; the balanceof my horses I was compelled to eat as they gave out.

Smith continued exploring the west. He made a second trip to California and wentnorth toward Oregon Country. In 1831, Smith went on a trip to Santa Fe in NewMexico where he was killed by Comanche Indians. Smith's explorations anddiscoveries led many others to settle in the West.

Kit Carson

Kit Carson is known for guidingJohn C. Frémont through theOregon Trail.

Christopher “Kit” Carson was born in 1809. At the time, his family resided inMadison County, Kentucky, but they soon relocated to Missouri. Young andrestless, Carson ran away when he was a teenager to join a wagon train headedtoward Santa Fe. Carson learned trapping skills during his stay in New Mexico.

Carson's life as a fur trapper took him on expeditions to California and the Rocky



Mountains. He also traveled with and lived among American Indians.

But perhaps Carson is best known for his expeditions with John C. Frémont. In1842, Frémont hired Carson as his guide during his expedition to map the OregonTrail. Together they traveled from Missouri through the South Pass of the RockyMountains. Then in 1843, they went on a second expedition to map the rest of theOregon Trail from the South Pass to the Columbia River in Oregon.

In 1845, Carson and Frémont went on a third expedition together to furtherexplore Oregon and California. Carson describes his third expedition withFrémont to California:

Here our guide left us, and we struck for California. Our course wasthrough a barren, desolate and unexplored country tell we reachedthe Sierra Nevada which we found covered with snow from one endto the other. We were nearly out of provisions, and cross themountains we must, let the consequences be what they may. Wewent as far in the snow as we possible could with animals, then wascompelled to send them back. Then we commenced making a roadthrough the snow. We beat it down with mallets. The snow was sixfeet on the level for three leagues. We made shoes [and walked]over the snow to find how far we would have to make a road. Foundit to be the distance afore stated.

After we reached the extremity of the snow, we could see in thedistance the green valley of the Sacramento and the Coast Range. Iknew the place well, had been there seventeen years before. Ourfeelings can be imagined when we saw such beautiful country.

That was the last of Carson's and Frémont's expeditions, but in 1846, theyparticipated in the Bear Flag Revolt, in which California revolted against Mexicanrule. After that, Carson began a career in the military. He was involved in theMexican-American War and the Civil War.

Letter to General William Clark, Supt. of Indian Affairs by Jedediah Smith, LitleLake of Bear River, July 17, 1827, p. 193.

Entire Selection: https://archive.org/details/ashleysmithexplo00dalerich




Kit Carson in California: With Extracts from His Own Story by Charles L. Camp,1922, p. 120.

Context: https://ia801605.us.archive.org/35/items/jstor-25613577/25613577.pdf


Industrialization and the Farmer’sPlight

The industrial revolution createdmany new challenges forAmerican farmers. Crop pricesand farm incomes fellsignificantly. Farmers often wentinto debt to pay for newequipment and railroad fees.Many farmers felt that they hadlost their independence andbelieved that the government didnot serve their interests.

The industrial revolution of the 19th century reached the rural South and Midwestwith the application of new technology to agricultural production. The McCormickReaper, for example, greatly expedited the grain harvest. Before the invention ofthe mechanical reaper, the amount of grain that could be harvested by handlimited farm size. The mechanical reaper eliminated this limitation, allowingfarmers to grow and sell more grain than ever before. One U.S. Department ofAgriculture employee noted that “now-a-days, for the major operations of the



farms, the farmer uses more power than he has in his muscles. He uses thepower of horses, he uses mechanical power . . . [One] man working on a farmtoday can produce ten times as much food as he produced a hundred years ago.”

While the new technology of the Industrial Revolution increased the productivity ofAmerican farms, this rise in productivity proved to be both a blessing and a curse.As farmers were able to produce more and more food with greater and greaterease, the price of crops plummeted. As the industrial era enabled the world grainmarket to become increasingly integrated, American farmers faced greaterinternational competition that also drove prices down. In 1865 the price of abushel of wheat was $1.50, but by 1894 it had dropped to $0.49. Falling cropprices led to a steep decline in farm incomes.

New farm machinery became a competitive necessity. Small farmers had toinvest in expensive new machinery in order to compete with the increasedproductivity of large mechanized farms, often going into debt to do so.

The burdens of debt lay at the heart of the farmer’s plight. Many farmers believedthat the manufacturers of farm equipment charged unfairly high prices. Farmersalso relied heavily on the railroads to transport the harvested crops to urbanmarkets. The railroads charged high prices for their transportation services,creating another necessary expense that farmers struggled to meet. To pay fornew farm machinery and railroad expenses, farmers took out loans from eitherbanks or local furnishing merchants. Often taking advantage of the farmers’desperation, lenders charged high interest rates of approximately 60%. As cropprices continued to fall, farmers often struggled to repay their growing debts.Furthermore, an inadequate money supply increased the burden of the farmers’debts. Deflation occurs when prices fall and the value of the dollar increases. Forindebted farmers, deflation in the 19th century caused the value of their unpaiddebt to grow. Farmers repaid their loans with dollars that were worth more thanthe dollars they had originally borrowed.

Farmers lost their self-sufficiency as they became increasingly dependent oncreditors, merchants, and railroads to produce and sell their crops. Many farmersbelieved that the government was protecting the interests of bankers, railroadcompanies, and industrialists above those of agrarian communities.

The National Grange and Farmers’ Alliances



The National Grange wasoriginally founded to providesocial and educational support tofarmers in isolated rural areas. Inthe 1870s, the National Grangebecame increasingly political,fighting for increased governmentregulation of the railroads. Thisprint, published in 1873, depictsscenes of farming and rural life topromote the National Grange.

In response to the hardships incurred by a decline in farm prices and mountingdebts, farmers came together to form organizations that supported agriculturalcommunities and lobbied the government on their behalf. The National Grangewas the first such organization, founded in 1867 by Oliver Hudson Kelley—aMinnesotan and employee of the Department of Agriculture—and originallynamed the Patrons of Husbandry.

The original purpose of the Grange was to facilitate educational discussionsamong farmers and to bring much needed social organization and interaction toisolated rural areas. The National Grange expanded to include around 800,000members by 1875, gaining nearly 700,000 new members in only two years.During the 1870s, farmers unified behind the Grange to challenge the



monopolistic railroads that charged high rates for the transportation and handlingof crops. As a result, membership swelled and the organization becameincreasingly political.

Through the National Grange, farmers successfully lobbied state governments topass legislation that regulated railroad rates. The railroad companies challengedthese “Granger Laws” in court, with some cases even reaching the SupremeCourt of the United States. Two of the most important Granger cases came out ofIllinois. In Munn v. Illinois, the Court decided that state governments can regulateprivate property—including railroads—“when such regulation becomes necessaryfor the public good.” In Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railway Company v. Illinois ,the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had the power to regulaterailroads as “interstate commerce.” In 1887 Congress passed the InterstateCommerce Act, establishing the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulaterailroad rates.

In the late 1870s, Farmers’ Alliances also began to emerge throughout thecountry. The first Farmers’ Alliance was started in Texas in 1877, and becameinformally known as the Southern Alliance. In 1886, Charles Macune—a Texasphysician—was elected chairman of the Southern Alliance’s executive committee.Macune proved to be a talented organizer, and Alliance membership swelledunder his leadership. When the Southern Alliance refused to accept themembership of African American farmers in the south, the Colored Farmers’Alliance and Cooperation Union was formed in Texas in 1886. By 1891, both theColored Alliance and the Southern Alliance had over one million members each.In 1889, the Southern Alliance joined with the Northern Alliance and other smallerMidwestern Farmers’ Alliances. An annual meeting of the Farmers’ Alliances washeld that year in St. Louis. The Knights of Labor, an important national labororganization, also sent delegates to the St. Louis meeting.

Similar to the National Grange, Farmers’ Alliances filled important social andeducational roles in agrarian communities. The Alliances also influenced howfarmers conducted business by organizing local coalitions of farmers calledcooperatives, which helped members to both limit the expenses of production andincrease profits. The cooperatives allowed farmers to unite and assume astronger position in business matters, such as negotiations with merchants orrailroad companies. Cooperative stores and marketing plans enabled members tosell their crops for more competitive prices, increasing sales and profits. Thecooperatives also pooled member resources to purchase necessary equipmentthat the farmers could share, decreasing the expenses associated with the



acquisition and maintenance of farm machinery. Cooperative grain elevatorsallowed member-farmers to cheaply store their grain and avoid the high pricesthat monopolistic grain elevators usually charged for the same service. Grainelevators were large crop storage facilities, located near the railroads. Farmersfrom across large geographic regions would store their crops in the same elevatoras they waited for a train to transport their crop to urban markets. Before farmershad access to cooperative grain elevators, most grain elevators were operated bythe railroad companies who charged high prices for storage service.

As Farmers’ Alliances grew, they were able to represent the interests of farmersto the federal government, lobbying for increased railroad regulation and currencyreform. The Alliances also advocated for the creation of a Subtreasury System.Under this plan, the federal government would provide storage silos calledsubtreasuries where the farmer could deposit his non-perishable crops at the endof the growing season, in order to avoid being forced to sell his crops when pricesare depressed. The crop would be cheaply stored while the farmer waited forprices to rise again. Furthermore, the federal government would loan the farmerup to 80 percent of the value of his stored crop while he waited to sell, so that hecould buy seeds for the next season. While many farmers, Alliance members, andPopulists strongly supported a Subtreasury system, the plan also had manyopponents. Although many plans to establish a Subtreasury system werepresented to Congress, none were ever adopted by the federal government.

As you learned earlier in this lesson, the People’s Party, also known as thePopulist Party, was established in 1892. Started by farm and labor leaders, thePopulist Party had widespread support among American farmers. Over the courseof the early 1890s, the Populist Party replaced the Farmers’ Alliances as theprimary political organization of American farmers. The Populists fought forgovernment control of the railroads and the coinage of silver to stop deflation.

Tenant Farming and Sharecropping



Sharecroppers worked parcels ofland that they did not own inexchange for a share of the cropat the end of the season.Sharecroppers were often in debtto their landowners, and very fewwere ever able to save enoughmoney to buy their own land. Thisphotograph shows asharecropper in Arkansas.

The sharecropping system emerged in the South around the 1860s, and waslargely based on the redefined relationships between plantation owners and theirformer slaves. Very few former slaves and poor Southern whites could afford tobuy their own land. Planters, in need of laborers, divided their land into smallerparcels to be worked by sharecroppers and tenant farmers. Becausesharecroppers and tenant farmers grew crops on land that they did not own, somehistorians refer to them as “farmers without farms.”

The sharecropper worked his parcel of the planter’s land with supplies furnishedby the planter in exchange for a share of the profits after the planter sold the crop.Usually, the sharecropper received one-half to one-third of the profits after theplanter deducted the cost of the supplies that were initially furnished to thesharecropper. The exact amount of the sharecropper’s share depended upon hisspecific agreement with the landowner.

Like sharecroppers, tenant farmers did not own the land they worked. Tenantfarmers, however, had more independence than sharecroppers. They purchasedtheir own farming supplies and had the freedom to sell or consume the cropthemselves, paying rent to the landowner.



Until they received their share of the season’s profits, sharecroppers boughtadditional farming supplies and food for their families from either the landowner oranother local merchant on credit. With limited access to commercial banks in therural South, local merchants were the financial intermediaries to the small farmersand sharecroppers. Usually very poor, sharecroppers paid for necessary goodsby offering merchants a lien on the next year’s crop. This system of borrowingfrom furnishing merchants against future crops is called the crop-lien system.

This photograph depicts anArkansas sharecropper’s home.Most sharecroppers lived in deeppoverty, caught in a nearlyinescapable cycle of debt.

Even when the harvest was plentiful, the sharecropper used most of his profit torepay the furnishing merchant or the landowner. Sharecroppers were rarely ableto accumulate sufficient savings to buy their own land. Moreover, furnishingmerchants and landowners charges exploitatively high interest rates on the tenantfarmers’ and sharecroppers’ debts. If the harvest was poor or if the crops sold forless than usual, the sharecropper would be unable to repay the furnishingmerchant or landowner, entering into a nearly inescapable cycle of debt. Manysharecroppers and tenant farmers were frequently in debt to furnishing merchantsand landowners, and most lived in deep poverty. Many southern states had lawsthat favored landowners, including some that legally bound insolventsharecroppers and tenant farmers to a contract with the same landowner as longas they continued to owe.

The sharecropping and tenancy system was permanently altered by the passageof the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, which introduced new regulations tothe agricultural sector. The Agricultural Adjustment Act was part of Franklin D.



Roosevelt’s New Deal to end the Great Depression. This law sought to reducefarm output and overproduction—thereby raising crop prices—by offering farmersfederal funds for the land they agree to take out of cultivation. This financialincentive drove many southern landowners to end their tenancy andsharecropping programs. Additionally, further advances in farming technology andthe mechanization of agriculture reduced the landowners’ need for sharecroppersand tenants to work their land. Congress also passed additional legislation to helpformer tenants and sharecroppers purchase their own land throughout the 1930s,furthering the decline of the sharecropping and tenancy system. As urban centersbegan to provide attractive employment opportunities, many sharecroppers lefttheir plots for jobs in cities. By the 1950s, the sharecropping and tenancy systemhad largely disappeared from the southern agricultural economy.



change and conflict in the american west

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