Reconstruction in a Nutshell

• Period when the United States tried to rebuild itself after the CW

• 1865-1877• Three Phases: Presidential, Congressional, and

Southern Democrat

Presidential

• Lincoln (assassinated) wanted Confed states to join union with no restrictions or penalties

• Johnson- wanted to cut power from wealthy landowners and high ranking Confed officers but believed “white men should manage South”

• Radical Republicans- sought to destroy political power of former slaveholders and wanted AA full citizenship and right to vote

Congressional Reconstruction

• Civil Rights Act 1866- give AA citizenship and forbade states from passing discriminatory laws

• Johnson vetoed CRA• Radical and Moderate Rep change

reconstruction process• 14th amendment-prevented states from

denying rights and privileges to any US citizen

Congressional pt 2

• Reconstruction Act of 1867- did not recognize state governments (Lincoln and Johnson did)

• States must AA suffrage and ratify 14th amendment (Johnson vetoed again, overruled again)

• U.S. Grant President 1868- sought protection of AA- Federal troops in south

• 15th Amendment- suffrage for all

• For short time, AA were improving lives• Active role in politics- Hiram Revels- 1st AA

senator• Sharecropping-assigned few acres on

someone’s property along with seed and tools. Keep enough for family and gave rest of crop to landowner

• KKK- violence, intimidation and threats of job loss

Southern Reconstruction

• 5 year depression (panic of 1873)- diverted North’s attention away from South’s issues

• Republicans slowly retreated from Reconstruction policies

• Southern Democrats took control

Election of 1876

• Democratic- Samuel Tilden• Republican- Rutherd Hayes • SD in congress agreed to accept Hayes if

federal troops removed from South• Reconstruction ends

Changes on the Western Front

Chapter 5

Key Ideas To Think About

• The late 1890s- The American West is the last frontier. Ranchers, cowboys, and miners have changed forever the lives of NA who hunted the plains.

• Westward fever- grab “free” farm land

Great Plains

• Page 205• East (Lower Missouri River)- Osage and Iowa

tribes• West- Sioux and Cheyenne• Peoples of Plains abided by tribal law and

traded and produced crafted tools and clothing

Conflicts w/ NA

• Why are Natives feared?– Barbaric– Not settled, nomadic (move around)– Not Christians– Rituals=uncivilized

How NA lived

• Dependant on buffalo- food, clothing, shelter• Role of men- hunter, warrior, obtained food

and supplies• Role of women- butcher game, prepared

hides, cared for family• Education done so through stories, myths and

games

Americanization

• American effort to TEACH NA• Teach American culture, fashion, language and

history• Get rid of “strange” NA culture• American schools –taught English and AM

culture• Parents still teaching own values and customs

Assimilation

• Blend NA into American society• Way for government to “Americanize” Natives

Dawes Act

• 1887• Teach Plains Indians how to farm own land• Broke up reservation land by redistributing

land to head of family• 160 acres farmed; 320 acres for livestock• Remaining reservation land sold to white

settlers• Failure

What Motivates Expansion in the West

• Congressional Acts opens up with west• HOMESTEAD ACT- 1862, a law that provided

160 acres to citizen head of household; cultivate land for 5 years

• Pacific Railway Act-1850-1871; 170 million acres, worth half bil $.

• Union and Central Pacific race to lay track.

Who moves out West

• Southerners- post CW, farms devastated • Exodusters- African Americans who move

from the south to Kansas

Railway

• Central Pacific- moved eastward from Sacramento, CA

• Union Pacific- moved westward from Omaha, Nebraska

• CW vets, Irish and Chinese Immigrants, AA, MA did hard labor

• Both reached Utah in 1869 (transcontinental rr)• 15 years later- 5 transcontinental railroads

Railway

• Coolies- Chinese immigrants- worked on RR• Paddies- Irish immigrants-worked on RR

Chinese Exclusion Act

• The first significant Chinese immigration to America began with the California Gold Rush of 1848-1855 and continued with subsequent large labor projects, such as the building of the First Transcontinental Railroad.

• At first tolerated; however, more immigrants and less jobs

• 1882- It was one of the most significant restrictions on free immigration in U.S. history, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers

• Hard to prove not laborers

First Transcontinental RR

• A railroad line linking Atlantic and Pacific coasts- 1869

Effects of RR

• Railroad construction disrupted Native lifestyles

• Forced off land• Set out to kill buffalo

Economic Effect of RR

• Growth in 1800s– Expansion of potential markets for goods– Cattle, crops, resources, etc

Hardship for settlers

• Droughts, floods, fires, blizzards, locust plagues, raids by outlaws and NA

• Dugouts- when pioneers dug their homes in sides of ravines or small hills.

• Soddy- like a dugout, sod home– Warm in winter, cool in summer– Leaked– Snakes, insects, yikes!

Inventions for Farmers

• 1837- John Deere- steel plow, slice through heavy soil and not break

• 1847- Cyrus McCormick- mass produce reaping machine

• 1890- more than 900 manufacturers of farm equipment

• Grain more available

Inventions

• Steel plow- Deere• Barbed Wire- 1874• Reaper-cut and thresh wheat in one pass• Spring tooth harrow-prepared soil

Feds support Farmers

• Feds supported farmers through agricultural education.

• Morrill Act- 1862 and 1890 gave federal land to the states to finance agricultural colleges. (MSU)

• Hatch Act 1887- est ag experiment stations to inform farmers of new developmentsgrains for arid soils and techniques for dry farming- helped eastern plains to flourish

Bonanza Farms

• Phenomenon occurred in West• Cultivation of single cash crop• Take loans on large plots of land to harvest

crops• Good harvest=good profit• Bad harvest=loose everything and cannot

repay dept• Too risky

Western Industries

• Cattle boom- Spanish and English settlers brought cattle-breed of two= longhorn

• After CW-cattle boomed• Dying buffalo population=demand for cattle• Eastern cities=food and leather

Cattle and Railroad

• Cattle raised in west and shipped to factories in East

• Invention of refrigerated box car –keeps beef fresh

Cowboys

• Primary job- get cattle from ranch to ‘railhead’ or a city along the railroad

• 15-24 years old• Long day 10-14 hours-spring “round up time”

Long drives/cattle drives

• Long journey to move cattle• Ranches in TX, railroads in Cheyenne,

Wyoming; Abilene or Dodge City, Kansas• Trails- Baxter Spring Trail, Western Trail,

Chiholm trail (p. 224)• 3 months – dangerous• Rivers, stampedes• Each cattlehead=$$

Cowboy legend

• After dropped off cattle, got paid and stayed in town and went to saloons

• Saloons= alcohol, gambling and women

Cattle boom end

• Ranching popular 20 years• Severer droughts and blizzard (1887)• Range wars- fighting with sheep herders• Two breeders- “open range” sheep ate all

grass and land open to the public for livestock• These battles lead to end of open ranging b/c

private owners will mark off their land with barbed wire

Mining

• First attraction to new frontier• CA Gold Rush

• Major industry in West• Not just gold, but silver, iron, etc.

Seward’s Folly (Alaska)

• Mining in the north changes American minds about the purchase of Alaska

• Purchase of Alaska in 1867• Sec of State William Seward purchased from

Russia for cheap– Seward-expansionist & Alaska “strategic location”– Useless until 1890s gold and other resources

discovered

Mining Methods

• Hard rock mining- use explosives to expose iron trapped in rocks

• Hydraulic mining- using water at high pressure to break gravel and dirt to reach minerals

• Effects/dangers- high temps and respiratory problems.. Deep in earth, explosives, these factors will help miners unionize

Closing Frontier

• In 1872, Congress began to pass acts to help keep lands in west from being settled

• National Parks (Yellowstone)• Attempts to preserve natural setting and

resources

Populist Party

• Farmers had many problems– Urban growth=need for more food– More crops=more land and equipment to ship

food– RR rates- high cost of shipping– Bank loans had high interest rates (ate Farmer’s

profits)

Solve Problems

• Grange- Oliver Kelley 1867, social organization then pushed for political reform

• Noted for: Granger Laws and Cooperatives– Cooperatives-Coops reduced costs- pooled resources for all

to use. Also bought and sold goods at coops, could buy farming equip at wholesale price

– G. Laws- fought from state to state to reduce RR shipping costs• Munn v Illinoise (1877)-state right to regulate rr• Wabash v Illinois (1886)- states cannot regulate rr traffic across all

states (fed power)– First fed mandate (order) over rr

Interstate Commerce Act (ICA)

• Due to Wabash- ICA of 1887– Railroad rates must be fair and just– The ICA created the Interstate Commerce

Commission (ICC): investigate practices of rr companies

– At first, hard to enforce

Farmer’s alliance

• Texas 1870• objectives:– Form cooperatives– Provide insurance for farmers– Regulate banks, and rr– Teach farmers how to be politically active

• 3 groups– National Farmers’ Alliance- west– Southern Farmers’ Alliance- white farmers South– Colored Farmers’ Alliance- AA rejected from groups

Populist Party

• People’s party- 1890s, formed by Farmers• Farmers trying to make a change• Goals: graduate income tax, regulations of banks,

cooperatives, regulate rr, immigration restrictions• Voting- should be “by the people and for the

people” so they want to elect their own senators directly (then HOR chose senators)

• Free coinage of silver (currency)- led to downfall of party

Money issue

• Why farmers wanted gov to coin more silver?• If prices increase on crops, ppl pay more

money for the crop and farmers get more in profit (helps in shipping, intrest rates, etc)

Silverties vs Goldbugs

Silverties– Bimetalism

• Gold and Silver – Free Silver

Goldbugs• Gold only

Free Coinage of SilverIncrease dollar supply

Gold and Silver (WJB)• More money in circulation• Value of the dollar decrease• Debtors/Farmers• Inflation=higher prices

Gold (president cleveland) • Less money in circulation• Value of dollar increases• Creditors• Average against higher

prices

Bland-Allison Act

• Requires the U.S. Treasury to buy a certain amount of silver and put it into circulation as silver dollars. Though the bill was vetoed by President Rutherford B. Hayes, the Congress overrode Hayes' veto

Sherman Silver Purchase Act

• Did not authorize the free and unlimited coinage of silver that the farmers supporters wanted.

• However, it increased the amount of silver the government was required to purchase on a recurrent monthly basis

• Farmers had immense debts that could not be paid off due to deflation caused by overproduction, and they urged the government to pass the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in order to boost the economy and cause inflation, allowing them to pay their debts with cheaper dollars

Election 1896- William Jennings Bryan

• Democrat and Populist candidate• Cross of Gold Speech- Gold standard crucifying human rights

Read Caption on Page 223-who benefited by the gold standard?

End of populism

• People feared inflation• Did not want high prices• William McKinley elected• Populism fades but Progressives (1920)

revamp populists goals