The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution 1865-1896
Culture Clash on the Plains 1860 Native Americans numbered about 360,000 stood in the path of white pioneers White settlers undermined Indian culture Spread diseases like cholera and smallpox Put further pressure on declining buffalo herds Warfare intensified among tribes for hunting lands
Pacifying the Plains Indians Fort Laramie (1851) and Fort Atkinson (1853) Marked beginnings of reservation system Established boundaries for territory of each tribe Treaty makers misunderstood Indian culture chiefs and tribes fictions of white imagination Native Americans usually recognized no authority outside immediate family Idea of nomadic culture alien to concept of defined territory
Great Sioux Reservation Dakota Territory Gave up ancestral land for promises to be left alone and provided with food, clothing, and other supplies Officials palmed off moth-eaten blankets, spoiled beef, and defective provisions
Indian Wars Sand Creek, Colorado, 1864 Colonel Chivington s militia massacred 400 Indians who thought they were promised immunity 1866, Bozeman Trail Construction Sioux war party attempted to block construction Ambushed Cptn. Fetterman s command of 91 soldiers and civilians in Wyoming s Bighorn Mountains Left no survivors 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie: Gov t abandoned Trail
General George A. Custer 1874: led scientific expedition into Black Hills Announced he discovered gold Sioux took to warpath 1876: Battle of Little Bighorn Custer and 264 men completely wiped out by Sioux led by Sitting Bull US Army hunted down Indians involved in following months
Fire and Sword Policy Finally moved onto reservations where they could have cultural autonomy but were dependent on government Cheaper to feed than fight Ignored to death for generations Brought down by railroad, disease, alcohol and virtual extermination of buffalo
Bellowing Herds of Bison 1865: 15 million grazing in the West Food supply of railroad workers Massacre of herds began with building of railroads Slain for hides, choice cuts, and amusement Fewer than 1000 alive by 1885 with danger of complete extinction
End of the Trail 1880s saw stirring of national conscience Helen Hunt Jackson A Century of Dishonor chronicled record of government ruthlessness in dealing with Indians Humanitarians wanted to treat Indians kindly Hard-liners insisted on current policy of containment and brutality Neither respected the culture
Dawes Severalty Act 1887 Wiped out tribal ownership of land and set up individual family heads with 160 acres Would receive citizenship after 25 years 1924 citizenship granted to all 1879: Carlisle Indian School, PA Separated children from families Learned white values and customs 1890s expanded network of boarding schools
Mining 1858: Discovery of gold in Colorado 1859: Comstock Lode in Nevada (silver) $340 million mined from 1860-1890 Transformation in mining industry From independent dishpanners to mechanized corporations Brought in costly machinery and trained engineers
Mining Opportunities Women found some opportunity running boardinghouses Won vote in Wyoming (1869), Utah (1870), Colorado (1893) and Idaho (1896) Helped fund Civil War, the building of railroads, and intensified conflict between whites and Indians
Beef Bonanzas Problem of marketing steer solved with transcontinental railroads Cattle could be shipped to stockyards and then meatpacking factories Refrigerator cars perfected transportation Long Drive Cowboys drove herds numbering in thousands over plains to reach railroad terminals Drive profitable as long as grass was available & escaped Indians, stampedes, and other hazards 1866-1888: 4 million steer moved
Unmaking of the Long Drive Rails that brought cattle east returned with homesteader and sheepherder Built barbed-wire fences too numerous to be cut down Winter of 1886-87 Overexpansion and overgrazing
Homestead Act of 1862 Allowed settlers to acquire as much as 160 acres by living on it for five years, improving it, and paying $30 Land given away to encourage rapid filling of West Corporations used dummy homesteaders to grab best land containing timber, minerals, and oil improved land by building 12 X 14 dwellings in inches, not feet!
Prairie Geography Windswept, mostly treeless, tough sod Once broken, land proved fruitful, with settlers building homes from sod Pushed onto marginal lands beyond 100 th meridian So little rain fell that agriculture needed massive irrigation dry farming method of frequent shallow cultivation that created finely pulverized surface
Kansas emigrants Kansas emigrants The railroads provided would-be "sodbusters" with transportation to get to the land that was being opened for settlement. (Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries) Copyright Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Great American Desert Blooms Began to plant drought-resistant grains like sorghum Barbed wire, invented by Glidden in 1874, built fences on treeless prairies Federal gov t financed irrigation projects 45 million acres in 17 states
Far West Comes of Age 1889-1890: Congress admitted 6 states North & South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming Made available to settlers vast stretches of land in Oklahoma April 22, 2869, Oklahoma opened 60,000 inhabitants by end of the year, made into a territory 1907 became the Sooner State
Fading Frontier 1890: superintendent of census declared frontier to be closed Frederick Jackson Turner s The Significance of the Frontier in American history (1893) Establishment of national park system Yellowstone in 1872, Yosemite & Sequoia in 1890
Safety Valve Theory stated that during hard times, the people turned to farming Actuality: Few moved out of cities during depressions Most did not know how to farm or were unable to raise the money for equipment More moved from cities like Chicago, Denver, and San Francisco than eastern cities
Farm Becomes a Factory Large-scale farmers tied to banking, railroads, and manufacturing Needed expensive machinery to plant and harvest crops (twine binder and combine) Mechanization drove many farmers off their land, increasing ranks of factory workers
Deflation Dooms Debtor Low prices and deflated currency chief worries of farmers Not enough money to go around The more they grew, the lower the prices, driving them deeper into debt Growth of tenancy over ownership 1880 1/4 farms operated by tenants
Unhappy Farmers Grasshoppers, boll weevils, floods, and droughts wreaked havoc on farmers Gouged by farmers from local to federal levels Land overassessed No protection on world market In the grip of railroads Freight rates high, sometimes lost less if burned crops for fuel
Farmers Take Their Stand National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry (1867) Enhanced lives of farmers socially, educationally, fraternally 1875 claimed 800,000 members Raised goal from self-improvement to improvement of farmers plight Enjoyed political success in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota Granger Laws Strove to regulate railway rates and storage fees
Greenback Labor Party 1878 polled 1 million votes and elected 14 members to Congress 1880: ran General James B. Weaver as presidential candidate Old Granger and favorite of Civil War veterans Polled 3% of popular vote
Populism People s Party emerged out of Farmer s Alliance in 1890s Nationalizing railroads, telephones, telegraphs Graduated income tax and subtreasury Free and unlimited coinage of silver Ignatius Donnelly (MN) elected to Congress 3 times Mary Elizabeth Lease
Coxey s Army General Jacob S. Coxey Set out for DC in 1894 with supporters Wanted gov t to relieve unemployment Arrested for walking on the grass
Coxey's Army Coxey's Army Jacob Coxey's "army" of the unemployed reaches the outskirts of Washington, D.C., in 1894. Note the new electrical or telephone poles. (Library of Congress) Copyright Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Pullman Strike Pullman Palace Car Company hit hard by 1893 depression Cut wages by 1/3, but did not cut rent at company town Workers struck and held up traffic from Chicago to Pacific Coast Crushed by federal troops First time government used injunction to break a strike Workers held in contempt imprisoned w/out jury trial
King Debs King Debs This famous cartoon about the Pullman strike, originally published July 14, 1894, in Harper's Weekly, shows Eugene Debs, head of the American Railway Union, sitting atop a railway bridge that has been turned to cut off all rail traffic. The railroad cars behind him are labeled "fresh vegetables," "beef," and "fruit," to emphasize the perishable nature of the products that could not be delivered, and others are identified as "U.S. Mail." In the background, factories have "closed" signs on them. This cartoon, and others like it, helped to mobilize opinion against the strikers. (Library of Congress) Copyright Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Election of 1896 Republican candidate William McKinley Leaned towards hardmoney policy Declared for gold standard Largely creature of Marcus Hanna Hanna believed in trickle down effect Democratic Candidate William Jennings Bryan Plea for silver Inflation through unlimited coinage of silver Caused rift with Gold Bug Democrats
Cross of Gold Speech We will answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold. William Jennings Bryan July 1896
Populist Dilemma Democratic majority took their platform for silver Endorsed fusion with Democrats and Bryan for president, sacrificing identity
Election of 1896 Results McKinley triumphed 271 to 176 electoral votes 7,102,246 to 6,492,559 popular votes McKinley carried populous East and the upper Mississippi River valley Bryan s states included South and West
Consequences Heralded advent of new era in politics Resounded victory for big business, big cities, middle-class values, financial conservatism Heralded Republican grip for next 16 years, and for all but 8 of next 36 Accompanied by diminishing voter participation, weakening of parties, and fading issues of money and civil-service reform Replaced by concern for industrial regulation and welfare of labor
Republican Stand-pattism Enthroned Tariff issue rose to the front Wilson-Gorman Tariff not raising enough revenue (reduced tariff and passed 2% income tax) 1897: Dingley Tariff Bill (raised tariff 46.5%) Prosperity began to return in 1897 Gold Standard Act of 1900 established backing of paper money by gold