Chapter 16 IDs: The West and the New South

New South

• A slogan and vision for the post-Civil War South that championed a move away from a strictly agrarian economy toward industrialization and modern infrastructure

  • It represented a desire to integrate the Southern economy with the North through textile mills, tobacco factories, and railroads

Redeemers/Bourbons

• Southern Democrats who sought to oust the Republican coalition of freedmen, carpetbaggers, and scalawags.

  • successfully ended Reconstruction-era reforms, retaking control of state governments and implementing policies that stripped rights from Black citizens

Uncle Remus

• A fictional character and narrator of African American folktales (such as Br'er Rabbit) compiled by Joel Chandler Harris.

  • the stories often presented a romanticized, nostalgic view of plantation life that catered to white audiences' "Lost Cause" sentiments

Minstrel Shows

• A form of popular entertainment where white performers used blackface to portray racist caricatures of African Americans

  • These shows codified harmful racial stereotypes and were used to justify white supremacy and the social order of the Jim Crow era

"Convict-Lease" system

• A system where Southern states leased prisoners (predominantly Black men) to private companies for labor.

  • It was a form of "slavery by another name," providing states with revenue and corporations with cheap labor while effectively re-enslaving Black citizens through discriminatory laws.

Tenant Farmers

• Farmers who live on and work land owned by a landlord, typically paying rent in cash or with a portion of the crops.

  • While slightly more independent, many remained trapped in a cycle of debt and poverty due to high rents and low market prices.

Sharecroppers

• A system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on their portion of land.

  • It replaced slavery as the primary labor system in the South but kept many formerly enslaved people in perpetual debt and poverty through high interest rates and unfair contracts.

Crop lien system

• A credit system where farmers, lacking cash, borrowed supplies (seeds, tools, food) from local merchants or landlords by promising a portion of their future harvest as payment.

  • it created a "debt peonage" that made it nearly impossible for small farmers to gain economic independence

Booker T. Washington

• A leading African American educator, author, and advisor to presidents; he was the first leader of the Tuskegee Institute.

  • He advocated for "accommodation," suggesting that Black Americans should focus on economic self-improvement and vocational training rather than immediate social and political equality

Tuskegee Institute

• A private, historically Black university founded by Booker T. Washington in Alabama.

  • It became a hub for vocational education and economic self-reliance, proving that African Americans could excel in industry and agriculture despite systemic barriers.

Atlanta Compromise Speech

• A speech delivered by Booker T. Washington at the Cotton States and International Exposition in 1895.

  • Washington proposed that Black Southerners would accept segregation and disenfranchisement in exchange for basic education and due process in law

W.E.B. Du Bois

• An African American sociologist, historian, and civil rights activist who co-founded the NAACP.

  • He challenged Washington's accommodationist strategy, demanding immediate civil rights and the cultivation of a "Talented Tenth" of college-educated Black leaders to fight for equality

Jim Crow

• A collection of state and local laws that legalized racial segregation

  • relegated Black Americans to "second-class citizen" status, mandating separate facilities for schools, transportation, and public spaces

Plessy v. Ferguson

• A landmark Supreme Court case concerning the constitutionality of segregated railroad cars

  • the Court established the "separate but equal" doctrine, providing the legal justification for racial segregation across the United States for the next half-century

Grandfather clause (I); poll tax (II); literacy test (III)

• (I): Allowed people to vote only if their ancestors had voted before 1867.

• (II): A fee required to be paid in order to vote.

• (III): A test of reading and writing ability required for voter registration.

  • these measures were designed specifically to disenfranchise Black voters while allowing poor, illiterate whites to remain eligible to vote

Ida B. Wells

• An African American journalist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement

  • She led a fearless anti-lynching crusade in the 1890s, using investigative journalism to prove that lynching was an economic and social tool used to control and terrorize Black communities

Foreign Miner’s Tax

• A discriminatory tax passed in California that required non-native miners to pay a monthly fee to work in the gold fields

  • It was specifically designed to drive out "foreign" competition, primarily targeting Chinese and Mexican immigrants

Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882

• the first U.S. law to ban an entire ethnic group, prohibiting Chinese immigration

  • reflected deep-seated racial prejudice and economic fear among American workers

Morrill Tariff Act, 1861

• A high protective tariff passed by the U.S. Congress to increase duties on imports

  • significantly raised U.S. import duties (to about 47%) to protect Northern industries and raise federal revenue for the impending Civil War

  • marking a significant shift toward the industrial and economic dominance of the North

Morrill Land Grant Act, 1862

• A federal law that granted states public land to sell or use to fund the establishment of colleges specializing in "agriculture and the mechanic arts."

  • revolutionized higher education in the U.S. by making it accessible to the working class and provided the technical training necessary for the nation's industrial and agricultural expansion

Homestead Act, 1862

• An act that allowed any citizen (or intended citizen) to claim 160 acres of surveyed government land, provided they "improved" it by building a dwelling and cultivating crops for five years

  • was a massive "pull factor" that accelerated the settlement of the western territories

Timber Culture Act

• A follow-up to the Homestead Act that allowed settlers to claim an additional 160 acres if they planted trees on at least one-quarter (40 acres) of the land

  • attempted to address the lack of timber on the Great Plains for fuel and building materials, while also encouraging further westward expansion

Pacific Railway Act

• An act that provided government bonds and large land grants to railroad companies (the Union Pacific and Central Pacific) to build a transcontinental railroad

  • fundamentally transformed the West by connecting the Atlantic and Pacific coasts

Open Range

• Vast areas of public grassland in the West where cattle could roam and graze freely without fences

  • environment made the massive "Cattle Kingdom" possible, allowing ranchers to raise large herds at low cost before the introduction of barbed wire and private property boundaries ended the era

Cattle Kingdom

• The industry and culture associated with large-scale cattle ranching and long-distance cattle drives in the Great Plains (using trails like the Chisholm Trail, Goodnight-Loving Trail, and Western Trail)

  • became a major economic pillar of the West, fueling the growth of "cow towns" like Abilene and Dodge City and creating the iconic American figure of the cowboy

West Pull Factors

• The various attractions that drew settlers West, including the promise of free land (Homestead Act), the discovery of precious metals (gold and silver rushes), and new economic opportunities in ranching and railroading

  • these factors led to a massive population shift that closed the American frontier and led to the rapid statehood of many western territories

Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs

• the government agency responsible for managing U.S. policy regarding Native Americans and the administration of reservations

  • it was frequently criticized for corruption, mismanagement, and its role in enforcing assimilation policies that destroyed Native cultures and land rights

Turner’s Frontier Thesis

• an influential essay by historian Frederick Jackson Turner arguing that the existence of an unsettled frontier was the primary driver of American democracy

  • it shaped how Americans viewed their own history and identity, but it also raised anxieties

Concentration Policy

• a federal policy that attempted to confine individual Native American tribes to specific, defined territories (reservations) rather than allowing them to roam across the Great Plains

  • this policy was designed to clear land for white settlers and railroads, but it led to increased conflict

Indian Wars

• a series of conflicts between the U.S. Army and various Native tribes (such as the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Apache) as settlers moved West

  • these wars (including the Battle of Little Bighorn) represented the final armed resistance of Native peoples against U.S. expansion

Helen Hunt Jackson

• an author and activist who wrote A Century of Dishonor, which detailed the long history of the U.S. government’s broken treaties and injustices against Native Americans

  • her work raised public awareness and moral concern regarding Native American treatment, though it led many to support assimilation of Native Americans

Carlisle Schools

• a system of federally funded boarding schools (the first being in Carlisle, PA) designed to "civilize" Native American children by stripping them of their traditional culture and language

  • these schools were the primary tool of cultural genocide, using the motto "Kill the Indian, Save the Man"

Dawes Severalty Act/Dawes Act, 1887

• a law that broke up tribal lands into individual plots (allotments) of 160 acres for Native families, with the goal of turning them into "civilized" farmers

  • it was a disastrous policy that resulted in the loss of millions of acres of tribal land to white speculators and shattered traditional communal tribal structures

Ghost Dance Movement

• A religious movement among Native Americans (particularly the Sioux) that promised the return of the buffalo and the disappearance of white settlers

  • this movement’s spread frightened the US govt and military, which ultimately resulted in the Wounded Knee

Wounded Knee

• a massacre in South Dakota where U.S. troops killed nearly 300 Lakota Sioux men, women, and children after a struggle over a rifle during a disarmament

  • it is widely considered the final major conflict of the Indian Wars and symbolized the tragic end of Native American armed resistance on the Great Plains

National Grange Movement

• A social organization for farmers, it evolved into a political force that fought against railroad monopolies and supported farmers economically

  • one of the first organized challenges to big business power

Munn v. Illinois

• A Supreme Court Case that allowed private businesses to serve the public interest (like grain elevators) an this can be regulated by the state

  • it was a major victory for the Grange and farmers

Wabash v. Illinois

• is a major Supreme Court case that said states cannot regulate interstate commerce—that power belongs to Congress under the Commerce Clause

  • created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)

  • overturned parts of the Munn decision

Ocala Platform

• was a political and economic reform agenda adopted by the Farmers' Alliance in Ocala, Florida, in 1890, advocating for policies like the free coinage of silver, a graduated income tax, government regulation of railroads, and direct election of senators

  • it served as the foundational blueprint for the Populist Party

ICC

• was the first federal agency regulating private industry, primarily railroads, to ensure fair, public rates and stop discriminatory practices

  • it marked a historic shift away from laissez-faire economics toward federal oversight of the national economy