Native Americans were forced to the midwestern Great Plains due to past policies and the desire of whites to move west.
The Great Plains were not ideal for supporting the Native American lifestyle due to flat grassland, lack of trees, and wind making it difficult to grow crops.
Some Native American tribes already situated in the Great Plains included Crow, Cheyenne, and Sioux.
Native American lifestyle was very dependent on hunting buffalo for survival, as buffalo were extremely prevalent in the mid-country.
Natives used all parts of the buffalo - bones for tools, skins for clothing, and meat for consumption.
The presence of buffalo was a pain to whites for building railroads and farming.
Killing buffalo could wipe out Native American society.
The U.S. was expanding west due to the discovery of gold (1858 Colorado Gold Rush) and Manifest Destiny.
Conflicts often arose between the two groups over land ownership.
Massacre at Sand Creek (1864)
Natives realized America was not following treaties but occasionally moved off the reservation for hunting.
Cheyenne believed they were supposed to be in Sand Creek and protected in the reservation, but the U.S. military killed them.
This worsened relations between Natives and whites.
Bozeman Trail
Went into hunting grounds of Natives, causing conflicts between travelers and Natives.
The U.S. government shut down the trail.
Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)
The U.S. government forced Native (Sioux) leaders to sign the treaty.
Promoted association over assimilation by forcing Natives to agree to live on a reservation along the Missouri River.
Some Native leaders, such as Sitting Bull of Sioux and Crazy Horse, opposed the Fort Laramie Treaty and led military resistance.
Rebelling Natives started conflicts such as the Red River War - Native resistance in TX.
Native American culture leaders expected to see “visions” that indicated something Natives needed to know about.
Sitting Bull had visions of fighting back against whites, which prompted these conflicts.
Red River War indicated resistance not just in the Great Plains but all around.
U.S. General George Custer announced the discovery of gold in the Black Hills — right where the Fort Laramie Treaty sent the Native Americans.
People moved there, and Custer wanted to take over the Great Plains and end Native resistance.
Battle of Little Bighorn / Custer’s Last Stand
Sitting Bull engaged Custer.
Custer heard Sitting Bull was near the Bighorn River and pursued him.
Custer underestimated the number of Native soldiers and attacked while drunk.
Sitting Bull killed everyone under Custer’s command.
The story spread that Custer tried to stand up to savage Natives, and they massacred him for it.
Bodies of dead U.S. cavalry were mutilated, but by women due to constant abuse of Americans, not Sitting Bull’s men.
The U.S. press got hold of the story and now had a reason to kill savage Natives.
Crazy Horse started to gain prominence as a Native leader and was at the Battle of Little Bighorn with Sitting Bull.
Helen Hunt Jackson
Author of the novel A Century of Dishonor, in which the U.S.'s mistreatment and abuse of Natives was outlined.
The novel gets some support (not a lot though).
Dawes Act
When the U.S. ran out of space to push the natives, they made an effort to assimilate them by passing the Dawes Act that broke up the reservations and gave some reservation land to individual Natives.
160 acres to each head of household; 80 acres to each unmarried adult.
The government would sell the remainder of the land to settlers; resulting income would be used by Native Americans to buy farming equipment.
Whites took about ⅔ of the land set aside for Natives; Natives received no money for the sale of these lands.
Buffalo between 1800 - 1900 - white society wiped out a massive number of buffalo; only one herd was left in Yellowstone National Park.
Intentional to hinder Native lifestyle and force assimilation.
Battle of Wounded Knee
Last formal resistance of Native Americans in central plains; Indian Wars considered over afterward.
Native prophets told people to do the Ghost Dance ceremony to connect with the spirit world and defeat the U.S. military.
Sitting Bull (only Native allowed to leave reservations) did these ceremonies.
The U.S. feared Native revolt and hunted down Sitting Bull, shooting and killing him.
Natives were infuriated, leading to a huge resistance movement.
Natives leave reservation and go into hiding, and the U.S. tried to find them.
Natives were starving during winter and moved towards reservations, where they were found by the U.S.
They were forced to surrender and give up weapons, but Natives refused, and the U.S. military killed 350 of them.
The U.S. military took back its own dead and left Native bodies frozen in the Montana winter - most bodies were actually innocent women and children.
Newspaper coverage reported on the massacre.
Settling on the Great Plains
Rise in cattle production - lots of grassland after defeating Natives; the U.S. government replaced buffaloes with lots of cows.
Meat from cows went to Northern cities without farms, and railroads were used to ship this meat.
Cows went to the Chicago Union Stock Yard - a massive slaughterhouse where cows were killed and processed into meat; trains out of Chicago then sent out the dried meat.
Federal land policy + transcontinental railroad lines led to rapid, massive westward movement of settlers for farming.
The federal government made huge land grants for building railroads in the West.
Two companies competed to build railroads in the West:
Central Pacific - eastward from Sacramento.
Union Pacific - westward from Omaha.
Help build 5 transcontinental railroads linking East and West Coasts.
Land grant terms:
10 square miles of land for every mile of track laid in a state.
20 square miles for every mile of track laid in a territory.
Civil War veterans, Irish and Chinese immigrants, African Americans, and Mexican Americans did most of the hard labor.
Railroad companies sold some land to farmers for 2 - $10 per acre.
Some companies sent agents to Europe to recruit buyers, and many Western settlers were immigrants.
Western land itself also attracted settlers, leading Congress to pass the 1862 Homestead Act.
160 acres of land free to any citizen or intended citizen who was head of the household.
Many homesteaders took advantage of this opportunity, including exodusters - African-Americans who moved from the post-Reconstruction South to Kansas.
Private speculators, railroad agents, state government agents, cattlemen, and miners exploited the law for their own gain; only 10% settled by intended families.
Not all plots of land were of equal value - settlers on drier Western land required larger plots to make farming worthwhile.
The government eventually strengthened the Homestead Act + passed more legislation to attract settlers.
Oklahoma Sooners - 1889 major land giveaway in Oklahoma (Sooner State) leads thousands to claim 2 million acres in less than a day; some took possession of the land before the government officially declared it open.
Explorers Henry D. Washburn and Nathaniel P. Langford asked Congress to help protect wilderness from Western settlement, and the government created Yellowstone National Park in 1872.
In 1879, the Department of Interior forced railroads to give up claims to a massive area of Western landholdings.
Individuals still had bought more than 19 million acres of government-owned land by 1880. By 1890, the Census Bureau declared that the frontier no longer existed.
Frontier settlers faced extreme hardships - droughts, floods, fires, blizzards, locust plagues, occasional raids by outlaws and Native Americans.
Trees were scarce in plains, so settlers built homes from the land itself.
dug homes into sides of ravines/small hills (dugout).
made freestanding houses by stacking blocks of prairie tuff (soddy).
Soddies were warm in winter and cool in summer but were small and offered little light and air, were also fireproof, but leaked continuously when rained, and were infested with snakes and insects.
Homesteaders had to be superhumanly self-sufficient.
women worked on farms with men.
women were also skilled in doctoring and sponsored schools + churches to build strong communities.
New Agricultural Inventions - a mass market for these products developed with the migration of farmers onto the plains; more manufacturers of farm equipment meant faster farming and more grain available for a wider market.
The federal government supported farmers by financing agricultural education.
Morill Act of 1862 and 1890 gave federal land to states to help finance agricultural colleges.
Hatch Act of 1887 established agricultural experiment stations to inform farmers of new developments.
Farmers were in debt because agricultural machinery was expensive; they could only repay loans when wheat prices were high, otherwise had to produce more crops when prices dropped.
Railroad companies + investors created bonanza farms - enormous single crop spreads of 15,000 - 50,000 acres.
Farmers had a lot of land under cultivation (150 acres avg), and some farmers mortgaged their land to buy more property, so farmers’ debts increased as farms grew in size.
Much of the plains experienced drought, and large-scale single crop farms could not compete with smaller farms that had more flexibility in crops they grew, so bonanza farms slowly folded into bankruptcy.
Farmers felt pressure from the rising cost of shipping grain; railroads charged higher prices in the West than the East and sometimes charged higher for short hauls where there was no competing transportation than long hauls, so railroads claimed they were doing business, but farmers resented being taken advantage of.
Farmers grew as much grain as they could grow on as much land as they could acquire and went further into debt.
Farmers and Economy
Bad economic conditions for farmers in the late 1800s included crop prices falling, farmers mortgaging farms + banks foreclosing, scarcity of good farmland, and railroads taking advantage by charging excessive shipping and storage prices.
The entire nation was in economic distress.
During the Civil War, the U.S. issued almost 500 million in paper money, called greenbacks.
Greenbacks could not be exchanged for silver or gold money and were worth less than hard money of the same face value (coins and paper money printed in yellow ink that could be exchanged for gold).
The government began to take greenbacks out of circulation after the War, which pissed off farmers.
This increased the value of money that stayed in circulation, and farmers who had borrowed money had to pay back loans in dollars worth more than the dollars they had borrowed.
Farmers received less money for their crops at the same time.
Farmers continued to lose money.
Farmers and other debtors pushed the government to issue more money into circulation, but efforts failed.
Bland-Allison Act of 1878 required the government to buy and coin 2 million to 4 million worth of silver each month (one effort that failed).
Farmers paid outrageously high prices to transport grains because lack of competition among railroads made prices exorbitant.
Short trips by rail were often more expensive than long trips by boat.
Railroads made secret agreements with middlemen (grain brokers and merchants) allowed railroads to control grain storage prices and influence the market price of crops.
Many farmers mortgaged crops for credit to buy seed and supplies; suppliers charged high rates of interest (sometimes charging more than for cash purchases), so farmers got caught in a cycle of credit and worked longer hours while accumulating more debt.
Farmers needed to organize to effectively push for reforms.
Oliver Hudson Kelley started Patrons of Husbandry (Grange) - an organization for farmers originally meant to provide a social outlet and educational forum for isolated farm families, but members spent most of their time and energy fighting railroads.
The Grange’s battle plan involved teaching members how to organize, how to set up farmers’ cooperatives, and how to sponsor state legislation to regulate railroads.
The Grange gave rise to Farmers’ Alliances - included many others who sympathized with farmers; sent lecturers to towns to educate people about topics such as lower interest rates on loans and government control over railroads and banks.
Membership grew to more than 4 million - mostly in the South and West; the Southern Alliance (white Southern farmers) was largest; many African Americans were in the Colored Farmers’ National Alliance; some promoted cooperation between black and white alliances, but most members accepted the separation of organizations.
The Expansion of Industry
Factors contributing to Industrial Expansion
Abundance of natural resources
Oil, coal, steel, and immigrants for cheap labor.
Oil/coal ⇒ fuel; steel ⇒ factories.
Oil drilling ⇒ kerosene (used to light lamps) + gasoline (fuel for later automobiles).
Increased urban population
More workers + markets.
Government support for businesses
Loans, grants.
Inventions to promote change
Bessemer process ⇒ steel.
Christopher Sholes - typewriter ⇒ along with the telephone, created clerical jobs for women and helped with communication.
Thomas Edison - lightbulb ⇒ factory workers can work all day long.
Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson - telephone ⇒ some criticism; can’t pick up social cues/facial expressions.
George Westinghouse - electricity (cheaper electrical grid)
Urban travel more cheap and efficient ⇒ cities develop.
Ran machines, powered homes.
Factories do not need rivers.
The Age of the Railroads
Positive Impacts of Railroad
Employment opportunities (Americans, Irish and Chinese immigrants).
Connected people and trade across the country.
Increase in immigration - China, Ireland.
Emergence of time zones - help with communication, travel.
George Pullman - created a city just for his workers for his railroad company (positive and a negative); provided good living conditions and increased productivity.
Negative Impacts of Railroad
Harsh working conditions for Chinese and Irish immigrants.
Railroad company corruption ⇒ abuse of land grants from the government (Homestead Act, Dawes Act), raised shipping rates excessively.
Overbuilding of railroads ⇒ economic collapse for companies.
Pullman controlled his workers socially.
Big Business and Labor
Andrew Carnegie
Involved in the steel industry - Carnegie Steel Company ⇒ made more money.
Started off very poor but ended up very rich.
#1 steel producer in the world ⇒ upset Britain.
Gave away some of his money ⇒ strong believer in education and donates money to it; also donated money to religious causes (promoter of world peace).
Started off working for a train company ⇒ this is how he became wealthy initially.
Vertical Integration - own every step of the supply chain/process from start to finish.
Horizontal Integration - own every part of one step of the supply chain/process; mergers, buying other companies, etc.
Monopoly - horizontal + vertical integration; negative - eliminates competition, companies can charge whatever price for consumers.
J.P. Morgan
Saved/invested in railroad companies.
Helped financially stabilize the U.S. government.
Invested in and donated to hospitals and education.
Got his start as a banker.
United States Steel - his company; didn’t start U.S. Steel but bought Carnegie Steel Company and merged it with other companies to make U.S. Steel.
The U.S. government asked him for loans (has power + influence; people need him, which could be a negative as it could lead to corruption).
Holding Company - a company that purchases other companies' stock in order to control them.
Stock - purchasing a share of a company.
John D. Rockefeller
King of Industrialists; 1st Billionaire.
Involved in the oil industry - had company “Standard Oil”.
Increased production of oil ⇒ produced so much that he could drop the price of oil and had a monopoly on oil production.
Smaller other companies can’t compete, go bankrupt, and then he buys them.
Donated a lot of money to education + medical institutions.
Trust Company - John D. Rockefeller does this to avoid negative perception of a monopoly; creation of Board of Trustees from each company to make decisions that benefit all the companies as a whole.
Rockefeller creates a trust company of 6 different companies; as the president, he controlled companies and made them do things benefiting himself.
Sherman Anti-Trust Act - The U.S. government passes a law to prevent this, but rarely enforced so kind of useless.
After, Rockefeller tries to use money to control Congress (bribery).
Overall, he put people out of business and destroyed competition.
Labor Leaders and Unions
Eugene Debs
Member of Socialist Party.
Socialists want more government regulation (things like building codes, minimum wage rules, etc.).
Ran for president 5x; never won.
Involved in the Pullman strike and arrested for it.
Promoted Craft Union - skilled workers; believed this should be the focus of Union pursuit; not unskilled workers.
Collective Bargaining - certain Union members bargaining for the entire membership.
Advocated beyond wages - also advocated for free food, reasonable hours, and fair working conditions.
President of American Federation of Labor - union of unions.
Cigar Maker.
Mary Harris “Mother” Jones
Labor reformer.
Knights of Labor - member of Union group allowing women.
Advocated for ending child labor; supported women’s laborers + women’s rights and suffrage.
Started off advocating for mine workers.
Went to jail.
Member of the Social Democratic Party - advocated for women’s rights.
Union Names
International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union - example of a womens’ labor union; Mary Jones was involved.
National Labor Union - first big, country-wide Union advocating for fair working hours (8 hour work day); white membership.
Colored National Labor Union - black people labor union.
Haymarket Riot
Strike at McCormick Factory owned by International Harvester ⇒ 1 protester was killed; the event turned violent - accusations of police brutality.
May 1886 - ppl. in Chicago protest against police brutality at Haymarket Square due to the way police treated protesters at the strike ⇒ gets violent; a bomb was thrown and an explosion did occur (unclear who did it), and police returned fire ⇒ eventually resulted in Union leaders who organized it getting arrested + put on trial; some executed; the incident was overall blamed on Union.
The public turned against Unions like Knights of Labor, saw them as violent people who attack police officers.
Pullman Strike
Economic downturn ⇒ Pullman reduces workers wages but does not reduce the price of rent, food, and electricity ⇒ workers go on strike ⇒ slightly violent; the railroad shut down.
Other groups of railroad workers got on board ⇒ mail not getting shipped ⇒ affects everyone; negative public perception, and U.S. military forced to intervene to stop strike.
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
Improved working conditions (end result) - positive for workers.
TSF produced clothing (flammable) and had a massive fire ⇒ working condition reform ⇒ public outraged, very popular incident.
Tons of oil floor on factory floors for lubricating machines.
Crowded.
Owners locked doors (concern for stealing and workers going on break when they weren’t supposed to).
Nearly 500 workers (mainly immigrants + women) die; couldn’t leave due to locked doors, and fire trucks couldn’t reach higher floors.
Factory owners were charged with manslaughter ⇒ found innocent.
Immigration
Immigration Boom - Millions of immigrants entered the U.S in the late 19th/early 20th centuries in hopes of a better life
Some wanted to escape difficult conditions, such as famine, land shortages, or religious/political persecution
Others wanted to immigrate temporarily to earn money then return back home (“birds of passage”)
Europeans: East coast, religious persecution (Jews), rising populations ⇒ scarcity of farmland, farmers competed w/ laborers for fewer industrial jobs, America had jobs, reform/revolt movements in Euro; initially N. and W., then S. and E.
Chinese: West coast, smaller immigration than Euro, CA gold rush, built American railroads (1st transcontinental R.R.), after RRs, farming, mining, domestic service, but C. immigration very limited after congressional act in 1882
Japanese: Japan govt let HI planters to recruit J. workers; US annexation of HI 1898 ⇒ increased Japanese immigration to West coast, higher American wages, smaller than Euro
West Indies: E + SE America from West Indies (Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico) due to job scarcity, industrial boom in America provided jobs
Mexico: find jobs + flee political/social turmoil, 1902 National Reclamation Act encouraged irrigation of arid land ⇒ created new farmland in W. states ⇒ drew Mexican farm workers northward
A Difficult Journey
Almost all immigrants traveled by steamship
1 week across Atlantic from Euro, 3 weeks across Pacific from Asia
Many immigrants traveled in steerage - cheapest accommodations in a ship’s cargo holds; rarely allowed on deck, crowded together, unable to exercise/get breath of fresh air
Disease ran rampant ⇒ some died before reaching destination
Ellis Island
Immigrants (Euro, mostly) had to pass inspection at immigration stations for admission into U.S., chiefly Ellis Island in NY Harbor (originally @ Castle Garden, NY)
20% detained for 1 or more days before being inspected, but only 2% of those denied entry
Processing immigrants at Ellis Island was a 5+ hr ordeal; had to pass a physical exam by a doctor or were sent home, then govt inspector checked documents and questioned for legal reqs. (never convicted of felony, able to work, showing that they had some money 25 in 1909)
Angel Island
Asians (primarily Chinese) arriving on West Coast gained admission at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay
Processing contrasted procedure at Ellis Island - harsh questioning, long detention in filthy, poorly constructed buildings
Cooperation for Survival
“Hyphenated” American immigrants faced challenges after admission - finding place to live, getting job, trying hard to understand unfamiliar language + culture
Immigrants sought out ppl who shared cultural value, religion, native language; these ethnic communities were life rafts for immigrants ⇒ pooled money to build churches/synagogues, formed social clubs and aid societies, founded orphanages, old people’s homes, cemeteries, published newspapers in native languages
Nativism
Emergence of anti-immigrant sentiments - many native-born Americans thought of the U.S. as a melting pot, a mixture of people of different cultures and races who blended together by abandoning their native languages/customs; many immigrants did not want to give up their cultural identities ⇒ native-born Americans often disliked immigrants’ languages/customs and viewed as a threat to the American way of life
Nativism gave rise to anti-immigrant groups and led to a demand for anti-immigrant restrictions
Nativists believed Anglo-Saxons (Germanic ancestors of English) were superior to other ethnic groups ⇒ did not oppose these kinds of immigrants; instead thought problems were caused by Slavic, Latin, Asian immigrants
Nativists opposed immigrants’ religious beliefs - native-born Americans were Protestant and thought Roman Catholic and Jewish immigrants would undermine democratic institutions of Protestant founders ⇒ many colleges, businesses, social clubs refused to admit Jews
Congress passed a bill requiring a literacy test for immigrants - those who could not read 40 words in English or their native language would be refused entry; President Cleveland vetoed the bill, but a similar bill passed into law in 1917 despite Woodrow Wilson’s veto
(UNIMPORTANT) Preston F. Hall founded the Immigration Restriction League, which influenced the literacy test requirement; the American Protective Association launched vicious anti-Catholic attacks
Chinese Exclusion Act
Nativism influenced the labor movement in the West, where native-born workers feared that jobs would go to Chinese immigrants who accepted lower wages
The Depression of 1873 intensified anti-Chinese sentiment in CA.
Work was scarce, and labor groups exerted political pressure on the government to restrict Asian immigration
The founder of the Workingmen’s Party, Denis Kearney, headed the anti-Chinese movement in CA ⇒ made 100s of speeches throughout the state, ending w/ message “The Chinese must go!”
1882- Congress shuts down Chinese immigration for 10 years by passing the Chinese Exclusion Act - banned entry to all Chinese except students, teachers, merchants, tourists, and government officials
1892 - Chinese extended law for another 10 years; 1902 - Chinese immigration restricted indefinitely; law not repealed until 1943
Reflection Questions
What were the consequences of the increased western settlement of the American People?
Displacement of Native Americans and Conflicts
Expansion of Railroad
Economic Growth
What changes were brought to the US economy by the emergence of “Big Business”?
Introduction of Monopolies
Carnegie Steel Company and U.S. Steel - #1 steel producer in the world
Standard Oil - could drop price of oil due to enormous production
Provided essential resources for industrialization - oil for fuel; steel for factories, infrastructure
Horizonal Integration
Vertical Integration
New Business Types
J.P. Morgan and Holding Companies - a company that purchases other companies' stock in order to control them; stock - purchasing a share of a company
John D. Rockefeller - Trust Companies ⇒ way to hide monopolies + subsequent Sherman Anti-Trust Act
J.P. Morgan financially stabilized the U.S. government during depressions; U.S. government requested loans from him
Philanthropy - these individuals donated money to education, healthcare, and religious causes
Overall, however, Big Business thrived much of wealth controlled by a few extremely powerful individuals while other small companies and commoner couldn’t compete and went bankrupt monopolies, horizontal, vertical integration all put people out of business and eliminated competition, allowing Big Business to charge whatever rates they wanted
What was the response of laborers to the emergence of new economic conditions in the Industrial Age?
Business owners started to care less about needs of workers, instead prioritizing making as much money as possible while industry boomed and monopolies/Big Business emerged ⇒ harsh working conditions (low pay, long hours, etc.) ⇒ laborers RESIST
Formation of Unions
Promotion of Industrial Unions (skilled and unskilled workers) by Eugene Debs and promotion of Craft Unions (only skilled workers) by Samuel Gompers
American Federation of Labor formed a union of unions; led by Gompers
Collective Bargaining - Union delegates advocating for the entire membership
Unions accepting women: Knights of Labor and International Ladies Garment National Labor Union - first big, country-wide Union advocating for fair working hours (8 hour work day); white membership
Colored National Labor Union - black people labor union
Strikes
Pullman Strike
Haymarket Riot
Also, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory only further enraged workers; ended in better working conditions for laborers; provided support of the public
What brought about the increased immigration to the United States, and what role did immigrants play in industrialization?
Why
Famine, land shortages, or religious/political persecution, job shortages in home countries due to rising populations; America had better opportunities for them than Europe/Asia
Others wanted to immigrate temporarily to earn money then return back home (“birds of passage”)
Role: Cheap labor
worked in factories (ex. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory) and help build railroads (transatlantic railroads w/ Central Pacific and Union Pacific); specifically Chinese and Irish immigrants for railroads; immigrations also did domestic service, mining, farming ⇒ powered growth of U.S. industry
Primary Sources
Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868
Outlined land Natives not allowed to settle/go on, but Natives allowed to move off reservations for hunting purposes
Railroads can be built on plains; Natives cannot rebel
Natives cannot attack settlers, kidnap children/women, or kill men ⇒ not the other way around though
Dawes Act
Natives in America could apply for land given by the U.S. government if they do not have a reservation (govt made a list)
If no Native American takes a piece of land after 25 years, it will be sold to (white) settlers, not railroad companies (but Congress can still build railroads themselves)