Chapter 17 (1890-1900)

Overview and Essential Themes of the 1890s

• The decade of the $1890s$ represents a pivotal era in United States history where the boundaries of freedom underwent a paradoxical shift: they contracted domestically while expanding internationally as the nation emerged as an imperial world power.

• Domestic Contractions of Freedom:   - African Americans: Experienced the systematic loss of political rights and the implementation of legal segregation.   - Workers: Faced violent opposition from both corporations and the government.   - Farmers: Engaged in protests against perceived economic injustices and corporate monopolies.   - Women: Campaigned for independence and the right to vote (suffrage).   - Immigrants: Dealt with increasing levels of xenophobic discrimination.

• International Expansion of Freedom’s Boundaries:   - The U.S. conquered colonial territories, extending political control to the Philippines, Hawaii, Guam, and Puerto Rico.   - These actions were justified by the claim of spreading "freedom and civilization," despite denying self-governance to the colonized.

• Central Historical Questions and Answers:   - The central question of the decade was: "Whose freedom would be protected and what liberty would be denied?"   - The historically documented answer was a narrowing of freedom's scope:     - The Compromise of $1877$ led to the abandonment of Black political power.     - The Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson ($1896$) legalized racial segregation.     - The Homestead and Pullman strikes illustrated the powerlessness of workers against corporate-government alliances.     - The defeat of Populism in the election of $1896$ signaled a victory for business interests over agrarian reform.     - Imperial expansion suggested that freedom was a "white prerogative" excluded from non-white colonized populations.

Competing Definitions of Freedom: Corporations vs. Labor

• Collision at Homestead ($1892$):   - This strike at the Homestead steel plant crystallized the conflicting American conceptions of freedom between employers and workers.   - Employers' Definition of Freedom (Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick):     - Prioritized property rights and corporate autonomy.     - The right to operate businesses without union interference.     - The right to control labor processes and unilaterally determine wages and working conditions.     - Viewed the Amalgamated Association (the union) as an intolerable threat to managerial freedom.   - Workers' Definition of Freedom:     - Defined by economic security and the right to organize collectively.     - Protection from arbitrary employer power.     - Requirements for living wages, reasonable hours, and freedom from exploitation.

• The Conflict and its Outcome:   - Henry Clay Frick surrounded the plant with barbed wire, hired $300$ Pinkerton guards, fired the entire union workforce, and replaced them with non-union laborers.   - On July $6$, $1892$, Pinkerton guards attacked striking workers, resulting in a violent skirmish that killed $7$ workers and $3$ Pinkertons.   - The Pennsylvania militia eventually opened the plant on management's terms.   - The strike lasted until November $1892$ but failed completely; the Amalgamated Association was destroyed, ending union power in the steel industry for several decades.   - The defeat demonstrated to workers that their conception of freedom was unenforceable against the combined might of corporate and government power.

The Populist Movement: Farmers' Quest for Economic Independence

• Emergence of the Farmers' Alliance:   - In the $1880s$, southern and western farmers united against railroad monopolies, exploitative merchant practices, and falling agricultural prices.   - Farmers felt trapped in debt to merchants and creditors; crop prices were declining while operational costs remained high.

• The Populist Party (People's Party):   - Crystallized agrarian discontent into a political movement.   - The Omaha Platform ($1892$) demanded government intervention to protect ordinary people from corporate exploitation.   - Key Demands:     - Government ownership of railroads to eliminate exploitative shipping rates.     - A progressive income tax to replace regressive property taxes.     - Free silver coinage to inflate the currency and ease the burdens of debtors.

• The Presidential Election of $1896$:   - Candidates:     - William McKinley (Republican): Supported the gold standard and limited government intervention; aligned with business interests.     - William Jennings Bryan (Democrat/Populist hybrid): Championed "free silver."   - The "Cross of Gold" Speech: Bryan's eloquent argument that free silver would liberate farmers from the "tyranny" of creditors.   - Result: McKinley's victory effectively crushed the Populist movement and signified the abandonment of farmers in favor of industrial/business interests.

Racial Subjugation: The Establishment of Jim Crow

• Legalization of Segregation:   - Following the collapse of Reconstruction in $1877$, southern states stripped Black citizens of political and civil rights.   - Jim Crow Laws: Named after minstrel show characters, these laws mandated racial segregation across the South, intensifying in the $1890s$.   - Scope of Segregation:     - Schools were legally segregated, with Black schools receiving a fraction of white school funding.     - Transportation, bathrooms, drinking fountains, parks, and libraries were all separated.     - Hospitals, orphanages, prisons, and even cemeteries were segregated; the dead could not be buried in the same ground.

• Enforcing the Hierarchy:   - Violations led to arrest, imprisonment, social ostracism, and economic retaliation.   - Physical violence and lynching were used as tools of racial terror to maintain a rigid hierarchy where Black people remained subordinate.

The Judiciary and Segregation: Plessy v. Ferguson

• The Case ($1896$):   - Homer Plessy, a light-skinned African American, was arrested for sitting in a white railroad car in Louisiana to challenge segregation.   - He argued that segregation violated the $14^{th}$ Amendment's equal protection clause.

• The Supreme Court Ruling:   - The Court ruled $7-1$ in favor of segregation.   - Justice Henry Billings Brown (Majority Opinion): Claimed segregation did not violate the $14^{th}$ Amendment as long as facilities were legally "equal." He argued that laws could not override "natural" racial preferences.   - Reality: Facilities for Black people were systematically underfunded and inferior.   - Justice John Marshall Harlan (Dissent): Presciently warned that "separate" could never be equal and that the decision would encourage racial oppression.

• Legacy: The "separate but equal" doctrine remained constitutional law for nearly $60$ years until Brown v. Board of Education in $1954$.

Systematic Disfranchisement of African American Voters

• Multiple legal mechanisms were deployed to eliminate Black political participation:   - Literacy Tests: Ostensibly measured reading comprehension but were administered discriminatorily. Subjective grading allowed illiterate whites to pass while literate Blacks were failed after being asked to explain complex constitutional passages.   - Poll Taxes: Required a fee to vote, which deterred impoverished Black farmers. Some states allowed installment payments for poor whites but required lump sums from Black voters.   - Grandfather Clauses: Allowed men to vote without literacy tests if their grandfathers had voted before the Civil War. This exempted poor whites while excluding Black voters who had been denied pre-war suffrage.   - White Primaries: The Democratic Party, which dominated southern politics, held "private" primary elections that excluded Black voters. Since Republican candidates rarely won, the winner of the white primary was effectively elected.

• Result: By $1910$, Black voter registration in the South declined to approximately $10\%$ of its $1868$ levels.

Women’s Movements: Independence, Education, and Suffrage

• Economic and Social Independence:   - Educational Access: By $1900$, women represented approximately $40\%$ of all American college undergraduates.   - Labor Force: Approximately $5$ million women worked for wages by $1900$, entering professions such as teaching, nursing, and clerical work.   - Legal Rights: Many states reformed coverture laws, allowing married women to control their own property, bank accounts, and earnings.   - Symbolic Freedom: The bicycle became a symbol of mobility, requiring less restrictive clothing (less corsetry) and offering literal freedom of movement.

• Women's Organizations:   - Women's clubs, settlement houses, and temperance unions provided platforms for public engagement.   - The Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), led by Frances Willard, linked suffrage to temperance, arguing that women voters would vote to ban alcohol.

• The Suffrage Campaign:   - Led by veterans like Susan B. Anthony.   - Faced intense opposition from men who argued that political participation would "unfeminize" women.   - Despite decades of advocacy, women were still legally excluded from voting in the $1890s$; success did not come until the $19^{th}$ Amendment in $1920$.

American Imperialism: The Spanish-American War

• Origins of the Conflict ($1898$):   - Rising tensions in Cuba due to brutal Spanish suppression of independence movements.   - Yellow Press: Sensationalist newspapers like Joseph Pulitzer’s World and William Randolph Hearst’s Journal inflamed public opinion with exaggerated accounts of Spanish atrocities.   - The USS Maine: On February $1898$, the ship exploded in Havana Harbor, killing $266$ crew members. While likely an accidental boiler explosion, the yellow press blamed Spain, leading to the rallying cry: "Remember the Maine!"

• The War:   - Declared in April $1898$ by President William McKinley.   - Lasted only $10$ weeks.   - U.S. forces utilized technological superiority to defeat Spain in Cuba, the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico.

• The Treaty of Paris ($1898$):   - Spain ceded the Philippines to the U.S. for $20$ million.   - Spain ceded Guam and Puerto Rico to the U.S.   - This marked the emergence of the U.S. as a global imperial power.

The Philippine-American War and Strategic Expansion

• Conflict in the Philippines ($1898-1902$):   - Emilio Aguinaldo and Filipino nationalists fought for independence, feeling betrayed when the U.S. replaced Spain as colonial ruler.   - One of America's bloodiest conflicts: approximately $200,000$ Filipinos (mostly civilians) and $4,000$ Americans died.   - American forces used brutal tactics, including torture and the destruction of villages.   - The Philippines remained a U.S. colony until $1946$.

• Strategic Expansion Elsewhere:   - Hawaii: Annexed in $1898$ after American sugar planters overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy in $1893$. Thousands of native Hawaiians were incorporated against their will.   - Open Door Policy: Announced by Secretary of State John Hay to guarantee American access to Chinese markets.   - Anti-Imperialist League: A group of prominent Americans who questioned the morality of colonialism and the contradiction of spreading freedom through conquest.

Key Events and Figures Summary

• Homestead Strike ($1892$): Violent clash that crushed union power in the steel industry.

• Plessy v. Ferguson ($1896$): Supreme Court decision institutionalizing "separate but equal."

• Populist Party: Farmers' movement for economic reform; Omaha Platform ($1892$).

• William Jennings Bryan: Fused Democrats/Populists in $1896$; "Cross of Gold" orator.

• William McKinley: Republican president ($1897-1901$); supported the gold standard and expansionism.

• USS Maine: Ship whose explosion triggered the Spanish-American War.

• Emilio Aguinaldo: Leader of Filipino resistance against U.S. colonial rule.

• Susan B. Anthony: Lifelong advocate for women's suffrage.

• John Hay: U.S. Secretary of State who authored the Open Door Policy.

Definitive Glossary of Key Terms

• Free Silver: The demand for unlimited coining of silver to inflate currency and help debtors.

• Poll Tax: A fee required to vote; used to disfranchise poor Black voters.

• Grandfather Clause: A legal loophole allowing whites to bypass voting restrictions if their ancestors had voted.

• Yellow Press: Sensationalist journalism designed to sell papers and influence policy.

• Coverture: Legal doctrine where a woman's legal identity was subsumed by her husband; challenged in the $1890s$.

• White Primaries: Primary elections held in the South where only white voters were permitted to participate.

• Separate but Equal: The legal doctrine that permitted racial segregation as long as facilities were supposedly of equal quality.