APUSH Period 6 Notes (1865-1898)

Post-Civil War Expansion (1865-1898)

• Economic Opportunities in the West:
  • Mining
  • Farming (Homestead Act: 160 acres of land)
  • Cattle Industry
• Government Policies Facilitating Westward Movement:
  • Homestead Act: Provided 160 acres of land relatively cheaply.
  • Pacific Railroad Act: Established the route for the Transcontinental Railroad.
  • Government Role: Actively removed native people, forced them onto reservations and provided land grants and subsidies to railroad companies.

Conservationist Movement

• Growing awareness of the need to preserve natural resources.
• Conflict between:
  • Government agencies and conservationist groups.
  • Corporate interests seeking to profit from natural resources.
• Key Entities:
  • Department of the Interior (1849): Managed and conserved federal land and natural resources.
  • US Fish Commission (1871): Preserved fisheries.
  • John Muir: A huge person in the conservationist movement.
    • Sierra Club (1892): Fought for conservation and preservation of natural resources.

Native Americans

• Government policies:
  • Violent conflict.
  • Assimilation.
• Violent Conflicts:
  • Sand Creek Massacre: Colorado militia killed over 100 native people.
  • Battle of Little Bighorn (1876): Sioux, led by Sitting Bull, killed Colonel Custer and his men (Custer's Last Stand).
    • Government Response: Rounded up Sioux resistance.
  • Ghost Dance Movement: A cultural revival among Sioux Indians in the Dakota Territory.
    • Goal: To get rid of the white man.
    • Battle of Wounded Knee (1890): US Army killed over 200 native people, marking the last major Indian battle.
• Assimilation Policies:
  • Forced onto reservations (e.g., Great Sioux Reserve).
  • Dawes Severalty Act of 1887:
    • Purpose: To end tribal ownership of land, forcing tribes onto private farms.
  • Native American Schools: Goal to assimilate Native people; "Kill the Indian, save the man."

Industrialization

• Large-scale production and technological change.
• Improved communication networks.
• Businesses sought to maximize exploitation of labor and natural resources.
• Industry Leaders:
  • Carnegie (steel).
  • Rockefeller (oil).
• Techniques to Dominate Industries:
  • Horizontal Integration: Controlling all competition in an industry.
  • Vertical Integration: Controlling all aspects of production, from raw materials to finished product.
  • Monopolies, Trusts, and Pools: Methods to eliminate or reduce competition.
• Ideologies Justifying Wealth:
  • Social Darwinism: Justified wealth as the result of hard work and fitness.
  • Laissez-faire Policies: Advocated for minimal government regulation of business.

Regional Differences

• West: Economic and population growth.
• North and Midwest: Industrialization.
• South: Attempt at industrialization (New South).
  • Growth in textile industries.
  • Agriculture dominated.
  • Tenant farming and sharecropping continued.

Urbanization and Immigration

• Industrialization and urbanization brought new economic opportunities.
• Rural to urban migration.
• Immigration from other countries.
• Expanding workforce.
• New career opportunities despite social prejudice against African Americans, women, and other disadvantaged groups.

Labor Issues

• Low wages and dangerous working conditions persisted.
• Workers Organized:
  • Knights of Labor (1869): Founded by Terrence Powderly.
    • Open to all workers, skilled and unskilled, women, and African Americans.
    • Decline after the Haymarket Riot.
  • American Federation of Labor (AFL) (1886): Founded by Samuel Gompers.
    • Focused on skilled workers.
    • Concentrated on practical issues like wages, working conditions, and hours.
• Successes and Failures of the Labor Movement:
  • Successes: Formation of local and national unions, rise of union leaders (e.g., Eugene Debs, Mother Jones).
  • Failures:
    • Homestead Strike (1892): Workers defeated, Henry Frick called out the guards.
    • Pullman Strike (1894): President Cleveland used the army to defeat the strike, Eugene Debs jailed.
  • Divisions Among Workers: Skilled vs. unskilled, ethnic and racial groups.
  • Hostility from Corporations: Hiring Pinkerton guards, yellow dog contracts.
  • Government Support: Laissez-faire policies provided no protection for workers.

Farmers' Issues

• Adaptation to mechanized agriculture.
• Increased efficiency but falling prices.
• Unfair railroad practices.
• High cost of machinery leading to debt.
• Tight money supply.
• High tariffs.
• Farmers' Groups:
  • Grange Movement: Organized social and educational activities and lobbied for reforms (Granger Laws).
  • Farmers' Alliance: Split between white and black farmers (Colored Farmers' Alliance).
  • Populist Party: Called for political reform and stronger government role in the economy.
    • Platform:
      • Government ownership of railroads.
      • Free and unlimited coinage of silver.
      • Income tax.
      • Direct election of senators.
      • Initiative and referendums.

Government and Regulation

• Gilded Age: Marked by rampant corruption.
• Laissez-faire philosophy prevented government regulation.
• Start of Government Regulation:
  • Granger Laws: Protected farmers against railroad abuses.
    • Munn vs. Illinois: States could regulate railroads.
    • Wabash Case (1886): States cannot regulate interstate commerce.
    • Interstate Commerce Act: Federal government regulated trade between states.
  • Sherman Antitrust Act: Outlawed trusts and monopolies that restrained trade; initially used against labor unions.

Migration

• Internal Migration:
  • Settlers seeking opportunities in the West (Homestead Act, Transcontinental Railroad).
  • Movement to urban areas for jobs.
  • African Americans moving out of the South (Great Migration) to escape Jim Crow laws.
• External Migration:
  • Large-scale immigration from China (slowed by the Chinese Exclusion Act).
  • New Immigrants: From Southern and Eastern Europe.
    • Settled in urban areas for job opportunities.

Nativism

• Response to changing immigration patterns.
• Attempts to exclude and restrict immigrants.
• Chinese Exclusion Act: Shut out Chinese immigration.
• American Protective Association: Anti-Catholic group that wanted restrictions on Catholic immigration.
• Literacy tests: Proposed to keep Southern and Eastern European immigrants out.

Challenges of Urbanization and Immigration

• Cities divided by class, race, and ethnicity.
• Low wages and dangerous working conditions led to poverty.
• Immigrants formed communities and cultures (e.g., Little Italy, Chinatown).
• Contrast between the poor and the wealthy (conspicuous consumption).
• Tenement housing (Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives).
• Child labor.
• Political machines dominated city life, exchanging services for political support.

Addressing the Challenges

• Gospel of Wealth: Wealthy had a moral obligation to help the less fortunate.
• Settlement House Movement: Relieved urban poverty and aided immigrants (e.g., Jane Addams's Hull House).
• Social Gospel Movement: Christians had a responsibility to address urban poverty.
• Socialist Party: Challenged capitalism as exploitive.
• Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward: Depicted a utopian socialist society.
• Progressive Movement: Effort to reform these problems (Period Seven).

Social Reform

• National American Woman Suffrage Association: Sought the right to vote for women (Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Carrie Chapman Catt).
• African American Leaders:
  • Booker T. Washington: Advocated vocational skills and economic security (Tuskegee Institute).
  • Ida Wells Barnett: Active in women's rights and anti-lynching campaigns.