HIST 2112

The Union Restored or Remade?

Presidential vs. Radical Reconstruction 

• Civil war was a major war

• Months to clean up bodies

How do you reconstruct?

• 12 years to reconstruct

• Most complicated and controversial part of history

Reconnstruction

• Who’s incharge? 

• Is it the president’s job or congress?>>> they will fight over who gets to be incharge

What does reconstruction mean? 

• Should it be quick and easy? 

• Do changes need to happen? Political, economical…

• What is going to happen to the 4 million recently enslaved people?

What do you need for freedom to happen? 

• Freedom to vote 

• Political rights 

• Economic rights 

What does America look like? 

• Rural - everyone lives in a small town or farm 

• Country was torn apart by the war 

• Most white southerners want something that is quick and easy 

  • Abe Lincoln was thinking about reconstruction before anything even happened 

  • 10 percent of your voter from the year 1860 had to sign a loyalty over to america

  • Many people were angry at Abe Lincoln for this 

  • “With Malice towns none with charity for all”- Lincoln 

• Andrew Johnson 

  • One of the worst presidents 

  • He's a southerner 

  • He's from the mountain from western carolina grew up in tennessee 

  • He was the only southern in congress that didn't leave to join the confederacy 

  • Stayed loyal 

  • Northerners liked what he was saying originally 

  • But they were wrong 

  • Johnson hated black people and was incredibly racist 

  • Doesn't like antislavery people or anyone that wants to help slaves 

  • He grants amnesty 

  • Robert E. Lee went to Johnson to get amnesty 

  • Most people were white supremacist at the time

Radical Republicans

• They passed the reconstruction act

• Johnson vetoed most of them 

• Setting up a system of elections that would be fair 

• 13th amendment 

  • Abolish slavery

• 14th amendment 

  • Birthright citizenship 

• 15th amendment 

  • Black men right to vote 

Lecture 2- Fate of the freedpeople: reconstruction and the enduring legacies of slavery 

• The worldwide History of slavery 

  • Unique characteristics of Euro-American Slavery

  • money 

    • Profoundly economic 

    • You to make money for the person that owned you 

    • They are objects that can be bought and sold 

      • Today that would be considered human trafficking 

    • About $100,000

    • It’s like buying a used car

    • Can inherit slaves 

    • Treated like cattle 

    • Labor intended to make money

  • Race and decent 

    • Black and enslaved typically go together 

    • Blackness descends through the mother 

      • If mother was enslaved you will also be enslaved 

    • A lot of rape 

    • Slave owners fathered children with their slaves 

    • You can never not be enslaved 

    • Some places in the south it was illegal to not have a slave or get rid of them 

  • Forcing people to do something against their will 

  • 75% of enslaved people ended up in the caribbean or Brazil 

  • Spend remaining time making sugar only about 3 years 

  • First was native americans that made sugar but they fought back and eventually got diseases and died leading to this job being passed onto enslaved people 

  • Making sugar is a hard job 

  • Really good sugar goes to europe too be table sugar bad sugar gets turned into rum 

  • South carolina was founded by barbados sugar makers

• Slavery and the south

  • Slavery is the source of economic and social power

  • Top 4% of enslavers were called the plantation elite

  • They were the american aristocracy 

    • Movies like gone with the wind remind us of this 4% of people 

  • Reality 

    • Middle class white family 

    • Did Not live in mansions 

    • Had only 1 or 2 slaves 

    • Set the tone for the culture 

    • Many founding fathers were slave owners 

    • ⅔ of white southerners are not slave owners they are small business owners 

    • Andrew Johnson did not defend the system 

      • He did eventually own them 

    • Even if you didn't own an enslaved person you could rent one 

    • American dream was to be like the plantation elite 

    • In a system where blackness=enslavement even if you were white you were not automatically at the bottom of the social hierarchy 

      • Guaranteed to be higher in rank 

      • The lowest most miserable were side hill farmers, still highly ranked 

    • Recreating the slave system without slavery was the goal 

• The End of Slavery and the Beginning of Freedom- Now What? 

  • 4 million enslaved people now free 

  • Searching for family 

    • Looking for husband, wife, kids 

    • Large diaspora 

    • People moving to start over 

  • School and education 

    • Denied education while enslaved 

    • Never teach slaves how to read because they would gain power 

    • Send notes to people 

    • Plot rebellion 

    • Get hands on anti-slavery literature 

    • Frederick Douglas taught himself how to read as a kid 

      • Dedicated his life to the system and became an activist 

    • Help getting educated from the freedmen's bureau 

    • Branch of the U.S. army 

      • Helped find land 

      • Find education 

      • Help with labor 

    • Linnentown in athens had one of these freedmen schools 

    • Being able to read and write was power 

    • 100 of thousands of these schools were made 

    • Black men started getting involved in politics 1868

  • Establishing Churches and Entering Politics 

    • Two black churches that expanded 

      • African baptist church 

      • African methodist episcopal 

    • For political organization 

    • MLK was a preacher 

• The problem of making a Living- the Rise of Sharecropping 

  • The freedmen’s Dream: Independent “yeoman” farming

    • Want land more than anything else in life 

    • No one can control you 

    • Land is key to freedom 

Lecture 3- Westward expansion and the Fate of Native America 

• Heading West-why?

  • For land 

  • The American Dream

  • Wanted a farm 

  • Yeoman farm- independent farmer

  • The government wanted to make as many people as they could farmers 

  • Northerners did not want the expansion of slavery into the west 

  • Free soil not plantation   

  • Congress is entirely northerners 

  • Cheap land- Homestead Act of 1862 

    • Small farms 

    • Lots of states will have townships (smaller than counties)

    • Each tiny squares were called sections- 640 acres divided into quarter sections 

    • Real estate people pretended they were farmers and then come in a flip it and jack up the price 

    • Many people go west because it is cheaper and good soil is there 

  • Business Opportunities 

    • The rise of the “corporate West” 

    • Lot of money to be made 

    • Sell stuff to people, like military and settlers 

    • Cattle ranching was a great source of money

    • Home to multinational corporation in the 19th century- railroad is one of them, cattle is another

    • A cowboy was an employee of the cattle ranch, job was to mine the cattle, boss was a wealthy person most likely 

    • 1892 in wyoming cowboys are upset about working conditions so they go on strike, wyoming stock growers association, so they start their own ranch, found baby cows with no brands on them because that means they are up for grabs, they drop a list of all their former employees and kill them by hiring hitmen, Johnson County Range War of 1892- U.S. army had to get involved 

  • “Manifest Destiny”

    • Manifest and unstoppable 

    • Culture tells you to leave (American Progress)- Women’s name is Columbia>>Symbol of America, leading americans westward 

    • Homestead act was not discriminatory by race 

    • The west is going to be one of the most diverse places in America 

    • Conquering Nature 

  • Opportunities for Freedom 

• The Fate of the Natives- Death, Disappearance, or Reform? 

  • Americans want the land and they are going to take the land

  • Land is going to be taken 

  • The “eradication” school

    • The idea to kill them all 

    • “Only good indian is a dead indian”  

    • Sand Creek Massacre (1864)

      • Colorado Massacre caused many women and children to die 

    • Fetterman Massacre (1866)-

      • in montana 

    • Little Big Horn (1876)

      • Everyone was wiped out 

      • Lone survivor was a horse 

      • comanche 

  • The “assimilationist” school

    • Take someone who isn't american and turn them into an American 

    • Government attempt to destroy native culture and replace with american culture 

    • Very human and progressive 

    • The myth of the “Vanishing Indian” 

      • We have to assimilate them because their culture is going to die anyway 

      • Felt like they needed to paint native americans to remember them and have them for history 

    • Educate Indians via schooling, land policy and law, to make them “civilized” 

      • Send kids to boarding school, most famous Carlisle School 

      • Break down their culture

      • Like military schools 

      • Men long hair and braids was very important to their culture 

      • First thing they do in boarding school is cut their hair 

      • Must speak english and practice christianity 

      • Women were taught to sew, they were rented out for domestic labor 

      • Boys were given industrial jobs like a shoe factory  

      • Indian schools 

      • Reservations and the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887

      • Failure of the Dawes Act and Assimilation 

        • Loss of “excess” land

        • Land speculation problems

        • Lack of compatibility with native lifestyles 

      • Indian Adults

        • Divided into a 160 acres individuals get 80 

        • Help turn into farmers 

        • Not good part of the land worse soil 

        • Take it a put it into a public domain 

        • Real estate people are sniffing around asking to rent it from indian adults 

        • Farming is really hard work 

        • When you fail they blame you 

        • farming was done by women 

        • Reverse understanding of gender roles 

• The Ghost Dance, 1890

  • Rumor circulating that if native people perform this ritual they could undo history 

  • White people would disappear

Lecture 4: The Great Transformation: Industrialism 

• The problem of periodicity

  • Oil causes environmental damage 

  • Industrialism consumed a lot of resources

  • Kids working in coal mines- most dangerous job in america- no child labor laws- breaker boys 

  • Kids died from working in these conditions due to inhaling coal causing them to get black lungs 

  • Little girls worked in factories  

  • First factories in the 1820 in New England 

  • Making textiles 

  • First factory workers were largely women 

  • Machine runs really fast, many people working in the factories would walk off the job, usually they failed  

  • End of 1800s, the north is not fully industrial 

  • 1900 the U.S. has become the largest industrial economy in the world 

  • America is predominantly agrarian 

• What Industrialism Wrought

  • Environment changes 

    • Forest, water, air, and soil 

  • Social and cultural changes 

  • Intense debates about the nature of democracy, freedom, individual rights versus the common good 

• Snapshot: America at Midcentury 

  • The origins of industrialism 

  • Civil war and Reconstruction 

  • The dominance of agrarian America

    • The rural North 

    • The Cotton South 

• Industrialism In Earnest 

  • Massive growth. Why? 

    • Railroads 

      • Cheap and fast transportation

      • Railroads- 40 miles an hour and was very cheap 

      • Railroads are like the internet they changed everything

      • Railroads opened up resources like copper or coal  

    • Resources 

    • Communications 

      • Telegraph allows you to communicate instantly

      • Business innovations

    • Business innovations 

    • Government support 

      • Government support 

      • The republicans are the industrial party 

      • Be anti-slavery is to be pro industrial 

      • Government should be large and bending over backwards to make industrialization happen 

      • Could pick up the phone and call the army 

  • The “New South?”

    • New south ideology 

      • Civil war was lost, it is over, halcyon days on plantation are done, let it go 

      • Future is the industry- the modern business world- investment, building businesses-embrace it and accept it

    • Industrialism and white supremacy 

    • The South and raw materials 

    • The continuing dominance of cotton 

• Transformation 

  • The rise of the middle class 

    • Middle class culture and leisure 

    • Changing - unchanging- gender roles 

      • “Separate spheres” 

      • “A man’s world” 

      • Women’s political and social activism 

    • The African- American middle class 

      • Pink Morton- morton’s theater 

        • Lived in a house on milledge despite it being predominantly white 

      • If black people are successful it prove that white supremacy isn't real 

  • Wealth, power, and Democracy 

    • Cumberland island belonged to the carnegie 

    • How much money is too much? 

Lecture 5- “Eight Hours for What We Will…”: Industrialization and the Labor Movement 

• Working Conditions in U.S. Factories, c, late 19th century

  • Kids were good because they had small fingers

  • No workman's comp you just get fired

  • Sanitation-bad 

    • Kids would rig up their own masks due to particles throwing around

    • Food production industry- sawdust in meat, when it turned brown they would put red food dye to cover it up 

    • No hairnets 

    • Guts and bones would go into the chicago river and lake michigan 

  • Working hours- long 

    • 10-16 hours a day 

    • Work on saturdays and sundays are off 

  • Work style- regimented, repetitive, “on the clock”

    • Same thing over and over again 

    • Taylorism- scientific management system for labor 

      • Watch how things got produced 

      • Dehuminizing 

  • “Deskilling” of labor

    • A person full of skills, making furniture, guitars, etc. artisanship, they were proud 

    • Skills they had a lifetime learning 

    • Now being made by machines just pushing buttons 

    • Degrades these skills 

    • Artisans were some of the first to be upset with industrialism 

  • Wages-low

    • Better paid in america than in europe ]not getting rich

    • Labor conflict 

• Unionization and Strikes-workers resist Industrial conditions 

  • 1866- National Labor Union

    • Don’t worry about it 

  • 1877- Great Railroad Strike

    • Baltimore in Ohio (BNO)

    • They got told they were getting a 20% pay cut  

    • They protested and walked out 

    • Ownership of BNO could call the army to break the strike 

    • Strike grows and violence happens more 

    • Sympathy strikes occurred in support of the workers 

    • Strikers lose 

    • Conflict with military is a common sight 

    • First major union- Knights of Labor

• 1870s-1880s-Knights of Labor

  • Led by Terrance Powderly 

  • The union is open to women, African American member (although segregated), business people 

  • Only people who were banned were the Chinese immigrants 

  • Radical goals- increased wages, fewer hours 

    • Slow machines down

  • The Eight Hour Movement, 1996

    • Federal law now 

    • “8 hours for work, 8 for rest, and 8 hour for what we will” 

    • Thousands of members 

  • Haymarket Square Riots (summer 1886). Spells the end of the Knights

    • In chicago 

    • Knights of Labor had a rally 

    • 8 thousand people showed up 

    • Protest police brutality 

    • More police men than protestors 

    • Someone among the strikers threw a bomb at the police causing the police to start shooting 

    • City of chicago arrests 7 people- hung four of them 

• 1886- American Federation of Labor. More “respectable.” 

  • More mainstream- still around today 

  • Led by a cigar make- Sam Gompers 

  • More moderate than conservative- AFL did not allow black people to be members and unskilled workers

  • More willing to negotiate rather than going on strike 

  • Don't want to be associated with the Knights of Labor 

• More Radical Unions- often repressed by authorities 

  • United Mine Workers of America-Ludlow Massacre, 1914 

    • Mine worker were paid in scrip- coupon used to buy clothes from a store owned by your employer 

    • Intense radical critics of the emerging industrial system 

  • Industrial Workers of the World- very radical: socialists, communists, anarchists, etc

    • Most radical of the all 

    • Aka wobblies

    • Very militant 

    • Led by big bill haywood- very aggressive

    • Anti-capitalist critics

    • Lots of attention from the authorities 

    • They were atheist- thought religion was a method of control 

• 1892- Homestead Steel Strike: Andrew Carnegie fights back 

Film- Ludlow 

•  Factory women organized collectively for better working conditions 

• May day

  • Not celebrated in the US but started there 

• Labor relations in America have never been gentle 

• Minor, railroad workers, lumberjacks from greece immigrated 

• Greeks were not welcomed in general in the US 

• American thought they were taking their jobs 

• Greeks were the lowest form of Europeans

• Greeks warrant allowed to camp with other european- would camp with asians 

• If they rise economically they will become white 

• CFI- started by Palmer- connected denver all the way south to new mexico by railroad 

• Steel mills were vertically integrated 

• Need access to minerals in order to have steel 

• They had 62 mines 

• John rockefeller sr was in charge later gave it to his son 

• Miners were paid by the ton 

• Miners were always indebted to the company store 

• They could only live in the housing if they were working for mines or coal companies 

• 1,000 to 2,000 feet deep tabasco mine

• Death rate was 3 and half times higher than other places in the us 

• Dangerous mining conditions 

  • Coal dust is super flammable and explosive 

  • Breathing it leads to black lung disease

• Based town on segregated structure-ethnic groups divided 

• 1903

  • Intentionally bringing in people of different cultures and languages so they were not able to communicate with each other in the mines 

• Greeks were from villages-view of world where there were the rich and the poor 

  • Officials were oppressive 

• During the strike 

  • Refused to budge on the right to represent themselves 

• UMWA organized strike 

  • Part of larger federation of unions throughout country 

    • Most wanted to organize skilled workers 

    • Wanted members to be white and born in US 

• In Colorado, knew that they needed to include immigrants too if thye wanted to have successful union 

• 1910

  • Strike in northern Colorado 

  • Appointing bilingual organizers 

  • Bringing diverse minors together for one cause of the union 

• Bingham canyon 

  • Wanted to get rid of labors boss and raising wages etc 

• Living on closed camps- company poverty 

  • Knew they were going to get evicted 

• Most strikes seen as male enterprise, but Ludlow- women and children marched 

• Women helped bring ethnic groups and families together 

  • Ensuring relationships between ethnic families were smooth and harmonious 

• Only way to comfort Rockefeller, is to get over ethnic differences and bring people together   

• National guards were created to break in strikes in industrialized 

• Came up with system of national h=guards instead of us army to break strikes  

Farmer Brown Strikes Back: The Populist Revolt Against Industrialism 

• Intro; “The Rectangle of Righteousness?” 

• “Agrarian America” 

  • “Jeffersonians agrarianism”- farmers as ideal citizens 

    • Farming is heart and soul of the american experience

    • “Those that till the soil are the republicans best citizens”

    • Independent farmers 

    • Small farmers are perfect for america because they do everything for themselves

    • Nobody can pressure them to vote in a certain way 

    • Factory workers employers could sway someone to vote a certain way on the threat of being fired 

    • Farmers vote for the common good- american heroes 

    • Red is the color of labor

• Industrialism’s Threats to Farmers

  • “Status Anxiety” 

    • Bring pushed aside 

    • No longer star of the show 

    • Coined by richard hofstadter

  • The threat to community and family values 

    • Other reasons why farmers did not like industrialism: threat to families, everyone is obsessed with money 

    • Neighbors and families are essentially customers to each others

  • Financial trouble, debt, etc. 

    • Farmers are in trouble

    • Too good at what they do- produce a lot of food and fiber- not making a lot of money 

    • Overproduction decreases prices of crop 

    • Got to borrow money 

  • Monopolies- railroads and banks 

    • They don't like bankers or railroads 

    • Railroads were the only way to get crops to the market 

    • They will charge you whatever they want which will be expensive 

    • Extortion and bribery

    • Gold is a symbol of everything bad- corrupted evil

    • “Producerism”: the true source of wealth

      • Wealth is created by physical labor by human beings on the field- farmers, in factories. 

      • Stock brokers are not honest workers same with bankers 

• Forming “Alliances” 

  • 1867-70- Patrons of Husbandry, aka “The Grange” 

    • One of the first to do this

  • 1880s- National Farmers’ Alliance 

    • Mainly out of Texas and Nebraska

    • “Colored alliances” 

      • Allowed african americans but still segregated them 

    • Links to the Knights of Labor

      • Large org 

      • Relative inclusive 

      • Wide open 

      • Allowed African Americans  

      • Allies of the Knights of Labors

      • If a Knight of Labor is running for office you have to vote for them 

      • Support the 8 hour day 

    • The alliances would send around speakers and motivate people

    • Mary Elizabeth Lease 

      • “Raise less corn and more hell”

• The “Ocala Demands” (1890) and the “Omaha Platform” (1892) 

  • Organize two political parties 

  • The people's party 

  • They had a list of demands:

    • Government “of the people” 

    • Public ownership of the railroads

      • Cannot be left in the hands of private individuals because you will be screwed over 

      • Should be run by the government 

      • Nationalize them  

    • Direct election of senators/graduated income tax

      • State legislator would elect senators- they were bought off by high end companies 

      • People now can vote in senate races 

      • Should be an income tax the more money you make the more you should pay 

      • Money come from liquor license- take it away there goes majority of governments money 

    • No productive tariffs for industry, no land giveaways

      • Government policy is bending over backwards to protect industry 

      • Raising price of import- more expensive- so people will buy the local equivalent  making them buy from local businesses 

    • Restricting immigration 

      • Strongly anti-immigrant 

      • Immigration was threat to wages and jobs 

      • Wanted severe restriction 

    • The “subtreasury” system

      • Government to build storage facilities for crops all over the country

      • Farmers would be members of the storage facilities 

      • Crops would be stored here 

      • They would do nothing as their crops sit 

      • Price is going to rise creating scarcity 

      • Release grain when the price is high in order to make a lot of money  

      • There will be a tax- low interest government loans through the subtreasury will pay back once you sell the crops 

    • Free coinage of silver 

      • Love silver 

      • On the gold standard- for every dollar there was an equivalent amount of gold in storage somewhere else 

      • Not a lot of gold which means also limited amount of money 

      • Print more money by backing it by silver (a common metal)

      • Athens had a strong populist movement 

      • Silver mines in colorado 

• 1892-96- The Populist Party 

  • 1896- William Jennings Bryan and “fusion” with Democrats

    • Famous speakers in all of american history 

    • Gold is the symbol of industrialism 

    • Champion of middle america- of the farmer

    • Democrats fear that populist might steal votes from them and that populist will move in and take over

    • Populist  went to democrats and “fused” together to combine parties and defeat the republicans

  • The demise of (political) Populism                 

The Other Half: Immigration and Urbanization in the Industrial Era 

• The “Great American Melting Pot?”

  • To be american is to be from somewhere else 

• Four immigration “waves” 

  • First two happened before civil war

  • Fourth wave happened in the 1960s

  • The “Third Wave”- c. 1880-1920

    • Between 20 to 28 million people immigrated during this period 

• Why immigrate to America? And where? 

  • Push and pull factors 

  • Pull factors: the things that attract you to america 

    • Homestead act was open to immigrants 

    • Ability to work in a factory that is (slightly) less bad than where you’re from 

    • Religious freedom>>>especially for jews 

  • Push factors: the things that drove you out of your home country 

    • Religious people (jews) kicked out of home country and prosecuted 

    • Famine 

  • Many immigrants did not intend to stay in the US 

    • 50% of italian immigrants returned to italy 

    • Jews can't go back 

  • Most immigrants to the East Coast come through Ellis Island in New York

  • Only 2-3% rejection of immigrants 

  • Most didn't go to the south they go to the west 

    • Timber production 

  • 75% or more of upper midwest are foreign born or first-gen 

    • Go northeast to major cities, New York, Chicago, Boston, etc

  • 50% in New York is immigrants or first-gen 

• City Life 

  • Cultural support

    • Congregate with their own people- people who can support you, and share same language 

      • Little italy 

    • NYC becomes 7 times as large as it was before

    • Set up organizations to assist other immigrants- assimilate and understand how this new country works 

  • Employment 

    • Where the factories are- industrialism 

    • Attraction of industrial jobs is what pulls people to the cities 

    • Factories are bi, need lots of staffing- good and bad things

  • The “political machines” 

    • Two political parties 

    • Join political party because you agree with their ideals

    • Political machine is associated with a party but ideals don't matter 

    • They existed to make the members a lot of money

    • New York City’s “Tammany Hall” 

      • Associated with the democrats

      • They can do things for you for a small fee and as long as you vote for them

• Living conditions 

  • The bad: crowding, poverty, dirt and disease

    • Because there are so many immigrants, housing is limited, expensive, and hard to find, so they live in tenements (cheap crowded living)

    • Lots of industrial labor was done inside their houses, a factory would come by and pick it up: called “piecework”

  • The good: close community, attractions of city life

• Fears of immigrants among native-born Americans

  • Fear of religion 

  • Majority of americans at this time were protestant 

  • Their Catholicism/Orthodox/Judaism 

    • Catholic immigrants would only be loyal to the pope

  • Their threat to natives’ jobs 

    • Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

  • Their “radicalism” and Marxist/socialist politics 

• Immigrants and Urban Reform 

Jacob Riis and How the Other Half Lives