Chapter 8 The South and the West Transformed

Chapter 8 The South and the West Transformed (18651900)

The New South � New industries spread throughout the South �In the 1880 s, northern money backed textile factories in western North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, as well as cigar and lumber production, especially in North Carolina and Virginia. �Farming became more diversified with an increase in grain, tobacco, and fruit crops. Small farms were replacing large plantations. � Railroads link cities and towns �Southerners lobbied the federal government for economic help and used prison labor to keep railroad construction costs down. Rail expansions were linking together the southern cities, not just in urban areas, but rural as well.

The New South � Southern Economic Recovery is Limited �Despite many changes in the South, the southern economy was lagging behind the rest of the country. �The North was able to build on its’ strong industrial base, whereas the South needed to repair damages of war. �The South had plenty of natural resources but lacked labor and capital investment. �The South spent less than any other part of the country on education and it lacked technical and engineering schools. �Low wages discouraged skilled workers from coming down to the South. �Most of the South’s wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few people. They lacked strong banks with strong investments.

Southern Farmers Face Hard Times � Cotton Dominates Agriculture � The lure of cash crops did not encourage diversity on farms. � Cotton remained the centerpiece of the southern agricultural economy. � Prices, however, fell due to European competitors and the massive abundance of cotton in the South � The boll weevil, a beetle which destroys cotton, appeared in Texas in the 1890 s. Over the next decade, the yield from cotton cultivation in some states dropped by more than 50 percent. � Farmers Band Together � Beginning in the 1870’s farmers were coming together to try to gain lower prices for supplies � Local organizations linked together in what will become known as the Farmers’ Alliance which soon connected farmers not only in the South but also in the West. � Alliance members sought to convince the government to force railroads to lower freight prices so members could get their crops to markets outside the South at reduced rates. The Alliances also wanted the government to regulate the interest that banks could charge for loans.

Black Southerners Gain and Lose �Political and Economic Gains �Citizenship afforded black southerners the right to vote in local and federal elections, and for a few African Americans it provided the means to serve the country in government or in the military. Some African Americans opened urban businesses or bought farmland. �Farmers’ Alliances invited African Americans to join offering interracial cooperation. �An important gain for African Americans was the access to education. Hundreds of schools in the South enabled African Americans to read and write.

Black Southerners Gain and Lose �White Backlash Begins �Some white southerners focused their own frustrations on trying to reverse the gains African Americans had achieved during Reconstruction. Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan used violence and terror. Churches became segregated. New laws supported the elimination of black government officials. �Congress’s enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 guaranteed black patrons the right to ride on trains and use public facilities such as hotels. However, a series of Supreme Court cases in 1883, ruled that decisions of public accommodations was a local issue. Areas in the South will take advantage of this ruling to limit African American rights. (Separate but equal)

Westward Expansion and the American Indians �Cultures Under Pressure �By the end of the American Civil War, about 250, 000 Native Americans lived in the region west of the Mississippi River referred to as “The Great American Desert. ” �Native American tribes such as the Klamaths, Chinooks, Shastas, Sioux, Blackfeet, Crows, Cheyenne, and Comanches, all had different cultures and different diets. They did have one thing in common though; they saw themselves as part of nature and viewed nature as sacred. By contrast many white people viewed Indian land as a resource to produce wealth. These differing views will lead to conflict.

American Indians � Threats by Advancing Settlers �In the early 1800 s, the government carried out a policy of moving Native Americans out of the way of white settlers. President Jackson originally moved many tribes out to the west. The land out west was originally thought to be uninhabitable. �However, with the discovery of gold and silver, Americans wanted to push west. The creation of the Transcontinental Railroad made many Americans wanting to cross the continent. In 1851, the federal government began to restrict Native Americans to smaller areas and by the late 1860 s, Native Americans were forced onto reservations or specific areas set aside by the government for Native American use. �No longer free to roam the Plains, Indians faced suppression and poverty. �White settlers introduced Indians to new diseases and killed a lot of the buffalo in the west.

New Settlers and Native Americans Clash � The rapid industrial development and expansion following the Civil War set Native Americans and white settlers on a collision course. Native Americans inhabited half of the area of the United States. � Violence occurs in the Plains with a group of Sioux Indians, who resisted threats to their land in Minnesota in 1862. The Sioux would attack white settlements. In the fall of 1864, a band of Colorado militia came upon an unarmed camp of Native Americans at Sand Creek and killed several men, women, and children. This became known as the Sand Creek Massacre. Once the Civil War ended, regiments of Union troops – both white and African American – were sent to the West to subdue the Native Americans. Recruitment posters for volunteer cavalry promised that soldiers could claim any “horses or other plunder” taken from the Native Americans. The federal government defended its decision to send troops as necessary to

New Settlers and Native Americans Clash �The United States Indian Peace Commission concluded that lasting peace would only come if Native Americans settled on farms and adapted to the civilization of whites. �Native Americans would get federal money mismanaged by government and several peace plans/treaties were broken. �Click here for the video.

Lasting Battles of the Indian Wars � The Red River War led to the final defeat of the powerful southern Plains Indians. It marked the end of the southern buffalo herds and the opening of the western Texas panhandle for white settlement. � The lure of gold led to the defeat of the Indians in the northern Plains. The Black Hills Gold Rush of 1875 drew prospectors into Sioux hunting grounds in the Dakotas and Montana. The Sioux assembled by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull sought to drive the white settlers out. The U. S. Army sent in troops of their own. In June 1976, General George Custer and his U. S. Cavalry went near Little Bighorn River in modern day Montana. Custer and his men were outnumbered by Native Americans 2, 000 -250. Crazy Horse led the charge known as the Battle of Little Big Horn, killing Custer and all of his men. Cries for revenge motivated army forces to track down the Indians. Sitting Bull and a small group of followers escaped to Canada. Crazy Horse and his followers surrendered, beaten by weather and starvation.

Lasting Battles of the Indian Wars �In 1877, the federal government sought to move the Nez Perce's in Idaho to a smaller reservation to make room for more white settlers. �Trying to evade federal troops the Nez Perce leader Chief Joseph and his group of refugees tried to escape to Canada. Stopped just short of the border they surrendered. Banished with his group to a barren reservation in Oklahoma, Chief Joseph traveled twice to Washington DC to lobby for mercy for his people.

Lasting Battles of the Indian Wars � With the loss of many leaders and the destruction of their economy, Native Americans’ ability to resist diminished. In response many Native Americans welcomed a religious revival called the Ghost Dance. As the popularity of the movement continued many government officials became concerned as to where it may lead. � In 1890, in an effort to curtail these activities, the government ordered the arrest of Sitting Bull. In the confrontation, he and several others were killed. Troops then set out after the group of Indians as they fled. Hostilities broke out at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, when the federal cavalry killed more than 100 men, women, and children. The tragic end to the Ghost Dance War at Wounded Knee sealed the Indians demise.

Indian Chiefs Sitting Bull Red Cloud

The Government Promotes Assimilation � The reservation policy was a failure. Making Indians live in confined areas as wards of the government was costly in human and economic terms. Policy makers hoped that as buffalo became extinct, Indians would become farmers and be assimilated into national life by adopting the culture and civilization of whites. � In 1871, Congress passes a law stating the “no Indian nation or tribe within the United States would be recognized as an independent nation, tribe, or power with whom the United States may contract a treaty. ” Indians were now to be treated as individuals. � Congress passes the Dawes General Allotment Act which replaces the reservation system with an allotment system. Each Indian family was granted a 160 -acre farmstead. The Dawes Act specified the family could not sell or transfer the land for 25 years. To further speed assimilation, missionaries and reformers established boarding schools, to which Indian parents were encouraged to send their children.

Transforming the West �Mining towns spring up, especially in the Sierra Nevada region to the Black Hills region. The discovery of gold and silver can be credited to the surge of people, even in areas like Pikes Peak, Colorado and the Carson River valley in Nevada. �Vigilantes were self-appointed law enforcers in the west. �Some towns would be “boom towns” meaning they would only last as long as the gold/silver was present. �Large companies turned mining into a big business.

Transforming the West �The Transcontinental Railroad was a rail link between the East and the West – once joined together it increased the population in the west and sped up travel times of supplies. �Ranchers in the west used the open-range system, where property was not fenced in. They would round up their cattle when necessary. �Rodeo “sports” are developed during this time as well as cow ranches. �The invention of the barbed wire would put an end to the open range system.

Transforming the West � Under the Homestead Act which offered farm plots of 160 acres to anyone willing to live on the land for five years, created many settled areas in the west. � New plows made farming easier and many trained farmers went to agricultural colleges established by the Morrill Act. � There would often be conflicts between miners, ranchers, sheepherders, and farmers in land disputes that would sometimes lead to violence. A resource commonly fought over would be water. � Discrimination would be present in the west as racial slurs would be created for certain ethnic groups based on the work they did. � In 1890, the western frontier was declared closed. The frontier was meant to be vacant, uninhabitable land. However, in 1890, there were families living in every area of the west.