HIST 2112 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Sherman Silver Purchase Act, Social Gospel, Interstate Commerce Act Of 1887
Document Summary
The new south was a propaganda myth created to encourage northern investment in exploitative industries and set the economic and social patterns of the south that would persist until after wwii. The north/south relation was similar to that of a homeland and a colony. Sharecropping destroyed the land and trapped the croppers in debt. The settling of the west was not about farmers creating a paradise but about economic exploitation. Mining must not be confused with long term economic development. The myth of the how the west was won involved a focused military effort and cultural endorsement of ethnic cleansing. Conquest of the land east of the mississippi had taken 200 years. West of the mississippi took only 50 years. Cattle drives and open ranges lasted only about 20 years. Their myth is larger and more important than their reality. The objective of settling the west was to create a market for eastern industries.
