History 2301E Lecture 4: Post Civil War America – Nov 21
2 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Post Civil War America – Nov 21
Country wanted to move on to modern ways – modern America began here (immigration,
industrialization, etc.)
Civil war ends but country is not unified
Fredrick Jackson Turner, 1893
- Historian
- Gave a talk which became an essay
- Title: The significance of the frontier in American history
- Says that frontier has defined America until the 1890s
- It is equally a part of American ideology/mythology
- Important economically
- The problem is that this frontier is closing – what happens when America needs new
resources? When tension escalates and people need to move?
- You at udestad American expansionism without knowing this beginning
Migration and Development
- Years after the civil war there is a massive migration to the west – people from cities
and immigrants (Asian, northern Europe, etc.)
- There is economic opportunity – cheaper land, forestry, mining
- 5-10% of African Americans from the south go to the West
o Exodusters: Black cowboys, Made incredible stride in economic development,
Finally do away with shackles of racism
o Buffalo Soldies: Afia Aeias ho ee i the Aeia a, a job, out
of slavery, sent to help with internal development (railroads, telegraph lines,
national park system)
The Homestead Act, 1862
- A ie fo the hite othees ho dot like aolitio
- Govt now is offering opportunity to settle the west
o 1. If you were poor, a new immigrant, a laborer, etc. You could go West and
stake out a part of land. If you build a home or a farm and live there for 5 years,
you get the land for free
o 2. If you had money you could buy the land for $1.25 an acre and then they
could sell it, flip it, etc
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2
- Allows poor people to own land, this means if they were a white man they could vote
Indian Wars, 1866-1891
- This is the land that Native Americans have been relocated to
- Massive decline in native population
- Indian removal act, trail of tears
- Here come white people who are being given land
- White americans, manifest destiny, racism, etc. they thought this was their land
- Idia as eak out aties dot just sit ak
Custes Last Stad
- George Custer fought in Civil War and stayed in the army
- As Indian Wars broke out, he was sent west to try to deal with them
- Set to Black Hills place in west where gold was discovered
- The Sioux: most numerous and militaristic native group, no willingness to walk away
from land
Great Sioux War
- If they lose they are done
- Major tragic battle from American perspective happened in Little Big Horn, 1876
- Custer knew the Sioux was preparing
- Custe deided to take soldie to egage the Siou, didt ait fo ak up, ast
prepared ais? Aogae? We dot ko
- , heail aed Siou aitig fo Custes a. It is over in an hour and was a
complete massacre
- Public and political reaction – army was happy to follow public opinion, they want
revenge – given permission to get the Sioux, they do. Go after warrior, women, children
and ends as another massacre
- Few Sioux that survived were put on reservations where you cannot hunt or grow or fish
in hope they die
The Ghost Dance and wounded Knee, 1888-1890
- Other Native communities see what is happening and see they have to join together
- A spiritual revival
- Ghost dance – created by young medicine man
- An apocalyptic vision of the future
- Believed that natives will be seen as the chosen people of their gods
- When apocalypse happened, all natives that have been killed by genocide/disease, will
come back
- A dance formed, tribes would come together and they would go into a frenzy and in that
moment you would see a glimpse of the apocalypse
- Men started to wear a white/ghost shirt that had magical properties – believed this shirt
protected you from the white mans bullet
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3
White reaction
- It freaked them out so they get in touch with Washington and army
- They believed this dance was a call to war
- US army to Wounded Knee, 1890
o Go to preempt it
o Negotiate with local tribe at wounded knee
o This tribe at this moment was largely made up of women, children, and elderly
o When the natives sat down to negotiate, they turned over their weapons as a
sign of good faith - when one person was turning over a gun it went off
(deliberate or not) and the soldiers took this as a sign of attack and army free-
fired and 200 natives were killed
- This was the last native revival/protest
The New South
- Thought if we want to grow we have to learn to live together
- Some small factories
- Cotton has such a hold on economics of south most people are not willing to let it go
- This adds another layer of the racism on top of KKK and all else
- How do you have a cheap labour force and use this to create a system of slavery without
legal institution?
o 2 tiered economic system that keeps African Americans as economic slaves
Cotton and sharecropping
- Sharecropping: divide up your plantation into plots of land and then are rented out to
tenant farmers
- A contract, an agreement, that when the harvest come in you will pay as your rent a
percentage of the crop to the owner of the land
- Most ex-slaes ae illiteate, ouldt ead the otat, hite oes iluded a slidig
scale, small print and tricks, by the time rent was due, about 95% of your crop goes to
owner
- Crop Lien system
o A lien is a hold placed on property
o Your crop is collateral
o Credit system: I will give you 200 dollars and in return you will give me 30% of
your crop
o You are always always in debt – economic slavery
- Whites get their cotton and African Americans are kept in slavery
Boll Weevil
- A bug that really likes cotton but are devastating to cotton plantations
- Enterprise Alabama, 1919
o Statue of Columbia holding a boll weevil
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