THE NEW SOUTH THE NEW SOUTH AND AND

THE FRONTIERTHE FRONTIER

Unit VDUnit VD

AP United States HistoryAP United States History

Fundamental Questions

►Did the Civil War and Reconstruction solve the nation’s issues?

►How better off was the nation after the Civil War and Reconstruction?

The “New” South

►The Compromise of 1877 withdrew federal troops from former Confederate states, ended Reconstruction with a promise of development

►New vision From slave-dependency to self-sufficient and

diverse agricultural Industrialization and infrastructure Redemption…

Southern Agriculture

► Cotton remained the dominant crop Cotton farms doubled Large supply of world’s cotton drove prices down

►Drove prices down and led to foreclosures

► Diversity of crops Peanuts, sweet potatoes, soybeans Tobacco and cigarette companies

Sharecropping

► 50% white farmers and 75% black farmers► Crop liens kept small farmers in constant debt

Southern Industry► Growth of cities in

the South Textiles, steel,

lumber, tobacco

► Industrialization spearheaded by cheap labor rates

► More railroads built and designed on national standards

“Southern” Economy

►Northern investment control and slow progress kept the South poor

►Cheap labor wages and sharecropping►Poor education attributed to Southern

poverty

Redemption► Redeemer Democrats

White Democratic domination of state legislatures in Deep South

Rid of Republican state governments White supremacy States rights and small government laissez-faire economics

► Hamburg Massacre (July 1876)► Senator Benjamin Tillman (D-SC)► Origin of Bible Belt► Instituted Jim Crow laws

Segregation► Supreme Court

Civil Rights Cases of 1883► Civil Rights Act of 1875

unconstitutional► Segregation may be practiced by

private individuals and businesses

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)► Established “separate but equal”

► Jim Crow Laws Established by white Redeemer

state governments Legitimized by Plessy v.

Ferguson Examples

► Segregated public facilities and accommodations

► Disenfranchisement Grandfather clauses Literacy tests Poll taxes

Frontier Thesis► U.S. Census of 1890 claims American frontier is

closed► Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893► The frontier defined the American identity

It promoted independence and individualism unlike European conformity and social structure

► The distinct American political society was a result of surviving the frontier

► The edge of the frontier was the figurative border of civilization and the wild

► The loss of the frontier could signal the beginning of social conformity and rigidity

Railroads Drive the Expansion

► 35,000 miles in 1865 to 193,000 in 1900► Gauge standards connecting various local and

national lines► Connection of rails to cities, water ports, market

centers, Atlantic to Pacific First Transcontinental Railroad (1869)

► Federal land grants and subsidies► Overexpansion and corruption led to

consolidation by business moguls

Expansion of Railroads

Settling the West:Cattle Frontier

► Vaqueros – Cowboys► Cattle in West to Beef

Markets in East Cattle trails connect to

railways in Kansas

► Decline Loss of land

► Homesteader claims► Commercial agriculture

Environment► Overgrazing► Cold winters

Settling the West:Mining Frontier

► Gold and silver from California to Black Hills Comstock Lode in Nevada

(1859)

► Boomtowns and States Most settlers established

markets for miners Deadwood, Dakota; Tombstone,

Arizona

► Employed foreign-born miners South Americans brought

experience Chinese were cheap labor

Settling the West:Farming Frontier

► Homestead Act of 1862 160 acres for $10 and to live on

and cultivate land for 5 years

► Oklahoma Land Rush (April 1889) Sooners and Boomers

► Exodusters Southern free/freed blacks

► Innovation Barbed wire Dry farming

► National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry Movement to better connect

farmers amid dreary rural life Cooperatives

► Stores, elevators, insurance

Manifest Destiny and the Natives► Most western tribes based on a

nomadic lifestyle and buffalo herds White hunters decimated buffal

o herds for fur, sport, pests

► Reservations Concentrations of tribes

through separate treaties Tribal chiefs selected by white

officials

► Indian Wars Series of conflicts between U.S.

and Great Plains Natives► Sioux, Cheyenne, Ute, Apache

Sand Creek Massacre (1864)► Colorado militia attacked and

slaughtered Cheyenne

Buffalo Soldiers - 10th Calvary Little Big Horn (1876)

► Destruction of Colonel George Custer’s unit

Reactions Toward and By Natives► Assimilation

Formal education and religious conversion

A “white” education

► A Century of Dishonor by Helen Hunt Jackson in 1881 Nonfiction historical account of

government policies toward Natives

Purpose was to shed light on atrocities and pursue humane and equal treatment

► Dawes Severalty Act (1887) Broke up tribal organizations; lands divided into 160 acre plots; citizenship grants; disease, alcoholism, poverty, starvation

► Ghost Dance Movement Wovoka’s attempt to drive the settlers

out through circle dances and chants► Wounded Knee (1890)

Massacre of Sioux men, women, and children signifying the end of the Indian Wars