American History U5

8/11/2019 American History U5

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What inventions of the later 1800’s revolutionized Americancommunication?



Samuel Morse first telegraphmessage sent in 1844revolutionized the world

His simple device kicked off theSecond Industrial Revolution

It was the first of an explosion ofinventions that would foreverchange American’s lives

It has been said that in the future, this period of time will beremembered as the SecondRenaissance



In 1865, indoor lighting did notexist

At the setting of the sun, people

went to bed

If they were wealthy, they couldafford an oil lamp or candle

Refrigeration had not beeninvented

Most people used huge ice blocks which came at high prices











In 1860, long distancecommunication was agonizinglyslow

Mail took 3 weeks to travel across the country

Immigrants had to wait months tohear from home in Europe or Asia

As with any war, 1000’s ofinnovations took place that wouldchange the world



Between 1790 and 1860, only36,000 patents were issued

Between 1860 and 1890 500,000

were issued

European and American businessowners invested large amounts ofmoney into new ideas

It helped create new industries andexpand on old ones

American standards of livingsoared among the highest in the

world



A reason for this explosion wasalternative energy

Most of America ran on coal and

whale oil

Whale oil was difficult to harvest, limited and expensive

Crude oil was extracted by digging pits and allowing it to seep into pools

Edwin L. Drake would change that



Drake decided to drillunderground for oil

He spent years raising the money

and purchasing the necessaryequipment

In 1859, Drake struck oil and themodern oil industry was born

Oil refineries sprang up to convertoil into kerosene used in lamps

Gasoline was a byproduct and wassimply cast away



Thomas A. Edison also pioneered the use of a new form of energy

Born in 1847, Edison grew up

tinkering with electricity

He worked in New York repairingstock tickers

He was awarded 40,000 dollars asa bonus, quit, and began a newcareer as an inventor

Edison set to work on inventing anelectric light







Edison’s goal was to create anaffordable lightning system toreplace gas lights and lamps

In 1879, he began working to produce light within a sealed glass bulb

The trick was finding a material that would not burn up

The first known effective element was bamboo

The light worked off a hand

cranked generator



Edison realized that in order tomake his invention practicable he would need a central power source

Edison built a power plant in New York city and set several buildingsalight

This attracted investors and

Edison’s idea spread

Soon, there were electric lamps,fans, printing presses andappliances



Others came along and improvedupon Edison’s technology

Lewis Latimer designed a new and

improved lighting filament

Nicola Tesla, a Serbian inventorcame and worked with Edison

It has been said that many ofEdison’s inventions began withTesla

Tesla pioneered the use ofalternating current rather than

direct



This led to several publicdemonstrations about the dangersof each

Alternating current could be

carried further than direct whichcould only travel 3 miles

Tesla later went to work forGeorge Westinghouse

Together they led the country inalternating current

Two rival companies formed,Edison’s General Electric and Westinghouse Electric



By the turn of the century, 3,000 power stations were lighting 2million lightbulbs across America

Tesla set out on his own to create a

form of wireless energy

He sought to build a massiveelectrical tower to charge theatmosphere

The design is within the realm of possibility but he ran out of money

Edison eventually bankruptedTesla who died penniless as a madscientist



The impact of electricity on America was incredible

Water and steam powered factories turned to electricity

Sewing machines became electricsewing machines

Clothing now came easier, cheaperand was “ready-made”

The electric refrigerator made foodmore accessible



Despite all these breakthroughs, they most benefitted the wealthy

It would take decades before these

technologies found their way to themasses

One of the major deterrents fromheading west was communication

Heading into the west meant youmight never communicate with loved ones again

This changed in the late 1800’s



Many inventions were conceived long before they were made to work

Many people worked on the

telegraph before Morse as they did the lightbulb before Edison

The primary means ofcommunication was the telegraph

Following the Civil War WesternUnion Telegraph had 100,000miles of telegraph wire

By 1900, that number surpassed

900,000



In 1871, Alexander Graham Bell ofScotland migrated to the US

He arrived to assist people with

hearing difficulties

He worked with electricalequipment to produce sounds for the deaf

This led him to realize that sound,other than beeps, could be sentover an electrical line

In 1876, he invented the “talking

telegraph”



This invention quickly led to the telephone

In 1878, the first telephoneexchange took place in NewHaven, Connecticut

Soon thereafter, President

Rutherford B. Hayes set up a telephone in the White House

By 1900, 1.5 million telephones were in use





How did the US Government contribute to the building of theTranscontinental Railroad?



Before the Civil War, most railroad lines were short lines

They connected large cities together

There was not a universal track width or gauge so tracks in manyregions could not connect

Many people had to switch trainsin route which made the process time consuming and unpractical

To make matters worse, there wereno signal standards and train

brakes were unreliable



The key event in terms of transportation occurred directlyafter the Civil War

The Transcontinental Railroad wascompleted connecting east to west

From there, other railways fromnorth to south tapped in

Most of the railroad was funded by the US Government

The government believed it wouldimprove commerce and the

economy



The Federal Government awardedmassive loans to private investors

Most of the workers on therailroad were immigrants

Irish workers on the Union Pacificused pickaxes to level land to lay 6miles of track per day

Chinese workers were used tochisel and dynamite paths through the Sierra Nevada

Workers took pride in their jobs,often holding competitions for the

amount of track laid per day



Finally, after 7 years of labor, the transcontinental railway was joined together

May 10, 1869 the two lines met atPromontory Point in Utah

A gold spike was driven to signify

the area where east met west

The nation was transformed due to the railroad



With completion of the railwayacross the country, improvements were made on railways

A standardized rail system, better brakes, and steel replace iron

Many small towns were transformed into cities as they

became railway stations

Railroads also led to the creation of time zones to put everyone on thesame schedule



Railroads created a faster andmore practical means for transporting goods

They lowered the cost of production

They created national markets

They created a model for big businesses

Last of all they stimulated otherindustries such as iron



The US emerged as the king ofsteel in the mid 1800’s

Transforming Iron to Steel was a process known since the Middle Ages

The problem was it was very costly

and dangerous

That changed in 1856 withEnglishman Henry Bessemer



Bessemer had a new idea forcreating steel

The Bessemer steel process usedcompressed air to purify iron

The process never caught on inEngland but was adopted in theUS

Huge iron deposits in PittsburgPennsylvania coupled with theBessemer process propelled the USinto the age of steel

Soon the US was outproducing the

world in steel and made effectiveuse of it



Following the Civil War, New York grew in size and population

Many workers in Manhattan came

from Brooklyn by ship each day

An idea to build a bridge toconnect the two locations was born

German immigrant and EngineerJohn A. Roebling would show the way

Roebling designed the worlds largest suspension bridge



The bridge would be supported bymassive steel cables and high steel towers

It would arch 1,595 feet above theEast River

Shortly after construction began,Roebling died

His son Washington took up the task

Huge caissons were built to dig out the earth for the massive towers



Many died digging in the caissons,even Washington himself wasdisabled from decompressionsickness

Despite the problems and death toll, the bridge was completed inMay of 1883

The bridge served as a landmark of

American Ingenuity

As darkness fell on the day of itsdedication, 100’s of lights flickeredon showing forth the nationsgreatest achievement



It is not he work of any one man or any one age. It is the result of study, of the experience, and of the knowledge of many men in many ages. It is not merely creation; it is

growth. It stands before us today as the sum and epitome of

human knowledge; as the very heir of the ages; as the latest glory of centuries of patient observation, profound study and

accumulated skill.

-Abraham Stevens Hewitt



Following the construction of theBrooklyn Bridge newachievements were made

In 1871, Chicago experienced amajor setback as fire ravished thecity

In the ashes of ruin arose a landmark structure

Architects Burhham and Rootdesigned the first SteelConstruction high rise

The Rand and McNally building

rose to 10 stories using steelconstruction techniques



Another building, the ChicagoReliance, rose 16 stories and became

the first modern world skyscraperrimmed with windows

In 1902 the Flatiron building went 22stories

A competition emerged between New York and Chicago for the tallest building

The Chrysler Building rose to 77 floors

The Empire State to 102

Steel and business building replacedMedieval Cathedrals heralding in anew age



Flatiron, New York 22 st. Chrysler, Chicago 77 st.

Empire State New York 102 st

1902 1931 1931





One of the most successful business leaders of the late 1800’s was AndrewCarnegie

Carnegie was born in Scotland

His parents worked in the cottageindustry making clothing

The immigrated to the US where hisfather had a hard time finding work

The young Andrew went to work forhis family, starting out as a bobin boy atage 13



Three years later he found himself

carrying telegraph messages around town

His work ethic caused him to become the telegraph secretary for thePennsylvania Railroad Company

While traveling by train he metTheodore Woodruff, maker of theillustrious sleeping car

He asked if Andrew wanted to invest in

his company

Andrew took out a loan, invested andmade a fortune

He found the goose that laid the goldenegg



Andrew made wise investments hisentire life

In 1870, with the wealth made frominvestments, he built his first steel mill

He imported the Bessemer Process tohis mill and made millions

He was living the American Dream

Nearing the end of his life, hecommitted himself to giving back his

wealth

He created the first free public libraries



Andrew Carnegie was not the onlyshrewd businessman that made afortune after the War

It was an age of growth, prosperity andmost of all, Big Business

John D. Rockefeller was another who, like Carnegie, made a fortune fromnothing

His father was a traveling salesman,selling various elixirs and cures

Rockefeller was very studious, hereceived a job as a financial bookkeeper



From that job he learned a great dealabout business and money management

Rockefeller went into the produce business, made enough profit to buildan oil refinery

This business expanded rapidly

His success led him to create theStandard Oil Company in 1870

Rockefeller slowly began to dominate the oil industry

His company grew to such an extent that he was able to offer oil far below

the price of competitors



As he undersold them, they would go broke

Rockefeller would then swoop in and buy their business

Soon, Rockefeller had created amonopoly

He owned all oil businesses in America

and could therefore set whatever pricehe wished

He was not alone, Carnegie had done the same with steel though the conceptdiffered



Coke fields

Iron Ore

Steel Mills

Ships

Railroads

Independent oil

refineries

VerticalConsolidation

HorizontalConsolidation

Carnegie Rockefeller

Purchases



Two market styles emerge under theIndustrialists like Carnegie andRockefeller

Oligopoly = A market dominated by a

few large companies

Example: Cell Phone Providers, HealthCare, Movie Companies, BeverageCompanies, Automobiles

Monopolies = A market is completelyowned and controlled by one business

Examples: US Steel, Standard Oil,NFL, MLB, Microsoft



A third type of market structure wasformed called a Cartel

Cartels were loose associations of business that worked together

They all made the same product

They worked together to limit supply in

order to keep demand high

This would jack up the price of goods to incredible levels



None of these systems were fool proof

Monopolies suffered from governmentintervention

Samuel Dodd, Rockefeller’s lawyer,found a way to skirt governmentrestriction laws

He conceived of an idea to form a trust

In 1882, Owners of Standard Oil andcompanies allied with it combined theiroperations



They all joined together on a mutualagreement of a share of the funds made

by the business

They created a board of trustees which

Rockefeller controlled and managed asa single unit called a trust

In time, 40 companies joined the trust

Because the companies did notofficially merge, they did not violate legal laws

This new kind of monopoly provedalmost impossible to stop



Historians have adopted the term,“Robber Barons” to define these big

business owners

In the Middle Ages, Barons would build forts on rivers and chargeincredible fees for passage

The term implies that Rockefeller andCarnegie made their fortunes fromstealing from the less privileged

The took advantage of small businesses,used the nations resources,consolidated money into the hands of

the few

To make matters worse, they didnothing to help those who worked for

them



They are also sometimes referred to asCaptains of Industry

Not everything they did was bad

They supplied goods that led to theconstruction of skyscrapers and bridges

They helped the transcontinentalrailroad reach coast to coast

They created jobs, raised standards of living

They also used money to create libraries, universities, museums andgrants of money to students



Many American’s grew skeptical of big

business

They pushed governments to respondand restrict their power

Government officials however were

sympathetic to big businesses

They saw how they stimulated theeconomy, created jobs and rose the

level of wealth

By the end of the century, AmericanTelephone, General Electric,

Westinghouse, Dupont were great American success stories

American business topped all others in

the world



Congress did pass a law in 1890

It’s purpose was to limit the amount ofcontrol a given business could have onindustry

The law was called the Sherman Antitrust Act

It outlawed any combination of

companies that restrained trade orcommerce

The Anittrust Act was vague in wording, open to interpretation and did little to limit business growth





Andrew Carnegie lived the AmericanDream

He started out poor and worked his

way to the top

Many immigrants came from Europe with the same dreams and ambitions

Most however did not achieve those

lofty goals

America, in many ways, was a far cryfrom what immigrants heard about instories



Around 14 million people migrated to the US between 1860 and 1890

During the Civil War, work in America was scarce

The US Government passed the

Contract Labor Act in 1864

This Law allowed employers to entercontracts with immigrants

Employers would pay the cost of travel

to immigrants in turn for a years labor

Employers soon began to activelyrecruit labor from abroad

Many were Irish due to the 1879 potatofamine



In addition to immigration to America,many American’s began moving intocities

An estimated 8 to 9 million American’sflocked to urban centers for work

In 1860, most workers in factories worked 12 hour workdays 6 days a week

There were labor laws that mandated10 hour workdays but most factoriesfailed to abide by them

Most factories paid people in theamount of work they produced, not by

the hour



Workers would received a fixed pricefor a piece of clothing produced, acigar, or part

This type of labor was called piecework

labor

It benefitted those who worked thehardest, the fastest and produced the

best quality

Most piecework was performed in whatcame to be known as a sweatshop

Employees would work long hours for low wages in terrible workingconditions



Factory owners always wanted toincrease productivity

They would work their employees

harder and harder

In the past, artisans would produce anitem from start to finish

In order to increase productivity,

factory owners conceived a bettermodel

The idea was to divide labor intoseveral jobs



Instead of building an item from start to finish, a person would only beresponsible for a small portion or task

This increased productivity but it also took the joy out of work

There began to be a huge disparity between workers and owners

In the past, owners cared for their workers, now they saw them as parts of

a machine

One factory owner declared “I regardmy people as I regard machinery. So

long as they do my work for what Ichose to pay for them, I keep them,getting out of them all I can”



In order to make a profit, factories would need high quality work produced in a short amount of time

They became cruel taskmasters

People were fined for minor infractionssuch as being late, talking, reading orrefusing to do a task

Workplaces were not safe

There were no safety regulations

Many people went deaf, lost limbs,fingers, contracted deadly maladiessuch as black lung



Despite the horrendous conditions, people worked hard

It gave them money like never before

In addition, there were no labor lawsfor age

Many children worked rather than go to school

Children helped their families pay the bills and enjoy financial freedom

Like their parents though, most were physically scarred from the intense labor conditions



By the end of 1800, 1 in 5 children between the age of 10 and 16 worked in the factories and coal mines

Conditions were tolerable at first but as

the century came to a close revolution was in the air

Robert Owens in Scotland came up with a radical idea

It was based on an EnlightenmentThinker, John Locke

It held that if a person was placed in the correct environment, theircharacter would improve



Robert Owen wondered, if workers were treated well and taken care of, would production increase?

In Scotland, he purchased a factoryand began a great experiment

His employees worked fewer hours, were given holidays, sick leave and their children were educated

His factory prospered and outproducedmany sweat shops

He called his idea, Socialism



Robert Owen decided to take hisexperiment to the next level

He purchased land in New Harmony,Indiana

He would attempt to take his socialexperiment to new heights and createan entire society based on its precepts

The experiment turned into an totalfailure

There were many intellectuals but notenough people willing to do the work

The idea still held ground in the workplace and it would storm across

Europe and the US





In 1890, 9% of Americans held 75% of the nations wealth

Under the horrible conditions present

in factories, many clamored for change

Socialism, popular in Europe at the time, came to America in force

Socialists sought to spread the

economic wealth amongst everyone

In 1848, German philosopher KarlMarx, with the help of FrederickEngels wrote the Communist Manifesto



This small tract would turn the worldon its head and kill countless people in

the coming century

It was an economic principal based on

a scientific truth

To understand Marx, we must look atanother great thinker of the age,Charles Darwin

For 5 years, Charles Darwin completeda vast scientific study of animals andinsects across the world

Darwin observed that life is a constantstruggle for survival



He then theorized that small biologicaldifferences is what helps a species winout and survive [Natural Selection]

This theory created a whirlwind of

controversy and interest

While Darwin’s study mainly spoke of the animal world, many could not help but tie it to the human race

Another philosopher, Herbert Spencer,figured evolution held the key tocreating a better society

He coined the term, Survival of theFittest



From Herbert Spencer, came the ideaof Social Darwinism

Social Darwinists speculated on who was the greatest human race and how you could make the human race better

They sought to purify the weak outfrom the human race “eugenics”

This they did through racial violenceand sexism

It was an idea that became deeplyimbedded

It gave hope to the old royal blood linesof Europe, that they might somehow be

special again



In the turmoil and excitement thatDarwin produced, came another theory

that linked Darwinism to Economics

Karl Marx took Darwin’s principals,and Social Darwinist theories andapplied them to economic systems

He looked at the structure of economiesand political orders

He saw that mankind began as huntersand gatherers, evolved into monarchies,

then democracies

He looked hard at the state of the working class



Marx figured that working conditions would lead to an end of capitalist anddemocratic societies

The end would come in revolution, working class citizens would rise upand seize control

Together they would usher in a finalsocial economic order calledCommunism

It would be a society where all worked together

There would be no rich, no poor, it would be a utopia



Many eagerly awaited the revolution

With working conditions across Europeand America in a horrible state, itappeared it could occur at any time

In America, workers began to band together to form unions

These labor unions sought better pay,shorter workdays, and better workingconditions

In 1866, the National Labor Union wasformed, 60,000 members joined

In 1872, they nominated a presidentialcandidate



Of all the 20th century thinkers,few made a greater impact thanSigmund Freud

Freud was born in Vienna Austria

He found himself infatuated with psychic disorders

He studied in Paris with MartinCharcot who used hypnosis to

treat hysteria

Freud began to use this methodof medicine to treat people



In the 1890’s Freud abandonedhypnosis and instead began to

treat people by talking to them

As he practiced this form of treatment, he discovered thatneurotic symptoms related toearlier experiences fromchildhood

He noticed that many of the problems encountered in his patients could be traced tosexual incidents duringchildhood



Thus many of his early studiesinvolved sex

He came up with his theoriessuch as Oedipus Syndrome

Later, Freud began to probe the psychic phenomenon of dreams

Freud believed that dreams musthave a reasonable and scientificexplanation

Freud’s study of dreams led himinto another realm of what

would be psychology



Freud concluded that dreamsallowed the unconscious wishes,desires and drives to reachfulfillment

They are a uncensored playground for the mind

In real life, the mind censors its true desires which are fulfilled in

sleep

Freud argued that unconsciousdrives contributed to conscious

behavior



Freud later developed aninternal model of the mind

He believed that the mind wasan arena of struggle and conflict

between three entities

ID = amoral, irrational,aggressive and sexual desires

SuperEgo = imperatives, rulesand expectations of society

Ego = mediates between the twoand creates personality



Later generation after Freudhave parted ways with Freud’sideas

Psychoanalysis has become

fragmented

Even though many of his theories have failed to stand the test of time, Freud officially

created a new scientific realm

It has created modern psychology, sociology, andanthropology among others



As a result of people like Freud,

Darwin and Marx, the world was viewed in a entirely new way

Marx gave 3rd world nationshope to take leading roles

Darwin and Freud moved people away from religion

Darwinists saw the world as a

place of violence and struggle

Freud gave reasons for people’sactions and in many waysreplaced concepts of morality

and personal accountability



Another massive labor union formed in1869 called the Knights of Labor

They sought the same reforms butattempted to make gains withoutstrikes

In 1885, the power of the Knightsforced railroad owner Jay Gould toabandon designs on a wage cut

This lead membership to soar to over700,000

Many new members participated instrikes that became violent which

tarnished the name

Membership plummeted



A third labor union formed in 1886called the American Federation ofLabor

This union differed from all others in that only craftsman were allowed to

join

It was led by London-Born cigar makerSamuel Gompers

Technically, all craftsman were welcome to join but women and African Americans were often excluded

The AFL focused on wages and laborconditions, where the Knights of Labor

were not united in their desires



The AFL used strikes and boycotts to be heard

They forced owners into collective bargaining in which they all met

together to decide on wages

The AFL did not meet the needs of all workers

In 1905, 43 groups opposed to the AFLcreated the Workers of the WorldUnion or Wobblies

Many were strong socialists and theirstrikes were often violent in nature



In 1877 a massive railroad strikeoccurred

There was an economic depression that year and amidst that it was announced

there would be a 10% wage cut

Workers responded by striking

They tried to prevent others from working which created a clash with the local militia

Rioters then began to burn and destroyrailroad property in Pittsburg, Chicagoand St Louis



President Hayes mobilized the federalarmy to put down the riots

Soldiers fired on a crowd of 20,000

rioters

They responded by destroying 5 milliondollars of railroad equipment

This strike set precedence for others that spread across America

Not all unions were in favor of violentstrikes as witnessed in the GreatRailway Strike



Eugene V. Debs advocated against violent confrontation

He felt that violence erupted due to lack of organization amongst laborers

He began a new type of union called anIndustrial Union

It organized union workers into specific

groups under their craft

Together, they sought to receive better wages and organize strikes in a manner that was non-violent



From 1881 to 1900 the US faced 24,000strikes

Some were increasingly violent

In May of 1886, a group of workersmounted a national demonstration foran 8 hour workday

In Chicago, the McCormik reaper

factory hired alternate workers toreplace strikers

Workers called these replacementsScabs



The strike quickly escalated days lateras anarchists joined the rallies

They threw a bomb at police officers which provoked the police to open fire

Dozens were killed on both sides

Four anarchists were captured andhanged for throwing the bomb

The press blamed the Knights of Laborfor the Haymarket Riot

Most American’s thereafter associated violence with strikes



In 1892, while Andrew Carnegie was inEurope, his partner Henry Frick cut

wages

Carnegie knew about the wage cut and left Frick to handle it

The workers at the steel mill called astrike

Frick had a plan to defeat strikers

He called upon the Pinkertons, a private police force to put down therebellion



300 Pinktertons moved up theMonongahela River under darkness

When they came upon the gatheredcrowd os strikers they opened fire

American’s sided with the strikers

Then, anarchist Alexander Berkman tried and failed to assassinate Frick

Although Berkman was not associated with the strikers, he ended up tied to it

The Union called off the labor strikeand returned to work

The Homestead Strike ended in

November



The last great riot involved GeorgePullman, inventor of the PullmanSleeping Car

Pullman enjoyed great success with his train sleeping cars

So much so that he founded an entire town to build and manufacture them

Pullman Chicago was a neat business town where workers had parks, lakes, achurch, paved sidewalks and shade

trees

He was very strict on his workers though and banned alcoholconsumption



In 1893, during the economicdownturn, Pullman cut wages by 25%

while keeping food and rent prices thesame

A delegation of workers went to him in protest

In response, Pullman fired three of them causing the workers to go onstrike

Pullman refused to negotiate and shutdown the plant

Workers turned to the AmericanRailway Union for help



The ARU supported the strike andcalled all delegates to strike in protest

260,000 railroad workers joined thestrike across the country

It completely disrupted the railroadindustry, trade and mail services

Railroad owners convened and argued that the strike was a form of a

monopoly that was breaking the Anti- trust Act

The US government sided with theowners and commanded all workers toreturn to work



President Grover Cleveland sent 2,500soldiers to enforce the return to work

A week later the strike was over

This sent a precedent and time and timeagain, court orders were issued onstrikers

The US government supported Unionappeals

Labor Unions remained powerless for the next 30 years





1)What factors pushed or pulled new immigrants west?

2) What was one key requirement that applicants had tomeet to receive land under the Homestead Act?



Many American began moving west in the late 1800’s

There were many motivations for thismass migration

Some of the factors were forced upon people [push]

Other factors were due to strongattraction and personal motivation

[pull]

Regardless of the motivation, many ventured into a land of adventure andeven death



The Civil War displaced thousands offarmers, slaves, workers and peopleseeking a new start

The Mormons fled to escape religious

persecution

Europeans came to America in searchof land and freedom not available inEurope

Some were even outlaws, escaping justice

Not everyone was forced



Before the Civil War, many flowed west to become rich off of the greatgold rush

After that, migration slowed due to the

issue of slavery

Following the Civil War, there was noreason not to move west

In 1862, the US Government issued the

Pacific Railway Acts

The government gave large tracts of land to the Union and Central PacificRailroads to open the west



After the railroads were built, therailroad industry sold land for cheap

prices

Cities grew up along railroads, farmers

moved to build crops and takeadvantage of shipment lines

The government further encouragedsettlers to move west

In 1862, the Morrill Land Grant was passed

It gave state government millions ofacres to sell



Many moved west and bought up lands to sell later to settlers

Nothing pushed people west more than the Homestead Act

For a very small fee, settlers could have160 acres of land

They had to be at least 21 years old, build a house and live there for 6months out of the year

They also had to farm the land for 5 years

The act created 372,000 farms, jobs, and claimed 80 million acres



Not only white Americans flooded west but immigrants and African Americanfollowed

Ownership of land was a nearimpossibility in Europe

Many came from Europe for free land

German immigrants settled along thegreat plains

Irish, Italians, Jews and Chineseimmigrants settled along the west coast

They took jobs in mining, buildingrailroads



Mexican Americans became ranchersand led to the growth of the AmericanCowboy

After the Civil War, many African Americans sought new beginnings in

the west

In 1879, Benjamin “pap” Singleton ledgroups of African Americans westward

He tied it to the bible and the ancientexodus of the Israelites to the promised land

They called themselves the exodustersand over 50,000 headed west



America expand westward at anunprecedented rate

It presented Americans and immigrants with adventure, hope, land and wealth

However, many of the lands that were being sold and settled belonged toNative Americans

Like the century before it, clashes with

Native Americans would distinguish westward settlement

The treatment of Native Americans would forever leave a scar on Americanhistory





Easterners called it, “The IndianProblem”

As settlers pushed west, how couldIndian lands be used productively for

ranching and farming

To Native Americans, the “Problem” was a life or death struggle

They would resist westward advancesin any way they could

When their time ran out, they facedresignation, fatigue, and heartbreak



Native American hardship began with the buffalo

Millions of buffalo ranged the GreatPlains

Plains Indians used them for theirmeat, hides for shelters and clothing

No part of the buffalo went unused

They traded furs for guns

The also traded for horses, sometimesstealing, other times capturing themfrom the wild



Settlers viewed land as a resource to beused and profited from

They felt they were justified in takingNative lands because they could make

them more productive

To Native Americans, settlers wereinvaders and thieves

Settlers had no regard for sacred lands

and especially the buffalo

As the transcontinental railroadconnected East to West, settlers andadventurers killing of the great buffalohoards rendered them nearly extinct



Native Americans made their living ashunters and gatherers

They would travel from place to placein search of food

With horses and guns, they traveled atgreater distances and lived alongside

the buffalo

War intensified between tribes witharrival of guns and horses

Feuds were fought frequently over landand hunting rights

It gave rise to a warrior cultureamongst many tribes



An example of this intensified warfarecan be seen in Shoshone history

From the 1750’s on frequent warfare between the Shoshone, Blackfoot,Crow, Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho

pushed the Shoshone south and west

Many of the Shoshone’s original lands were Montana and Idaho

Some were pushed as far South as

Texas to become the Comanche

As settlers arrived, the governmentattempted to tie them to territories

through the use of treaties andreservations



Most Natives did not understand theconcept of a reservation and left themonly to be arrested or shot

The Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs{BIA} was created to deliver supplies to

reservations

Widespread corruption within the BIA lead many supplies to be stolen

The government did attempt to protect

reservations but many hungry settlersoverwhelmed them

Settlers would often kill their buffalodivert water supplies and even attackcamps



In 1873, Kicking Bird of the Kiowadeclared, “ [The Indians] have taken

the white man by the hand, thinkinghim to be a friend, but he is not afriend; government has deceived us...”

Native Americans lashed out

The broke their treaties and fought back with increasing violence

By 1871, treaties were worthless

The government would cease to make them and recognize any chiefs



In the beginning, the US Armystruggled to contain Native resistance

The majority of their forces were in the

South with the Reconstruction effort

They struggled to put down conflictsover such a vast amount of land

On many occasions, the US Army tried

to turn Native tribe against another

Many white profiteers made matters worse by selling arms illegally



Another problem for the US Army wasrecruitment

Who would join the army for $13

dollars a month, wear leftover Civil War Uniforms, and eat rotten food

Many were forced into building forts,driving settlers from reservations,escorting the mail, protecting farmers

and railroad workers from raids

Many US Soldiers did not see anyaction and over 1/3 deserted



Many battles did occur, most were violent, heartless, and brutal

The Apache and Navajo Wars startedover land disputed with Mexico

Mexican soldiers killed Geronimo’smother, wife, and 3 children

It lead to a series of wars againstMexico

Following the Mexican American War, the US inherited the conflict

Fighting did not fully subside until1906



Other conflicts arose in the region ofIdaho, Utah, and Wyoming betweensettlers and the Shoshone

Settlers over ran the land to such anextent that many Natives faced starvation

Frequent attacks broke out

Atrocities finally escalated to complete war

In 1862, the Shoshone fought the US

Army at the Battle of Bear River inSouthern Idaho

The battle quickly turned to massacre

Over 400 Shoshone were butchered in terrible and cruel ways



Native Americans and the US Armymet in several battles

Here are some of the biggestengagements

1864: Sand Creek Massacre

The Southern Cheyenne occupied thecentral plains, including parts of

Colorado

They carried out a series of raids on western settlers traveling along themany wagon roads to the West



After several skirmishes, The Cheyenneand Denver Colorado’s governorreached a peace agreement

Chief Black Kettle of the Cheyenne setup camp at Sand Creek

Colonel John Chivington, who hadfailed to deal a crushing military defeaton the Cheyenne, saw a chance forretribution

In 1864, he took his 700 man army anddescended on the Cheyenne and Arapaho encampment

Chief Black Kettle tried to replace an American Flag with a White Flag ofsurrender



Chivington didn’t care

He and 700 US Soldiers began theslaughter

Between 150 to 500 Native American’s were killed in the Sand Creek Massacre

Most of them were women andchildren

The next year, many Cheyenne agreed to move to reservations

The flow of blood was just beginning





The Sioux of the northern plains[Dakota, Wyoming and Montana]fiercely opposed white expansion

In 1865 the US government infuriated

the Sioux by building the BozemanTrail through their hunting lands

Sioux chief Red Cloud launched a 2 year war against the project

The attacks consisted of a coalition ofLakota Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho

Plagued by attacks, the US army began building forts along the Bozeman Trail



Fort Kearny [near Buffalo Wyoming] was being constructed as aheadquarters to the area

The Sioux carried out over 50 smallattacks to prevent the fort from being

built

Colonel Henry Carrington advancedfrom Fort Laramie to assist

Carrington received under his

command Captain William J.Fetterman, a distinguished Civil Warhero

He boasted, “Give me 80 men and Iride through the whole Sioux nation”



Upon Fetterman’s arrival, Carrington

was criticized for taking a defensivestance

Fetterman wanted action, yet he had noexperience fighting Indians

His first night almost ended in disaster

A loan Indian nearly lured his men to their destruction by carrying out a hitand run mission

The Sioux continued their raids, in one they almost surrounded and destroyedCarrington’s forces

Jim Bridger remarked, soldiers “Don’tknow anything about fighting Indians”



Bridger’s comments were prophetic

Encouraged by their success of usingdecoy’s, Red Cloud planned a greaterattack

On December 21, 1866 a small band ofSioux, led by Crazy Horse, attacked a

Wagon Train along the Bozeman Trail

A larger contingent of Arapaho and

Cheyenne took positions on either sideof the road further north

Fetterman saw the wagons in distressand sent his men into battle



As he arrived, Crazy Horse and hismen took flight north

Fetterman and his men took the baitand gave chase

They were soon surrounded,overwhelmed and slaughtered

81 men in all were killed in theFetterman Massacre

The incident led the US to abandon theBozeman Trail and assign the Sioux areservation in South Dakota



The reservation gave the Sioux theBlack Hills, a land held sacred

Rumors spread of gold in the regionand before long, settlers and golddiggers appeared in Sioux lands

Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer was sent to investigate the gold rumor

He reported that the hills cradled gold

“from the grass roots down”

This announcement was a starting gunin a massive gold race that enveloped

the region



The US Government attempted to buy the region from Red Cloud

Sioux Chiefs Crazy Horse and SittingBull were disgusted at the idea and leftnegotiations

They abandoned the reservationsassigned and resumed attacks onsettlers

They gained two improbable victoriesin 1875 and were emboldened to wipeout the US Armies influence from thearea

The US Army sent three columns ofmen out to round up the Sioux andreturn them to their reservation



One of the three columns was led byGeneral Custer and the 7th Calvary

On June 25, 1876 Custer spotted asmall Sioux village near the RosebudRiver

He assumed it was a small contingent[over 2000], that he could overwhelm

them with a swift attack

He severely underestimated the size of the Sioux force

He also failed to take into account the terrain he would be fighting in



Custer divided his forces into threegroups

Major Marcus Reno was to chargeheadlong into the village

Major Frederick Benteen was sent to the upper valley of the Big Horn River to prevent the Indians from escaping

Custer would attack the village from the opposite side from Reno

Reno’s men, number 175, found themselves fighting for their lives

They took off in retreat heading highinto the bluffs near the village



As Reno’s men started their retreatCuster force of 210 men slammed into

the village from the opposite side

Crazy Horse led his army in a sweepingarc and cut off Custer’s rear preventingretreat as Reno had done

Custer was quickly overwhelmed

He ordered his men to shoot their

horses and form and from a carcass wall to hide behind

The defense did not hold, Custer andall his men were killed



Reno and Benteen continued fightingfor another day and eventually re-grouped

The Sioux and their allies meanwhilemutilated the corpses of Custer’s men

Their believed that the soul of amutilated body would be trapped andforced to wander earth for eternity

Inexplicably, Custer’s body was

stripped, cleaned and left

Some believe the Sioux thought he wasa civilian because he was wearing

buckskin, or possibly his short hair wasnot worth scalping



The victory was the pinnacle of Native American resistance

The US would act swiftly to avenge thedefeat that occurred on the centennial

celebration

They area was quickly flooded with USsoldiers, forcing the Sioux to return to

their reservations

Crazy Horse surrendered in 1877

He was later killed by a US soldier ashe resisted arrest



Reservation life was difficult

Many longed for a return to theiroriginal life before the reservations

In 1890, an Indian prophet, Wavoka, promised a return to the traditional lifeif people performed purificationceremonies

These included the Ghost Dance, a

ritual in which people join hands and whirl in a circle

The Ghost Dance caught on and spread wildly



Seeing the Ghost Dance performed,many soldiers worried an attack wascoming

They plead for reinforcements from theUS Government

Custer’s 7th Calvary was sent

Hoping to end the Ghost Dances taking place, Sitting Bull was arrested

As they attempted to take him intocustody fighting broke out

Sitting Bull was shot and killed



Following Sitting Bulls death, 120 men

and 230 women and children surrendered

They were rounded up near a creek called Wounded Knee in South Dakota

As they were being disarmed, a shot wasfired

Soldiers opened fire on the crowd

They mercilessly massacred over 200

Sioux

The bodies were left to freeze in a 3 daystorm before being buried

It was a brutal end to Native American

life





“I am the last Indian” Sitting Bull said

Indeed he was, he was one of the last to live a life on the plains hunting the buffalo

While many American called for thedestruction of Native Americans, others were horrified

Regardless, both sides of the debate

agreed Natives had to be civilized

They wanted Natives to give up their traditions, speak English and becomeChristians



Christian missionaries ran thereservations

Tribal Elders were forced to abandon

their religious beliefs and rituals

In 1879, Army Captain Richard H. Prattopened the first Indian School in Carlisle,Pennsylvania

Children as young as 5, were taken fromreservations to be Americanized

This policy was dubbed, “Assimilation”



In 1887, the Federal Government changedits idea on shared land on the reservations

The Dawes Act sought to divide Indian lands into individual plots

Each Native received 160 acres of land

The Dawes Act would also give Native American’s citizenship and make themsubject to local and state laws

The idea of farming however offendedmost Native Americans

A Native responded, “You want me to cutgrass and make hay and sell it and be rich like a white man. But how dare I cut offmy mothers hair.”



Many Native Americans had little interestin farming

Between 1887 and 1932, many sold their plots to speculators or were swindled outof it

2/3rds of the 138 million acres given toNative Americans as reservation land wassold back to whites

During the 1880’s things got even worse

Settlers began to squat on Native Landsand take them

Congress even agreed to buy back manyoriginal Native Lands



Vast lands remained unclaimed, many

taken from Natives by the government

The government in turn sold these lands to settlers

The most famous, the Oklahoma Territory

In 1890, thousands lined up awaiting thesound of a gun to stake a claim on land

They were called Boomers

Those who took off before the sound of the gun were called Sooners

It took half a century, thousands of Nativedeaths to 950 white Soldiers, to tame the

West









Mining drew more and more people to the western US

In 1859, the Comstock load wasdiscovered in Nevada

The Comstock load produced 400 milliondollars in silver over the next 30 years

Pikes Peak in Denver Colorado drew1000’s to what was the Kansas Territory

The Black Hills, opened in 1877 producedover a billion dollars in gold

It became the single greatest ore producing mine in the world



At first, miners used antiquated techniques to find ore

Then, placer mining was discovered as amore viable method for searching for ore

Miners would run water over dirtcollected in a box [Placer]

By the 1860’s easy to extract ore wasgone, the rest lie deep within the soil,sometimes trapped in quartz

Many miners did not have the means todig deep and thus many early mining towns became ghost towns



When the Spanish arrived in the American’s they brought with them horsesand cattle

In Argentina, cattle thrived along the

pampas

Similar success was found in Central America with cattle

Many American settlers were unfamiliar

with cattle driving methods

The early American Cowboy learned fromhis Spanish counterpart



As the buffalo herds were depleted, cattle

took their place

Prior to the Civil War, most Americansconsumed pork

With the arrival of Texas Cattle Ranches, Americans switched their taste to beef

At first, ranchers drove their herds to thenearest railroad to ship them west for processing

Cow Towns emerged all over the west where ranchers drove their herds

Cheyenne, Abilene, Dodge City weresome of the greatest



Most cattle were brought from Texas up the Chisholm Trail to Abilene in Kansas

35,000 cattle were brought up theChisholm Trail in 2 decades

Driving cattle north was known as a LongDrive

The men that drove the cattle were a tough lot

They included Americans, Native Americans, African Americans andImmigrants

They became known as Cowboys



Cattle created big business in Texas

Many businessman made fortunes off ofcattle herds and became known as CattleBarons

100’s of 1000’s of cattle were raised inTexas to be driven north

They grazed on millions of acres of landonce inhabited by the buffalo

By the mid 1880’s cattle ranching was on the decline

Over use of the land, disease, falling prices led to a major decline



Many homesteaders headed west for free land

Life in the west was tough and laborintensive

Many parts of the Great Plains did nothave trees

Homesteaders had to made their houses ofdirt called soddies

Clearing the land was rife with danger

There were rattlesnakes, poisonousspiders

Crops were destroyed be weevils andgrasshoppers



Many homesteaders did not make it andheaded back west

The families that stayed learned how to live a very tough and rugged existence

Families and communities had to pull together to survive

Women joined men in the fields as equals

Many new technologies emerged to make life on the homestead easier



Mechanized reaper = helped harvest

Barbed Wire = keep cattle confined

Dry Farming = crops on dry land

Steel Plow = cut through dense soil

Harrow = leveled ground

Windmill = brought forth water

Grain Drill = better crop yields



In the 1870’s the US Government setforth to save many lands as NationalParks [Yellowstone]

By 1880, the west was closed

In 1893, historian Fredrick JacksonTurner stated that the wild west hadforever changed the American character

His thesis said that American’s wereadventurous, tough, self improving and

committed to democracy and freedom

The west created literature, shows, mythsand songs about an unparalleled time in world history





American farmers have always struggled between two forces: Nature and theEconomy

Natural disasters ushered in an era ofstruggles for American Farmers near the

turn of the century

Locusts and boll weevils destroyed vastquantities of crops

Following the Civil War, farmers had borrowed heavily

Now many farms were failing and the political cry at the turn of the centuryfocused on fixing farms

“Th f th b d i f



The farmers...are the bone and sinew of

the nation; they produce the largest share of its wealth; but they are getting, they say,

the smallest share for themselves. The

American farmer is steadily losing ground. His burdens are heavier every year and his gains more meager”

-Washington Gladden



From 1873 to 1893, the US railroadindustry failed twice

This had a cascading affect that hurt

business, farmers and the economy

Both sides looked to the FederalGovernment for help

Traditionally, the US Government had

stayed out of economic affairs

Their pleas would however cause thegovernment to take action



One federal policy that was of concern tofarmers was tariffs

In order to discourage people from buying

products made outside of the US, a tariff was instituted

Tariffs raised the cost of foreign goods andencouraged people to buy from home

Americans were divided on the benefits of tariffs

Businesses claimed that tariffs were good



They said that it protected American jobsand their profits

Because it reduced foreign competition, they could raise their prices and turn a

greater profit

Farmers however were against tariffs

They raised the prices of manufactured

goods such as farm equipment

They also caused foreign nations to tariff American goods which reduced theamount of money farmers could make



Whenever the government proposed anew tariff, farmers protested

Farmers viewed tariffs as proof that thegovernment preferred easternmanufacturers to western farmers

Tariffs were not the only concern farmershad in the late 1800’s

The value of money is linked to the supplyof money

If there is a lot of money in circulation, the value of the dollar decreases

If there is a limited supply, then the valueof money increases



During an economic crisis, thegovernment often counters by printingmore money

This, again, causes a drop in value and italso causes inflation

When there is more money in circulation, the price of goods also increases

Overtime, bread which cost .5 cents a loafends up costing 3 dollars a loaf

People who take out loans enjoy inflation because the money they pay back is less than they borrowed

Inflation benefits farmers because it raises the price of the goods they sell



In contrast to inflation, there can also bedeflation

If the government chooses to limit thesupply of money by taking cash out ofcirculation it creates deflation

The value of the dollar rises, products andgoods cost less

People who lend money, such as banks,enjoy the benefits of deflation

Those who take out loans often pay more when they pay it back

Deflation favors owners, not sellers



The issue over deflation vs inflationclimaxed when the US governmentdecided to do away with the Greenback

In 1873, the US experienced an economic

crisis

Until that point in time, the US had beenon the Bimetallic standard

Currency consisted of either gold or silver

coins

In order to stabilize the economy, thegovernment put the nation on a goldstandard



This move reduced the amount of moneyin circulation, thus creating a deflation based economy

Conservatives, buyers, “gold bugs” were pleased

Opposing them were farmers and westernminers who became known as Silverites

They wanted inflation and more money incirculation

Silverites called for free silver, theunlimited coining of silver dollars

The Greenbacks, who wanted papermoney joined the Silverites



The Bland-Allison Act of 1878 required the US government to coin more silver

It was vetoed by President Hayes but passed by congress

The Act accomplished little because theUS Treasury refused to comply

In 1890 the Sherman Silver Purchase Actcaused the government to coin even moresilver

In 1893, the US gold reserves weredepleted and foreign investors withdrew their gold

It caused congress to repeal the act



While the currency debate raged on,farmers across America joined together

Farmers created the Patrons ofHusbandry, or, the Grange

It helped farmers form co-operatives

It worked a little like Costco or Sam’sClub

Farmers bought large quantities of goodsfor low prices

The Grange also pushed to improvefarming and reduce costs



In addition to the Grange, many otherfamers alliances were formed

They had great power together to enforce better prices and cheaper operating costs

Many farmers alliances allowed women asspokespersons

It was another beginning for womenseeking more rights as citizens

In the 1890’s various political parties began to form out of the farmers alliances

In 1891, the People’s Party [Populist]emerged that demanded radical change in the government



Their platform included the following policies:

1) An increase in the circulation of money

2) Unlimited minting of silver

3) A progressive income tax which would benefit farmers and hurt industrialists

4) Government ownership of transportation and communication

They were in favor of an 8 hour workday

They also joined African Americanfarmers in their cause



In 1892 the Populist Party generatedgreat interest

They nominated a presidential candidate,James B. Weaver

He lost in a landslide to Grover Cleveland

The coming years saw more economicdisparity

In 1896, the issue was again focused ongold vs silver/ deflation vs inflation

Republicans nominated WilliamMcKinley on a gold standard



Democrats and Populists nominated

William Jennings Bryan after his powerful Cross of Gold speech

Using images from the Bible, he stood with head bowed and arms outstretchedand cried out

“You shall not press down upon the browof labor this crown of thorns. You shallnot crucify man upon a cross of gold”

Bryan revolutionized the presidentialcampaign

He traveled all across American, givingspeeches wherever he went

McKinley gave his speeches from his front

porch

Despite all his efforts, Bryan failed to winthe election against McKinley



the election against McKinley

Like the Civil War before it, Bryan failed to move American to an agrarian society

Big business and industry would reignsupreme

In 1900, huge amounts of gold werediscovered in Alaska, South Africa and the Canadian Yukon

This greatly increased the worlds goldreserves

As the nation adopted a gold standard, prices began a slow rise much to farmersenjoyment

Populism died out





The late 1800’s has come to be referred to

as the Gilded Age

The term was coined by Mark Twain

It means, “covered with thin layer of gold”

American society at the turn of thecentury was lightly covered with wealthand prosperity

The problem was, that covering pertained

to a small group of wealthy industrialistsand not the general public

There was a widespread abuse of power in business and government



Most American’s accepted a Laissez-faire“allow to be” economic system

American businesses favored this model when it benefitted them

They also liked government interventions

In order to stimulate growth, thegovernment would often give outsubsidies

Sometimes a subsidy was land, in other

times it was money in order to stimulategrowth

To ensure government aid, many BigBusinesses bribed politicians by giving them money in return for subsidies



Sometimes these bribes were legal, other times they were not

One of the major scandals was that of therailroad

Congress gave land and money to the

Union Pacific Railroad company to build the transcontinental railroad

Credit Mobilier was the company hired to build the railway

They charged far more than the actualcosts involved in making the railroad and pocketed government money

President Grant made money off of thescheme as well as the vice president

A political spoils system began to develop



po t ca spo s syste bega to de e op

Congressman and presidential candidates were supported by wealthy businessman

Often these candidates were corrupt andhad few qualifications

They rode to office on money and bribes

Once in power, they would pay back the business owners by giving them subsidies

Political parties began to form on different lines

Republicans supported big business whiledemocrats favored the under privilegedsuch as farmers



President Rutherford B. Hayes attacked

the spoils system

When elected into office he turned his back on Republicans

He fired employees who came to office through bribes, including the VP

He did not seek a second term in officeand with the enemies he made, he likely would have lost

James A Garfield won the presidency

He was a republican who desired toreform the spoils system

Hi i ffi h h



His term in office however was cut short

A jaded employee, whom Garfield had nothired into a government office, CharlesGuiteau shot and killed Garfield

The murder created a public outcry for

the spoils system

Vice President Chester Arthur became thenext president

He helped pass the Pendleton Civil

Service Act which tested a governmentofficials background before beingappointed

It also stopped federal employes fromcontributing campaign funds



In 1884, a Democrat was voted into office

for the first time since 1856

Grover Cleveland rode to office promising to clean up corrupt practices

Cleveland second term in office was notnearly as successful

A worldwide economic slump left many Americans with poor pay or without work

Cleveland did little to help suffering Americans

He fought against unions, repealed theSherman Silver Act



In 1896, William McKinley defeated William Jennings Bryan for the presidency

He favored gold over silver for the nationsmonetary system

He instituted tariffs and the economy began a slow but steady incline

In 1901, McKinley visited Buffalo, New York for an exposition

Leon Czolgosz, a mentally unstable man,an anarchists, shot and killed the president as he greeted the public



In the late 1800’s, America experienced a

new wave of immigrants

Many came fleeing religious persecution,others seeking better jobs and land

In the 1880’s a violent streak of pogroms,

Jewish killings, swept across Russia

Many came to America seeking a new beginning

In 1860, the population of the US was31.5 million

Between 1865 and 1920 an additional 30million people came to America from allover the world

F 1865 t 1890 t i i t



From 1865 to 1890, most immigrantscame from Germany, Britain and Ireland

Between 1890 and 1920, Greeks, Italians,Slavs, Jews and Armenians arrived

Until the 1880’s the US allowed theindividual states to decide who couldsettle and who could not

That changed in 1891 when the federalgovernment took over

They began to segregate people into who was worthy to enter and who was not

Ellis Island, off of New York became theGolden Door where most Europeans wereallowed to pass freely

On the west coast, Asians arrived atAngel Island



Angel Island

Chinese immigrants helped build therailroad, then settled and began farmers

Asians were highly discriminated againstand many were turned away

Those who were granted passage oftenhad to work for lower wages than theirEuropean counterparts

In 1882, the US Government passed the

Chinese Exclusion Act

Most people of Chinese ancestry were turned away at Angel Island

It was not repealed until 1943



Many Japanese immigrants also came to

America

At first, they moved to Hawaii after theUS annexed it in 1898

They worked on sugar plantations and as

farmers

From Hawaii a steady stream of Japaneseimmigrants came to California

There they became great farmers andhelped the agricultural industry

In 1913, California passed the Alien Webb Act which banned Asians, mainlyJapanese, from the right of owning land

In 1902, congress began an initiative to



bring farming into desolate New Mexico,

Arizona Southern Texas and California

Canals and waterways were built turningdesert into lush farmland

Many Mexicans immigrated, especially

during the Mexican Civil War in 1910

They earned better pay and builtrailroads, mines and farms

When the immigration act of 1921

restricted Europeans from coming to America, many more Mexicans came

By 1925, Los Angeles had the largestSpanish speaking population outside ofMexico





As settlers poured into America’s large

cities, it became difficult to accommodate them all

Many early colonial homes had beenswallowed by the city and became dens offilth

240,000 people lived per square mile inNew York in deplorable conditions

Prior to the Civil War, cities in America were quite small

They only extended, at most, 3 to 4 milesin any direction

That was rapidly changing

In the late 1800’s new forms ofi f d i i



transportation transformed cities

Where it was popular to once live by your workplace, now people commuted

Elevated trains began to appear in New York in 1868

Cable cars appeared in San Francisco in1873

Electric trolleys appeared in Richmond Virginia in 1888

Subway systems in Boston in 1897

Finally, automobiles replaced horses beginning in 1910



Cities, rather than growing out, began to

grow up with skyscraper housing units

The first housing units were made fromold factories

Business owners converted old industrial buildings into dank apartments called tenements

Dozens of people were crammed intosmall rooms

This gave rise to the term, slums

Crime and disease was frequent in tenements

Major cities at the turn of the century



Major cities at the turn of the century were incredibly filthy

Horses still pranced through the streetsdropping waste that no one cleaned up

Many factories ran on coal and the air was filled with filth and smog

Factories pumped toxic waste into majorrivers, many animals in the Great Lakes went extinct

Cities had open sewers and rats wereeverywhere, spreading disease

Fire was also a constant threat, in 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed over18,000 buildings



Cholera, Malaria, Tuberculosis,Diphtheria and Typhoid Fever ravishedcities

Thousands of people died of multiformdiseases

In the tenements of New York, 6 in 10 babies died before their first birthday

In 1896, over 400 people in New Yorkdied of heat stroke in tenements

Chicago, the department of healthestimated that 80% of the diseases were preventable



Slowly, changes began to be implemented that helped clean up the filth and stopdisease

The greatest change came after Jacob Risreported, lectured and showed pictures ina tour around the nation called, “How the

other Half Lives” in 1890

Dumbbell tenements were built thatforced all apartments to have at least one window

Reservoirs, were built and water filtrationimplemented

In 1901, water was treated with chlorine

During the Gilded Age, many became



g g y pro-active for reform

The Middle Class were shocked by the poverty and filth of their cities

Many American’s grouped together inorder to improve city conditions

In New York, women formed the New York Charity Organization

They helped the destitute and taught

immigrants child raising, cooking andcleaning

On many occasions they encouragedimmigrants to take upon them American values



Another movement began to grow out of the horrible living conditions

It was called the Social Gospel Movementand it attempted to apply the teachings ofJesus directly to society

Instead of blaming immigrants for crime,filth and alcoholism, they decided to treat the problems that drove people to habits

They sought to improve workingconditions and improve wages

Th ll l l d h l d l d h Bibl h

Reformers Entering a Salon



The tall, stately lady who led us placed her Bible on the bar and read a Psalm...and then one of the older women whispered to me softly that the leader wished to know ifI would pray. It was strange, perhaps, but I felt not the

least reluctance and kneeling on the sawdust floor, with

a group of earnest hearts around me, and behind them...a crowd of unwashed, unkempt, hard looking

drinking men, I was conscious that perhaps never in my life, save beside my sister Mary’s dying bed, had I

prayed as truly as I did then.

-Frances Willard

Thousands of men and women gathered in



other groups to help the poor

Some determined that simply givingmoney to the poor did not help

Instead, they took residence in a house ina poverty stricken area

There they sought to learn the source of the problem by living among the poor

These Settlement Houses became places

for people to share their heritages, learnnew crafts and seek help for problems

Many evolved into clubs for children tokeep them off the streets and away fromcrime



Those who worked in settlement housesdid so as volunteers

They earned little to no pay

By 1910 there were over 400 of them,filled with college graduates and women

Many later moved on to careers ineducation, nursing and social work

While it did not necessarily changeopinions it did create a greater awarenessand open mindedness



The establishment of settlement houses

and reformer initiatives led to Sociology

Sociology is the study of people and behaviors

Despite the gains, many Americans onceagain adopted a policy of nativism

Immigrants, Asians in particular, found themselves discriminated against

School began teaching only the English language

People took oaths to only vote for andsupport protestants

Near the turn of the century there was a



Near the turn of the century, there was a

growing initiative to end the consumptionof alcohol

It was called the Temperance Movement

The Prohibition Party, The Women’s

Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League all sought to end theconsumption of alcohol

They all viewed that alcohol was at thecenter of all of the problems in cities

Progress was slow at first

Three states agreed to go completely “dry”Maine, Kansas and North Dakota



In 1873, Anthony Comstock founded theNew York Society for the Suppression of Vice

It’s purpose was to clean up prostitution,drugs, gambling and alcoholism

They saw that passage of a law that prohibited the sending of obscenedescriptions and depictions

Those included information about

contraceptives

Many addictive medicines also wereattacked by reformers and outlawed



Ingredients: Alcohol and Morphine



Bayer Heroin Cough Suppressant: Cured cough andMorphine addiction















The issue over deflation vs inflationclimaxed when the US governmentdecided to do away with the Greenback

In 1873, the US experienced an economiccrisis

Until that point in time, the US had beenon the Bimetallic standard

Currency consisted of either gold or silver

coins

In order to stabilize the economy, thegovernment put the nation on a goldstandard



This move reduced the amount of moneyin circulation, thus creating a deflation based economy

Conservatives, buyers, “gold bugs” were pleased

Opposing them were farmers and westernminers who became known as Silverites

They wanted inflation and more money incirculation

Silverites called for free silver, theunlimited coining of silver dollars

The Greenbacks, who wanted papermoney joined the Silverites



While the currency debate raged on,farmers across America joined together

Farmers created the Patrons ofHusbandry, or, the Grange

It helped farmers form co-operatives

It worked a little like Costco or Sam’sClub

Farmers bought large quantities of goodsfor low prices

The Grange also pushed to improvefarming and reduce costs



In addition to the Grange, many otherfamers alliances were formed

They had great power together to enforce better prices and cheaper operating costs

Many farmers alliances allowed women asspokespersons

It was another beginning for womenseeking more rights as citizens

In the 1890’s various political parties began to form out of the farmers alliances

In 1891, the People’s Party [Populist]emerged that demanded radical change in the government

Th i l f i l d d h f ll i



Their platform included the following policies:

1) An increase in the circulation of money

2) Unlimited minting of silver

3) A progressive income tax which would benefit farmers and hurt industrialists

4) Government ownership of transportation and communication

They were in favor of an 8 hour workday

They also joined African Americanfarmers in their cause



In 1892 the Populist Party generatedgreat interest

They nominated a presidential candidate,James B. Weaver

He lost in a landslide to Grover Cleveland

The coming years saw more economicdisparity

In 1896, the issue was again focused ongold vs silver/ deflation vs inflation

Republicans nominated WilliamMcKinley on a gold standard

Democrats and Populists nominatedWilli J i B f hi



William Jennings Bryan after his powerful Cross of Gold speech

Using images from the Bible, he stood with head bowed and arms outstretchedand cried out

“You shall not press down upon the browof labor this crown of thorns. You shallnot crucify man upon a cross of gold”

Bryan revolutionized the presidentialcampaign

He traveled all across American, givingspeeches wherever he went

McKinley gave his speeches from his front porch

Despite all his efforts, Bryan failed to win the election against McKinley



Like the Civil War before it, Bryan failed to move American to an agrarian society

Big business and industry would reignsupreme

In 1900, huge amounts of gold werediscovered in Alaska, South Africa and the Canadian Yukon

This greatly increased the worlds goldreserves

As the nation adopted a gold standard, prices began a slow rise much to farmersenjoyment

Populism died out



The late 1800’s has come to be referred to



as the Gilded Age

The term was coined by Mark Twain

It means, “covered with thin layer of gold”

American society at the turn of thecentury was lightly covered with wealthand prosperity

The problem was, that covering pertained to a small group of wealthy industrialistsand not the general public

There was a widespread abuse of power in business and government



One of the major scandals was that of therailroad

Congress gave land and money to theUnion Pacific Railroad company to build the transcontinental railroad

Credit Mobilier was the company hired to build the railway

They charged far more than the actualcosts involved in making the railroad and pocketed government money

President Grant made money off of thescheme as well as the vice president

A political spoils system began to develop



Congressman and presidential candidates were supported by wealthy businessman

Often these candidates were corrupt andhad few qualifications

They rode to office on money and bribes

Once in power, they would pay back the business owners by giving them subsidies

Republicans supported big business whiledemocrats favored the under privilegedsuch as farmers

Presidential campaigning surrounded theidea of eliminating government corruption

James Garfield rode into the presidency promising to end government corruption



A jaded employee, whom Garfield had nothired into a government office, CharlesGuiteau shot and killed Garfield

The murder created a public outcry for

the spoils system

Vice President Chester Arthur became thenext president

He helped pass the Pendleton Civil

Service Act which tested a governmentofficials background before beingappointed

It also stopped federal employes fromcontributing campaign funds



In 1884, a Democrat was voted into officefor the first time since 1856

Grover Cleveland rode to office promising to clean up corrupt practices

A worldwide economic slump left many Americans with poor pay or without work

Cleveland did little to help suffering Americans

The next president was William McKinley who was elected in 1896



He instituted tariffs and the economy began a slow but steady incline

In 1901, McKinley visited Buffalo, New

York for an exposition

Leon Czolgosz, a mentally unstable man,an anarchists, shot and killed the president as he greeted the public

The nations politics at the turn of thecentury was in chaos

In the late 1800’s, America experienced anew wave of immigrants



new wave of immigrants

Many came fleeing religious persecution,others seeking better jobs and land

In the 1880’s a violent streak of pogroms,

Jewish killings, swept across Russia

Many came to America seeking a new beginning

In 1860, the population of the US was

31.5 million

Between 1865 and 1920 an additional 30million people came to America from allover the world

From 1865 to 1890, most immigrantscame from Germany, Britain and Ireland



Between 1890 and 1920, Greeks, Italians,Slavs, Jews and Armenians arrived

Until the 1880’s the US allowed theindividual states to decide who could

settle and who could not

That changed in 1891 when the federalgovernment took over

They began to segregate people into who was worthy to enter and who was not

Ellis Island, off of New York became theGolden Door where most Europeans wereallowed to pass freely

On the west coast, Asians arrived at Angel Island



Chinese immigrants helped build therailroad, then settled and began farmers

Asians were highly discriminated againstand many were turned away

Those who were granted passage oftenhad to work for lower wages than theirEuropean counterparts

In 1882, the US Government passed theChinese Exclusion Act

Most people of Chinese ancestry were turned away at Angel Island

It was not repealed until 1943

Many Japanese immigrants also came to America



At first, they moved to Hawaii after theUS annexed it in 1898

They worked on sugar plantations and as

farmers

From Hawaii a steady stream of Japaneseimmigrants came to California

There they became great farmers and

helped the agricultural industry

In 1913, California passed the Alien Webb Act which banned Asians, mainlyJapanese, from the right of owning land

In 1902, congress began an initiative to bring farming into desolate New Mexico, Arizona Southern Texas and California



Canals and waterways were built turningdesert into lush farmland

Many Mexicans immigrated, especiallyduring the Mexican Civil War in 1910

They earned better pay and builtrailroads, mines and farms

When the immigration act of 1921

restricted Europeans from coming to America, many more Mexicans came

By 1925, Los Angeles had the largestSpanish speaking population outside ofMexico



As settlers poured into America’s largecities, it became difficult to accommodate them all

Many early colonial homes had beenswallowed by the city and became dens offilth

240,000 people lived per square mile inNew York in deplorable conditions

Prior to the Civil War, cities in America were quite small

They only extended, at most, 3 to 4 milesin any direction

Cities, rather than growing out, began to



grow up with skyscraper housing units

The first housing units were made fromold factories

Business owners converted old industrial

buildings into dank apartments called tenements

Dozens of people were crammed intosmall rooms

This gave rise to the term, slums

Crime and disease was frequent in tenements



Cholera, Malaria, Tuberculosis,Diphtheria and Typhoid Fever ravishedcities

Thousands of people died of multiformdiseases

In the tenements of New York, 6 in 10 babies died before their first birthday

In 1896, over 400 people in New Yorkdied of heat stroke in tenements

Chicago, the department of healthestimated that 80% of the diseases were preventable

Slowly, changes began to be implemented



y g g that helped clean up the filth and stopdisease

The greatest change came after Jacob Risreported, lectured and showed pictures ina tour around the nation called, “How theother Half Lives” in 1890

Dumbbell tenements were built thatforced all apartments to have at least one window

Reservoirs, were built and water filtrationimplemented

In 1901, water was treated with chlorine



Another movement began to grow out of the horrible living conditions

It was called the Social Gospel Movementand it attempted to apply the teachings of

Jesus directly to society

Instead of blaming immigrants for crime,filth and alcoholism, they decided to treat the problems that drove people to habits

They sought to improve workingconditions and improve wages

Near the turn of the century, there was agrowing initiative to end the consumption



of alcohol

It was called the Temperance Movement

The Prohibition Party, The Women’sChristian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League all sought to end theconsumption of alcohol

They all viewed that alcohol was at thecenter of all of the problems in cities

Progress was slow at first

Three states agreed to go completely “dry”Maine, Kansas and North Dakota



In 1873, Anthony Comstock founded theNew York Society for the Suppression of Vice

It’s purpose was to clean up prostitution,drugs, gambling and alcoholism

They saw that passage of a law that prohibited the sending of obscenedescriptions and depictions

Those included information aboutcontraceptives

Many addictive medicines also wereattacked by reformers and outlawed



Ingredients: Alcohol and Morphine



Bayer Heroin Cough Suppressant: Cured cough andMorphine addiction











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