Last Quarter of 19th C: Rural Change, the Wild West, & Hostile Takeovers

 Rural America (primarily agricultural world, western frontier)

Why go? Escape Civil War, new fertile lands, new immigrants go west to escape industrial cities and find land, adventure, railroad and mining wealth

1. 1. rural people: isolated farmers part of small communities–local problems, local solutions; in Civil War, US government interferes and social welfare idea encourages subsidy/aid with federal dollars to farmers
      1. searching for ways to alleviate farming stagnation and bankruptcy: price fixing on market, loans, storage facilities to hold foodstuffs until market stronger, control of transportation, organized farmers coops such as The Grange and the Farmer’s Alliance, political lobbying through the Populist Party
      2. Homestead Act of 1862: designed to grant land (160 acres) to citizens in return for their ‘improving’ the land for 5 years, cultivating crops, and paying $10 registration fee
         1. creates boom in land expansion before and after the war but post-1865 prices rise for better lands and restrictions on land use arise (railroad, mining and timber companies, reservations)
         2. in some areas with less arable soil, farms need more land to use so Congress passes a series of land/farming bills:
            • Timber Culture Act (1873) to give additional 160 acres of land to the claimant if 40 acres are timber planted
            • Desert Land Act (1877) made a new land deal of 640 desert acreage for $1.25 per acre if irrigate part within 3 years
            • Timber & Stone Act (1878)–buy 160 acres of forest land for $2.50 per acre
         3. Abused by land speculators, lumber-company representatives, cattle ranchers who bought big and sold even bigger by selling off bits of land or cornering the market on resources in a given area. However, these land bills kept alive the “Open West” idea and allowed for the movement of Americans into areas with a previously sparse population.
         4. Massive influx of Americans from nearby states but also immigrants from England, Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Czechoslovakia. Upon arrival, most of these groups formed insular communities with little integration or diversity.
      3. Post-1865 army floods into west to preserve order and further settlement on Great Plains (first wave of settlement went to the Pacific coast then back to the Mid-western region which makes up the plains area).
   2. Facets of Western Life
      1. Mining towns: gold, silver, copper, lead, tin, etc.
         1. harsh and dangerous life in camps (little concern for safety or sanitation),
         2. males predominate–rise in prostitution (50,000 prostitutes estimated who each earned approximately $30/week—higher paying alternative to low paid seamstress and domestic jobs—and saloons (sex and alcohol often used as an escape),
         3. violence as result (“Code of the West” became an excuse for personal and mob violence, very lawless society)
         4. solitary men first, then increased control by corporations by 1890s who tailored workforce to day laborers and instituted laws to control profits/minimize losses
         5. emergence of mining unions to address ills–laws favored business over workers
      2. Cattle Kingdom: cows (Longhorns run rampant after Civil War–overbreeding and denied access to US/world market), sheep later
         1. many urban centers because needed railroads to transport cows to meat packing centers like Chicago (IL) and Memphis (TN); banks for transactions and business men to administer market
         2. technology alters ranching (a) barbed wire fencing introduced by Joseph Glidden—creates illegal enclosure of open plains, restricts access to water rights, food sources, travel–right of way, native movement of people and buffalo, (b) Railroad cars–fast, larger market (c) grain fed cattle rather than foraging–breeding system overproduces so market glut occurs
         3. Wage laborers: “cowboys” of frontier were largely Mexican and African-American men initially (experienced, employed by large Spanish/Mexican ranches which were preexisting, available for hard labor), much social mobility and independence until begin to work for corporate ranching
      3. Farming: very difficult, stuck in cycle of debt all over US
         1. debts for start up costs, poor yields, new technologies–sharecroppers and tenancy prevalent in South and eastern Mid-west (remnants of the old Northwest Territory), people see western frontier as open and “free”
         2. Over-cultivation leads to infertile lands, need for irrigation and deep plowing, fencing to define boundaries and keep herds in
         3. Western farm life very isolated and demanding–found ways to socialize such as church, socials like barn raising and quilting bees (often practical purpose but incorporated a social aspect)
         4. Particularly harsh for women and children–little access to healthcare and support raising kids, often work fields and in home (hardship erodes ability for separation of spheres). Many women who came west felt they had stepped back to the days of their mothers and even lost many rights and privileges taken for granted in the East—education, single employment, ready-made goods, domestic sphere duties/rejection of manual labor, etc.

 Native Americans & the Hostile Takeover by American Expansion

1. 1. “Americanization“–systematic erosion of native cultures and identity as goal of Bureau of Indian Affairs, authorize army to implement policies and enforce reservation life (resistance met with extermination)
      1. Dawes Severalty Act (1887)–divided communal tribal land, granting right to petition for citizenship to those Indians who accepted individual land allotments of 160 acres (undermine sovereignty of tribes, destroy customs and agricultural practices–no real change until 1934 Indian Reorganization Act)
      2. Formation of “Indian schools”: usually in eastern or midwestern cities, educate out the “Indianness” and “savage instincts”
         1. Separated children from family members with or without consent, often take children at will or took to court and had custodial rights transferred to federal/state government by declaring them as “unfit parents” Example: In the 1890s, there were widespread instances in Oklahoma in which Indian children were transferred to the custody of whites because they wanted the children’s land holdings for oil reserves or mineral deposits which guardians were able to use at will.
         2. schools denied access to native language, dress, hair style, religion (severe punishments for disobedience)
         3. little money to pay for schools so Indian children hired out as virtual slave labor to provide housing and schooling, girls usually as domestics and boys as hands (fields, factories, etc.)
         4. many children ran away at first opportunity
      3. political upheaval and cultural restriction
         1. felt by banning culture could control and “Americanize” Indians, no treaty with any Native American tribes had ever been upheld–always changed to suit needs of American citizens/government
         2. In 1871, the US ended the treaty system which overruled but did not abolish sovereignty, then saw as Native American lands as hostile territory and peoples to be conquered (essentially, because they had no rights of citizenship, they also had no rights to protection of property, liberty, etc. as the Constitution provides).
         3. American economic practices, values, traditions seen as “salvation of the Indian”
   2. Indian Wars (often referred to as “skirmishes” by whites of the period)
      1. Army actively drove tribes into reservation life with promises/treaties of food stuffs and bare necessities. When these basic needs are not met, the tribes must leave the reservations to survive but in violation of the treaties so martial law becomes in effect and allowed for treatment of tribes as hostile entities.
      2. Native resistance movements–usually individuals tribes acting against American incursion, pan-Indian alliances were rarely attempted after 1830s
      3. Largest groups were Sioux nation (made up of the Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota)–individual tribes who bore common ancestry and grounds but had radically different laws and customs, it would have been easy to form alliances if all tribes were alike but they were just as varied as Caucasian, Latin, Asian and African Americans (main area of conflict was the ND, SD, WY, MT territories)
      4. Some resistance movements among Nez Perce in the Northwest and the Cheyenne tribes but brutal retaliation of Americans sapped will and ability to resist (also the impact of disease took its toll on these tribes in terms of their numbers and their will to persevere)
      5. Massacre of Wounded Knee (1893)— Army, who was frustrated and out of control over continued pockets of resistance, attacked a Sioux village hoping to set an example but left about 150 dead; the true horror was that these were defenseless and unarmed people (elderly, women and children) not warriors who were wiped out,
         1. tactics to hold down the tribes and force conformity
         2. reaction to religious revival of Ghost Dance, which was seen as a rejection of American culture and the Americanization ideal

1. 1. Intermarriage of races was common, especially in newly settled territories as white and black women were scarce for marrying. Native American and Mexican women often married white males, though the reverse was less common.
   2. Tribal relationships were very complex and fluid: ties of kinship, political interdependence, and economic alliance wove tribes together and with American settlers. Used survival strategies in farming and trade as well as leasing of reservation lands to adapt to changing conditions and maintain old traditions.
      1. Endurance and rejuvenation for some tribes like the Cheyenne, Navajos, Hopi–manipulated the American system to their advantage, took lands unwanted by Americans or incorporated just enough American custom to coexist
      2. By 1900, “pure-blood” Indian populations were less than 250,000 (colonial period estimates range from 10-30 million)–perhaps decimated numbers caused reduced threat to American interests which allowed for some survival along with inevitable Americanization which occurred over time.
   3. Agricultural industry in CA due to large influence of Native American and Chinese innovation, arid areas called for special irrigation and cultivation. California was a very mixed society in the late 19th Century–Mexicans, Chinese, Native Americans, African and Caucasian Americans, Japanese, Korean, Russians, some Canadians, large numbers of immigrants brought in for Railroad and mining industries (many people were fleeing dictatorial regimes in Asia)
   4. Some conservation efforts by end of the nineteenth century:
      1. John Muir (one of American’s first conservationists) promoted the creation of national park lands such as Yosemite National Park and formed the Sierra Club which was and is devoted to preservation of natural resources,
      2. need to maintain water supply for farming (result of too much water diversion of rivers and lakes) led indirectly to creation of national forests and the Forest Service (1905).
         • General Land Revision Act (1891) gave president the power to establish forest reserves to protect watersheds against threats from lumbering, overgrazing, and forest fires.
         • Forest Management Act (1897) and National Reclamation Act (1902)gave federal government first large-scale regulatory ability over natural resources

 Overall impressions (1875-1900)

1. 1. massive technological change and boom of American industry, large corporations now commercializing agriculture, Railroad, mining, forestry, oil, etc.
   2. American government allows free market to continue–few restrictions placed on industry or safety standards, mega business brought US onto world market in a big way while small (medium) business strangled
   3. The agrarian frontier was disappearing and new industrialized nation to dominate, many parts of western territories still ‘haven’ from industry but daily encroachments with ‘conveniences’