After the Civil War, Americans began settling the vast western territories. The Great Plains had little rainfall and supported vast buffalo herds that Native Americans depended on. By 1900, the buffalo were wiped out as the land was settled by miners, ranchers, and farmers, devastating Native American communities. Western settlement was driven by gold and silver rushes that began in California in 1848 and stimulated economic growth. However, it also led to conflicts with Native Americans over land and exclusion of Chinese immigrants. The Homestead Act of 1862 encouraged family farming but many failed due to harsh conditions. By the late 1800s, the American frontier was declared closed as the last lands were settled.

2.  After the Civil War, many Americans began
settling the vast arid territory in theWest that
included the Great Plains, Rocky Mountains, and
Western Plateau.
 The plains west of the 100th meridian had few
trees & usually received less than 15 inches of
rainfall a year.
 The open grasslands of the plains supported
more than 15 million buffalo which in turn,
provided food, clothing, shelter, & tools for
many of the 250,000American Indians living in
theWest in 1865.

3.  By 1900, the great buffalo herds has been wiped
out b/c western lands were hunted, fenced in by
homesteaders & ranches, crisscrossed by steel
rails, & modernized by new towns.
 The rush for natural resources seriously
damaged the environment; most significantly,
the American Indians who lived in the region
paid a high human & cultural price as land was
settled by miners, ranchers, and farmers.

4.  The discovery of gold in CA in 1848 caused the first
flood of newcomers to the territory then a series of
gold & silver strikes in what became the states of CO,
NV, ID, MT, AZ, NM.
 The discovery of the Comstock Lode (produced more
than $340 million in gold & silver by 1890) was
responsible for NV entering the Union in 1864.
 About 1/3 of western miners were Chinese & native
born Americans resented the competition. Miner’sTax
(CA) of $20 for foreign born miners.
 In 1882, with pressure from western states, Congress
passed the Chinese Exclusion Act which prohibited
further immigration in to the US by Chinese laborers.

5.  Mining not only stimulated the settlement of
theWest but also reshaped the economics &
politics of the nation.
 The vast increase in the supply of silver
created a crisis over the relative value of gold
& silver-backed currency, which became a
bitter political issue in the 1880’s & 1890’s –
Populist movement & “free silver coinage”.

6.  Anyone possessing gold bullion could deposit it
@ a mint to where it would be processed into
gold coins for a “tax” – “free silver movement”
would apply principle to silver.
 More silver “currency” = inflation.They wanted a
16 to 1, silver to gold value ratio – actual 32 to
1…value of gold would diminish hurting
“creditors” which were big business men in RR,
factories, finance…robber barons!
 This movement became associated with
Populism, Unions, farmers, & fight for ordinary
Americans against RR’s, monopolies, bankers.

7.  JP Morgan and the Panic of 1893
 William Jennings Bryan (NE) @ Democratic
NationalConvention, Chicago (1896) gave
the “Cross of Gold” Speech; considered one
of the greatest political speeches in American
History.
 Supported “bimetallism”/”free silver” which
would bring prosperity; farmers liked it to pay
back debts with inflated $.

8.  The Homestead Act of 1862 encouraged farming on
the Great Plains offering 160 acres of public land free
to any family that settled on it for a period of 5 yrs;
about 500,000 families took advantage of the act.
 The “sodbusters” on the dry, treeless plains often built
their homes of sod bricks; water was scarce, wood for
fences nonexistent.
 The invention of barbed wire by Joseph Glidden (1874)
helped farmers fence in lands.
 Sever weather, falling crop prices, cost of new
machinery caused failure of 2/3 of Homesteaders by
1900.
 Those who managed to survive adopted “dry farming”
& deep plowing to access moisture

9.  The OKTerritory, once set aside for American
Indians, was open for settlement in 1889 &
hundreds of homesteaders took part in the last
great land rush in theWest. (Far & Away)
 Frederick JacksonTurner’s “The Significance of
the Frontier in American History” (1893) said it
promoted independence & individualism; social
leveler; its closing would be harmful – no fresh
start or outlet for discontent of cities.
 1890 census – largest movement of Americans
was to the cities & industrialized areas;
dominance of rural America was on a delcine

10.  About 2/3 of western tribal groups lived on Great
Plains; nomadic tribes had given up farming of
colonial times after intro of horse by Spanish;
they became skillful horse riders & developed a
way of life centered on hunting the buffalo.
 In the late 19th century, their conflicts with US
gov’t were partly the result of white Americans
having little understanding of their loose tribal
organization & nomadic life; the settlement of
miners, ranchers, homesteaders on American
Indian land let to violence.

11.  The IndianAppropriationAct of 1871 ended
recognition of tribes as independent nation
by the federal gov’t & nullified treaties.
 SiouxWar led by Sitting Bull & Crazy Horse;
before being defeated, they ambushed &
destroyed Colonel George Custer’s command
at Little Big Horn in 1876.
 December 1890, US Army gunned down 200+
American Indian men, women, children in the
“battle” (massacre) ofWounded Knee.

12.  The injustices done to American Indians were
chronicled in a best-selling book by Helen Hunt
Jackson, A Century of Dishonor; although it
created sympathy, it also created support for
ending Indian culture through assimilation.
 The Dawes Act was designed to break up tribal
organizations; divided up tribal lands into plots
of up to 160 acres; US citizenship was granted to
families that stayed on the land for 25 yrs &
“adopted the habits of civilized life”

13.  The South was recovering from the devastation of the
CivilWar; some southerners promoted a new vision
for a self-sufficient economy built on modern
capitalist values, industrial growth, & improved
transportation.
 Henry Grady, the editor of the Atlanta Constitution,
spread the gospel of the New South Creed that
argued for economic diversity & laissez-faire
capitalism – modernized economy.
 Despite the growth, the South remained a largely
agricultural section & the poorest region of the
country AND northern financing dominated southern
industry; controlled 75% of southern RR’s

14.  The poverty of the majority of southerners was
not caused by northern capitalists – 2 factors
chiefly responsible: 1 – late start at
industrialization, 2 – poorly educated workforce.
 Without adequate edu., the workforce faced
limited economic opportunities.
 Postwar econ remained tied mainly to growing
cotton; b/t 1870 & 1900 the # of acres planted in
cotton more than doubled
 By 1900, more than half of the white farmers &
¾ of the black farmers were sharecroppers
forced to borrow supplies from local merchants
(crop lien) = virtual serfs tied to the land by debt.

15.  GeorgeWashington Carver, an African
American scientist atTuskegee Institute in AL
promoted the growing of such crops as
peanuts, sweet potatoes, & soybeans.
 TheTuskegee Institute was est. to provide a
practical skills needed to be successful @
farming & other trades typical of rural South.

16.  With the end of Reconstruction in 1877 & the
withdrawal of federal troops, it left southerners
to work out solutions on their own for social &
economic problems.
 During Reconstruction, federal law protected
southern blacks from discrimination but with the
return of Southern Democrats, state laws were
passed that favored segregation – Civil Rights
Cases of 1883, the SC ruled Congress could not
legislate against the racial discrimination
practiced by private citizens – included RR’s,
hotels, & other businesses use by the public.

17.  In 1896, the landmark case of Plessy v. Ferguson,
the SC upheld a Louisiana law requiring
“separate but equal accommodations” for white
& black passengers on RR’s & saying LA did not
violate the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal
protection before the law.
 This federal court decision supported a wave of
segregation laws, commonly known as Jim Crow
laws, that southern states adopted – required
segregated washrooms, drinking fountains, park
benches, & other facilities in virtually all public
places.

18.  Various political & legal devices were invented to prevent
southern blacks from voting – literacy tests, poll taxes, &
political party primaries for whites only.
 Many southern states adopted so-called “grandfather
clauses” which allowed a man to vote only if his
grandfather had cast ballots in elections before
Reconstruction – upheld by the SC in 1898 (literacy test)
 In southern courts, African Americans were barred from
serving on juries; if convicted of crimes they were often
given stiffer penalties – lynch mobs killed more than 1,400
men during the 1890’s.
 Economic discrimination – kept out of skilled trades &
factory jobs (whites & immigrants), remained engaged in
farming & low-paying domestic jobs.