Making of America - Unit 5: How Lives Changed, 1877-1900 Flashcards
(25 cards)
18 MARKS - ‘The destruction of buffalo was the main reason why Indian culture had been largely destroyed by 1900’ - Destruction of buffalo
The growth of the railroad brought many hunters to the Plains to shoot and kill buffalo - as many as 3 million by 1883
Hunters saw the opportunity to make money by selling the hides, meat and bones of millions of buffalo
Killing a single buffalo could earn $3-$20 and the cost of a cartridge was 25c. Some could kill a hundred in a day.
The killing of buffalo has ‘done more on the vexed Indian question than the entire regular army has done in the last 30 years’ - General Sheridan
18 MARKS - ‘The destruction of buffalo was the main reason why Indian culture had been largely destroyed by 1900’ 1883 - Friends of the Indians (X)
A group called the Friends of the Indians was set up in 1883 to campaign and protect the rights of Native Americans.
Schools set up to help Indian children so that they could access jobs in white America
Many govt agents who ran reservations were corrupt, Friends of Agents would report
Congress passed the Dawes Act in 1887. Each NA family now given 160 acres and citizenship if they gave up their claim to tribal lands
Organisation was well meaning but by 1900 nearly 2/3rds of land held by NA had been taken by 1900
18 MARKS - ‘The destruction of buffalo was the main reason why Indian culture had been largely destroyed by 1900’ -
Reservations and the destruction of NA culture (X)
Tribes were split up and sent to different reservations (Sioux in five different reservations). Nez Perce were moved 2000 miles from homeland Oregon
Native Americans were forced to convert to Christianity and children forced to speak English in schools and choose English names
Indian tribes now encouraged to live in houses and not Tipis. They were forced to become farmers not hunters (plant corn and squash). Often farmland was poor.
Some children sent to boarding schools had history lessons teaching how Plains Indians attacked and killed innocent white settlers
Many reservations depended on the government beef rations to survive - hunger and disease was common
18 MARKS - ‘The destruction of buffalo was the main reason why Indian culture had been largely destroyed by 1900’ Ghost Dance Movement (X)
Last major attempt at resistance by Plains tribes in the 19th century
In the 1890s, religious movement called the Ghost Dance movement sprang up on reservations
It was led by a holy man called Wovoka. It involved dance and prayer for white settlers to be swept off the land and return of the buffalo
White settlers living near reservations became increasingly concerned as the movement spread through Dakota
in 1890 - army was set in to stop the movement. They were eventually tracked down to a place called Wounded Knee - the army opened fire with cannon and machine guns and killed over 250 men, women and children. On 15th January 1891, 4000 Ghost Dancers surrendered
Dawes Act (1887)
Aim was for NA to leave their reservations and live like Homesteaders. This aimed to end the tribal culture, close reservations, and resulted in a loss of NA land
Ida Wells
born a slave in 1862
got an education through the Freedman’s Bureau, became a teacher and moved to Tennessee
1884 - ordered on a train to move to a carriage for black Americans
protested and bit one of the train crew when he tried to move her
sued train company but her case was overturned
journalist - focused on poor quality of education for black children and the problem of lynching - found out people were killed if they were competitors to white businesses, for example grocery shop owners
became a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People in 1909
had a paper in Memphis called, ‘Free Speech and Rights’
her publishing house was set fire to
Alpha Suffrage Club - member of this (vote club for black women)
18 MARKER - ‘There was little progress for Black Americans between 1877 and 1900’ How far do you agree? - Life in the South
Agree:
Cotton industry collapsed after the Civil War
Black Americans were generally prevented from getting better paid jobs
Majority of black Americans in the South worked as the sharecroppers on land owned by former slaveholders
18 MARKER - ‘There was little progress for Black Americans between 1877 and 1900’ How far do you agree? - Opportunities in the West
Disagree
Homestead Act was open to black Americans
In 1877 - Benjamin Singleton tried to encourage ex-slaves to move to Kansas and claim land under the Homestead Act
By 1879 - over 6000 black Americans had moved to Kansas. By 1880, this had doubled. They became known as the exodusters.
18 MARKER - ‘There was little progress for Black Americans between 1877 and 1900’ How far do you agree? - Education
Disagree
In 1882, Booker T Washington set up a school to train black children to be farmers, craftsmen and house servants
In 1900, Washington established the Negro Business League to support black businesses
By 1900, there were 23,866 black teachers, 417 black doctors and 300 black lawyers in the USA
18 MARKER - ‘There was little progress for Black Americans between 1877 and 1900’ How far do you agree? - Challenges in the North
Agree
Between 1877 and 1900, many black Americans left the South for Northern cities
Due to racism, black workers were much less likely to get a job than white workers, even if they were more qualified
18 MARKER - ‘There was little progress for Black Americans between 1877 and 1900’ How far do you agree? - The Redeemers
Agree
Many Southern state governments were run by ex-slave holders
These governments called themselves Redeemer governments. They tried to undo the changes made after the Civil War
Redeemer governments brought in literacy tests to stop black Americans from voting, introduced segregation laws and ignored violence against black Americans
In 1905 - only 1342 black Americans in Louisiana were registered to vote
18 MARKER - ‘There was little progress for Black Americans between 1877 and 1900’ How far do you agree? the Ku Klux Klan
Agree
KKK was a violent group who believed that black Americans were inferior to whites. Banned in 1870s, secretly reformed by 1890s
KKK had a lot of influence among people - including in the Southern state policies
18 MARKER - ‘There was little progress for Black Americans between 1877 and 1900’ How far do you agree? - Constitutional changes
Disagree:
Black Americans continued to campaign for better treatment because the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments still existed and promised them equality
Whatever the South did, it could not make black Americans slaves again, or remove their right to vote altogether
18 MARKER - ‘There was little progress for Black Americans between 1877 and 1900’ How far do you agree? - Lynching
Kept in fear through lynching (hanged without a proper trial)
In 1892 - 161 black Americans were lynched by white mobs, mainly in the South
18 MARKER - ‘There was little progress for Black Americans between 1877 and 1900’ How far do you agree? - Jim Crow Laws
From the ACW until 1964 Civil Rights Act
Agree:
kept living conditions poor, for example housing was poor
In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation was legal
separate seating in trains and theatres to completely separate churches, parks and schools
Introduced in the 1890s in many Southern states - legalised segregation
18 MARKER - ‘There was little progress for Black Americans between 1877 and 1900’ How far do you agree? - General Disagreements
Land ownership among black Americans increased from 1877 to 1890
Despite segregation, black churches became more important in the daily lives of ordinary black Americans. Helped build a sense of community and identity.
Growth in published output from black scholars. Over 100 books and 206 journal articles were published by black authors between 1865 to 1893
Andrew Carnegie
born in 1835 and died 1919
American industrialist and philanthropist
built an enormous personal fortune from investments
gave away the modern equivalent of billions of dollars from 1901 to 1919
funded over 2500 public libraries in the US and abroad
gave what would now be $80 billion dollars
workers went on strike on 6th June - 3 security officers and 6 workers killed - they were paid minimum wage and felt they deserved more
What was the impact of big businesses, cities and mass migration on America? - Cotton and tobacco
industry -
number of cotton mills in the South doubled between 1880 and 1900
American Tobacco company controlled 90% of cigarette production
impact -
more factories = more demand for cotton
usually picked by poorly picked black Americans or sharecroppers
new factories created jobs but these were low paid and low skilled and usually for white workers
because the American Tobacco Company controlled nearly all production there was no reason to improve wages for workers
What was the impact of big businesses, cities and mass migration on America? - Farms and ranches
Industry -
huge bonanza farms (over 10,000 acres) and ranches began to appear in the 1880s
by 1900, most farms and ranches in the West were owned by a handful of people
impact on people -
people who could not afford their own land could get employment on a farm or ranch and save to buy their own
Bonanza farms controlled the best land, water and railroads, stopping smaller farmers from competing
Bonanza ranches sometimes used violence to intimidate small-scale ranchers
black and minority farmers could not usually compete with the bonanza farmers
What was the impact of big businesses, cities and mass migration on America? - minerals
industry -
growth of railroads led to a demand for coal, iron, steel and other minerals (for example, oil)
coal production in the South increased ten-fold between 1875 - 1890
impact -
big corporations used their power and political influence to pay workers as little as possible
when steel workers went on strike in 1892, the local militia were sent in and six strikers were killed
trade unions had a little power and usually used this power to stop black or Mexican workers from getting employment
big companies could ‘blacklist’ troublesome employees, stopping them from getting other work
Positive impacts of the growth of cities/migration
Cities grew massively (14 over 100,000 in 1875 and 38 in 1900)
Chicago - 1.5 million by 1900
Created opportunities but often contained poor areas
Drew many people with the promise of work, entertainment, education and freedom. The Railways made migration after 1870 more accessible and widespread.
Women and black Americans gained some benefit from city life. Cities were the driving force of women voting in the 1920s.
Cities controlled local water supplies and used these to increase their own power - especially in West
Many cities were overcrowded. It was not uncommon for 32 families to share 6 or 8 storey tenement or apartment buildings (spread of infectious disease in more rapid, respiratory diseases such as typhoid)
Overcrowding led to disease - in Chicago, 60% of babies died before the age of 1
Reasons for coming to America
Booming economy by 1880s (jobs, earn a living)
Travel was faster and cheaper - steam ships from Europe
Jews and other minority groups being persecuted (Russia)
America offered ‘the land of freedom’ (Statue of Liberty)
Arriving in America
600,000 came from Italy alone in the 1880s
Ellis Island (New York) opened in 1892 to process immigrants - also known as the Island of Tears because families were often separated during health checks if someone didn’t pass
12 million arrived this way until 1954
Immigrants had to pass a basic language test and medical exam - difficult if English is not your first language, people could be denied entry if at risk of spreading disease
Living in America
Most immigrants went to cities to find work
Anti-immigrant violence was common
White workers were often pushed out of jobs for migrants as they would accept a lower wage which benefitted businesses
Treatment of Chinese immigrants worsened - laws prevented Chinese workers from moving freely to California, those living in San Francisco were not allowed to live outside of the Chinatown area
Immigrants ended up in the poorest areas of cities
