Social/economic Developments (1865-1890) Flashcards
1
Q
Social/economic key issues
A
- Mass immigration
- Social/regional divisions
- African Americans
- Growth of the economy - urbanisation/agriculture
- Rise of big businesses/cartels/trusts
2
Q
African Americans position after reconstruction era?
A
- white segregationists tried to regain their old social dominance over AAs
- 1877 -> compromise = democrats have hold on ‘solid south’ + when troops withdraw - AAs lose legal rights
3
Q
African Americans after emancipation (negative)
A
- became sharecroppers
- black codes became Jim Crow laws/ grandfather clause - AAs lost the right to vote in many states + were segregated in all aspects of society
- lynchings were common
4
Q
Advancements for AA 1877-90?
A
- many AAs moved away, chose new surnames, married, set up new churches, founded new schools
- new public schools opened + 3 AA universities (Fisk, Howard, Hampton)
- Booker T. Washington headed the tuskagee institute in Alabama 1881-1915 -> trained AA teachers, but accommodated white supremacy
- illiteracy rates amongst AA dropped from 90% in 1860 to 50% in 1880
5
Q
How did economic developments impede Black Civil Rights 1877-1915
A
- the failure of the Freedmen ’ Bureau and white landowners’ exploitation meant it was difficult to profit from sharecropping + become independent - tying the majority of blacks to agriculture
- crop lien system - prevented blacks profiting from the high demand for crops
- overproduction in cotton farming - put cap on prices + profits
- sharecropping remained the major form of employment for the majority of blacks, who remained in poverty
- some blacks did manage to buy their own land - 25% of black farmers owned their land
- south to north migration was rare but some migrated within the south into urban areas where industry was slowly developing and unskilled labour was available
- railroad expansion in south + textile industry took of
6
Q
What social division were there?
A
- the speed + intensity of immigration + urbanisation created tension + division
- nativism grew - a belief that people whose parents were born in US wanted to protect the US from ‘alien’ ways - there was tension between ‘new’ and ‘old’ immigrants over jobs/housing
- growth in anti-Chinese feeling - ‘Yellow Peril’ was encourage by the media
- farmers and workers set up their own organisations such as the Granger Movement and Knights of Labour
- there was a push for female suffrage + the temperance movement (anti-alcohol)
7
Q
How were Chinese immigrants treated?
A
- resentment encouraged by the media through the ‘Yellow Peril’
- 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act passed to stop the immigration of Chinese workers (prevented them from gaining citizenship)
- Chinese had arrived since 1840s (gold rush), 1860s (railroads) and 1870s onwards (textile, tobacco, shoes, farm workers)
- cheap labour, good work ethic but resented by white workers
8
Q
Regional divisions: North/East
A
- hugely affected by industrialisation + urbanisation
- booming cities/areas of NY, Chicago, Ohio
- 1860 - 90 -> NY population doubled
- railroads made a huge impact
- clash in 1877 -> Great Railraod Strike, West Virginia (wage cuts) spread to Maryland, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia - president Hayes sent in federal troops
- 1870-71 orange riots - Irish Protestants vs. Catholics in New York
9
Q
Regional Divisions: The New South
A
- dominates by divisions between African Americans and whites (resentment amongst whites)
- AA uncertain whether to push for change
- biggest division between south and the rest of the US - New South was the Old South (11 old confederate states felt isolated)
10
Q
Regional Divisions: Wild West
A
- rapid settlement due to government + ordinary people
- whites broke treaties with Native Americans tribes
- sudden booms - railroads started to dominate
11
Q
Divisions between Native Americans and white settlers
A
- whites destroyed Indian way of life - open spaces fenced, Native Americans confined to reservations
- poor white farmers felt pushed out by growing exploitation of the West - often reliant on railroads for supplies + exporting their produce
- Granger movement appeared in 1867 as a cooperative to help farmers with land/loans etc and then put up candidates in elections
12
Q
Impact of growing economy on agriculture?
A
- agriculture still hugely influential - over 1/2 population rural + farm population increased 10m -> 25m 1865-90
- more land was cultivated; Homestead Act 1862 made thousands of acres available as free land to settlers - railroads bought a lots + sold on at a profit
- technological advances (reapers, threshers) encourage large scale agriculture + a rise in exports - but farmers were vulnerable to- Panic 1873 due to too much speculation + many banks failed
13
Q
Impact of the growth of the economy on the North East?
A
- expanding markets - towns expanding
- larger hubs meant bigger distribution networks
- Pittsburg - shipping meat products, cereals and canned food to northeast, Wisconsin; dairy
- railroads hugely important - but had monopoly power + set their own prices
14
Q
Impact of the growth in the economy on the south?
A
- king cotton still ruled
- small farmers found it hard to buy land some fell back into being tenant farmers/sharecroppers - struggled to access loans
- some economic development- railroad expansion, (exporting cotton, sugar and tobacco - but economy lagged behind the rest
15
Q
Impact of the growth in the economy to the west?
A
- Homestead Act 1862 - accelerated migration to west
- union pacific railroad completed 1869
- Native Americans land colonised by 1877
- west carved up to be railroads, ranches, farms and mining towns - vast amount of land cultivated e.g. Nebraska + Missouri
- 1889 Oklahoma Land Rush - railroad transported thousands westward - lending money + taking crops as payment
- 1860 west population- 760,000 1890 - 6 million
- steel industry very jmportant - ploughs, barbed wire, railroads etc
