PLAINS CONQUEST

Reconstruction: Fed govt resources put into Reconstruction were tiny. Freedmens Bureau: est & enforce labor contract; build schools; distribute rations; run court system while being surrounded with white hostility; @peak it had 900 members Failed b/c the fed govt administering it was much too weak From the vantage of native Americans, the fed govt of the US never looked weak. Strong in the removal era of the 1830s (large tribe from SE were removed by the army) & in the 1860s - 80s. Sometimes of the goals of the US in the Plains/Native Americans looked ambiguous protect Indians against settlers (Andrew Jackson; justification for trail of tears) General story: goal of American policy was to get Indians out of the way of the expansion of the US Murderous violence was used Why? Railroad route: Before the civil war, the great plains (Mississippi R & Rocky mtn) was seen as the great American desert b/c White Americans would never want to go there Removal treaties of the 1830s said htat large part of the plains would be permanent Indian country; permanently off-limits to white settlers Homestead acgt 1862: any American citizen/intended to become American citizen and hasnt fought against Union could get 160 acres of the public domain (land owned by fed govt) if you occupied it for 5 yrs & improved it (house & crops); paid 1.25 an acre could get land in 6 months Important in Iowa, Nebraska, but not in plains as long as whites thought that it was a worthless desert Talk of railroads since 1840s since Americans went thru Plains to get to Oregon/Gold Rush, but it was politically impossible to build a transcontinental railroad b/c Northerners & Southerners couldnt agree on a route. Railroad Act 1862: Union Pacific moving west & Central Pacific moving East & met in the middle. 40k miles of railroad tracks was laid west of the Mississippi R in the 1880s Railroads actively promoted settlement in part b/c one of the major ways theyd been financed was thru huge land grants (sell the land to pay for building the railroad; wanted to sell the highest price possible) & b/c railroads are more valuable when ppl are shipping stuff through them (shipping crops) 1 of the 1st econ activities after Civil War in Plains was ranching b/c of low capital investment (esp when the land belongs to fed govt & dont have to pay for land) & animals can feed elsewhere. By early 1880s cattle replaced buffalo (systematically killed in the Plains) Farmers came to Plains; 1878-86: more rain than usual on the Plains & some said that God was favoring American settlement by giving them rain. Huxterism: Rain follows the plow (not really): Farming changes the climate.

 Flood of settlers onto the grassland of the Plain; little timber=>sod houses; using buffalo chips for fuel; Americans from East & Euro immigrants spread out across the Dakotas; African-Americans went to KS Mid 1880s: dried season followed. Many left; some learned how to farm in dry climates Created American need for Indian land. Mining: Discovery of gold on Indian land. 1830s: Cherokees. 1850s: CA Native Americans. Wars One long massacre; as Indians fled white encroachment, US militia/soldiers hunted them down Great Sioux Reservation: 1874 (gold found in black hills, which led to the pushing Indians out of their lands) Conflict of Miners encroaching Indian lands that led to the Battle of Little Bighorn (Sioux annihilated Custers army; greatest Indian victory in Plains) & reason for Wounded Knee (1890 massacre in response to the Ghost Dance Movement (revitalization movement which say the way to fight back is to strengthen the cultural cultures; throw out white ways. Spread across Indian nations. Dance ritual would strengthen Indians against Whites.) and US govt was afraid that they were seeing a preparation of a major uprising so more soldiers were sent. Soldiers killed 153 Sioux (most women & children) Colorado Gold Rush (Pikes Peak): Indians wanted to live in peace w/Whites, but Colorado militia killed the tribe Mineral rushes led to White Miners had no patience for Indians objecting their encroachment or remaining in that vicinity at all. Few had any respect to the idea that Indians owned anything. Create treaty, Americans decide that treaty borders to be a hassle b/c of discovery of minerals/gold, so they declare smaller borders, so any Indians found outside the borders were hostile so they destroyed the tribes, livestock, housing, etc and herd the survivors into smaller boundaries=>dependent on Federal officials distributing rations. Federal agents (Indian agents) might get an order to cut rations/corruption. Whites said that the Indians were lazy. Indians left the reservation and joined groups that had autonomous control of their lands and then the fed govt would go after that group. Indians were consistently weaker than the US because of supply of American soldiers/settlers were essentially limitless Americans in the East were shocked with the atrocities done with the soldiers Major land cessions across the West Citizenship Civilization Dispossession; separating Indians from their lands Justification: reformers (generally well-meaning whites) talked about civilizing the Indians, so they can better protect themselves Civilized: destroy existing native cultures, govt, & societies & assimilate Indians into white society. Whites and Indians werent totally separate from each other; interaction via trade Indians had to stop hunting & start farming. No more communal land holding=>indiv holding on land. Give up religions to become Christians. US govt stopped making treaties, presupposed that you were talking to a foreign/sovereign power.

 Christian missionaries were integral in fed policy. Faith-based delegation of authority. Fed govt divided the lands according to diff Christian denominations. Fed govt put real money to put schools on reservations and off-boarding schools with ppl who were specialized into civilizing Indians (kidnapped students) Carlisle Industrial Trading School: est in 1879. Dedicated to the task of eradicating Indian culture. Western names, cut hair, wear Western clothes and speak English. Taught history (how cruel Indians were to whites). Key to success: getting children totally sep from uncivilized fam/community; build new self who can enter American society to get a menial job. Idealistic in edu program in the way that it was a strategy to grant them citizenship thru successful cultural change and becoming civilized. Citizenship became a pressing issue in 1884 when a Supreme Court decision (Elk v. Wilkings) Elk wanted to vote and local officials said he couldnt cause he was a citizen. The Supreme Court says that Elk isnt a citizen until Congress makes a decision whether Indians can be citizens not based on Indians personal opinion. Congress decided by diff kind of civilization policy. AllotmentDawes Act (1887): like edu policy, the land policy of allotment was also widely portrayed as a strategy for civilizing the Indian. Not by taking their children and reshaping them, but by making traditional life impossible for adults. Under this act, fed govt surveyed communal lands led by Indians and divided it up into farms and divide the farms among Indians. Couldnt sell it for 25 yrs and in return for taking up an allotment, they would be granted citizenship. The idea here was that the Indians would be civilized and learn thru concept of indiv ownership and on small landholdings, itd be harder to hunt and farming becomes more necessary. A direct way to separate Indians from their land. Small groups of Indian and large plots of land. Meant that the rest of the land became the public domain=>open for Homestead Act & other kinds of sales. Indians were unable to sell their allotments, so they rented them out to whites b/c they didnt wan to farm esp in the arid Plains. Whites were appointed guardians of children 1902: Inherited land was exempted. If land was inherited, then the land could be sold before the 25 yrs are up. Grafters: search for old and sick Indians and tell them to make a will, so they could take the land 1906: competent Indians could sold the land Incompetent Indians could sold land Merchants gave credit for their stores then Indians couldnt pay debt, thus merchants foreclosed Over half of the Indians, were landless or impoverished. Oklahoma

BIG INDUSTRY
Major contexts Late 19th century; highly visible agglomeration of econ/pol power US was an mainly agricultural

 Manufacturing was 1/3 of a total in 1869 & in 1899 Out in heavy industries 20 mill tons in coals mined in 1870; 417 in 1910 Substantial growth in industrial production Favorable public policies High tariff/on imported good; designed to protect domestic manufacturing=>subsidized dev of industry Barely open borders with exceptions facilitated mass immigration into US & great increase in number of cheap workers; put pressure on wages to keep them down Little regulation of industry (safety; workmans compensation) Failure to set up basic protections inside and outside workplace Railroads crossed streets without any warning Government allowed a business cycle of boom & bust w/o trying policies to moderate it In downturns, lots of business failures & mass unemployment Panic of 1873 (depression) Depression: Mid 1880s; devastating depression in 1890s Big cities open up police station to let hobos sleep on floor in big cities during depressions Panic of 1907: high unemployment Vast deployment/exploitation of labor Technologies Massive railroad building US had more railroad trips in 1914 than the rest of the world combined=> growth of RR created series of innovations RR was more expensive than any other things led to investment banking which led to large fortunes Leverage buyout Bessemer converter allowed steel industry to make a huge amount of high quality steel Carnegie integrated steel company into one firm (iron ore=>steel); vertical integration Need for iron stimulated vast steeling mining Meat packing industry in Chicago grew tremendously Refrigerator car=>nationally distribute meat Food and clothing started to be standardized=>advertised nationally New ways of selling things: downtown department stores; catalogue stores (dep on post office & RR) 1910-1915 (end of this period): mass production of cars Henry Ford: first production of cars Modern capital market; DOW Jones Factory based on glass furnace was not dominant employment Small shops in apartments/urban buildings=>industrial workshop; more typical Many employers were small time operaters Creative entrepreneurship

 Robber barons Conspicuous display of wealth Prototypical business leader werent these guys Bad reputation of business leaders were b/c of financial chicanery & exploitation of workers & striking arrogance Very rich flaunted wealth through lavish households JP Morgan Pioneering banker; led to dev of techniques to create huge firms Leader in Great Merger Movement Co-founded U.S. Steel; first ever company capitalized over 1 billion Bought out competitors 1893: personally rescued US Treasure 1907: tremendous power; decided who would remain in business John D Rockefeller Richest man in 1907 Began career by buying/selling produce (commission merchant) Saw demand for oil (kerosene for lighting) & decided to go into refining; built an empire Muscled out competition by manipulating cost on how they shipped their products; manipulating freight rates; shipped large, constant supply of oil=>given rebates He could manipulate freight rates of competitors His firm absorbed most oil companies in Ohio: Standard Oil Company Had companies in dozen diff states; coordinated by truststockholders in various companies would enter into secret agreements to sell their companies to the trust who then effectively ran the whole thing => vast profit/huge power Immigrant workers How many? 10 million in US b/w 1860-1890 1 in 7 Americans born outside US in 1890 & 1910 From where? Many from Europe; few from Asia Most from Western Europe, but changed to Eastern Europe Led to talk about degeneration of a generation Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 Gillam, 1882 against racism Relationship b/w mass immigration & industries: mass immigration kept wages low Child Labor Essential to industrial growth as Indian killing for western expansion

SISTER CARRIES AMERICA

Spoils system replaced by civil service

Shabbiness in American public culture; scandal after scandal at every level; business & govt Author rejects the idea that evil is punished and good is rewarded Young woman leaves small town to big city to find work; stays with sister; appalled by drabness of working class life; dazzled by Chicago & learns the way to improve her life is to attach herself to men who turn out destroy themselves in order to provide her with commodities; everyone sees only surfaces of things & the thing thats most visible on surface is money; culture dominated by money is criticized in this book Late 19th centurybeginning of vibrant commercialized/popular culture & new expansion of didactic/high culture Political corruption Corruption was rampant on all levels all over the country Bloody shirt Northern politics exploited the Civil War Democrats campaigned as the White Mans Party/redeemers in the southern states; openly racist Republicans campaigned as party that won Civil War/patriotism/Union Cynical way to silent their Democratic opponents (Had the smell of treason) Bloody shirts that OUR soldiers worn and Democrats shot at Republican Democrats assoc with disloyalty Republicans helped organize Union vets into politics: Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) urged to vote as you shot Many presidents were Civil War Union vets Vets were paid large pensions; GAR lobbied/demanded them Republicans were the party of respectability/good morals; supported strict liquor laws (temperance movement); courted to Protestants and alienated Catholic immigrants (esp Irish); main targets were big city bosses/politicians who built in this period rings or machines Orgs thru which corrupt politician used the tremendous growth of American cities in this period to get personally rich by demanding bribes Boss Tweed Tamanie Hall: most influential ring; started as a social club but it was already a wing of the Demo party in NY; gained citywide power (before & after Civil War) thru the rise of Boss Tweed Rose from neighborhood gang leader to Congressman Built Tweed ring that controlled city administration & large chunk of the state legislature Got the state legislature to change a constitution to create an audit for it run by Tweed Facilitated kick-backs from contractors (get contracts if you pay bribe for Tamanie Hall) Charging tax payers for padded costs (which included kick-backs to politicians/rings) 1871-ring collapsed; huge expose of corruption in newspapers then in the courts (bribery/fraud) Tweed convicted; died in prison in 1878 Dennis Kearney British visitor (Price) wrote critique of American politics; American Commonwealth; called city govt the one conspicuous failure of the United States; book contained a whole chapter about Dennis Kearney & Workingmans Party of CA in SF

 Kearney; Irish immigrant who was involved in the labor movement; blamed the Depression of 70s on capitalists & threatened employers; bullets should replace ballots; attacked Chinese immigrants Slogan: the Chinese must go Open air meetings that adopted pro-labor & anti-business then would destroy Chinese homes Arrested 2x for inciting violence; never convicted Biggest victory (1879): won a lot of seats in Convention that was rewriting state constitution; Chinese couldnt vote; Chinese couldnt get jobs in corps or govt; local govt can expel Chinese from their homes demagogue Urban culture Public works Brooklyn bridge City govt were coping with growth generally well Ppl need paved streets/water systems/sewers/bridges & other public infrastructures Turn of 20th centurymost American big cities were providing more & better quality than Britain and Germany American cities had more parks than other countries except London Central Park was designed by Homestead; 1857-60; during corrupt NY under Tweed Chicago reserved huge tracks of land for an extensive park system; Lincoln Park High culture Burst of efforts to est institutions of high culture to teach Culture Art museums, symphony orchestras, public libraries Designed to show off wealth in these cities & to spread art/music appreciation in cities Commercial leisure Explosion of commercial entertainment venuesdance halls Dance academies Vaudeville evolved from places where only men went; opened to women Traveling performers: dancers, jugglers, comedians, etc Promised no obscene skits or vulgar songs and would police performers/audiences to have some more genteel behavior in theatres Pleasure grounds Boardwalk attractions; cheap beer/food; variety of shows; men could go to prize fights; dance pavilions; cheap admission; simulated trips to exotic places; various rides Coney Islandcheap transit; NY subway (5 cent fare) Developed youth culture esp in big cities Middle class esp working class young ppl were participating Very different from past decades (Victorian era) Men and women socializing together in public Men: pool halls, saloons, bars, barbershops

 Women socialized in each others homes with limited range of outside activitiesfam events with approved escort Co-ed outings became normal way of socializingshift from homosocial to a heterosocial form of leisure Heterosocial world was often quite sexualized and often involved a complicated social dance Women depended on men to pay for their entertainment & the men know that theyre being evaluated; women compared notes Both men and women start thinking thru the problem of who owes what to whom in these situations If men pay for dinner, what do the women owe in term? Effect: sparked aggressive response from law enforcement and self-appointed reformers who were responding most of all to the public expression by women of sexuality Comstock Law: mass censureship Women could be arrested for various expressions of sexualityflirting, black woman arrested for getting a taxi As heterosexual behavior moved out into the social sphere; affected LGBT community Men and women in public who were not enacting the new heterosexual way of leisure drew attn to themselves; unofficial harassment including violence Anthony Comstock wrote Frauds Exposed; hated obscenity and defined it broadly. Against talking of birth control b/c it was a way for woman sexual expressiveness Created an agency in the post office in which he was a special postal officer and censured mail Could arrest people; levy stiff fines White City and Midway Columbian Exposition (World fair): celebration of the 400th year of the city of Chicago and Columbus discovering America. Famous architects built White City 200 classical buildings lit with electric light 46 nations had their own exhibits: art, technologies and progress of all spheres Midway is another part of the fair; ethnographic exhibits Fair-goers could get glimpses of primitive races Racist The site of the commercialized popular culture; amusement parks; first Ferris Wheel Encapsulated the culture of the Guilded Age Had high culture and low culture Moralists wondered which are the ppl coming to see: civilization or commerce? Point is that they were combined; both there What counts as liberation or debasement? Ida B Wells put out a pamphlet asking why there was no African-American exhibit and this raised new complication: where would designers put this exhibit? Near white city of American progress or on the Midway of the exoticized cultures Didactivecommercialized

Social Science
Liberalism Social Darwinism Social Science Amateurs to professionals Universities Reform organizations