America in the 1870s
U.S. History since 1877
Women’s Rights Movement
Splits
• National
Woman Suffrage Association, 1869
– Founders:
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
– Opposed
15th Amendment unless women were included
– Proposed
amendment for woman’s right to vote
• American
Woman Suffrage Association, 1869
– Founder:
Lucy Stone
– Supported
15th Amendment
– Worked
at state level for woman suffrage
Barriers to westward
expansion
• Buffalo
herds and Indians
• Lack
of wood
• Lack
of transportation
• Lack
of rainfall
Opening the West to
settlement
• The
sad, bloody business of Indian war
– Migrants
to Oregon and to California & Colorado goldfields
– Use
and destroy resources Indians need
– Ambitious
politicians attack peaceful Indians
– Many
broken treaties
– Indians
fight back desperately but futilely
Rise and decline of Plains
Indians
• Turbulent
history
– Horses
and guns make life possible
– Comanches
from Canada, Sioux from Wisconsin
– Forced
migrations from East
– Dependence
on whites
– Buffalo
robe trade from 1820s
• Decline:
disease, alcohol, constant white encroachment, death of buffalo
The cycle of violence
• Crescendo
of violence, 1860-1890
• Whites
and Indians
– Hopeless
savages, or wayward children?
• Mixture
of benevolence, greed, ambition, revenge
– Looking
for open land, gold, riches
– Army
caught in the middle
– Gov’t
weak, uninterested, inconsistent
Indian wars
• Sand
Creek massacre, November 1864
– Col.
John Chivington attacks Black Kettle’s peaceful Cheyennes
• Crazy
Horse & Sioux massacre Fetterman’s 80 men, 1866
• 1868
treaty: Sioux & Cheyenne reservation
– Sitting
Bull, Crazy Horse, Cheyenne allies don’t sign
Last battles
• Custer’s
men discover Black Hills gold
– Custer
moves against angry Sioux, 1876
– Battle
of Little Big Horn: 600 against 12,000
– Sioux
give up the fight, go to reservations
• Chief
Joseph of Nez Perce flee 1300 miles, 1877
• By
1877 most Indians on reservations
– Apaches
under Geronimo resist until 1886
• Rising
market in buffalo hides
– Hunters
methodically wipe out the buffalo
The decade of cattle drives
• Large
herds of cattle in Texas after Civil War
• Railheads
push west
– To
Abilene, Kansas, 1867; then Wichita and Dodge City
– Cattle
driven up the plains
• Shipped
to Chicago
– Armour
packing plant, 1865
Technology brings the
farmer
• Barbed
wire solves the wood problem, 1874
• Windmills
solve the water problem
• Railroads
solve the transportation problem
Farmers in distress
• Homestead
Act, RR grants attract farmers
• Greater
acreage, mechanization = rising yields
• The
South expands cotton production
• Result:
drop in prices
• Railroad
rate schedules high for farmers
• Farmers
hurting: middlemen profiting
• Southerners
forced to be tenants, sharecroppers
Southern Sharecroppers
Farmers organize
• Grange
movement, est. 1867
– Fraternal
farmer organization
– Social
purposes, then political action
• State
“granger laws” regulating RRs, grain warehouses
One hundred years a nation:
1876
America in 1876
• Population:
47 million
• Half
the nation under the age of 23
• Agricultural
production exceeded industrial production
• Average
worker made $465/year ($10,670 today)
– Skilled
workers up to $1000
• About
1000 millionaires ($23 million today)
• Average
income in South = half of other states
• Ethnically,
America was very white
– Very
few Hispanics, mainly in Southwest
African American population
density
America in 1876
• Most
men raised or made something for a living
• Few
people worked for others
– The
only large employers were railroads
– Exceptions:
servants and hired hands
• Most
people lived on farms or in very small towns
• Most
stores were owned by individuals or families
• The
“middle class” was relatively small
America in 1876
America in 1876
America in 1876
America in 1876
America in 1876
America in 1876
America in 1876
America in 1876
America in 1876
America in 1876
America in 1876
Philadelphia Centennial
Exposition
Philadelphia Centennial
Exposition
Philadelphia Centennial
Exposition
Philadelphia Centennial
Exposition
Philadelphia Centennial
Exposition
Philadelphia Centennial
Exposition
Philadelphia Centennial
Exposition
What’s to celebrate?
• Indians
kill General George Armstrong Custer and his command at Little Big Horn, June
25
What’s to celebrate?
• Hamburg
Massacre, July 8, and other violence, assassinations, and massacres in the
South
What’s to celebrate?
• Depression
– The
Panic of 1873
George Washington to
Ulysses Grant:
Corruption and decline?
• Only
46 and politically inexperienced when elected, 1868
• Scandal
reaches the White House (but not Grant himself)
– Crédit
Mobilier of America, 1872, involving leading Republicans
– “Whiskey
Ring” scandal, reaching Grant’s secretary, 1875
– Secretary
of War impeached for bribery and resigned, 1876
Is Corruption Destroying
the Republic?
• Widespread
corruption in state governments
• Rise
of political machines and bosses in the cities
– Most
famous: Boss Tweed of New York’s Tammany Hall
– Widespread
voter fraud, and huge profits from graft
– Convicted
in 1872, escaped from prison in 1876 and living in Spain
What’s to celebrate?
• Presidential
election of 1876
– Marred
by fraudulent returns and political games-playing
– Solved
by backroom deal
Class warfare? Strikes
& violence
• Railroad
strike of 1877
– Wage
cuts, layoffs
– Spontaneous
strike spreads to most workers
– Battles
with police, militia, army
– Railyards
burned if military and strikebreakers used
– 100
killed; $100 million damage to RRs
America 1876: United but
Unsure
• Pride
in our united, growing democratic republic
America 1876: United but
Unsure
• Pride
in our united, growing democratic republic
• Shaken
by bloodshed, violence, depression, corruption
• Cynical,
with righteous self-confidence weakened
– Cause
of equal rights abandoned for 80 years
– Political
parties equally divided
– Series
of forgettable Presidents, 1876-1896
• America
nervously looks to the future