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
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