America in the 1870s

U.S. History
before 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

Rise and decline of Plains Indians

• Turbulent history

– Horses and guns make life possible

– Comanches from Wyoming, 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 last Indian wars

• Crescendo of violence, 1860-1877

• Whites and Indians

– Hopeless savages, or wayward children?

• Army uses tactics from the Civil War

Indian wars

• Sand Creek massacre, November 1864

– Slaughter of Black Kettle’s peaceful Cheyennes

• Crazy Horse & Sioux ambush Capt. Fetterman’s 81 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

• By 1877 most Indians on reservations

• 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 hurt; middlemen profit

• Southerners forced to be tenants, 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

Southern Sharecroppers

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?

• Sioux and Cheyenne 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