THE NEW SOUTH THE NEW SOUTH AND AND THE FRONTIER THE FRONTIER Unit VD Unit VD AP United States History AP United States History
Mar 31, 2015
THE NEW SOUTH THE NEW SOUTH AND AND
THE FRONTIERTHE FRONTIER
Unit VDUnit VD
AP United States HistoryAP United States History
Fundamental Questions
►Did the Civil War and Reconstruction solve the nation’s issues?
►How better off was the nation after the Civil War and Reconstruction?
The “New” South
►The Compromise of 1877 withdrew federal troops from former Confederate states, ended Reconstruction with a promise of development
►New vision From slave-dependency to self-sufficient and
diverse agricultural Industrialization and infrastructure Redemption…
Southern Agriculture
► Cotton remained the dominant crop Cotton farms doubled Large supply of world’s cotton drove prices down
►Drove prices down and led to foreclosures
► Diversity of crops Peanuts, sweet potatoes, soybeans Tobacco and cigarette companies
Sharecropping
► 50% white farmers and 75% black farmers► Crop liens kept small farmers in constant debt
Southern Industry► Growth of cities in
the South Textiles, steel,
lumber, tobacco
► Industrialization spearheaded by cheap labor rates
► More railroads built and designed on national standards
“Southern” Economy
►Northern investment control and slow progress kept the South poor
►Cheap labor wages and sharecropping►Poor education attributed to Southern
poverty
Redemption► Redeemer Democrats
White Democratic domination of state legislatures in Deep South
Rid of Republican state governments White supremacy States rights and small government laissez-faire economics
► Hamburg Massacre (July 1876)► Senator Benjamin Tillman (D-SC)► Origin of Bible Belt► Instituted Jim Crow laws
Segregation► Supreme Court
Civil Rights Cases of 1883► Civil Rights Act of 1875
unconstitutional► Segregation may be practiced by
private individuals and businesses
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)► Established “separate but equal”
► Jim Crow Laws Established by white Redeemer
state governments Legitimized by Plessy v.
Ferguson Examples
► Segregated public facilities and accommodations
► Disenfranchisement Grandfather clauses Literacy tests Poll taxes
Frontier Thesis► U.S. Census of 1890 claims American frontier is
closed► Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893► The frontier defined the American identity
It promoted independence and individualism unlike European conformity and social structure
► The distinct American political society was a result of surviving the frontier
► The edge of the frontier was the figurative border of civilization and the wild
► The loss of the frontier could signal the beginning of social conformity and rigidity
Railroads Drive the Expansion
► 35,000 miles in 1865 to 193,000 in 1900► Gauge standards connecting various local and
national lines► Connection of rails to cities, water ports, market
centers, Atlantic to Pacific First Transcontinental Railroad (1869)
► Federal land grants and subsidies► Overexpansion and corruption led to
consolidation by business moguls
Expansion of Railroads
Settling the West:Cattle Frontier
► Vaqueros – Cowboys► Cattle in West to Beef
Markets in East Cattle trails connect to
railways in Kansas
► Decline Loss of land
► Homesteader claims► Commercial agriculture
Environment► Overgrazing► Cold winters
Settling the West:Mining Frontier
► Gold and silver from California to Black Hills Comstock Lode in Nevada
(1859)
► Boomtowns and States Most settlers established
markets for miners Deadwood, Dakota; Tombstone,
Arizona
► Employed foreign-born miners South Americans brought
experience Chinese were cheap labor
Settling the West:Farming Frontier
► Homestead Act of 1862 160 acres for $10 and to live on
and cultivate land for 5 years
► Oklahoma Land Rush (April 1889) Sooners and Boomers
► Exodusters Southern free/freed blacks
► Innovation Barbed wire Dry farming
► National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry Movement to better connect
farmers amid dreary rural life Cooperatives
► Stores, elevators, insurance
Manifest Destiny and the Natives► Most western tribes based on a
nomadic lifestyle and buffalo herds White hunters decimated buffal
o herds for fur, sport, pests
► Reservations Concentrations of tribes
through separate treaties Tribal chiefs selected by white
officials
► Indian Wars Series of conflicts between U.S.
and Great Plains Natives► Sioux, Cheyenne, Ute, Apache
Sand Creek Massacre (1864)► Colorado militia attacked and
slaughtered Cheyenne
Buffalo Soldiers - 10th Calvary Little Big Horn (1876)
► Destruction of Colonel George Custer’s unit
Reactions Toward and By Natives► Assimilation
Formal education and religious conversion
A “white” education
► A Century of Dishonor by Helen Hunt Jackson in 1881 Nonfiction historical account of
government policies toward Natives
Purpose was to shed light on atrocities and pursue humane and equal treatment
► Dawes Severalty Act (1887) Broke up tribal organizations; lands divided into 160 acre plots; citizenship grants; disease, alcoholism, poverty, starvation
► Ghost Dance Movement Wovoka’s attempt to drive the settlers
out through circle dances and chants► Wounded Knee (1890)
Massacre of Sioux men, women, and children signifying the end of the Indian Wars