Chapter 15
Consolidating a Triumphant Union, 1865–1877
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CREATED EQUAL A History of the United States
Combined Volume | Fifth Edition
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Children at School, Charleston, South Carolina
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An illustration in Harper’s Weekly, from December 15, 1866, shows African American pupils in a schoolroom in Charleston, South Carolina. After the Civil War, many southern black communities created, or enlarged and solidified, their own institutions, including schools and churches. At the same time, these communities pressed for full and equal citizenship rights.
The Library of Congress [LC-USZ62-117666]
Journal Prompt 15.1
Was there a conflict between freedpeople’s goals of cultural and economic autonomy, on the one hand, and integration into the American body politic, on the other? Why or why not?
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Answer: At the end of the war, many, if not most, former slaves wanted to set themselves up as small, independent farmers. Having lived their whole lives under the control and for the benefit of their former owners, they wanted to use their farming skills and knowledge to support themselves and to make freedom a genuine reality. This desire was in direct conflict with the needs of white landowners. Slavery may have come to an end, but white landowners still required a large, stable, and inexpensive labor force. It was also in conflict with the expectations of white Northerners, many of whom assumed that newly freed blacks would become wage laborers, an assumption that was consistent with free-labor ideology.
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Focus Questions (1 of 2)
15.1 The Struggle over the South
How did various groups of Northerners and Southerners differ in their vision of the postwar South?
15.2 Claiming Territory for the Union
What human and environmental forces impeded the Republican goal of western expansion?
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Focus Questions (2 of 2)
15.3 The Republican Vision and Its Limits
What were some of the inconsistencies in, and unanticipated consequences of, Republican notions of equality and federal power?
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15.1 The Struggle over the South (1 of 2)
Wartime Preludes to Postwar Policies
Presidential Reconstruction, 1865–1867
The Postbellum South’s Labor Problem
Building Free Communities
Congressional Reconstruction: The Radicals’ Plan
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Focus Question:
How did various groups of Northerners and Southerners differ in their vision of the postwar South?
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15.1 The Struggle over the South (2 of 2)
A ruined South
260,000 fatalities among soldiers
Lost $2 billion investment in slaves
Countryside in ruins
Freed slaves
Lacked resources to be self-sufficient
Travelled far to find families
Republicans
How do deal with the South
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Lecture Outline:
A ruined South
260,000 fatalities among soldiers
Lost $2 billion investment in slaves
Whites resisted citizenship rights for blacks
Countryside in ruins
Freed slaves
Lacked resources to be self-sufficient
Travelled far to find families
Republicans
How do deal with the South
Lincoln wanted reconciliation quickly
Johnson wanted southern elite humiliated, but not full freedom for former slaves
Radical Republicans argued with moderate Republicans
Key Terms:
Reconstruction era: The twelve years after the Civil War when the U.S. government took steps to integrate the eleven states of the Confederacy back into the Union.
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15.1.1 Wartime Preludes to Postwar Policies
Wartime experiments with free labor
Freed slaves work on plantations for wages
Or be self-sufficient through barter system
Lincoln proposed Ten Percent Plan
Allow former Confederate states to form new governments
Vetoed the Wade-Davis Bill
Freedmen’s Bureau
Relief efforts for blacks and poor whites
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Lecture Outline:
Wartime experiments with free labor
Freed slaves work on plantations for wages
Northern merchants wanted a return to staple-crop system with cotton funneled to northern textile mills
Some in military thought blacks belonged on plantations and should be forced to work if they resisted
Or be self-sufficient through barter system
Wanted to break free of white landlords, suppliers, and cotton merchants
Lincoln proposed Ten Percent Plan
Allow former Confederate states to form new governments
Must have 10 percent of men who voted in 1860 pledge allegiance to the Union and renounce slavery
Vetoed the Wade-Davis Bill
Alternative plan by Congress
Required a majority of southern voters to take a loyalty oath
Lincoln used a pocket veto to kill the bill
Freedmen’s Bureau
Relief efforts for blacks and poor whites
Sponsoring schools
Implementing a labor contract system on southern plantations
Key Terms:
Pocket veto: An indirect veto of a legislative bill made when an executive (such as a president or governor) simply leaves the bill unsigned, so that it dies after the adjournment of the legislature.
Freedmen’s Bureau: Federal agency created by Congress in March 1865 and disbanded in 1869. Its purposes were to provide relief for Southerners who had remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War, to support black elementary schools, and to oversee annual labor contracts between landowners and field hands.
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15.1.2 Presidential Reconstruction, 1865–1867 (1 of 2)
President Johnson’s agenda for South
Modify Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan
South quickly passed the Black Codes
An attempt to institute a system of near-slavery
Republicans divided
Radicals
Moderates
Both outraged
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Lecture Outline:
President Johnson’s agenda for South
Modify Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan
Deny vote to wealthy Confederates
Individuals could beg for pardons
Lenient plan for readmittance to Union
States renounce secession and accept Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery
Repudiate all Confederate debts
Opposed vote for freedmen
South quickly passed the Black Codes
An attempt to institute a system of near-slavery
Penalties for “vagrant” blacks
Denied blacks the right to vote
Blacks could not serve on juries
In some cases, could not own land
Mississippi: cannot quit jobs until expiration of contract
Blacks must be working under supervision of whites at any given moment
Arrested people faced imprisonment or forced labor
Republicans divided
Radicals
Federal participation in blacks’ civil rights and economic independence
Moderates
Hands-off approach to blacks’ rights and economic situation
More concerned with free market and private property rights
Both outraged
Black Codes
Former Confederate generals and leaders in Congress in December 1865
Included vice president of Confederacy Alexander Stephens, under indictment for treason
Key Terms:
Black Codes: Southern state laws passed after the Civil War to limit the rights and actions of newly liberated African Americans.
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15.1.2 Presidential Reconstruction, 1865–1867 (2 of 2)
Congress moves to expand rights
Thirteenth Amendment
Civil Rights Bill of 1866
Fourteenth Amendment
Northerners move south
Teachers
Carpetbaggers
Scalawags
White vigilantes: Ku Klux Klan
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Lecture Outline:
Congress moves to expand rights
Thirteenth Amendment
Abolished slavery
Ratified by states by the end of the year
Civil Rights Bill of 1866
Federal protection of individual rights
Passed, vetoed; Congress overrode veto
Johnson was becoming defiant of aggressive federal protection of black civil rights
Also vetoed expansion of Freedmen’s Bureau, but Congress also overrode that veto
Fourteenth Amendment
Freed peoples given citizenship rights
States punished for denying these rights
Former rebels could not hold offices (except local)
Voided Confederate debts
Vetoed by Johnson, finally adopted in 1868
Johnson believed states should decide issues of black suffrage
Northerners move south
Teachers
Black and white teachers volunteer to teach former slaves to read and write
Carpetbaggers
Investors wanted to become planters in the staple-crop economy
Southerners saw them as taking advantage of the South’s devastation
Scalawags
Reluctant secessionists ally with Republicans
Former white southern Whigs
Some humbled planter class and less wealthy men
White vigilantes: Ku Klux Klan
Began as a group of Tennessee war veterans
White supremacist terrorist group
Led to violence and murder of both blacks and their white allies
Showed how far ex-Confederates would go to reassert their authority and defy the federal government
Key Terms:
carpetbaggers: A negative term applied by Southerners to Northerners who moved to the South after the Civil War to pursue political or economic opportunities.
scalawags: A negative term applied by southern Democrats after the Civil War to any white Southerner who allied with the Republican party.
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Freedmen’s Bureau, Beaufort, South Carolina
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Freedmen's Bureau agents distributed rations to former slaves and southern whites who had remained loyal to the Union. Agents also sponsored schools, legalized marriages formed under slavery, arbitrated domestic disputes, and oversaw labor contracts between workers and landowners. The bureau faced many challenges; it was chronically understaffed, and many freedpeople lived on isolated plantations, far from the scrutiny of bureau agents. But by 1869 the bureau had ceased to exist.
Historical/Corbis
Journal Prompt 15.2
Can you speculate about the way that the building in the photograph above was used before and during the war? How do you think southern whites reacted to the various roles and responsibilities of Freedmen’s Bureau’s agents?
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Answer: It is difficult to say with certainty how this building was used before the war, but its size and sophisticated construction suggest that it might have been the home of a relatively well-to-do person. If so, the occupation of such a building by the Freedmen’s Bureau would have been particularly galling. From the point of view of many white Southerners, the Freedmen’s Bureau epitomized northern interference in southern social, political, and economic affairs. Thus, the Bureau’s use of the home of a member of the white social elite as a base of operations may have been seen as adding insult to injury.
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15.1.3 The Postbellum South’s Labor Problem
Labor contracts
Freedmen’s Bureau would help negotiate
Contract options
Benefits of contract
Sherman’s Field Order Number 15
“Forty acres and a mule” (later revoked)
Commissioners from Edisto Island
Sharecropping option
Troubling for freedmen
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Lecture Outline:
Labor contracts
Freedmen’s Bureau would help negotiate
Mixed record
Agents were a diverse group
Some bureau offices havens for blacks seeking help but others had little impact
Contract options
Monthly wage
Share of crop
Combination
Benefits of contract
Incentive to treat workers fairly
Workers could leave at the end of the year
Sherman’s Field Order Number 15
“Forty acres and a mule” (later revoked)
20,000 former slaves worked the land
Commissioners from Edisto Island
Group of black men protested
Sharecropping option
Troubling for freedmen
Received advance supplies from landlord, worked all year, remained indebted to landlord and obliged to work another year
Could be easily evicted if landlord desired
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Sharecroppers at Work
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After the Civil War, many rural southern blacks, such as those shown here, continued to toil in cotton fields owned by whites. As sharecroppers, these workers made very little in cash wages, and even when they did accumulate some money, many learned that whites would not sell them land.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-45067]
Journal Prompt 15.3
What were the limits of Reconstruction as a federal program designed to assist freed slaves to become truly free?
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Answer: True freedom for former slaves required a social and economic revolution, something the federal government was unwilling to facilitate. It was not enough that slaves were legally free, that laws were passed protecting their rights, or that the federal government sometimes intervened to prevent the violent acts of white supremacists. So long as southern blacks were economically dependent on southern whites, their freedom was limited and conditional. As soon as the federal government withdrew from the South, white Southerners moved quickly to reestablish the prewar racial order.
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Interpreting History: M. C. Fulton: An Appeal of a Georgia Planter to a Freedmen’s Bureau Officer (1866) (1 of 2)
How does Fulton define “idleness”? Why does he believe that women who stay home and care for their families are not really working?
Is Fulton making a race-based or a class-based argument in his appeal to Tillson? Explain.
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Interpreting History: M. C. Fulton: An Appeal of a Georgia Planter to a Freedmen’s Bureau Officer (1866) (2 of 2)
Does Fulton have good reason for assuming—or hoping—that Tillson will be responsive to this letter?
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15.1.4 Building Free Communities
Blacks strove to be political force
Often divided by class
Uniting principle: full citizenship rights
Self-help organizations
Efforts to sponsor schools
Family cooperation
Built own churches
Whites felt threatened
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Lecture Outline:
Blacks strove to be political force
Often divided by class
Slaves free before war might be skilled and literate
Would assume leadership positions over field hands
Light-skinned people
Uniting principle: full citizenship rights
Ability to vote, own land, and educate children
Should be enforced by the federal government, using force, if necessray
Self-help organizations
Efforts to sponsor schools
Hire teachers and construct school buildings
Expensive – personal and group sacrifice required
Family cooperation
Help neighbors, elderly, orphans
Valued family ties over employers and landlords
Built own churches
Whites felt threatened
KKK resulted
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15.1.5 Congressional Reconstruction: The Radicals’ Plan (1 of 2)
Reconstruction Act of 1867
Purge the South of disloyalty
Five military districts
Tenure of Office Act
Prevent the president from dismissing Secretary of War Stanton
1868: Johnson impeached for violation of Tenure Act
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Lecture Outline:
Reconstruction Act of 1867
Purge the South of disloyalty
Stripped former Confederates of voting rights
Former Confederate states not readmitted until they ratified the Fourteenth Amendment and wrote new constitutions that guaranteed black men the right to vote
Five military districts
Federal troops stationed throughout territory
Protecting Union personnel and supporters
Restoring order
Tenure of Office Act
Prevent the president from dismissing Secretary of War Stanton
Was a supporter of radicals
1868: Johnson impeached for violation of Tenure Act
One vote short of impeachment
Johnson no longer attempted policymaking
Key Terms:
Reconstruction Act of 1867: An act that prevented the former Confederate states from entering the Union until they had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment and written new constitutions that guaranteed black men the right to vote. It also divided the South (with the exception of Tennessee, which had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment) into five military districts and stationed federal troops throughout the region.
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15.1.5 Congressional Reconstruction: The Radicals’ Plan (2 of 2)
Command of the Army Act
The president must seek approval for military orders from General Grant
Reconstruction governments
2,000 black men – Republican leaders
Passed laws to improve equality
Fifteenth Amendment
Voting rights for black men
Ku Klux Klan Act
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Lecture Outline:
Command of the Army Act
The president must seek approval for military orders from General Grant
Grant also a supporter of Republicans
Reconstruction governments
2,000 black men – Republican leaders
Locally elected sheriffs, justices of the peace, tax collectors, and city councilors
Also elected to state legislatures, U.S. Congress
Many were of mixed ancestry and free before the war
Mostly literate and skilled
Majority of voting public were black men
Passed laws to improve equality
Wanted to promote economic development and economic equality
Later claims of corruption and kickbacks
Fifteenth Amendment
Voting rights for black men
Ku Klux Klan Act
Punishes acts to deny rights to citizens
Key Terms:
kickbacks: Money paid illegally in return for favors (for example, to a politician by a person or business that has received government contracts).
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Map 15.1: Radical Reconstruction
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Four of the former Confederate states, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Virginia, were reorganized under President Lincoln's Ten Percent Plan in 1864. Neither this plan nor the proposals of Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson, provided for the enfranchisement of the former slaves. In 1867 Congress established five military districts in the South and demanded that newly reconstituted state governments implement universal manhood suffrage. By 1870, all of the former Confederate states had rejoined the Union, and by 1877, all of those states had installed conservative (i.e., Democratic) governments.
Table 15.1: The Election of 1868
Candidate Political Party Popular Vote (%) Electoral Vote
Ulysses S. Grant Republican 52.7 214
Horatio Seymour Democratic 47.3 80
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SOURCE: Historical Election Results, Electoral College, National Archives and Records Administration
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Shared Writing Andrew Johnson
What were President Andrew Johnson’s views of the best way to implement the reconstruction of the southern states? Was he successful in implementing his views while he was president? Why or why not?
To answer these questions, review section 15.1, “The Struggle over the South,” paying particular attention to section 15.1.2, “Presidential Reconstruction, 1865–1867.”
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Answer: President Johnson wanted to bring the southern states back into the Union as quickly as possible. While he had considerable antipathy toward the planter elite, he had no particular interest in the fate of newly freed slaves. Congress initially gave Johnson a free hand, but when his intentions became clear and he rebuffed moderate efforts at compromise, relations between the president and Congress broke down. From that point on, Congress took the lead in Reconstruction, successfully turning aside all of Johnson’s efforts to regain control.
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15.2 Claiming Territory for the Union (1 of 2)
Federal Military Campaigns Against Western Indians
The Postwar Western Labor Problem
Land Use in an Expanding Nation
Buying Territory for the Union
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Focus Question:
What human and environmental forces impeded the Republican goal of western expansion?
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15.2 Claiming Territory for the Union (2 of 2)
Postbellum migration
Railroads assisted in expansion
Native Americans battled U.S. cavalry
In Plains, Northwest, Southwest
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Lecture Outline:
Postbellum migration
Railroads assisted in expansion
Native Americans battled U.S. cavalry
In Plains, Northwest, Southwest
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15.2.1 Federal Military Campaigns Against Western Indians
Clashes on the Plains
1867: Medicine Lodge Creek Treaty
1868: Custer attacks Washita River Cheyenne
1874: Custer in Black Hills
1875: Crook captures Geronimo
1876: Custer killed and troops defeated at Little Big Horn
Indians maintained their culture
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Lecture Outline:
Clashes on the Plains
1867: Medicine Lodge Creek Treaty
Comanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Apache
Indians continued to attack workers associated with railroad
Surveyors, supply caravans, military escorts
1868: Custer attacks Washita River Cheyenne
Seventh Calvary formed to ward off Indian attacks
Murdered women and children, burned tipis, and destroyed 800 horses
1874: Custer in Black Hills
Land supposedly off limits to whites from treaty
Offer support to surveyors of railroad and force Indians onto reservation
Land rush after gold reported in Black Hills
15,000 gold miners within two years
Government tried to buy the land
1875: Crook captures Geronimo
Apache leader offered religious and military guidance to his people
1876: Custer killed and troops defeated at Little Big Horn
Attacks gathering of 2,500 Sioux and Cheyenne
Custer had a force of 264 soldiers
U.S. military reduced Lakota and Cheyenne to wardship status, ending their autonomy
Indians maintained their culture
Horses
Trading system
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Railroad Taxidermist’s Buffalo Trophy Heads
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With this 1870 photograph, the Kansas Pacific Railroad advertised the opportunity for western travelers to shoot buffalo from the comfort and safety of their railroad car. The company’s official taxidermist shows off his handiwork. Railroad expansion facilitated the exploitation of natural resources while promoting tourism.
Art Resource, NY
Journal Prompt 15.4
What groups of people might have been eager to take advantage of the buffalo-hunting services offered by the Kansas Pacific Railroad?
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Answer: Buffalo hunting may have appealed to Easterners with little experience of the “Wild West.” The opportunity to hunt such an iconic animal, albeit from the safety of a train, might have seemed to some well-to-do Easterners like a chance to participate in a grand western adventure before the West disappeared.
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15.2.2 The Postwar Western Labor Problem
Railroad labor force
Irish labor force began rail line in California
Chinese laborers brought to work railroads
Chinese sought work elsewhere when railroad complete
Burlingame Treaty
White workers felt competition unfair
California Native Americans
Population decimated
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Lecture Outline:
Railroad labor force
Irish labor force began rail line in California
Irish struck for better pay
Gold was enticement to leave
Chinese laborers brought to work railroads
Proved to be very skillful workers
Railroad work was hard and dangerous
Chinese sought work elsewhere when railroad complete
Burlingame Treaty
Protection for Chinese immigrants
Did not prevent discrimination
White workers felt competition unfair
Most Chinese immigrants were men
Worked in many areas: factories, gold mining towns as laundry operators, agricultural laborers
California Native Americans
Population decimated
Land taken
Often forced to work as wage earners for large landowners
Reduced from 100,000 to 30,000 by 1870
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Chinese Immigrant Railroad Laborers, Secret Town, California
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Chinese construction workers labor on the Central Pacific Railroad, around 1868. Many Chinese immigrants toiled as indentured laborers, indebted to Chinese merchant creditors who paid for their passage to California. Isolated in all-male work camps, crews of railroad workers retained their traditional dress, language, and diet. After the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, some immigrants returned to China, and others dispersed to small towns and cities throughout the West.
Picture History/Newscom
Journal Prompt 15.5
From the photo above, can you speculate about the engineering challenges faced by builders of western railroads?
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Answer: The construction of western railroads required laying tracks over mountains, across valleys and rivers, and through inhospitable deserts. Overcoming these challenges required sophisticated engineering skills, as well as a labor force willing to take on the tough, dangerous work.
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15.2.3 Land Use in an Expanding Nation (1 of 2)
Use of land in the South
Moved to mining and forest for commodities
Complementary labor patterns
Use of land in the West and Southwest
Courts favor European American land claims
Boom towns: minerals and timber
Railroads facilitated mining and ranching
Cattle drives
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Lecture Outline:
Use of land in the South
Moved to mining and forest for commodities
Phosphate, timber, coal, and turpentine
Complementary labor patterns
Spring tilling, fall harvesting, sawmills/coal mines in winter and summer
Use of land in the West and Southwest
Courts favor European American land claims
Santa Fe Ring: 80 percent of land from Hispanics
Boom towns: minerals and timber
Southern Arizona, Virginia City, Rocky Mountains, and Black Hills of South Dakota
Railroads facilitated mining and ranching
Cattle drives
Cowboys drove herds to railroad for shipment to stockyards in Chicago or St. Louis
Abilene, Wichita, Dodge City, Ellsworth
Cowboys: African Americans made up about 25 percent and Hispanos about 15 percent
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15.2.3 Land Use in an Expanding Nation (2 of 2)
Apex Mining Act of 1872
Legalized traditional mining practices
John Muir
Explored California
Painters and geologists came west to explore the landscape
National Park System
Congress set aside beautiful areas
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Lecture Outline:
Apex Mining Act of 1872
Legalized traditional mining practices
Validated titles approved by local courts
Locate apex of vein could lay claim to whole vein beneath the surface
Destruction of whole areas as mining companies blasted through mountains
John Muir
Explored California
Painters and geologists came west to explore the landscape
National Park System
Congress set aside beautiful areas
Could not be commercially developed
March 1872: Yellowstone National Park
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Table 15.2: Estimates of Railroad Crossties Used and Acres of Forest Cleared, 1870–1910
Year Miles of Track Ties Renewed Annually (millions) Ties Used on New Construction (millions) Total Ties Annually (millions) Acres of Forest Cleared (thousands)
1870 60,000 21 18 39 195
1880 107,000 37 21 58 290
1890 200,000 70 19 89 445
1900 259,000 91 455
1910 357,000 124 620
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SOURCE: Michael Williams, American and Their Forests (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 352.
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15.2.4 Buying Territory for the Union
Alaska
Purchased from Russians for $7.2 million
Attempt to acquire the Dominican Republic
Would provide naval base and investment, refuge for southern freedmen
Senator Sumner: consider will of Dominican people