Conflict and Cooperation among Mexican Americans and African Americans By: Mrs. Coates

Standard/Objective 5-2.3 Identify examples of conflict and cooperation between occupational and ethnic groups in the West, including miners, farmers, ranchers, cowboys, Mexican and African Americans, and European and Asian immigrants By the end of today’s lesson, you will be able to describe at least 1 idea each about Mexican Americans and African Americans.

Review Cooperation: working together Conflict: disagreement, problem Miners and settlers cooperated by building towns. They conflicted with one another with land claims and stealing from each other. Ranchers and cowboys worked together to get cattle to the trains to send East. Farmers conflicted with ranchers and cowboys because they claimed land and set up fences on open ranges. Cowboys conflicted with rustlers because they stole cattle.

Mexican Americans Many Mexican Americans were driven from their land. They lived in the southwestern part of the United States and the California coast The Mexicans who lived in those regions owned property before the Mexican Cession. After the war, Mexicans, who were living in land ceded by treaty to the United States, were discriminated against. As a result, many lost title to their lands.

African Americans Due to discrimination in the South, many African Americans were eager to move west. After the Civil War many African Americans moved west in hopes of owning their own land. One group of African Americans that were encouraged to move was the Exodusters. These were people who moved West to find their “promised land” People who were tired of the black codes, meanness of KKK, meanness of sharecroppers who didn’t share the way they agreed. The Exodusters primarily settled in Nicodemus, Kansas.

Mexican Americans African Americans