What other factors accelerated Westward Expansion? Starter: What is the message of the painting below? It is called ‘American Progress’ (1872) Challenge: Why has this painting been made?

Why did many African Americans leave? After the Civil War, Lincoln’s Republican government had signed the ‘Thirteenth Amendment’ which abolished slavery. Overnight four million African-Americans were free men. Many whites in the South could not accept that black Americans should be free so made their lives very difficult. Many southern states passed ‘Jim Crow Laws’ to keep blacks second class citizens. Terrorist groups like the KKK were set up to intimidate and attack blacks living in the south. Some refused to sell land to them and forced them into sharecropping (you farm someone else’s land and in return you have to give them some of your crops). This made them like slaves.

Florida, 1876 "All marriages between a white person and a Negro or person, or between a white person and a person of Negro descent to the fourth generation inclusive, are hereby forever prohibited. "Any Black man and white woman, or any white man and/or Negro woman, who are not married to each other, who shall habitually live in and occupy in the night-time the same room shall each be punished by imprisonment not exceeding twelve (12) months, or by fine not exceeding five hundred ($500.00) dollars." "The schools for white children and the schools for Negro children shall be conducted separately Arizona, 1865-1901 1865: Miscegenation [Statute] Marriages between whites with "Negroes, mulattoes, Indians, Mongolians" were declared illegal and void. The word "Descendants" does not appear in the statute. 1901: Miscegenation [Statute] Revision of the 1865 statute which added the word "descendants" to the list of minority groups.

The Ku Klux Klan Founded in Pulaski, Tennessee, sometime between December 1865 and August 1866 by six former officers of the Confederate army as a fraternal social club. Kuklos is Greek for circle Klan groups spread throughout the South as an insurgent movement promoting resistance and white supremacy during the Reconstruction Era. The Klan targeted freedmen and their allies; it sought to restore white supremacy by threats and violence, including murder, against black and white Republicans. It seriously weakened the black political establishment through its use of assassinations and threats of violence; it drove some people out of politics and the south. Thousands moved west to escape this treatment.

The Exoduster Movement Due to these problems, many blacks began to look west for a new start. A former slaver called Benjamin Singleton pioneered an exodus to Kansas. He set up a settlement there in 1873 and aevertised it in newspapers. By the end of 1879, 40,000 had set off heading to Kansas, Missouri, Indiana and Illinois. They were called the Exodusters because there were travelling to a dry, dusty West. Although Singleton was important, there were other factors that encouraged them to leave: the west had better jobs, Kansas had a reputation as a free-state ( welcoming to black people), the Homestead Act was offering cheap land. Many felt inspired by the bible.

Learning Tasks All Split your book page into two columns (push factors and pull factors). Use the information on p.76 – 78 to identify reasons why people travelled west between 1879 and 1893. Below each column, identify the consequences!

Huge areas of land lost by Native Americans to white. Push Pull Exodus movement – many blacks forced to leave south because of: KKK - The Klan targeted freedmen and their allies; it sought to restore white supremacy by threats and violence, including murder, against black and white Republicans. It seriously weakened the black political establishment through its use of assassinations and threats of violence; it drove some people out of politics and the south. Jim Crow Laws - Many southern states passed laws to keep blacks second class citizens e.g. cannot marry whites, cannot attend same schools as whites (black schools poorly funded), cannot register to vote etc. Many left to escape this. Sharecropping - Some refused to sell land to them and forced them into sharecropping (you farm someone else’s land and in return you have to give them some of your crops). This made them like slaves. Oklahoma Land Rush - encouraged many whites to settle in the west In 1899, the US government declared a small section in the middle of Indian Territory to be open for white settlement (previously this land had been protected by US soldiers, but after the Dawes Act of 1887 Indians were given small areas of 160 acres – the rest of it was open for whites. At 12 noon on April 22nd, the area was to be opened. Thousands waited at the border and once given a signalled raced to secure an area of land. This was called a ‘land rush’. Several land rushes – 1899 (2 million acres of Indian Territory claimed), 1893 (8 million acres claimed), 1895 (88,000 acres claimed). Consequences More people settled in the west – by 1880 over 43,107 African Americans settled in Kansas. They settled on over 81km2. Hardship for the settlers – white settlers and ranchers had already claimed the best land. Exodusters were left with the Kansas uplands which were difficult to farm. Some turned up expecting free land but they had to pay and could not afford it. Charities could not handle this. This led to the Kansas Government setting up an association to help sick and struggling Exodusters (small payments to help them and a colony to live on). Tension between whites and blacks - massive opposition to the Exodusters in the southern states. Many believed that they should return to the south and not helped to settle in the west. Many in these settlements were angry that the state governments helped blacks but not them. Huge areas of land lost by Native Americans to white. Accelerated movement of tribes onto reservations – it completely destroyed their freedom.