Chapter 15 The South and West Transformed

The New South  Henry Grady wants to industrialize South  Farming becomes more diversified – wheat, grain, tobacco, fruit  Railroads link cities; Atlanta major hub  Growth was slow though – education limited, lacked technical schools, low wages, banking was slow to recover after Civil War  Had resources but not much capital & labor  Cotton still strong but boll weevil caused gradual drop in production  Farmer’s Alliance – attempted to pressure railroads to lower rates, wanted government to regulate interest rates

Black Southerners  Could vote, serve their country, own businesses, farm, get an education  Reality: many lives did not change  Civil Rights Act of 1875 gave further rights but local governments ignored or overturned  Courts later left it up to local govt. to decide who could use public facilities  More terror and intimidation

American Indians  Expansion puts pressure on Indians (Americans saw them as the same group)  Policies of resettlement, reservations, removal  Treaties broken time after time; buffalo slaughtered for hides  Sand Creek Massacre – troops massacred Cheyenne & Arapaho Indians (unarmed) in response to Sioux attacks on settlers – growing frustration exploded  Peace plans fail over and over

Indians cont.  Battle of Little Big Horn – Sioux Indians massacre General George Custer & men  Chief Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull eventually crushed & forced to surrender  Chief Joseph led his Nez Perce tribe on a long trek to avoid reservations but finally surrendered, “I will fight no more forever.”  Ghost Dance hoped to banish settlers  Final resistance – Sitting Bull killed at the battle of Wounded Knee  End of the Indian Wars  Dawes Act – from reservations to allotment system; forced to farm (not enough land); encouraged to convert, assimilate

Sand Creek Massacre

The West  Mining towns spring up all over the west (Pikes Peak, Colorado; Carson River, Nevada)  Large mining companies prosper; boom towns to ghost towns (vigilante justice)  Transcontinental Railroad links east and west; intensifies settlement  Cattle industry expands – open range system had worked (branded and roamed freely)  Demise of open range: barbed wire, supply exceeded demand; horrible weather reduced herds, farmers and sheepherders encroached  Cowboy culture emerges; cattle drives, cow towns & colorful characters – Jesse James, Wyatt Earp, Wild Bill Hickok, Doc Holliday; rodeos

Farmers  Farmers settle the plains  Homestead Act 1862 gave 160 acres to anyone willing to farm  Exodusters – those who fled South after Reconstruction (many former slaves)  Sometimes conflicts between miners, ranchers, sheepherders, farmers  Land rushes, lotteries – would have races to stake out land  Prejudice towards Mexicans, Indians, Chinese