Revision guide for
America, 1840 - 1895
Part one: Expansion: opportunities and challenges
The Great Plains
▪ America is a much larger country than England. It is 4000 km from the East to California in the West.
▪ The UK has a land area of 244,000 km2; America is 38 times larger with 9,363,000 km2.
▪ The Great Plains are in the middle of America, so they are a long way from the sea.
▪ This means that the summers are hot and dry while the winters are long and cold. The plains are flat and have no trees growing on them, only rough grass.
Why did the first whites call the Great Plains ‘The Great American Desert’?
▪ As the name suggests, the whites thought the Great Plains were useless.
▪ This is because the whites came from Europe where they had lived by farming, growing crops and animals for food.
▪ The Great Plains could not be used for their style of farming so it was no use to them. They were busy occupying the East and South and happy to leave them to the Indians.
THE EARLY WHITES AND THE WEST
▪ Whites: This term is used to describe all people from the East and South of the USA who came across and on to the Great Plains. In fact many of them, in all groups, were black, some were Chinese, etc.
What was Manifest Destiny?
▪ This was the belief that it was God’s wish that whites should control the whole of North America.
▪ In 1845 John O’Sullivan, editor of a New York newspaper, the Morning Post wrote that it was the manifest destiny (the clear purpose) of the whites of the USA to control the entire continent.
▪ There was also a deeply racist element to this. Most whites thought that they were better than Indians, so it would be a good and a natural thing to wipe them out.
▪ The Indians had not discovered writing or the wheel. They were not Christians. Many whites believed that this proved that the Indians were inferior.
Mountain Men
▪ In the Eastern states, animal fur could be sold at a high price. There were plenty of animals in the mountains that could be killed for their fur, so there was profit to be made.
▪ Mountain men lived in the mountains hunting animals, particularly beaver, used to make hats. They lived solitary, dangerous lives.
▪ Some Indians also killed animals and sold their skins to the mountain men. In this way the Indians were able to get goods (e.g. metal goods, like cooking pots), which they could not produce for themselves.
▪ So the mountain men and the Indians lived reasonably happily side-by-side because their interests did not conflict. Some mountain men had Indian wives.
▪ Unfortunately for the Indians the mountain men told people in the east that there was lots of good farming land in the west. This encouraged the whites to look for land.
▪ So while the mountain men did no immediate harm to the Indians, they planted the seeds of their destruction by giving the whites a reason to want the Indian’s land.
▪ By 1840 there were fewer animals to trap and most mountain men had given up. Some turned their knowledge of the Plains to use by becoming guides for the wagon-trails.
The early settlers and wagon-trails
▪ From the 1840s whites began to come into conflict with the Indians. These whites were not going to live on the Plains.
▪ They travelled across the Plains to go to farm good land on the west coast in California and Oregon.
▪ The whites were not interested in the buffalo and so did not worry when they disturbed the large herds.
▪ Consequently they disrupted the Indians’ way of life.
What problems were there on the wagon-trails?
▪ There were no good maps or roads and no bridges across huge rivers.
▪ The trails were 3,800 km long and involved crossing the Rocky Mountains.
▪ The journey had to be made between April, when the spring grass was growing on the plains to feed their cattle, and November, when snow made the Rockies impassable.
▪ If a wagon train failed to make it, everybody might die, and many did. Some people were forced to eat the bodies of people who had died in order to survive.
▪ Wagon trains had to carry everything they needed, not only for the length of the journey but also until they could harvest the crops they would plant when they got to their final destination. This could take as long as 18 months.
▪ Illnesses struck the wagon-train pioneers owing to lack of hygiene on the trail and were difficult to treat.
Why did the numbers of wagon trains increase in the late 1840s?
▪ At first there were few people who were prepared to risk the long and dangerous journey to California and Oregon.
▪ There were also Russian settlements in California until the mid-1840s, but the settlers had all left before gold was discovered in California.
▪ Following the discovery of gold in California, the trickle of people travelling the trails to the West became a flood.
▪ Some went by sea around Cape Horn, but most went overland, which was much cheaper.
▪ Several wagon trains were setting off every day. 5,000 people died of cholera on the way.
Who were the Mormons?
▪ Mormonism is a version of the Christian religion and its followers are called Mormons.
▪ The founder, Joseph Smith, believed he saw an angel, in a vision, who told him how to find a buried 'book' made of metal plates.
▪ These plates were covered with strange writing which said that one of the lost tribes of Israel had travelled to America before Christ was born.
▪ Joseph Smith said he was told to set up the rule of Christ on earth. He wrote all this down in the Book of Mormon then re-buried the plates. By 1830 he had many followers.
▪ Mormons gave part of their income to their church. This was then used to build churches and support those Mormons who were in need of help.
▪ These things created strong communities because the Mormons worked together.
▪ The Mormon community soon owned a mill, a bank, a store and a printing press. They were richer than the non-Mormon groups around them.
What effects did the success of Mormons have?
▪ It attracted more people to Mormonism so their numbers increased quickly.
▪ Non-Mormons were jealous of the Mormons’ success and attacked the Mormons.
▪ Mormons were driven out from several places in the East where they tried to settle.
▪ In 1844 Joseph Smith declared that Mormons could have more than one wife (polygamy). This led to further hostility from non-Mormons and Smith was killed.
▪ After the murder of Joseph Smith, the Mormons’ new leader was Brigham Young. In 1845 he decided to go west, to settle in the remote and isolated area by the Great Salt Lake.
Why did the Mormons decide to travel west?
▪ They were being attacked wherever they tried to live.
▪ They were a religious group looking for freedom to live in their own way
▪ They were following the example of Moses, who led the Israelites through the wilderness.
▪ Like many other Americans, they were attracted by cheap land and a new life.
What problems did the Mormons have travelling west?
▪ They had a long journey, about 2,000 km.
▪ They had to take everything they needed, not only for the length of the journey but also until they could harvest the crops they would plant, when they got to their final destination.
▪ Experiences in the East meant that they were less likely to get help than other settlers. They were also looking for a place that was as remote as possible.
▪ They were travelling in a group of 15,000. The wagon-train spread out over 500km of the trail.
▪ The numbers in the wagon train made the journey slower so they were in greater danger of not completing the journey before winter.
▪ Each wagon carried a family and what it needed, but going in such a large group meant that there would be insufficient grass for the livestock near to the trail.
▪ This meant that the livestock had to be led some distance from the trail at each stop if they were to find sufficient fresh grass to eat.
▪ They were intending to be entirely self sufficient in their new home, so they had more to take with them. They did not intend to trade with other settlers when they arrived.
Why did the Mormons settle at the Great Salt Lake?
▪ Brigham Young and the first Mormons arrived at Salt Lake in 1847. They wanted to live without persecution from other settlers.
▪ They chose the Salt Lake because it was a long way from all other settlements.
▪ It was totally deserted. It was not the best farming land and so it was less likely that there would be any other settlers.
▪ When they arrived in 1847 it was part of Mexico, not the USA. This created an extra risk of attack.
▪ BUT these factors meant that the first years in the new settlement very difficult.
▪ The Mormons had to face the same problems as other homesteaders when they were establishing a new place to live on the Great Plains.
▪ In addition they had deliberately chosen an area where the land was poor, the climate was very harsh and there was a shortage of fresh water.
What problems did the Mormons face in setting up a successful settlement at the Great Salt Lake?
▪ They arrived in the autumn, so they had to plant crops before the land froze and became impossible to plough. It was difficult to plough the land the first time because the surface was hard.
▪ Many of the first settlers found the ground broke the ploughs they had brought with them. They had to carry out all repairs themselves.
▪ They needed to harvest crops as early as possible the following year so that they would have food to eat. If they could not grow enough food they would simply starve.
▪ They had to build houses to live in. They had to live in the wagons until this was done.
▪ They had to dig wells to provide water for them and their crops.
Further problems faced by the Mormons
▪ The first job was to share the land fairly between the Mormons. This could have caused disagreements.
▪ The lake water was too salty to be of any use.
▪ The Mormons wanted to produce everything they needed for themselves. In this way they would be completely independent.
▪ The Mormons had no one else to turn to for help. If they had a problem and could not solve it then it would not be solved.
▪ There were some failures: some factories failed and education was very limited.
Why did the Mormons succeed?
▪ Brigham Young was a good leader.
▪ They were united by a common religious belief and wanted to be free from persecution. The whole community pulled together.
▪ Land was distributed by the Mormon Church, so its decisions were accepted by all. Big families got up to 80 acres.
▪ Smaller plots were given to older or smaller families, or those who had other jobs as craftspeople.
▪ A big irrigation ditch was rapidly dug with other ditches leading off it. This was to provide fresh water. The whole community worked together on this and other projects.
▪ Salt Lake City was laid out with a Temple, a square, wide streets and rectangular blocks of houses.
▪ The Mormons treated the Indians as equals and converted many of them.
How and why did the Mormons become politically independent?
▪ More Mormons continued to come from the East and from Europe to settle. Soon other towns and farms were laid out all over the territory of Utah.
▪ In 1848 Mexico lost their war with America and the Great Salt Lake became part of the USA.
▪ If the area became a ‘state’ then the Mormons would take charge of the running of their State and they would be able to send representatives to the Federal government in Washington.
▪ The government in Washington did not want to give the Mormons this level of independence so the area they lived in became a ‘Territory.’
▪ This meant that the laws were decided by the government in Washington and the territory was run by officials chosen by Washington who were not Mormons.
▪ Disagreements continued and in 1857 a US army unit was sent to Salt Lake City.
▪ Peace was made but it was clear that a Mormon state of Utah would not be allowed to join the USA as long as they practised polygamy.
▪ In 1890, the Mormons agreed to ban polygamy and Utah became a State. Today there are 3 million Mormons in the world.
The Plains Indians
▪ The term 'Indians' was used by whites arriving in America to describe the people they found there because they believed that they had reached India.
▪ Today the term 'Native Americans' is preferred by the descendants of these people.
Where did the Plains Indians come from?
▪ The native people of America came from Asia about 20,000 years ago. At that time what we now call Siberia was joined to Alaska.
▪ This ‘land bridge’ is how they got to what is now a separate continent, America.
▪ The native people spread throughout America. Their ways of life were controlled by the different environments where they settled.
▪ These varied enormously, from the Arctic in the north, to the woodlands of the East and West coasts, to the jungles of South America.
▪ The Plains Indians, like all the other native Americans, learnt to live in the environment they found themselves in.
The Plains Indians and the buffalo
▪ The Plains Indians solved the problem of how to survive on the Great Plains by relying on hunting the buffalo.
▪ The buffalo provided almost all of the three basic human needs: food, clothing and shelter.
▪ The buffalo moved around, grazing over huge areas of the Great Plains. Because the Plains Indians were so dependent on the buffalo they had to move too.
▪ They were always on the move: they were nomads. This nomadic existence had a deep influence on their way of life.
How did the Plains Indians use the buffalo?
▪ Food: The main source of food was the large herds of buffalo that moved around looking for fresh grass to eat.
▪ Buffalo meat could be preserved by drying it to make pemmican. Dried buffalo dung was used a fuel for cooking.
▪ Clothing: Tanned buffalo skins provided their clothes and shoes. Buffalo fur or bones were used to decorate their clothes.
▪ Shelter: The tipis the Indians lived in were also made of buffalo hide, stretched over long wooden poles.
▪ These made the frame of the tipi and the travois that helped them move their things when they moved camp.
▪ Buffalo skin also provided bags, blankets, drums, saddle covers. Buffalo bone was used for arrowheads, dice, jewellery, war-clubs, knives and needles.
Hunting the buffalo
▪ Before the whites arrived in the Sixteenth Century, there were no horses in America so the Indians hunted on foot.
▪ They had two methods: trying to kill single animals using bows and arrows, or forcing a herd of buffalo to stampede over a cliff.
▪ These methods did not produce a lot of meat so the Indian population was kept low.
▪ With the arrival of horses the Indians could kill more buffalo and the number of Indians began to increase.
▪ In the Nineteenth Century the whites sold guns to the Indians. This helped to increase the Indian population. By 1840 there were about 2,000,000 Indians living on the Plains.
Indian family life
▪ The Indians lived in small groups or bands of about 10 to 50 families. Each person had a job to do to help the group survive.
▪ The children were taught the things they needed to know to be adult Indians.
▪ Men looked after the horses, defended the camp and hunted buffalo.
▪ Women looked after the tipi, the children, food, water-collecting, making clothing. The Indians moved around so they did not have many possessions.
▪ However, the things they did have were often highly decorated and it was the women who did this work.
▪ The old and sick were looked after, but if they were too old or sick they were sometimes left behind to die when the group moved on.
▪ It was more important to provide food for the whole tribe than to look after one person.
▪ There was much more equality in Indian society than in the Whites’ society. All the Indians in the band would have done similar tasks, worn similar clothes and lived in similar tipis.
Indian tribes and nations
▪ Each band belonged to a tribe, who met together only occasionally. Several tribes made up a nation.
▪ For example, the Sioux nation included several tribes, such as the Oglala Sioux and the Hunkpapa Sioux.
▪ Each tribe had a chief, but these men offered advice; they did not force the others to follow their wishes. No decision would be acted on until the whole tribe had agreed to it.
Indian law and order
▪ Law and order was much simpler than in White society. Indians lived in small bands and they were always on the move.
▪ All the people of the band knew each other and depended on each other. They relied on custom and tradition to guide their actions.
▪ The elderly were therefore very important in the band as they remembered the past.
▪ Decisions were often taken by the group as a whole. There were therefore no police or prisons. Wrongdoers were punished by the band.
▪ The severest punishment was to be driven out from the band. It was almost impossible to survive on your own on the Plains.
What were the beliefs of the Plains Indians?
▪ The Indians believed that everything –all animals, birds, fish, plants, even landscape features such as rocks and streams -had a spirit.
▪ This meant that the environment and everything in it should be treated with respect.
▪ They believed that you should only take from nature what you needed, so there would always be enough for tomorrow.
▪ They also believed that human beings came from the earth and would return to the earth when they died.
▪ They believed that there was a Great Spirit who gave life to everything. The Great Spirit created the earth, so it could not be owned, bought and sold.
▪ The circle was important, as a symbol of the circles of life: the circle of the seasons, the circle of the moon and the sun, the circle of life and death.
▪ They believed you could contact the spirit world through visions. Women used their visions to learn about healing.
▪ Young men were sent out from the band on their own and often gained their adult name from the animal they saw in visions while they were on their own e.g. Little Bear.
▪ They also made contact with the spirit world through dances.
▪ Indians believed that they should change their way of life to suit nature. For example, they changed their way of life so that they could live on the Plains.
▪ Indian beliefs were totally different from those of the Whites who wanted to control and exploit nature.
▪ For example, the Whites changed the Plains with wind-powered water pumps and barbed wire so that they could exploit them.
How did the Plains Indians fight?
▪ Indian reasons for fighting and the methods they used were totally different from those of the Whites. The Whites did not understand this aspect of the Indians way of life (or others).
|Indians |Whites |
| | |
|The Indians believed the Great Spirit owned the land so they did not |The Whites believed that you could own land so they fought to gain control of |
|fight to control land. |land. |
| | |
|The Indians weapons could kill but were more symbolic and highly |Whites developed weapons designed to kill |
|decorated. | |
| | |
|There were few Indians so they did not fight to kill; a brave would be|There were hundreds of thousands of White men in the US armies. They fought to|
|needed to hunt for food soon after the battle. Individual men were |kill the other side; individual men were unimportant. |
|important. | |
| |During the American Civil War there were very heavy losses in battles. The |
| |worst killings of Indians were ordered by generals who had fought in the Civil|
| |War, such as Philip Sheridan. |
| | |
|In conflict with other Indians, battles were like a game with strict |White men fought to win and so would do anything; attack at night or in |
|rules to follow. |winter, when the Indians rested. They would also kill women and children. |
| | |
|BUT, the Indians quickly learnt that it was necessary to fight to the | |
|death with the Whites. | |
| | |
|The Indians had great respect for an individual’s skills on a horse |The whites depended on their military technology, such as rifles and cannon. |
| | |
|In some circumstances an Indian would take the scalp of an enemy. |The whites had no interest in the dead bodies of the other side. |
| | |
|They believed that this improved the spirit of the man who took the |Whites found scalping revolting and increased their belief that the Indians |
|scalp and prevented the man who had lost it from going to the ‘Happy |were 'savages'. |
|Hunting Ground'. | |
US government policy was to encourage expansion to the West.
▪ In 1825, all land west of a North/South line was allocated to the Indians.
▪ Tribes from the East -Choctaw, Cherokee, Creeks, Chickasaws and Seminoles -were forced to move there.
▪ The Bureau for Indian Affairs was established in 1832. It set the Permanent Indian Frontier at the 95th Meridian.
▪ The first treaties were signed with the Kiowa and Comanche in 1849 to protect travellers on the Santa Fe Trail.
▪ The Indian Appropriations Act, 1851, authorised the setting up of reservations for Indian tribes
Part two: Conflict across America
▪ From the 1840s whites began to come into conflict with the Indians. These whites were not going to live on the Plains.
▪ They travelled across the Plains to go to farm good land on the west coast in California and Oregon.
▪ The whites were not interested in the buffalo and so did not worry when they disturbed the large herds.
▪ Consequently they disrupted the Indians’ way of life.
Fort Laramie Treaty
▪ In 1851, the Fort Laramie Treaty ended the Permanent Indian Frontier and created large reservations.
▪ The government gave land in the Rocky Mountain foothills to the Cheyenne and Arapaho promising protection and payment of $50 000 a year for 10 years.
▪ The Cheyenne and Arapaho agreed to stop attacking Oregon Trail travellers and to allow roads and military forts to be built.
▪ The Fort Wise Treaty, 1861, forced on chiefs, removed the land given in the Fort Laramie Treaty.
▪ It set up a smaller reservation between the Arkansas River and Sand Creek in Colorado.
How did the whites threaten the Plains Indians?
▪ First whites crossing the Plains in the 1840s, 1850s and into 1860s (early settlers, miners, wagon trails to the west coast, Mormons) disturbed the buffalo herds.
▪ They demanded the US government protect them against Indian attacks.
▪ Railroad building made this disturbance of the buffalo worse.
▪ Later, miners found gold in the west itself, in Colorado in early 1860s and in the Black Hills of Dakota in 1876.
▪ Miners had no respect for Indians, or for treaties made by the US government
▪ Ranchers trailed cattle, then brought cattle on to the Plains. Indians sometimes stole their cattle and ranchers attacked Indians in the late 1860s.
▪ Homesteaders occupied land and began to farm it. In the 1860s, and increasingly in 1870s and 1880s, they put up fences and blocked off water holes.
How did whites react to this situation?
▪ MANIFEST DESTINY was the belief that US whites had the right to take over the whole continent. However, there were differing approaches to the problems:
▪ NEGOTIATE: This was mostly the attitude of the US government, far away in the east.
▪ Their solution was to make agreements with the tribes, putting them safely on to reservations.
▪ On the reservations they would gradually learn to become good US citizens, learning farming, Christianity and English and giving up their way of life.
President Grant’s ‘Peace’ Policy
▪ In 1869, Grant appointed General Ely Parker, a Seneca Indian, as the first Native American Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
▪ President Grant met Red Cloud and Spotted Tail (Sioux) in 1870.
▪ Grant ordered all Generals in the West to ‘keep intruders off by military force if necessary’.
▪ Grant signed the Indians Appropriations Act of 1870–1871. This act ended the governmental policy of treating tribes as independent sovereign nations.
▪ Native Americans would be treated as individuals and Indian policies would be decided by Congress.
▪ Corrupt Indian agents who supervised reservations were dismissed and replaced with Christian missionaries.
EXTERMINATE
▪ This was mostly the attitude of the US army and most of the people in the West, ranchers, miners and homesteaders. 'The only good Indian is a dead Indian’.
▪ This became popular after the American Civil War; generals such as Sherman and Sheridan had little sympathy for Indians.
Conflict with the Plains’ Indians
▪ During the American Civil War, 1861-5, local volunteers made up US forces in the West.
▪ These were not well disciplined and just wanted to kill Indians: e.g. Sand Creek Massacre, 1864, where Colonel Chivington massacred 450 Cheyenne men, women and children.
Little Crow’s War
▪ This was sparked by a failure to provide food and other provisions. In August 1862, about five hundred Dakota broke into food warehouses.
▪ The agent in charge ordered troops not to shoot and called for a council. Little Crow pointed out that the Dakota were owed the money to buy the food.
▪ Within weeks, a band of Dakota attacked a group of white civilian settlers. The Dakota killed 5 of the white and mutilated their bodies.
▪ The Dakota ambushed a small detachment of US troops killed some settlers.
▪ The Dakota were defeated in September 1862, after which Little Crow and many of his warriors fled west,
Red Cloud’s War, 1866-1868.
▪ In 1865 a trail was opened up to gold mines in Montana, the Bozeman Trail. This led right through sacred Sioux lands.
▪ Red Cloud attacked the Trail. US Army built forts, where their soldiers were safe, but could not keep the Trail open.
Fetterman’s Trap
▪ In June 1866, Red Cloud began negotiating with the army based at Fort Laramie about migrants passing through Sioux lands.
▪ When he was unable to reach agreement with the army negotiators he resorted to sending out war parties that attacked emigrants and army patrols.
▪ These hit and run tactics were difficult for the army to deal with and be the time they arrived on the scene of the attack the war parties had disappeared.
▪ On 21st December, 1866, Captain Fetterman and 80 men were involved in protecting a team taking wood to Fort Phil Kearny.
▪ Fetterman gave the orders to attack a group of Sioux warriors. The warriors ran away and drew the soldiers into a clearing surrounded by a much larger force.
▪ All the soldiers were killed in what became known as the Fetterman Massacre.
▪ Later that day the stripped and mutilated bodies of the soldiers were found by a patrol led by Captain Ten Eyck.
The Fort Laramie Treaty
▪ It was deadlock, so peace was made in 1868. The Bozeman Trail and the army forts were abandoned, the forts were burnt.
▪ Red Cloud and his Sioux agreed to stay on the reservation.
▪ After the Civil War, new commanders, such as Generals Sherman and Sheridan, were determined to defeat the Indians. They were prepared to use TOTAL WAR.
Fort Laramie Treaty 1868
▪ The Treaty of Fort Laramie was an agreement between the US government and the Lakota. It ended Red Cloud’s War
▪ It guaranteed ownership of the Black Hills to the Lakota and further land and hunting rights in South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana.
Divisions over slavery and the causes of the Civil War
▪ From 1820 to the late 1840s, the Missouri Compromise kept the issue of slavery out of the limelight.
▪ Most Northern politicians, including Abraham Lincoln, paid little attention to slavery. They believed that slavery would die out because it was uneconomic.
Why did slavery become a big issue in the 1850s?
▪ When Texas joined the Union in 1848, an enormous area of land was handed over to the USA by Mexico. There was enough land for many states in the future.
▪ People began to argue whether these states should be ‘free’ or slave-owning.
▪ In 1850, a Compromise was reached; Texas would be slave-owning, but in the other areas, people would vote to decide.
▪ As part of the deal, Congress agreed to pass a newer and tougher Fugitive Slave Act to enforce the return of escaped slaves to the South.
▪ This was unpopular in the North, especially after the publication of ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ in 1852. The novel described the lives of slaves in the South.
▪ Networks were set up to help slaves escape to the North; one was called the Underground Railway.
▪ In 1854, the Republican Party was created; it supported the opening up of the West for independent farmers (Free-soilers). It opposed slavery.
The Dred Scott Case
▪ Dred Scott was an African-American slave. He was taken by his master, an officer in the U.S. Army, from the slave state of Missouri to the free state of Illinois in 1836.
▪ He then went to the free territory of Wisconsin. He lived on free soil for a long period of time.
▪ When the Army ordered his master to go back to Missouri, he took Scott with him back to that slave state, where his master died.
▪ In 1846, Scott was helped by Abolitionist (anti-slavery) lawyers to sue for his freedom in court, claiming he should be free since he had lived on free soil for a long time.
▪ The case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Roger B. Taney, was a former slave owner from Maryland.
▪ In March of 1857, Scott lost the decision as seven out of nine Justices on the Supreme Court declared no slave or descendant of a slave could be a U.S. citizen, or ever had been a U.S. citizen.
▪ As a non-citizen, the court stated, Scott had no rights and could not sue in a Federal Court and must remain a slave.
▪ At that time there were nearly 4 million slaves in America. The court's ruling affected the status of every enslaved and free African-American in the United States.
▪ The ruling served to turn back the clock concerning the rights of African-Americans.
▪ It ignored the fact that black Americans in five of the original States had been full voting citizens dating back to the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
▪ The Supreme Court also ruled that Congress could not stop slavery in the newly emerging territories and declared the Missouri Compromise of 1820 to be unconstitutional.
▪ Northerners were appalled and the judgement was a big encouragement to oppose slavery.
Kansas
▪ In 1854, Kansas and Nebraska became states. Both were north of 36°30' and so should have been free. Instead, the inhabitants were allowed to decide by a popular vote.
▪ Thousands of people moved into Kansas to try to tip the balance. There was a great deal of fighting in ‘Bleeding Kansas’
▪ One of the Northerners who went to Kansas was John Brown, who was a convinced abolitionist. He killed five supporters of slavery.
▪ People took the matter so seriously that politicians in Congress actually came to blows over Kansas.
Harper’s Ferry
▪ In October, 1859, John Brown attacked an arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (present-day West Virginia), with twenty other men.
▪ He hoped the raid would prompt slaves throughout Virginia and the South to rise up against their masters.
▪ Brown had never informed the slaves of his plan, so no uprising took place, and Brown and his men found themselves cornered inside the arsenal.
▪ A long standoff ended with half the raiders dead and the rest, including Brown, captured. After a speedy trial, Brown was convicted of treason and hanged.
▪ This was another incentive for Northerners to support emancipation of slaves
Abraham Lincoln
▪ In 1860, Lincoln was chosen as the Republican candidate for the presidency.
▪ Southerners believed that he would abolish slavery even though he had never said that he would.
▪ In December 1860, the state of South Carolina seceded from the Union; this was three months before the election.
▪ By February 1861, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed.
▪ The southern states believed that slavery was a matter for states to decide and not for the federal government.
▪ The seven states soon declared themselves to be a sovereign nation, the Confederate States of America.
▪ The upper South (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Arkansas) listened to, but initially rejected, the secessionist appeal.
Fort Sumter
▪ On April 12, 1861, General Beauregard ordered his South Carolinian militia unit to attack Fort Sumter, a Union stronghold on an island in Charleston Harbor.
▪ After a day of intense bombardment, Major Robert Anderson surrendered the fort to Beauregard.
▪ South Carolina’s easy victory prompted four more states, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, to secede. The Civil War had begun.
The African American experience of the Civil War, 1861-1865
▪ Abraham Lincoln fought the Civil War to save the Union; he had no intention of freeing slaves at first.
▪ In 1862, pressure grew on Lincoln to act. The District of Columbia was declared free in April 1862.
▪ Slavery was abolished in the western territories. The Union Army was forbidden to return fugitive slaves
▪ In July, Congress passed two Acts allowing African-Americans to serve in the Union forces.
▪ By the end of the War, 179,000 black soldiers had fought in the Union army.
▪ In July, Congress also passed an Act which freed slaves who had masters in the Confederate Army.
▪ Republicans pushed Lincoln to take more dramatic action against slavery.
▪ On 22 July 1862, Lincoln presented a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation to his Cabinet.
▪ On 1 January 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. It was a symbolic turning point in the War.
▪ From 1863 to 1865, Lincoln’s attitude to African Americans changed. Their behaviour in the Union Army was exemplary.
▪ Lincoln came to recognise that African Americans could play an important role in US society
Coming to terms with the Mormons: the Mountain Meadow Massacre and its aftermath
▪ The massacre was a series of attacks on the Baker-Fancher wagon train, at Mountain Meadows.
▪ The attacks took place in September 1857, resulting in the mass slaughter of the emigrant party by members of the Utah Militia.
▪ The militia was composed of Mormons, who killed all the adults and older children; about 120 men, women, and children in total.
▪ The attackers disguised themselves as Native Americans to avoid recognition
▪ During the militia's first assault on the wagon train the emigrants fought back, which led a five-day siege.
▪ The emigrants, running low on water and provisions, allowed some members of the militia, who carried a white flag, to enter their camp.
▪ The militia members assured the emigrants they were protected and escorted them from the hasty fortification.
▪ After walking a distance from the camp, the militiamen, with the help of more men hiding nearby, attacked the emigrants.
▪ They killed all of them that they thought were old enough to be potential witnesses to report the attack.
▪ The militia buried the victims and local families took in the surviving children, and many of the victims' possessions were sold by auction.
▪ Investigations resulted in nine accusations in 1874. Only John Lee, the leader, was tried in a court of law.
▪ He was convicted by a jury, sentenced to death, and executed by a firing squad in March 1877.
▪ The main reason for the massacre appears to be fears about possible invasion of Mormon territory.
▪ Mormons were also taught to reject outsiders and Brigham Young may have been responsible for inciting the massacre.
Part three: Consolidation: forging the nation
The Thirteenth Amendment
▪ The Emancipation Declaration had freed all slaves within the USA; it had left open the possibility of new territories and states adopting slavery.
▪ The Thirteenth Amendment was as important, if not more so, than the Emancipation Declaration. It stated that henceforth slavery was impossible in the USA.
The Fourteenth Amendment
▪ In the years after 1865, it was the Republicans who did most to force the South to extend civil rights.
▪ Democrats in the North were usually abolitionists, but in the South, Democrats were the strongest supporters of slavery.
▪ Consequently, attempts to improve civil rights were never going to meet with easy success.
Black Codes
▪ In the last months of the Civil War, the US Army created Black Codes to control freed slaves.
▪ They were an attempt to prevent the movement of large numbers of freed slaves across the South.
▪ The Freedman’s Bureau, which was intended to protect former slaves from southern discrimination, also tried to keep them ‘in their place’.
▪ They were not allowed to leave plantations in order to maintain production and help the recovery of the southern economy.
▪ Former slaves did not all stop working, but they often tried to work less. In particular, many tried to reduce their Saturday work hours, and women wanted to spend more time on child care.
▪ The sudden reduction of labour created problems for the southern economy, which had relied upon intense manual labour to harvest cash crops.
Black Codes across the South
▪ Black Codes were introduced in many southern states to restrict the rights of African Americans.
▪ They were prevented from owning property, running businesses, leasing land and moving freely.
▪ They were often banned from owning firearms and prevented from giving evidence in court. This meant that court cases were prejudiced against them.
▪ Mississippi was the first state to pass Black Codes. Its laws served as a model for those passed by other states, beginning with South Carolina, Alabama and Louisiana in 1865.
▪ Florida, Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, Tennessee and Arkansas passed Codes at the beginning of 1866.
The Civil Rights Act 1866
▪ In 1865, Congress passed what would become the Civil Rights Act of 1866. It guaranteed citizenship without regard to race or colour and was specifically aimed at former slaves.
▪ It also guaranteed equal benefits and access to the law and an attempt to undermine the Black Codes in the South.
The Fourteenth Amendment
▪ Republicans began to consider a further amendment to the Constitution to guarantee the rights of freed slaves.
▪ All persons born or naturalised in the United States are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.
▪ No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States
The Reconstruction Acts
▪ Congress passed the first Reconstruction Act on 2 March, 1867. The South was now divided into five military districts, each under a major general.
▪ State governments, many of which were headed by former Confederates, were removed.
▪ New elections were to be held in each state with freed male slaves being allowed to vote.
The Fifteenth Amendment
▪ During Reconstruction, freed slaves constituted absolute majorities of the populations in Mississippi and South Carolina and were equal to the white population in Louisiana.
▪ In four other southern states, they represented more than 40% of the population
▪ Southern whites, fearing black domination, resisted attempts to register for the vote.
▪ In 1867, African Americans voted for the first time. In 1868, Grant was elected president thanks to 700,000 African American voters.
▪ The Fifteenth Amendment gave citizens the right to vote regardless of race or previous slavery.
Enforcement
▪ From 1870, Congress passed a series of laws known as the Enforcement Acts to help protect the right to vote.
▪ One of these was the Ku Klux Klan Act, which was intended to stop the rise of terrorist activity in the South.
▪ When white Southerners could not prevent African Americans from voting legally, they terrorised them to try to keep them away from the polls.
▪ In October 1871 martial law was imposed in nine counties in South Carolina and federal troops were used to restore law and order in those areas.
How were the opponents of civil rights able to mount a comeback?
▪ In the 1870s, Northerners began to lose interest in Reconstruction. There were other problems to deal with.
▪ Southerners also began to use the Supreme Court to challenge Acts of Congress
▪ The Supreme Court had the power to review legislation and decide whether it was legal under the Constitution.
▪ In 1873, it declared that the Fourteenth Amendment protected national civil rights but not state civil rights.
▪ In 1883, the Court declared that the Ku Klux Klan Act (which banned violent intimidation) and the 1875 Civil Rights Act were both unconstitutional.
▪ In 1877, a close presidential election led one candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, to agree to a compromise in order to gain Southern Democratic support.
▪ The Compromise resulted in the removal of all federal troops from the South and, with them, protection of former slaves.
Homesteaders
▪ Homesteaders were people who moved on to the Great Plains to farm.
Why did people become Homesteaders?
'PUSH' factors –reasons to leave home:
▪ The end of the American Civil War in 1865 left thousands of young ex-soldiers and their families eager to make a new start.
▪ Ex-slaves also wanted to start a new life.
▪ Defeated Southerners also wanted to start a new life.
▪ Farmers in the East saw land prices rise as more and more settlers arrived in the USA.
▪ Jobs in industry were irregular and there was often unemployment.
▪ Europeans (Scandinavians, Scots, Irish, English, Germans and Dutch) wanted cheaper land than was available at home.
▪ Europeans wanted to escape the poverty and old-fashioned class control of life in Europe.
▪ Jews, Amish and other religious groups wanted to live free of persecution.
'PULL' factors –reasons drawing people to the Plains
▪ The 1862 Homestead Act gave anyone wanting to settle in the west 160 acres free, provided they lived on it and farmed it for five years.
▪ This was an offer that pulled people from thousands of miles away, Norway, Russia, Poland and all over Europe and the Eastern USA.
▪ The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 started the construction of the transcontinental railway. It was completed in 1869.
▪ To make it worth their while the US government had given the railroad companies land along the tracks.
▪ The railroads had also bought vast areas of land very cheaply, they now sold it off to settlers at rock bottom prices.
▪ Adverts made out that the Great Plains were very good for farming.
▪ Railways advertised cheap land far and wide. They had built trans-continental railroads across empty plains.
▪ To make any money out of this, the railroad companies needed to sell this land. They also wanted people to live along their routes, using their railroads.
▪ Indians had been cleared off the land, defeated by the US Army and put in reservations.
What problems did Homesteaders face living on the Great Plains?
▪ They had to build a house to live in. There was no wood so they had to use the sods that lay around. It took about an acre of sods to build a sod house.
▪ Sod houses were difficult to keep clean, leaky in rainy weather. They were unhealthy places to live. It was difficult to build the roof because that needed long supports. Trees were scarce. On the Plains
▪ Water was scarce. Wells had to be dug, often by hand, and they needed to be very deep.
▪ Fuel was expensive, so they used dried dung called 'cow-chips'.
▪ The climate was more extreme than anything most homesteaders had experienced. It was very hot and dry in summer, very cold in winter.
What problems did homesteaders face farming on the Plains?
▪ The land had never been ploughed before. It broke many ploughs.
▪ Water shortages meant that crops died. Crops were eaten by buffalo or cattle because early farms were not fenced. Some crops planted by Homesteaders were not suited to the climate of the Great Plains.
▪ Hazards, such as prairie fires or locust swarms, could destroy entire crops in hours.
▪ The 160 acres offered by the Homestead Act was enough to live on in the East, but not in most areas of the West.
How did homesteaders solve their problems?
▪ Wind-pumps were used to draw up water from deep down, for irrigation and animals.
▪ Dry Farming, special ploughing and other methods were used to conserve moisture. The Sod-Buster was a new, strong plough.
▪ Hard winter wheat (e.g. Turkey Red), introduced by Russian immigrants, was found to be suitable for the climate.
▪ Barbed wire was used as cheap fencing to keep out animals.
▪ New machines were invented: reapers, binders and threshers. The combine harvester was invented in 1872. They were all horse-drawn at first.
▪ The Timber Culture Act, 1873, gave settlers another 160 acres if they planted 40 acres with trees.
▪ The Desert Land Act, 1877, gave settlers 640 acres in areas with low rainfall.
▪ Hard work and endurance. Only homesteaders who could endure tough, hard life managed to survive.
What were women homesteaders’ roles?
▪ The work of women was crucial in ensuring that the homesteader family endured.
▪ They helped with the farming.
▪ They did the cooking, washing, kept the house clean and looked after the children.
▪ These tasks were all much harder in the conditions they lived in.
▪ They led isolated lives, far from any friends.
▪ They took a leading role in setting up permanent settlements on the Plains, whereas mining towns, which were male only, proved very temporary.
Ranching and the cattle industry
▪ Cattle ranching began in Mexico and Texas. It was the first use the whites had for any part of the Plains.
▪ Ranching was where the cattle were left to wander the open plains, finding grass and water where they could, just like the buffalo.
How did the cattle drives begin?
▪ While Texas ranchers were away fighting in the American Civil War, 1861-1865, the number of cattle increased enormously.
▪ Texans came home from the war, defeated. Their only asset was these big herds of longhorn cattle.
▪ A cow was worth $5 in Texas, but the price of food in the eastern states was much higher.
▪ A cow could be sold in New York for $40, so there was profit to be made.
▪ It was not possible to take the cattle to the East by sea because the journey was too long.
▪ You could not drive them all the way because the land to the east of the Mississippi would not provide sufficient grass for the animals.
▪ The solution came when the railroads began to move west.
▪ The cattle were driven 1,000km from the south to the railheads in Kansas in the Midwest, to places like Elsworth and Abilene.
▪ They were then taken to the slaughterhouses of Chicago.
▪ After this ranching in the south grew quickly because it was very profitable
Why did Ranching on the Great Plains succeed?
▪ Provided they had a water supply, the cattle needed very little looking after.
▪ Cowboys rounded up the cattle once a year, branded the calves to show who owned them, sold some off and turned the rest loose again.
▪ Soon big ranch houses were being built on the Great Plains, the first permanent white inhabitants.
▪ There were huge amounts of land available, hundreds of thousands of acres, because the Indians had been forced on to reservations.
▪ The buffalo had mostly been killed off.
▪ Texas longhorns could survive the harsh Plains winters.
▪ Railroads crossing the Plains could transport cattle quickly and cheaply to Chicago and the East.
▪ The obvious next development was to take the ranches nearer to the railheads.
▪ The cattle would be in better health if they had not been driven thousands of kilometres and so would be worth more money.
▪ Charles Goodnight was a Texan who had built up a small herd by working as a cowboy. His pay was every fourth calf.
▪ When he returned from fighting in the Civil War in 1865 he found he had 5000 head of cattle.
▪ He decided to drive them to the Indians in the reservation at Fort Sumner where he would be able to sell them. He set off with 2000 cattle, 18 cowboys and a partner, Oliver Loving.
▪ They all, cattle and cowboys, nearly died of thirst on the drive, but 1700 cattle made it to Fort Sumner. Goodnight and Loving made a huge profit.
▪ Joseph McCoy was a cattle dealer who realised there was a need for a good railhead town where cattle drivers could rest and water their cattle after the long drive north before putting them on a train.
▪ He built up the town of Abilene, with offices, cattle-pens and a hotel. In 1867 36,000 cattle arrived at Abilene; in 1870, 300,000 cattle were shipped from there.
▪ John Iliff was one of the first ranchers. He was a failed miner and trader who bought the rest of Oliver Loving’s herd (see above) in 1866.
▪ He won a contract to supply beef to the gangs working on the railroad.
▪ When the track was finished he could send his cattle east by rail. He had a herd of 35,000 cattle in 1868 on the Great Plains.
▪ He saw that water was crucial on the dry plains, and only bought land near streams
How did cowboys live?
▪ Cowboys looked after the cattle, on the drives or on the open range. They lived most of their lives in the open.
▪ On ranches they 'rode the line' around the boundary of the ranch. They looked for cattle needing help.
▪ On the drive, the herd might be over a kilometre long. It had to be guarded day and night.
▪ Riding 'drag' at the back of the herd was hated, as it was so dusty. 'Point' riders led the herd, with 'swings' at the flanks
▪ There was a 'remuda' or herd of spare horses.
▪ The 'chuck-wagon' held their blankets and provided food.
▪ 25% of cowboys were black and 12% were Mexican. They did not normally carry guns.
▪ They were paid off at the end of the drive, often spent all their pay fast, then looked for another drive.
▪ The main dangers faced by cowboys were stampedes, rattlesnakes, scorpions, flooded rivers and Indians.
Why did Ranching come to an end?
▪ While ranching had been profitable it had attracted a lot of people. So many people had become ranchers that the price of beef fell because they produced too much.
▪ There were so many cattle that the open range could not provide sufficient grass.
▪ The summer of 1886 was hot and dry. The grass was of poor quality and so the cattle faced the winter undernourished.
▪ The winter of 1886-87 was very cold. There were blizzards and the ground was covered with snow for longer than usual. At times the temperature was as low as –68oC.
▪ In these conditions thousands of cattle died, some herds lost 15%, and many ranch-owners went bankrupt
▪ After this there were far fewer, smaller ranches. The ranches were fenced-off to prevent over-grazing.
▪ The invention of barbed wire in 1874 made fencing cheap. Wind-pumps were built to ensure a reliable water supply.
▪ Once the plains could be fenced for ranching they could be fenced for homesteaders to farm. This brought the ranchers into competition and then conflict with the homesteaders.
Why did the Homesteaders come into conflict with the Ranchers?
▪ Ranchers and homesteaders wanted the same land, but they wanted to use it different ways.
▪ There were very few good supplies of fresh water. So the ranchers wanted the range unfenced so the cattle could drink from the springs and rivers and roam free to find fresh grass.
▪ The homesteaders wanted the land fenced off to show that it was theirs. They needed the land fenced off to stop the cattle eating their crops.
▪ The homesteaders had put a lot of effort into cultivating their land; they did not want anyone else to get the benefit of their hard labour.
▪ During the 1870s and 1880s, there were wars between the ranchers and the homesteaders (see Johnson County War, below).
Changes in ranching
▪ By the late 1880s ranching was not as profitable as it had been, so there were fewer ranchers. There had been so many cattle on the plains the grass had been over grazed.
The winter of 1886-87
▪ The summer of 1886 was unusually hot and dry; there were many prairie fires and water sources often dried up.
▪ The first snows fell earlier than usual in November and were reported as some of the worst in memory.
▪ Extreme cold temperatures killed humans and animals. In some instances, people got lost close to their houses and froze to death very close to their front doors.
▪ The loss of livestock was not discovered until spring, when a large number of cattle carcasses were spread across the fields and washed down streams.
▪ The few remaining cattle were in poor health, being emaciated and suffering from frostbite.
▪ This resulted in the cattle being sold for much lower prices, in some cases leading to bankruptcy.
▪ The ranchers came to the conclusion that it was better to have the range fenced off, so relations with homesteaders became easier.
The resolution of the Indian problem
Chronology
▪ The story of the decline and fall of the Plains Indians can be seen in four stages:
Stage 1: 1825 One Big Reservation
▪ There were different tribes of Native Americans all over America and white colonisers had run up against them from the very beginning.
Stage 2: 1850s Big reservations
▪ Early conflicts between whites and Indians led to Fort Laramie Treaty, 1851. This created big reservations. Each Indian tribe agreed to its own large reservations.
Stage 3: 1860s Smaller reservations
▪ Further conflicts lead to agreements to cut down reservations. The Fort Lyon Treaty, 1861, and the Treaty of Medicine Lodge Creek, 1867, created smaller reservations.
Stage 4: 1876 The Battle of Little Bighorn and after.
▪ This was an Indian victory, but followed by a big effort to crush Plains Indians.
Conclusion: 1890 Massacre at Wounded Knee:
▪ This was the last Sioux resistance, based on Ghost Dance, and was crushed. All Indians were forced onto reservations and their whole way of life was under threat.
The Great Sioux War, 1876-77.
▪ In 1874, gold was found and miners rushed into Black Hills, 1,000 of them by 1875.
▪ US government offered the Sioux $6,000,000 for the Black Hills. The Sioux said that the Black Hills were the resting-places of their ancestors and so were not for sale.
▪ In 1876 all Sioux ordered into reservations. Sitting Bull had always refused to accept white rule and said Indians would have to fight.
▪ He now commanded a large mixed force of Sioux, Arapaho and Cheyenne. US forces under Gen. Sheridan ordered an attack.
▪ Three columns to go into Sioux territory. Crazy Horse successfully ambushes one column at Rosebud Creek, 17 June, 1876.
▪ Custer, looking for a personal victory, arrives at Little Bighorn, off the route he had been ordered to take, on June 26, 1876.
▪ Despite all advice he attacked 2,000 Indians with 600 men. 263 soldiers were killed, including Custer.
Change of policy from 1876: the destruction of the Native American way of life
▪ The US government was determined to crush the Sioux.
▪ After the Civil War (1861-65), Union generals such as Sherman and Sheridan adopted a very violent policy towards Native Americans.
▪ The slaughter at battles during the Civil War encouraged extermination of some tribes.
▪ Sitting Bull was unable to keep his force together during winter. Crazy Horse and most other bands surrendered in 1877.
▪ Crazy Horse was killed while being 'arrested'. Sitting Bull led his band into Canada.
▪ Sioux forced to sell Black Hills, and to move to smaller and smaller reservations. Horses and weapons taken away from them.
The Ghost Dance and the Massacre at Wounded Knee, 1890
▪ Indians were desperate because of problems of reservation life (see below). In 1889 a holy man, called Wovoka, taught that if they danced the Ghost Dance their life on the Plains would return.
▪ The buffalo would live again, the whites would go away. He said that if they wore special shirts, whites’ bullets would not kill them.
▪ In 1890 there was extra hardship because of a drought.
▪ Sitting Bull killed while being 'arrested'. Big Foot led largest group of Sioux to a camp at Wounded Knee.
▪ An accidental shot was fired, and soldiers opened fire on the Indians. 102 adults, 24 old men, 7 old women, 6 boys aged 5-8 and 7 babies under 2 were killed.
▪ 'The Nation’s hoop is broken and scattered. There is no centre any longer and the sacred tree is dead.' Black Elk, survivor
Why did the Indians lose the wars?
The US army had many advantages
▪ Much better and more weapons, including guns with long-range sights and far more men available.
▪ They attacked in the winter, when temperatures were below zero and snow was on the ground. Indians could not fight in these situations.
▪ They attacked Sioux supplies, such as food, shelter, clothing and animals, so they could not go on fighting.
The Indians had many disadvantages
▪ Fewer and usually poorer weapons, Little Bighorn was exceptional: Custer had single-shot rifles while Indians had repeaters.
▪ They were far fewer of them, so casualties were much more important. They could not fight continuously over a long period. They had to look after their families and find food and water etc.
▪ They did not usually join tribe with tribe; tribes would not fight to help each other. In fact, some tribes (Crow, Shoshone) regularly helped whites against the Sioux, their old enemies.
The Plains Indians: the destruction of their way of life
The hunting and extermination of the buffalo
▪ Their buffalo hunting was destroyed by trails, railroads, ranchers and homesteaders.
▪ They were forced to give up land in treaties with the government.
▪ They were fighting against a far more powerful enemy.
▪ The buffalo was hunted almost to extinction. The Indians depended on buffalo for many things. Their disappearance was a disaster.
▪ The whites shot buffalo for sport, for their hides and for their bones, which were sent East for use as fertiliser or glue.
▪ They were also killed deliberately to force the Indians on to reservations. In 1840 there were probably 13,000,000 buffalo; by 1885 there were 200.
Life on reservations
▪ Life on the reservations was very hard. Indians were often given land which was infertile.
▪ Indians found that they could not support themselves and had to be given food to keep them alive. The food was very poor quality.
▪ Indian Agents, the whites who were supposed to look after the Indians, were often corrupt and kept much of the money for themselves.
▪ Without buffalo, Indians had to change their way of life. For example, their tipis were covered with canvas, not buffalo hide.
▪ Indians could no longer hunt and did not want to farm.
The Dawes Act
▪ In 1887, The Dawes Act granted each family 160 acres of land, but applicants had to use an English name. It was a blatant attempt to force Native Americans to adopt white ways and to break up the tribal structure.
▪ Dawes was aiming to destroy Native American culture. The supporters were contemptuous of the Native American way of life.
▪ Most promises were not kept and agents often stole the best land. Native Americans found themselves living in poverty and suffering from disease.
▪ Diseases from the whites became common and killed many. They had no dignity. Many became alcoholics to forget their meaningless life.
▪ The chiefs were ignored by the whites, so their power and authority collapsed.
▪ They were not allowed to practise their religion.
▪ Their children were sent away to schools and were given whites’ clothing.
▪ They were taught to speak English and were punished for speaking in Native American language.
▪ Indians were converted to Christianity and were treated as second class whites.
Closure of the Frontier
▪ In 1890, the US government announced that there was no longer a ‘frontier’. The USA was completely united.
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