Monday-Friday
Why did people move to the Great Plains/west?
- Gold and Silver Mining
- Wanted to me a cowboy
- Farming
- U.S Millitary
- Shepherding
- Homestead Act
- Working on the Railroad
- Hunting/Trapping/Adventure
Cattle Ranching + Cowboys
- Peaked between 1867 - 1880
- Open Range - Area of land where cattle roam free
- Railhead Towns - Towns at the end of the railroad
- Ranchers - People who owned ranches + cattle
- Texas Longhorns - Cross breed of cattle
- Long Drive - herding + moving cattle
- Cattle Barons - Bigger Ranchers (Pushed out smaller ranchers)
- 25% of cowboys were ex-slaves
- Life of a cowboy - Lonely + dangerous (Animal Attacks, Native Americans, etc...)
- Cattle industry feel when the price of beef fell
Omaha Stockyards was the second biggest stockyard right behind Chicago
Why were long drives necessary?
- Cows
Why did they come to an end after only 15-30 years?
- Railroads
- Demand for beef
U.S Native Americans Policies
- Reservations (Moved Native Americans to a certain part of the country)
- Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854
- Indian and Oklahoma Territory Merge in 1907 forming State of Oklahoma
- Destructive of Buffalo
- Dawes Act - 1887 (Gave land to Native American families to farm. Ended tribal ownership of land. Those that do this will be granted US citizenship. Goal was to "Americanize" Native-Americans. Native-Americans lost much of their land. Not required by the other option was not good. Ended in the 1930's Indian Reorganization Act)
How did railroads and the Homestead Act help settlers the Great Plains?
- Built towns
Homestead Act
- Gave 160 acres of land to people to live on and farm
- Attracted thousands of people to the Midwest
- Land speculators "stole" much of the land that was set aside for Homestead Act
What challenges did settlers/farmers face on the Great Plains?
- Native American attacks
- Bad weather
- Lonely
- Grasshopper Plagues
- Hard Work
- Lack of trees
- Railroad Prices - Charge farmers high prices due to lack of competition
- Debt - Many farmers mortgaged their farms to buy more seed and supplies
How did settler's/farmers solve some of these problems?
Railroad Prices and Debt
- Railroads charged farmers high prices due to lack of competition
- Many farmers mortgaged their farm to buy more seed and supplies
- Crop Prices fell due to overproduction
- After the Civil War, the amount of money in circulation went down, so money became more valuable with made it harder to pay back debt.
- Farmers wanted more money in circulation (This would cause inflation which would be good for crop prices)
Grange
- The National Grange of the Order of Patrons off Husbandry
- Organization that help farmers
- Started after the Civil War (1867) and is still around today
Granger Laws
- Series of state laws passed in several Midwestern states- Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois - in the late 1860s and early 1870s
- Designed to fight back against railroad abuses
- Wanted railroads and grain elevators to charge for fair prices
- Munn v Illinois - 1877 Supreme Court supported farmers
- Wabash v Illinois (1886) - Supreme Court supported the railroads
Interstate Commerce Act -1887
- Allowed the U.S Government to supervise railroads
- Required railroad rates to be "fair and just"
- Set up Interstate Commerce Commission to carry out law
- Failed to help farmers at first
Populist Movement-Omaha Platform - 1890's (Known as peoples party)- Poor people
- Help farmers out of debt (They got to keep feeding America)
- Give people a greater voice in government
- Increase money supply in circulation-Silverites
- Graduated income tax
- Direct election of Senators
- Single terms for President/Vice President
- Secret Ballot
- 8 hour work day
- Restrictions on immigration
Chapter 6
The Industrial Revolution
What cause the Industrial Revolution to really take off in the late 1800's?
- Tons of natural resources (Coal, Iron, Oil, etc...)
- Government helped farmers
- Cities were growing (More people, more people to buy your product) (Immigrants, farmers, moved to the city)
- Immigrants provided cheap labor
- Growing population provided markets for manufactured goods
- Oil boom
- Bessemer Process - cheap way to make steel
- Various inventions
- Railroads
Inventions:
- Electricity - light bulbs - Thomas Edison
- Typewriter - Christopher Sholes
- Telephone - Alexander Graham Bell
Railroads - Ship things to places and transport products to markets.
What are monopolies?
- When a company in a specific field tries to get rid of all their competition and control as close to 100% of the industry as possible
Why are monopolies bad for consumers and small business?
- Can lead to higher prices due to lack of competition
- Can lead to poorer products due to lack of competition
- Less choice for the consumer
- Can drive smaller business out of business leading to unemployment
Andrew Carnegie - (1835-1919) Known for Carnegie Steel (Largest Steel Factory)
John D. Rockefeller - (1839-1937) Known for Standard Oil
Sherman Anti Trust Act 1890
- Made it illegal to form a trust that interfered with free trade between states
- What is a "trust"?
- Broke up monopolies
Cornelius Vanderbilt - (1794-1877) Made a fortune in shipping. Retired from the shipping business at age 64. Then created a railroad empire. Was the richest person in the U.S when he died in 1877.
John Pierpont (IP) Morgan- (1837-1913) One of the post powerful bankers of his era. He financed railroads and helped organize U.S Steel, General Electric and other major corporation. In 1885, their firm was reorganized as J.P Morgan & Company.
What are labor unions and why are they important for workers?
- It is a union of laborers in a specific industry banding together to get better wages and conditions
- Power in numbers
- Labor unions were/are important because it gives a voice for workers and gets better wages and conditions for workers
Knights of Labor
- Started in 1869
- Most famous leader of the Knights of Labor was Terrence Powderly
- Allowed all workers of an industry union
American Federation of Labor
- Started in 1886 and still around today (AFL-CIO)
- Led by Samuel Gompers
- Broken into "craft union"
What did labor unions do to get better wages and conditions?
- Strikes-picketing
- Sit-ins
- Violence
Why did labor unions struggle to win strike in the late 1800's early 1900's?
- All power was in the hands of owner
- Would simply fire workers and hire immigrants who needed work (Immigrants had it better in U.S factories that in Europe)
- Would hire strikebreakers to take the place of workers
- Would impose lockouts
- Would blacklist workers
- Workers were called communists or socialists
- Everyone was against the labor unions/workers at first (Owners, police, newspapers, government)
Labor Day
- Was established as a Federal Holiday by President Grover Cleveland in 1894 after some workers died at the hands of the U.S Army during the Pullman Strike in 1864
- Cleveland and Congress passed it unanimously to appease labor unions
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