THE NEW SOUTH THE NEW SOUTH AND AND

THE FRONTIERTHE FRONTIER

Unit IVDUnit IVD

AP United States HistoryAP United States History

Fundamental Questions

►Did the Civil War and Reconstruction solve the nation’s issues?

►How better off was the nation after the Civil War and Reconstruction?

The “New” South

►The Compromise of 1877 withdrew federal troops from former Confederate states, ended Reconstruction with a promise of development

►New vision From slave-dependency to self-sufficient and

diverse agricultural Industrialization and infrastructure Redemption…

Southern Agriculture

► Cotton remained the dominant crop Cotton farms doubled Large supply of world’s cotton drove prices down

► Diversity of crops Peanuts, sweet potatoes, soybeans Tobacco and cigarette companies

Sharecropping

► 50% white farmers and 75% black farmers► Crop liens kept small farmers in constant debt

Southern Industry► Growth of cities in

the South Textiles, steel,

lumber, tobacco

► Industrialization spearheaded by cheap labor rates

► More railroads built and designed on national standards

“Southern” Economy

►Northern investment control and slow progress kept the South poor

►Cheap labor wages and sharecropping►Poor education attributed to Southern

poverty

Redemption► Redeemers

Rid of Republican state governments

White supremacy laissez-faire

economics

► Hamburg Massacre (July 1876)

► Senator Benjamin Tillman (D-SC)

► Origin of Bible Belt► Instituted Jim Crow

laws

Segregation► Supreme Court

Civil Rights Cases of 1883► Civil Rights Act of 1875

unconstitutional► Segregation may be practiced by

private individuals and businesses

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)► Established “separate but equal”

► Jim Crow Laws Established by white Redeemer

state governments Legitimized by Plessy v.

Ferguson Examples

► Segregated public facilities and accommodations

► Disenfranchisement Grandfather clauses Literacy tests Poll taxes

Frontier Thesis

► Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893► The frontier defined the American identity► It promoted independence and individualism unlike

European conformity and social structure► The distinct American political society was a result

of surviving the frontier► The edge of the frontier was the figurative border

of civilization and the wild► The loss of the frontier could signal the beginning

of social conformity and rigidity

Railroads Drive the Expansion

► 35,000 miles in 1865 to 193,000 in 1900► Gauge standards connecting various local and

national lines► Connection of rails to cities, water ports, market

centers, Atlantic to Pacific First Transcontinental Railroad (1869)

► Federal land grants and subsidies► Overexpansion and corruption led to

consolidation by business moguls

Expansion of Railroads

Settling the West:Mining Frontier

► Gold and silver from California to Black Hills Comstock Lode in Nevada

(1859)

► Boomtowns and States Most settlers established

markets for miners Deadwood, Dakota; Tombstone,

Arizona

► Employed foreign-born miners South Americans brought

experience Chinese were cheap labor

Settling the West:Cattle Frontier

► Vaqueros – Cowboys► Cattle in West to Beef

Markets in East Cattle trails connect to

railways in Kansas

► Decline Loss of land

► Homesteader claims► Commercial agriculture

Environment► Overgrazing► Cold winters

Settling the West:Farming Frontier

► Homestead Act of 1862 160 acres for $10 and to live on and

cultivate land for 5 years► Oklahoma Land Rush (April 1889)

Sooners and Boomers► Exodusters

Southern free/freed blacks► Innovation

Barbed wire Dry farming

► Bonanza Farms Outside capital and new machinery

led to massive and lucrative farms► National Grange of the Patrons of

Husbandry Movement to better connect farmers

amid dreary rural life Cooperatives

► Stores, elevators, insurance

Manifest Destiny and the Natives► Most western tribes based on a

nomadic lifestyle and buffalo herds Whites decimated buffalo herds

for fur, sport, pests► Reservations

Concentrations of tribes through separate treaties

Tribal chiefs selected by white officials

► Indian Wars Theaters Sand Creek Massacre (1864) Little Big Horn (1876)

► Destruction of Colonel George Custer’s unit

► A Century of Dishonor by Helen Hunt Jackson in 1881 Nonfiction historical account of

government policies toward Natives

Purpose was to shed light on atrocities and pursue humane and equal treatment

Reactions Toward and By Natives

► Assimilation Formal education and religious

conversion A “white” education

► Dawes Severalty Act (1887) Broke up tribal organizations; lands divided into 160 acre plots; citizenship grants; disease, alcoholism, poverty,

starvation► Ghost Dance Movement

Wovoka’s attempt to drive the settlers out through circle dances and chants

► Wounded Knee (1890) Massacre of Sioux men, women,

and children signifying the end of the Indian Wars