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Post Civil War
!   It was before and during the Civil War that the
foundation for westward expansion in the United
States was set, known as Manifest Destiny.
!   Expansion had begun near the end of the
Reconstruction Era, 1877, and lasted long until the
right before the beginning of the 20th century.
!   In both the North and the South, industrialization and
urbanization increased and also had the inflow of
immigrants from the East.
The U.S. after the Civil War
Governmental Acts
Homestead Act of 1862
!  
This act, enacted by Congress during the Civil
War, allowed that any adult citizen had the
ability, if one so desired, to claim 160 acres
of western territory.
!   That citizen must remain a resident on the land for at least 5 years
and on that land, they had the requirement to “improve” the land
they were through building a dwelling and cultivating the land.
!  
This act did not turn out as successful as planned due to laborers
and farmers not having the finances to cover the land and only the
nearby residents of the neighbor states would move and claim
land.
!   Iowans went to Nebraska, Minnesotans went to South Dakota.
!  
U.S. Government
The Homestead Act was ultimately the only approach the United
States could utilize at the time because of the fear of “disturbing
the peace.”
!   The Presidents in office during the Gilded Age would be known as
the “Forgotten Presidents” because they would not purposely deal
with any controversial issues that would upset the nation through a
decision or argument and disturb the peace made after the
reconstruction and reconciliation of the Civil War.
!  
Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Chester
Arthur, Grover Cleveland, and Benjamin Harrison
!   Another reason for this being the only major approach was because
of the U.S. Legislation at the time, specifically the House of
Representatives, would be constantly changing from Democrat to
Republican, and vice versa, so establishing any sort of compromise
was too difficult.
!  
This would later cause trouble as citizens would continue
expanding farther west and would eventually encounter
uncooperative Native American territories.
Homestead Sales
Governmental Acts (cont.)
!   The following acts came along in addition to the Homestead
Act for the government to continue encouraging individuals
to participate in westward expansion:
1.  Timber Culture Act (1873): This act allowed a homesteader
to claim an additional 160 acres of land on the condition that
he would plant trees on 40 of the acres.
2.  Desert Land Act (1877): This act allowed an individual to
claim 640 acres of land on the condition that he would begin
irrigating his land.
3.  Timber and Stone Act (1878): This act allowed a citizen or
immigrant to purchase up to 160 acres of western forest land
for $2.50 an acre.
Developing the West
!   In the 1860’s, there were three acts that helped initiate
the move to the West:
1.  The Homestead Act 1862 (any man 21 or older who
had not gone against the US Government was able to
apply to obtain 160 acres of public land)
2.  Pacific Railway Act 1862 (provided loans for the
construction of a transcontinental railroad)
3.  Morrill Act 1862 (western states are able to establish
colleges for their citizens which emphasized agricultural
and mechanical arts)
Developing the West (cont.)
!   Railroads were a key significance to the settlement of the
West.
!   They helped make the transportation of men, livestock, and
other goods more efficient.
!   Two major railways that ran through the country:
!   Central Pacific
!   Union Pacific
The Central Pacific and Union
Pacific Map
Developing the West (cont.)
Importance of Railroads:
!   Made the United States grow smaller by connecting its
Eastern and Western Fronts.
!   In a week travelers could make it from New York to San
Francisco
!   Interstate commerce grew rapidly.
!   Goods from foreign countries were transported further than
just the coast they arrived at.
!   Within ten years after its completion in 1869, $50 million
worth of goods were being shipped across the country.
Railroad Tracks Built
Developing the West (cont.)
!  
While the North and South were further industrializing, the West
focused on mining, farming, ranching.
!  
Gold Rush exploded in the 1870’s.
!   This greatly increased the population in the West, beginning in
California, but eventually spreading to other lands, such as New Mexico,
Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, and South Dakota.
!  
Buffalo hunters and livestock farmers came for the vast plains to raise
and hunt the animals.
!  
At this time there was a major demand for
meats and hides in the Eastern part of the
!  
Immigrant workers flooded in from China,
Mexico, Germany, Sweden, and many other
countries.
country.
Manifest Destiny on Native
Americans
!  
As pioneers began to expand westward, the Native Americans were
angered with this sense of invasion and would not give up their
land so easily as well.
!  
The West was known as “one big reservation” before the Civil
War, to which Native American tribes had their rights to through
the Nonintercourse Act (1834).
!   This act stated that there would be no alienation or interference
between the U.S. citizens and the Native Americans, specifically
claiming their land for more.
!  
However, the sixth, and last, statute to this Act was that:
“[N]o purchase, grant, lease, or other conveyance of land, or of any title or
claim thereto, from any Indian nation or tribe of Indians, shall be of any
validity in law or equity, unless the same be made by treaty or convention
entered into pursuant the constitution.”
Manifest Destiny on Native
Americans (cont.)
!   This statute provided by the Secretary of War, Henry
Knox, allowed legal alienation of the Native American
land and claim it for westward expansion.
!   It was with this statute in the Act that the United
States tried to encourage the Native Americans to sell
their tribal lands and become “civilized” citizens of the
country.
!   The government interpretation for this statement was
basically for the Native Americans to give up hunting,
become farmers, and reorganize their society as a family
unit rather than a tribe.
Manifest Destiny on Native
Americans (cont.)
!   The specific land the United States wanted that the Native
Americans settled in was the area known as the Great Plains.
!   Since the end of the Civil War, about 2/3 of all Indians were
settled in the Great Plains.
!   Many of these cultures in the Plains were dependent upon
buffalos and horses.
!   Pioneers also made the attempt to begin killing the buffalos,
as the Native Americans in this region were very reliant on
their existence.
!   1 pioneer – 100 buffalo
!   From 1872 – 1874, about 3 million buffalo were killed a year.
!   By 1903, there were only 34 buffalos left in the Great Plains.
Native American Reservations
Buffalo Attacks
Manifest Destiny on Native
Americans (cont.)
Dawes Act (1887)
!   This act provided the allotment of lands to various Native
American reservations. It also recognized the Indian as an
individual rather than a member of a tribe.
!   These attempts by the United States to remove the Native
Americans from their land was the attempt to “Americanize”
the Native Americans into the ways of a U.S. citizen, also
known as assimilation.
!   As tribes would split into their separate allotments, the Native
Americans start losing their sense of culture and “Indianness,” and would begin being assimilated into the population.
Native American Land Lost
!  
!  
Assimilation of Hispanics
After the Mexican American War, there was much tension towards
the Hispanics.
Many Hispanics who had lived in the former New Spain territories
were driven off their lands as New Mexico, Texas, and California
were formed.
!   Some attempted to earn their land back in court; most were never
heard, others were denied because of biased court members.
!  
Land Act of 1851 (California) – intended to insure fair treatment
of Hispanics and their land , but did the opposite.
!  
President appointees were told to judge whether the land owners
had proof to their ownership.
!  
Some attempted to earn their land back in court; most were either
never heard or denied because of biased court member.
Assimilation of Hispanics
(cont.)
!   Only wealthy farms had the money to support
themselves legally; most others went bankrupt.
!   Most became permanent migrant workers for the large
farms that were forming.
!   Border Towns sprung up to house immigrant workers,
although they had intense amounts of poverty.
The Growth of the South
!   As for the growth of the South, new ways of
industrialization and urbanization were still being
discovered, which were set by the North during the Civil
War.
!   More industrial and agricultural technology were being
developed to help the South control their overall production.
!   People from the urban areas would began to move rural,
which would create even more urbanized areas in the South.
!   With the South included, the national economy grew more
than 400%, from the start of the Civil War to the start of
the 20th century.
The Growth of the South
(cont.)
!   Two reasons for why not only the South, but the entire
nation was doing economically well:
1.  Production of goods increased and the process of
production became more efficient and simpler.
2.  Number of workers and laborers increased as more
immigrants were coming into the United States and
contributed in urbanizing in the South.
!   It was especially easier now for the South to be a part of
this national growth now that the Reconstruction Era
is over and the national peace has been restored.
The Growth of the South
(cont.)
Jim Crow laws
!  
In 1877, after the end of the Reconstruction Era, Jim Crow laws
were put into place, which were laws of racial segregation.
!   This name “Jim Crow” derived from was the name of a play Jump Jim
Crow.
!   Just about all public facilities from 1877 to the civil rights movement
in the 1960s separated “white people” from “colored people.”
!  
It was not until 1954, when the Supreme reversed the Plessy vs.
Board of Education case with the Plessy vs. Ferguson case (1896), in
which deemed unconstitutional actions by the school, abolishing
segregation there, then eventually all public facilities.
The Growth of the South
(cont.)
Atlanta Compromise
!   This compromise, created in 1895, stated that African
Americans in the South would sustain an occupation but
subject to white political ruling, and the South would
provide the African Americans with a basic education and a
due process in law.
!   Supporters for this compromise were Booker T. Washington,
the President of the Tuskegee Institute, some African
American leaders, and some Southern leaders.
!   There were however opposition for this compromise, people
such as W.E.B. Du Bois, and other African American
leaders.
The Growth of the South
(cont.)
The “New South” by Henry Grady (1886)
!   Henry Grady, both in 1886 and 1889, explained (in a
speech) how the desired vision of the “New South”
being formed (the idealistic new lifestyle in the South
after the Civil War) was starting to be seen as the South
was well industrialized and urbanized now, well after
the Reconstruction Era.
!   He presents these statistics and how
they have positively affected the South,
however he mentions that the conflict
of racial inequality is not yet noticeable.
The Growth of the South
(cont.)
Steel
!   Andrew Carnegie, after creating a much faster and efficient
steel and iron-process, he was the wealthiest man to won
such operations like this in the United States and made a
fortune.
!   This process was done through the machine known as the
Bessemer converter, which he named after Sir Henry
Bessemer for inventing the furnace.
Bibliography
! 
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! 
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! 
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! 
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! 
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! 
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! 
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! 
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! 
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! 
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! 
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