The HeartlandGod, Green, and Gold

The Great Road West

Planning the Transcontinental Railroad

Lincoln signed the plan for a central route west in 1862

5-6 month trek across two mountain ranges

“Crazy” Judah—mapped and measured the way West (through Donner Pass)

The Donner Party in Northern Sierra Nevada

steep approach from east and gradual approach from the West

California-bound emigrants in Nov. 1846

route blocked by snow, forced to spend winter on eastern side of the mountain

Of 81 emigrants, only 45 survived

some had to resort to cannibalism

The Asian “Explosion”

Longest tunnel had to be dug through 1,659 feet of solid rock

Nitroglycerin—heavy, oily liquid synthesized by an Italian chemist in 1847

had to be poured into holes 15-18 inches deep, capped, and set off with a slow match

Irish work crews refused to work with nitro after too many fatal nitro accidents in the Sierras

The “Asian” Explosion

Chinese started arriving in California during the Gold Rush

Whole villages of poor young men from the Guangdong Province were drawn by tales of Gum Shan, the Mountain of Gold

by 1864, there were 20,000 Chinese in CA, almost all of them single male laborers

Despised and mocked as “Celestials” and “coolies” (Mandarin ku li—bitter toil)

Willing to work for $30/month, opposed to the $2-3/day that Western workers demanded

Chinese trading companies deducted all but $4-8 from their month wages as repayment for their passage to the US

Pace Increases

80% of workers are Asian

pace goes from 2-3 inches/day to 2-3 feet

Union Pacific and Central Pacific raced toward each other, until they passed, trying to claim as much territory as they could

Congress decreed the official meeting point of the two would be Promontory, Utah (1869)

They struck the golden spike with a silver hammer (Stanford missed the first time)

The Two Rails Meet

Comstock Lode

1st major discovery of silver ore

Nevada

Silver ore = bluish in color

All of the original discoverers of the mine went broke, insane (were committed), or committed suicide

Homesteaders

settling the Great Plains

Homestead Act—granted any citizen 160 acres for just $10, provided they agreed to farm it for 5 years

1.6 million homesteaders took the deal

claimed 1/10 of US land

Final shot of the Civil War: anyone could take the deal, including freed slaves, EXCEPT those who had taken arms against the Union

The Homestead Act (1862)

pg. 163

provided land for more than 400,000 families

women qualified for purchase as well as men

The So-Called “Great” Plains

Semi-arid: averaging less than the 20 inches of rain/year necessary for farming

almost constant winds, prairie fires, muddy rivers

summer temps around 110, winter blizzards

Tornado Alley—1,000+ twisters/year

“Prairie Madness”—”miles to water, miles to wood, and only six inches to hell”

Plagues & Retreat

One infestation of locusts filled the skies with 3.5 trillion locusts (massive cloud ½ mile high along a 110 mile front)

stopped the railroad—trains could not continue over the piles

During a single harsh summer, 30,000 sodbusters left the Plains

“In God we trusted, in Kansas we busted”

Driving a Steak into America’s Heart

Texas cowboys crossed Mexican cattle with more commercially popular Eastern cows

Winter of 1865-66, cowhands rounded up 260,000 of their longhorns across the Plains

Civil War had devastated the South’s livestock—cattle worth $3-4/head in Texas fetched $35/head in Mississippi

in 1871, 600,000 cattle driven north from Texas

The Plains Tribes Comanche—seemed so natural on horseback that some

said they looked awkward on foot

Travois—sled pulled by a dog (how tribes moved their possessions before horses)

Little Bighorn—white cavalry invaded the Lakota reservation to raid the sacred Black Hills of South Dakota

Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull led the Lakota against Colonel George Custer

After an hour of fighting, Custer and his 210 men were all dead

“They tell me I murdered Custer. It is a lie. He was a fool and rode to his death…” ---Sitting Bull

Closing of the Frontier

1890 census declared the official close of the frontier

Railroads (160,000 miles of them) became the internet of the day, spreading new fashions and ideas

changing how Americans viewed time

previously 20 irregular time zones

to facilitate railroad schedules, the modern 4 time zones instituted

This New American Identity

The World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893

Professor Turner delivered a paper titled “The Significance of the Frontier in American Identity”

the frontier, above all else, shaped the distinctive American Identity

The Gilded Age

1870s-1890s

gilded—a thin layer of gold (gold paint)

Worry that surface of society is masking problems

2 Major Concerns Shape Politics:

1. Spoils System

a political leader give jobs to financial supporters (you can buy a job)

Garfield assassinated—people make efforts to end system

Pendleton Act (1883) set up Civil Service Commission

decides who gets which job (based on merit)

2. Big Business

Railroad owners and industrialists bribe Congress to pass laws in their favor and

give votes in return

City Corruption smaller scale big business problems demanding bribes to give positions to friends or

other rich people big bosses are loved by poor people (they give

charity to the poor) Interstate Commerce Act (1887)

regulates railroads

Boss Tweed

NYC

cheated the city out of $100 million

gave charity to the poor, so they voted for him

fled to Spain

Spanish authorities arrest & deport Tweed

The Progressive Era: A New Reform

The insecurity of the Gilded Age inspired the Progressive Era

Roosevelt and the muckraking journalists were the first part of the Progressive Era

“TR” a.k.a. Teddy

Theodore Roosevelt

Trust-buster (trust—very large business that created a monopoly)

U.S. Industrial Commission Standard Oil American Tobacco U.S. Steel Railroad companies

1st Progressive President

Age 42—youngest president

Targets corrupt businesses and people

The Wisconsin Idea

1st state to accept political reform

Robert La Follette aka “Battling Bob” voters can choose candidates—the election primary voters can propose bills to state legislatures voters can directly vote on bills recall—voters can remove elected officials from

office

16th Amendment

1913—the graduated income tax

You pay income based on how much you earn

17th Amendment

direct election of Senators

(they used to be elected by the state legislatures)

A Progressive Media

muckrakers—crusading journalists determined to root out corruption and dig up

“muck”

Jacob Riis—photographer

Ida Tarbell—her work led to more control over trusts

Upton Sinclair—wrote The Jungle, which exposed corruption in the meat-packing industry

The Silver Lining

“The Gilded Age was a period of greed and corruption, of brutal industry and competition and harsh exploitation of labor”

Monopolies brought more than greed, though; they also brought wealth, efficiency, and philanthropy (giving back to the poor)

Laborers were exploited, so they formed unions

Farmers lost money, so they formed granges

Citizens under corrupt politicians pushed for reform

The People’s Party (Populists)

1891-1908

Based among poor, white cotton famers in the South & poor wheat farmers in the Plains

Radical, crusading group

Hostile toward banks, railroads, and elites

formed coalitions (alliances) with labor unions

Families

public assistance programs instituted

1906 Pure Food and Drug Act—removed medicines that had never been scientifically tested

Progressives advocate for censorship of movies

Eugenics a.k.a. birth control believed they would be a solution for

underperforming families

Prohibition