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Consolidation: Forging the Nation (The 'Indian Problem'…
Consolidation: Forging the Nation
13th Amendment
Abolished slavery in America
Banned involuntary slavery
Only allowed for punishment for a crime.
14th & 15th amendments ensured equality for recently legal slaves.
Civil Rights Act
1866 - Passed
First federal law to affirm that all U.S. citizens are equally protected under the law.
Defined citizenship
Made it illegal to deny any person of their right to citizenship
Illegal to base rights and citizenship based of skin colour and ethnicity.
Freed Men's Bureau
Ensured housing
Ensured Food
Ensured Medical Aid
Ensured Established Schools
Ensured Legal Assistance
Attempted to settle former slaves on confiscated or abandoned land during the war.
Carpet baggers
Former Confederates (South)
Seeked elections in areas they had no connection to.
Exploited locals
Sharecropping
Caused by the economic change caused by the end of slavery.
Sharecropping was a way for poor farmers, both white and black, to earn a living from land owned by someone else.
Black Codes
Low wages
Few amount of rights
Legalised marriage
Ownership of property
Limited access in courts
Not allowed to work in high role jobs
Not allowed to be judges, policemen or jury etc.
Not allowed to vote or share opinion in politics
Denied the right to testify against white people
Reconstruction Era
Success #1 - Enforcement Act of 1870. the right to vote, to hold office, to be juries and equal protection of laws.
Success #2 - Freedmen's Bureau
Failure #1 - Klu Klux Klan - Confederate army veterans. Used violence and threats to try and restore white supremacy.
Failure #2 - Poverty, Hunger and Racism
Homesteaders
Pull Factor #1 - Offer of 160 acres of land.
Pull Factor #2 - To start a new life or adventure.
Push Factor - Economic problems, failure of crops and people hungry
The government gave 160 acres of land to people who wanted to more, and another 160 cheaply if they farmed it for 5 years
Farming was difficult
Land was infertile
Drought / weather - only 38cm rainfall in a year
Lack of food as farmers couldn’t grow enough on their land.
Farming Techniques
Windmills which could pump water out of the ground were used on peoples farm land.
Dry farming which is when after heavy rain, the farmers would immediately plough their land so that the layer of dust would cover the surface
Use of barbed wire to fence off crops from animals and cattle. This was cheaper than timber for a fence, but this method was more effective.
Women
Planting food
Cooking outdoors
Made candles, soap, mend trousers/clothing
Shot buffalo for food
Washed and dried clothes
Weaving and making clothes, tending pigs and chickens, making butter, flannel dress
Made cures and remedies
And so much more
Railroads
Gave homesteaders greater access to manufactured goods
Could be transported easily and quickly across the railway.
Bring people and their belongings into the plains.
The 'Indian Problem'
Exterminators and humanitarians
Kill the Native Americans so that they don’t fight or rebel, meaning they don’t have to move more land will be available for the American Population to grow and expand.
Winter Campaign - 1868
The Native Americans never fought during the Winter months, the army decided to mount a Winter Campaign to try to catch them by surprise and force them into submission.
Battle of Little Big Horn
Caused by the Second Treaty of Fort Laramie, in which the U.S. government guaranteed the possession of the Dakota Territory west of the Missouri River, had been broken.
George Custer - leader of Americans (LOSING SIDE)
Instead of going round the Wolf mountains, Custer force-marched his men through the mountains. His troops and horses arrived tired after the long march.
He was arrogant and overconfident, and wanted the victory to boost his political ambitions, he was considering running for President in future. He ignored the advice of his Crow scouts to wait for reinforcements.
Custer had poor information - he did not know how big the Sioux army was, nor that they were armed with Winchester repeating rifles.
The US Government is partially to blame as they only supplied 6 bullets a year for target practice meaning that a large majority of soldiers were inexperienced.
Also to blame were Custer’s superiors Majors Marcus Reeno and Frederick Benteen as they may have told Custer what to do and when
Dawes Act of 1887
Authorized the federal government to break up tribal lands by partitioning them into individual plots.
Only those who accepted the individual allotments were allowed to become US citizens.
The treatment of Native Americans as individuals rather than as members of tribes was important.
America and the Natives
The Dawes Act meant that the reservations were to be seen as allotments for individual Native Americans, and only available if they did everything the US government told them to and if they passed the US citizenship test (after 25 years).
The structure of the tribe was weakened
Reservations became disease ridden, filthy and poor
They weren’t able to leave the reservations and most Native American land was being farmed by non natives as specific parts of their land was made available to the whites.
Battle of Wounded Knee
The Ghost Dance was performed
It was believed that it would reunite the living with spirits of the dead, bring the spirits to fight on their behalf, make the white colonists leave, and bring peace, prosperity, and unity to Native American peoples throughout the region.
At the Battle of Wounded Knee, the Americans attacked a group of Native Americans who were unarmed at wounded knee creek. This was one of the worst Native American Massacres of women and children. After this, there was no Native American resistance.