List loaded with content and previous DB topics Highly recommended that you know everything on these lists for the AP History test! Top 10 List: Colonization through the Civil War Top 10: Colonial Differences – NEE (Mass. ), Middle (Penn. ), South/Chesapeake (Virginia) 1. NEE – Religion played a much greater role than in the South – Puritans (Mass. Bay colony), Pilgrims/Separatists (Plymouth) – most southerners were Anglican but there were few churches as people were more spread out 2.
Religious tolerance was the greatest in the Middle Colonies – Maryland (Lord Baltimore – Catholic Haven – Maryland Toleration Act), Pennsylvania (William Penn- Quakers – Pennsylvania Toleration Act) – other religious groups settled there (most tolerant area) – Philly – “City of brotherly love” 3. NEE – less tolerant, but better work ethic (Calvinist viewed. ), mix of church and state (to vote in Mass.
You had to be a covenanted member of the church – “a saint”), placed importance on education laws (Old Deluder Satan Act), praying towns – leads to problems with AN later, “City on the Hill” – Rubella Sermon – John Winthrop, Salem Witch Trials (Calvinist beliefs are clashing with a more modern, recreant-based society – leads to Jealousy and suspicion, which fuels the accusations); lack of tolerance leads to people like Roger Williams (goes to Rhode Island) and Anne Hutchinson getting kicked out of Massachusetts 4.
Slavery – more predominant in the South due to cash crop economy – 1st was tobacco in Virginia, later Carolinas – rice, indigo. The 1st slaves brought to Virginia in 1619; all colonies had legal slavery; even in the south, only 25% of the population owned slaves in the South (most still supported the system though as many yeoman farmers aspired to nee day own slaves); slave codes established (made it impossible for slaves to have any legal status), esp.. In the Carolinas, where the number of blacks outnumbered whites by the 18th c. 5.
House of Burgesses – Virginia – first representative assembly – wealthy plantation owners dominated the assembly – had to have land to vote in the South; head right system contributes to the dominance of the large planters in the economic and political system 6. Closer knit towns in New England (partially due to religion and cooler climate – smaller farms); more cities in NEE and M loonies than in the South – town meeting system is established in NEE 7. Family structure was tighter in NEE – fewer women in the South – NEE came over in family groups; shorter expectancies in the South (disease) 8.
Middle colonies – breadbasket – wheat, grain farmers; NEE – more trade oriented 9. South – more economic popularization, Bacon’s Rebellion (1676) was a result (slavery helps to alleviate the class conflict between the rich and poor whites) 10. Due to the tolerance, Philadelphia becomes the social and intellectual capitol of America – enlightenment, Ben Franklin, etc. More immigrants come to Middle colonies (more diversity of ideas, etc. ) Top 10: Causes of the Revolution 1 .
Taxation without Representation – Stamp Act – first direct tax on the colonists (1765), colonists reacted with Stamp Act Congress, boycott, Virginia Resolves, Sons of Liberty formed in reaction – wanted the right of taxation to lie with their own colonial assemblies (upset about Declaratory Act passed afterward as well);parliament tells ten colonists Tanat teeny nave Walrus” representation 2 concerns tout ten power AT the purse being taken away, including the right to decide the governor’s salaries – Townsend Duties – 1767 – (lead, glass, paper, tea, etc. – boycott follows (women get actively involved, etc. ) 3. Use of Propaganda – Common Sense and Thomas Paine, Sam Adams (inflates the 1770 Boston Massacre, started the Committees of Correspondence) 4. Proclamation Act of 1763 – colonists can’t move West of the Appalachian Mints. Passed after the F and I War – they ignore it (distrust of Parliament afterwards – remember the Turner Thesis! ) 5. Boston Tea Party – reaction by the British – Intolerable Acts/Coercive Acts – closed port of Boston, “Murder” Act – strong reactions – First Count.
Congress is formed, boycott, Declaration of Rights and Grievances is issued 6. Quebec Act – said that Catholicism would be the official church of Quebec – American Protestants freak out 7. Lexington/ concord/Bunker Hill – early Military actions – leads the King to declare the colonists to be “in rebellion” and to send additional troops to Boston 8. Enlightenment – questioning authority; Locke – natural rights, social contract theory 9. Second Continental Congress – issue the Olive Branch Petition as a last ditch effort – rejected by King .
The ICC sets up the Continental Army (Washington), as well as impassioning Takeoff write the DCE. Of Indeed. 10. General stuff related to the F and I War – British are broke, Americans are paying XX less taxes than the British, the end of “salutary neglect” Top 10: Social, Economic, Political Results of the Revolution: 1 . AAA: slavery was still in existence in all colonies through the Revolution; Quakers and other groups began to question slavery; Lord Duodenum’s Proclamation – offer of freedom to slaves to fight for the British 2.
Women: still considered subservient, but they started to become more vocal about access to education “Republican others” 3. AN: most lost land as a result of the war – they fared better under the British than under the Americans who wanted their land – Pontiac Rebellion (earlier), then Outcomes (later); British gave AN arms/whiskey 4. Lack of respect for the American military on the part of the British – ignored parts of the Treaty of Paris – didn’t leave the forts in the west, didn’t compensate slave owners for the loss of their slaves 5.
Economic class structure didn’t change much – some of the wealthy loyalists had to leave, common man was fighting the war, so there was a need to agonize/respect the lower classes – states requirements for voting relaxed a bit – didn’t have to own land, tax-supported churches lost support 6. Articles – weak federal covet – no federal exec. Or Judicial branch – in order to get tax measures passed – 9 out of 13 had to agree – all states had to agree to changes in the Articles themselves, each state had one vote (upset the larger states like Virginia) 7.
No way of raising revenue, little to no military, each state had its own currency, massive economic instability – Shays Rebellion was the result (1786) 8. Constitutional Convention of Philadelphia (1787) – year after Shays – 55 delegates, mainly upper class – fear that giving too power to the democracy – (meaning the general pop. – would be anarchy. As a result, they decided that the pres. Would b elected using the electoral college, people don’t vote for the S. Ct. , the Senate was picked by state leg. Until the 17th amendment changes this in the early 20th century) – only the House was chosen by direct vote by the people 9. Big v. Small state debate representation – Madison Virginia Plan v. The NJ plan – results in the Great Compromise (2 house glistered – equal rep. In senate Ana pop. -oases In ten House), ten Northern Ana Southern states also had to compromise on the issue of counting slaves for taxation and representation purposes – results in the The 3/5 Compromise 10.
Industrialist reaction (Patrick Henry, George Mason) – protection of civil liberties was a great concern, concerns over having a president – eventually Federalist Papers are written to convince people that their concerns were not valid – promise of a Bill of Rights Top 10: Rise of Sectionalism 1 . Slavery – expansion into the West – starts to split the Country – Missouri Compromise (Clay) – 1850 Compromise (Clay) 2.
Economic differences – tariff affect the South negatively, but help the more industrial North (after War of 1812 – North became more industrial – pressures to have protective tariffs) 3. Nullification Crisis over the Tariff of Abominations – 1828 – South Carolina (Calhoun – Jackson’s UP – writes – Exposition and Protest) – Jackson reacts by threatening to send in troops – Compromise Tariff (Clay) 4. Internal Improvements – part of Henry Clays American System – Jackson vetoes the Massively Road Bill – Westerners are mad – Roads, Canals, Railroads – Kansas – Nebraska Act (Stephen Douglas – Ill. 5. Second Bank of the United States (Clay) – Jackson vetoes the recharge of the bank – calls it a “monster bank” – private Easterners own most of the stock – takes all the federal money out the bank – leads to the Species Circular – leads to the Panic of 1837 6. Decline of the Federalist Party – Hartford Convention is the last hurrah – during the War of 1812 – NEE was opposed to the war as it hurting their trade with England – tried to secede from the Union – the end of the War stopped it from happening 7. Federalists were going power to the D-Rep. s most Westerners voted D-Rep. – “Era of Good Feelings” – after the war, only one political party (Monroe) – election of 1824 brings an end to this “Corrupt Bargain” – Jackson didn’t get the presidency when the House votes for Sadism instead 8. Leads too new political party – Democrats – Jackson, Van Burden, etc. – eventually the Whig (Clay) 9. AN Removal – states of the South wanted it – to expand their “cotton kingdom” – Cherokee v. Georgia – Marshall rules that they should not be removed – Jackson ignores it – “Trail of Tears” 10. Eventually – The
Republican party is formed in the sass – no extension of slavery in the West – Free Soil (ex-Whig who opposed slavery) – Northerners only Top 10: Technological/ Industrial Changes through the Civil War: 1. Cotton Gin – Eli Whitney (1790) – leads to the Cotton Kingdom – over 2/3 of all American exports by the sass 2. Steam Power – steam engine (cuts down travel and shipping time by half or less! ), powers industrial activity as well – Robert Fulton invented the steam engine 3. Power Loom – leads to textile industry takes off- New England – Lowell mill system – NEE farm girls used as workers 4.
Bessemer process for steel making (Carnegie)- after sass – leads to stronger steel (used for all kinds of manufacturing, including skyscrapers) 5. Telegraph – Samuel B. Morse (Morse code) – links parts of the country together (helps railroad schedules, business communication, used extensively in the Civil War later on) 6. Interchangeable parts – Eli Whitney – factory lines – less reliance on craftsmen 7. Immigrants – take over the unskilled labor Jobs (more so after the large influx of Irish and German immigrants in the sass) – leads to Natives sentiments on the part of many workers who have been replaced or their wages ordered 8.
Railroads – predominated the transportation system by the mid sass – transcontinental Y. Role canal – New York CLC TTY Decodes ten predominant economic center of the country as it links the Hudson River to Albany to Buffalo to the Great Lakes – increases commerce on the Great Lakes as well 10. Small inroads for labor unions – Mass. Supreme Ct. Case of Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842) – says that it is legal for unions to exist; the Lowell mill girls organize a brief, but unsuccessful strike in the sass as well Top 10: Native American Relations (colonization through the Trail of Tears) 1 .
King Phillips War (Meta – in Mass. ) – as a result of praying towns (NEE) and whites taking over AN land, raiding their corn, etc. 2. Squanto (Plymouth) , Pocahontas Mastodon) – early encounters with Europeans – at first they helped the Europeans to survive, but later came into conflicts – Pocahontas (Virgo. ), Peugeot Massacre (Mass. ) 3. French were better allies with the AN as they were Fur Traders; French were not here to take over large portions of AN land 4. Iroquois Confederacy – New York area – organized defense system -US Constitution is modeled somewhat after Iroquois Constitution; Albany
Plan of Union (defense pact shot down by colonists because they feared losing some of their power and the cost) 5. Pontiac – formed a Confederation of AN in the Great Lakes/Ohio Valley area – sass – led to the 1763 Proclamation Act (forbid colonists to move West of the Appalachian Mat. ) – they ignore this and go there anyway 6. Treaty of Paris – US acquires land up to the Mississippi River – An land threatened – Duchess’s Confederacy threatens Westerners (AN are getting arms from the British) 7.
War of 1812 – War Hawks in the West (Clay and Calhoun) pushing for war against British 8. Jackasses – helped Lewis and Clark expedition; helped to establish friendly relationships with Western territory (Louisiana Purchase – plus Oregon Territory) 9. Removal policy – Jackson and Southerners who wanted to plant cotton – Indian Removal Act pushed through Congress 10. Marshall decision – Cherokee V. Georgia and Worcester v. Georgia – Cherokees were not to be removed – Jackson ignores this – “Trail of Tears” – about 6000 died (Oklahoma) Top 10: Rise of Political Parties: 1 .
No mention of political parties in the Constitution – most of the founding fathers mistrusted them – Washington’s Farewell Address warns against them 2. Federalists v. Industrialists – ratification of the Constitution – concerns over lack of protection of civil liberties (end up with the Bill of Rights as a result) – concerns that too much federal power could be bad 3. Hamiltonians financial plan – bank, tariffs, whiskey tax (Whiskey Rebellion), assumption of state debts – generally the southerners opposed the plan (Toes; Federalists tended to favor more central gob;t – use of the elastic clause and loose construction 4.
French and British – Deem-Rep. Favored the French; Federalists favored the British; Adams is a Federalist – Alien and Sedition Acts passed to curb the power of the Deem-Rep’s – response to this was Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions (nullification) 5. Federalist party is dying – Deem- Reps are bringing in the immigrant and the Western states votes (War Hawks) – pressure for war comes from the D-Reps (“Mr.. Madison War”) – Last Gasp of the Federalist party – midnight appointments (Marshall), Hartford Convention 6.
No Federalist party – “Era of Good Feelings” – Monroe – the end occurs with 1824 – “corrupt bargain” election – Clay gives support to Sadism – Jackson loses despite having the popular vote (House picks Adams) 7. Democratic party is born Jackson Ana Van Burden) – state’s relents platform – neat ten Dank – no Ethereal S Tort Internal improvements; later, under Polk, it stands for expansionism (going to war if necessary to add territory to the US) 8. Whig party is born later – led by Clay – American System (bank, tariff, into. Improvements) – later dies out due to a split over the issue of slavery 9. Republican party emerges in the sass – free soil doctrine – no extension of slavery in Western territories – northerners only 10. Some third parties make a difference – reveal attitudes of the day – Know-Nothing Party (Natives party), Liberty Party (abolitionist party – costs Clay the 1844 election) Top 10: Westward Movement (up to the Civil War): 1 . Turner Thesis – all of American history has been affected by Westward Expansion – sass – Manifest Destiny 2.
Proclamation Act of 1763 – later, Treaty of Paris (1783) – US acquires the land up the Miss. River – this is where the population movement was 3. Slavery issues cause problems in the West – Missouri Compromise (Clay), 1850 Compromise (issue of slavery in CA), later K-N Act – popular sovereignty 4. Pres. Polk – expansionist, went to war to acquire California, other territory – concerns bout going to war to expand slavery (tried to prevent it with the Willow Proviso) 5. Louisiana Purchase – Itself is president – land goes from Miss.
River to Rockies – Lewis and Clark expedition – Napoleon sold it to US for $1 5 million; Itself uses loose interpretation to get the territory (opposite of what he normally believed in) 6. Massive immigration – sass and sass – Irish and Germans – needed land for these new people Forenoon’s vision of an agricultural nation) 7. Important politicians coming from the West – Henry Clay, Jackson, Polk, Harrison – “Log Cabin campaign”, Lincoln 8. Gold rush – errs – people are able to get West more quickly with railroads, steamships – Railroad construction brings Chinese workers to California 9.
AN conflicts as Americans move westward 10. Oregon Country – with British; Texas (Alamo) – Mexico (annexation is put off for almost nine years because of the issue of slavery) Top 10: Road to Civil War: 1 . Slavery is not abolished in the Constitution – “Half slave” “Half Free” – Abraham Lincoln said we cannot exist this way 2. Compromise of 1850 – issue of slavery in the West gets heated up – CA is a free state, pop. Sob. In the rest of the Mexican Cession territory, no slave trade in DC, fugitive slave act – gets stronger – angers northerners who refuse to obey the law (personal liberty laws) 3.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Harriet Beechen Stows 4. Dread Scott case – Eaten said that blacks were not citizens and that Congress could not ban slavery in territories (Northerners fear that slavery will expand) 5. “Expand or Die” – both sides know the importance of either banning or increasing slavery (Ex. – Willow Proviso attempts to ban slavery in Western Territory) 6. Slave revolts – Hessian Revolt (1801); Nat Turner (1831) – John Brown (Harpers Ferry) – 1859 increases Southern fears of Northern-led slave revolts 7.
Garrison – The Liberator; Frederick Douglass – North Star; Sojourner Truth; Harriet Tuba – underground railroad 8. “Bleeding Kansas” – results of the K-N Act 9. “Bleeding Sumner” – beat up by Brooks on the floor of the Senate 10. Election of 1860 – Lincoln gets elected with 40% of the popular vote – free soil platform; Democratic party is split – Northern Deems – pop. Sob; Southern Deem. – Dread Scott decision (protect their property) – SC is the first to leave the union Top 10: Social/ cultural Movements AT ten Early Tinny century: immediate emancipation vs.. SSE that wanted gradual emancipation/colonization (which was more popular with whites) 2. Transcendentalism – Thoreau (civil disobedience) and Emerson 3. Second Great Awakening – “Burned out district” of NY – moves westward (frontier appeal) 4. Mornings – appeal to move westward; persecuted due to their polygamist beliefs and beliefs in a different Bible 5. Women’s Movement – Stanton, Moot, Grime sisters – 1848 – Seneca Falls Convention – “Declaration of Sentiments” – push is for economic rights and education 6. Education – Horace Mann – compulsory education takes hold (a take-off on the Old
Deluder Satan Act- 1647) 7. Insane asylums – Thread Dig; prisons, work houses 8. Immigration reforms – growth of Natives (Know Nothing party) 9. Worker reforms – strikes, 10 hour work day, worker’s organizations 10. Romanticism- Hudson River School of Art – focus on nature, the individual Civil War to the Present Civil War and Reconstruction: 1 . Early military battles- Fort Sumter (leads to the second set of states leaving the Union, including Virginia), then Bull Run; Anaconda Plan of the Union Army – blockade of coastline, control of the Mississippi River, and taking Richmond (capitol of Confederacy) 2.
Advantages of the North – food production, industrial production, railroads, twice as many people (could resurvey the army with men), stronger central covet Advantages of the South – better military leadership, “king cotton” – had the primary export of trade, only had to fight a defensive war (fought mainly on home territory) 3. Border states – MO, MD, KY, and DE – these were slave states that remained loyal to the Union; Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus (arrests those that are suspected of being Confederates) in MD especially – this leads to a hare by Northern Democrats (“Copperheads”) that he is being a dictator 4.
Emancipation Proclamation – issued in Septet, 1862, after the battle of Intimate, to take effect in January, 1863; border states are excluded as only states that are “in rebellion” are forced to free their slaves (doesn’t immediately free ANY slaves then! ) – gets blacks fired up to fight, causes riots in some Northern cities (racist Northerners who don’t want to fight to eliminate slavery), and causes England to support the Union over the Confederacy 5. Turning pots. F the war – Gettysburg and Vicksburg – he North gains control of the MS River; Gettysburg led to the depletion of Lee’s troops – Grant is sent from Vicksburg to Virginia to complete the final two years of the war; Lincoln Gettysburg Address reiterates the importance of continuing the war effort 6. End of the War – Sherman March to the Sea (saves Lincoln bid for re- election! ); Lincoln Second Inaugural Address in March – “With malice toward none, with charity for all” – indicates his desire to reunite the country without revenge, Lincoln is killed a week after the surrender of Lee to Grant at Appoint in April, 1865 7.
Military Reconstruction Act of 1867 – Radical Republicans want revenge on the South, they put the South under military rule, they want to encourage the black vote to bolster Republican power (southerners accuse Northerners of coming South with “carpetbag” legislatures) – 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments passed, along with the Civil Rights Act and Freedman’s Bureau Bills – Johnson vetoes all of these acts based on his state’s rights philosophy (Congress overrides the vetoes). Eventually Johnson Is Impeached unaware ten ‘inure AT Outlet Act (nee removed sec. T war Stanton), but acquitted by one vote and remains in office. . “Granting” – US Grant is elected in 1868 and 1872 – didn’t have much political experience; had problems with some of his appointees getting involved with scandals such as the Credit Mobile Scandal (a plan to overcharge the government for building railroads and then pocketing the extra cash) – these scandals lead to increased calls by Liberal Republicans and some Democrats for civil service reform (eventually the first steps are taken with the Pendleton Act in 1883 after Pres.
Garfield is shot by a disgruntled government Job seeker) 9. Sharecropping – tenant farmers – crop lien – these were says that Southern plantation owners reorganized their property after the war to insure a cheap labor supply – mainly ex-slaves and poor whites worked the land, leaving them permanently in debt to local businesses or plantation owners (a form of pseudo-slavery) 10.
End of Reconstruction (“Redemption”) – a return to “home rule” or the “solid South” – officially the last troops pull out of the South in 1877, as part of a compromise worked out with the election of the Republican Hayes in 1876; this meant that blacks now would not receive protections – southern whites put into effect “Jim Crow’ laws (sometimes called “Black Codes”) to insure legal segregation and to take voting rights away from African Americans (literacy tests, poll taxes, etc. . The ASK and other secret societies also harass African Americans who try to start schools or try to vote; Please v. Ferguson case (1896) upheld “separate but equal” – this is not overturned until the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision Industrial Revolution/Arbitration (1860-1900) 1 . Rise of monopolies – use of horizontal integration and vertical integration by “Captains of industry’/”Robber barons” like Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, and JP Morgan 2.
Laissez-fairer attitudes of the government during this period – fairly weak presidents/Congress, the businessmen were kind of running the show, especially with the courts favoring them; acts such as the Sherman Anti-Trust Act which said that trusts that were in “restraint of trade” were illegal (passed in 1890) were interpreted vaguely, as shown in the SEC Knight case of 1895 – “Manufacturing was not trade” therefore a monopoly that is manufacturing products (in this case 95% of the sugar in America came from the Knight company) were not in violation; the act was instead used against unions which when striking were declared to be “in strains of trade” 3.
Tariffs – businessmen wanted high protective tariffs, even though they already had large monopolies/trusts; the tariff money was sometimes used for frivolous meaner – partially contributes to the depression of 1893; Cleveland was the only president in this time period to oppose high tariffs, saying that the covet should stay out the economy as much as possible (laissez-fairer) – he was defeated in 1888 by Harrison who convinced Northern factory workers that they would lose their jobs without a high tariff – by the end of the decade (1900) the Dingles Tariff is eased, the highest in our history (about a 57% tariff rate) 4. Social Darwinism – the “Gospel of Wealth” – Carnegie and Herbert Spencer – Justified the extreme popularization of wealth in the late 19th c. ; said that those on the bottom of society were lazy, weak and “unfit” – lead to the belief that only those with money should be making the decisions for society (philanthropy – they could give out their money as they see fit, not for increasing their workers’ wages, etc. ; this was romanticizes in Elm novels written Dye Horal Alger – “rags to relines” TA New technology rings about massive changes in the work force – use of electricity, steel, oil, etc. – workers were mainly in unskilled positions, they were treated as Just a number (no social interaction between employee and employer) so they were easily exploited, cheap immigrant labor could replace better paid workers 6. New immigration – after 1890, there were much larger numbers of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe; Natives groups spring up – concerns that these new immigrants were, had foreign sounding languages, were not white Anglo-Saxon protestants (WASPS); beginning of attempts to limit immigration with literacy tests, etc. Gig businessmen want the numbers to keep coming in though as they can hire them as cheap laborers (think of Juries in The Jungle) 7. Rise of Unions – National Labor Union (pushed for 8 her. Day – only got it from Government workers); Knights of Labor (for unskilled as well as skilled workers, women and blacks were allowed to Join – advocated some socialist measures, were associated with the Homemaker Riots of 1886), National Railway Union – Eugene Debs (arrested during the Pullman strike of 1893), and the FALL led by Compeers – only for skilled workers, did not advocate for socialist changes – “bread and butter” unionism – better wages, working conditions 8.
Courts attempted to stop union activity with court injunctions, arrests of leaders (like Debs), using the Sherman Anti-Trust Act; companies used harassment (Pinsetters), blacklisting, yellow dog contracts, and the use of strikebreakers to stop union activity – this sometimes led to violence – Homestead Steel Strike of 1892, for ex. 9. Rise of socialism (Marxist philosophy) and more radical anarchist activity – most was associated with more rights for workers to control their working conditions ND wages, along with demanding that the railroads and utility companies be controlled by the covet. Notable leaders would include Eugene Debs (runs as a socialist candidate for president several times) and Emma Goldman (who is eventually deported by the government to Russia). Pres. McKinley is killed by an anarchist (Leon Colossi) in 1901. 10. Attempts to deal with urban problems – overcrowding, lack of education for immigrants, disease, etc. Leads to social reform movements, including a push for temperance again (Frances Willard – WEST) and “moral purity’ (Osmotic laws), as well as the Social Gospel and Reform Darwinism events (live among the poor and help them rather than condemn them) – Jane Addams and her settlement house movement (Hull House) and the growth of the Salvation Army and HANDYMAN are examples. Farmers’ Issues – sass to the present: 1. Monetary policy – big push of the late 19th c. To reform it – farmers either wanted greenbacks (used during the Civil War – paper $ not backed up by gold or silver) or bimetallism/free coinage of silver rather than a gold standard, as they wanted inflation as they could better pay back their loans and receive higher prices for their rodents (agricultural commodities) 2.
Populists – they replace the Greenbacks and the Granges – run a candidate for Pres. (Weaver) in 1892, then Join with the Democrats in 1896 to support the young William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska – he delivers his famous “Cross of Gold” speech signaling the economic frustration farmers were having over the gold standard. Populists also believed in government ownership of the railroads, grain elevators, and utility companies, as well as many political retorts (Lyreco election AT senators, use AT secret Dollops, retirement Ana recall, etc. ). Jennings Bryan was defeated by McKinley (who only ran a “front porch” campaign funded by big business) and the Populist party died out. 3.
Unfair railroad rates were initially addressed by state laws pushed forth by Granges – these were shot down in the Wabash case of 1886, which said that only the federal government could regulate railroads as they were a part of interstate travel. This led to the passage of the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, although it was vaguely worded and therefore not enforced until the passage of the Hepburn and Alkies Acts in the Progressive era (1906-1908). 4. Western farmers (and Plains farmers) were greatly helped with the technology of barbed wire (to keep cattle from nearby ranches from trampling their crops), the mechanical reaper Noon Deer’s claim to fame) and of course, the transcontinental railroad (1869- Omaha to Sacramento).
Railroad companies were given land grants by the US covet – they owned a huge percentage of the land in the Plains area, and most farmers had to purchase their land from these OR companies (which had been given the land for free! ). This increases resentment against the IRS, which usually charged the farmers higher rises so they could give deals to the large trusts and monopolies 5. Native Americans, especially the Sioux in the Great Plains, are suffering due to this movement of whites Westward – the buffalo herds are decimated (often deliberately by the OR companies), AN are forced off their land to “assimilate” into white culture – Dates Act of 1887, for ex. , takes away all tribal status and only gives land to individuals (most of the land ends up in the hands of whites) and AN are sent away to special school.
The Dates Act is not repealed until the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act under the New Deal. The last of the “Indian Wars” takes place in Wounded Knee, South Dakota, where hundreds of Sioux are gunned down by the American military. 6. WWW – farmers are able to finally start making a profit, as they are feeding our army and most of Europe – many take out loans to purchase more land or new technology, such as tractors 7. After the war, prices for agricultural products plummet, and the farmers throughout the sass plead for help in the form of price supports – eventually Congress acts (the McCann-Hagen bill), but this is shot down by Republican Pres. Coolidge, who is a strict believer in non-intervention in the economy. 8.
Dust Bowl – actually begins when the topsoil of the Great Plains is being plowed up in the late 19th c.. After a period of extended drought in the sass, most of the topsoil of the area of Oklahoma, Northern Texas, and Kansas is blown away. Thousands of people are displaced – many of them head for California as migrant workers (Grapes of Wrath) called “Skies” 9. Fad’s New Deal was the first to really deal with the problems farmers faced – first with the passage of the A