America: A Narrative History chapter 19

Who was Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer?

A US officer who led the Great Sioux War in the northern Great Plains

What happened at the Battle of Wounded Knee in South Dakota in 1890?

A battle erupted between US soldiers and Indians come to surrender and 200 Indians and 25 soldiers died.

What was "A Century of Dishonor"?

A novel by Helen Jackson about the Indian cause. Its impact on American attitudes toward the Indians was comparable to Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin."

What was the major economic problem of the south?

A prolonged shortage of cash

What was the "New South"?

A south with a diversified economy of industrial and agricultural sectors, a more efficient agriculture, more widespread education, especially vocational training, and sectional peace and racial harmony. A south that was dominated by small farmers and was a departure from the planter aristocracy of the antebellum era.

Where was the first successful cowtown?

Abilene, Kansas

Who were Exodusters?

African Americans who migrated from the South to the West after Reconstruction in search of a haven from racism and poverty

What percentage of the cowboys who participated in Texas cattle drives were African Americans?

As much as 25%

Who was the leader of the Sioux during the Great Sioux War?

Chief Sitting Bull

What happened at Little Bighorn River?

Custer and his men were annihilated by the Sioux

True or False: The New South vision was a booming success

False

True or False: The slaughter of buffalo and Indians did not cause any widespread criticism

False

Who were tenant farmers?

Farmers who owned their own supplies, but still worked someone else's land, although they received a larger share of the crop.

Why did small farmers engage in open revolt against the "system" of corrupt middlemen and "greedy" bankers in the 1890s?

Few small farmers were prospering although the overall value of farmland and farm products was increasing.

What happened during the Red River War of 1874-1875?

General Sheridan forced the Indians in the southern plains to disband, breaking up Indian resistance, and 72 Indian chiefs were imprisoned

Who was the major supporter of the "New South" vision?

Henry Grady

What were bonanza farms?

Huge farms that developed in Minnesota, the Dakotas, and California that mass produced agricultural goods

Where were Germans, Scandinavians and Irish especially numerous?

In the northern plains

What was the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887?

It divided tribal lands, granting 160 acres to each head of a family and lesser amounts to others

What did the Homestead Act of 1862 do?

It offered settlers title to federal land if they staked a claim and lived on it for five years, or they could buy the land at $1.25 an acre after six months

What was the Ghost Dance craze?

Jack Wilson/Wovoka, had a vision and believed that a deliverer was coming to rescue the Indians and restore their lands. To hasten their deliverance, the Indians had to hold a ceremonial dance each month. The Lakota Sioux in 1890 adopted it with such fervor that white authorities banned the dance.

Who said "I am tired of fighting...My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever."

Joseph, a Nez Perce chief, in a speech of surrender

Why did the exodus of black southerners to the West die out by the early 1880s?

Many of the settlers were unprepared for living on the plains, their Kansas homesteads were not large enough, and most of the black farmers were forced to hire themselves out to white ranchers. Natural disasters and hardships such as drought led to crop failures.

Where was the Comstock Lode?

Nevada

Where did the largest number of foreign immigrants come from?

Northern Europe and Canada

Why were most farmers not flourishing after the Civil War?

Overplanting of tobacco and cotton continued, and crop prices deflated making it difficult to own land, so many turned to sharecropping

What were the major strikes in Colorado after the 1849 gold rush?

Pikes Peak (1858), Central City (1859), Leadville (1870s), Cripple Creek (1891, 1894)

Who were the "redeemers" or "bourbons?

Southern political leaders who promoted a more diversified economy based upon industrial development and railroad expansion. They slashed state expenditures, and supposedly saved the South from "Yankee" rule. They also strongly supported white supremacy.

What did the 1890 census show?

That the frontier era in American development was over and that people were spread across the entire continent.

Why did Lincoln only receive 2 of the 3 electoral votes from the newly settled mining state of Nevada?

The 3rd electoral voter got caught in a snowstorm

Who owned the American Tobacco Company?

The Duke family of North Carolina

What brought about the virtual end of the Indian wars?

The capture of the Apache chief, Geronimo, in 1886

What did the 1867 Congressional "Report on the Condition of the Indian Tribes" lead to?

The creation of an Indian Peace commission charged with removing the causes of the Indian wars by persuading the Indians to remove to out-of-the-way reservations

What did the shortage of money foster in the South?

The crop-lien system

Who was Frederick Jackson Turner?

The developer of the influential frontier thesis outlined in "The Significance of the Frontier in American History"

What was the major accomplishment of the New South movement?

The dramatic expansion of the textile industry in the South.

Why did the West grow significantly after the Civil War?

The federal government encouraged settlement and economic development. Transcontinental railroads, Indian conquest, and the Homestead Act also contributed.

Why did women develop more independence and equality with men on the frontier?

The hard life on the frontier made men and women more equal partners, and many women had to take on the responsibility for their farms if their husbands died.

What was the frontier thesis?

The idea that the American expansion westward shaped the nation's politics, character, economy, and society.

What was the Great Sioux War?

The largest military event since the end of the Civil War and one of the largest campaigns against Indians in American history. It lasted 15 months with 15 battles.

Why was living on the plains initially so difficult?

There was no wood, so pioneers lived in sod houses and battled with the elements. The land also resisted plowing.

What was one reason why the Sioux were eventually defeated and forced onto reservations?

They failed to follow up their advantage after Little Bighorn River

What was the major accomplishment of the New South supporters and the Bourbons?

They reconciled tradition with innovation and promoted the growth of industry without sacrificing reverence for the Old South.

Why did the long cattle drives end?

They were economically unsound and could function best near railroads. Eventually ranchers started fencing in their property with barbed wire which ended the drives.

What were some of the major types of industries operating in the south after the Civil War?

Tobacco, textiles, lumber, coal, and steelmaking

True or False: 3/4 of the western migrants were men

True

True or False: Although Bourbon leaders championed white supremacy, Southern politics remained surprisingly open and democratic for African Americans

True

True or False: Between 1887 and 1934, Indians lost an estimated 86 million of their 130 million acres.

True

True or False: Cattle raising, like mining, turned into a big business dominated by giant enterprises

True

True or False: Despite its success in textiles, lumber, and steel production, the South remained the least industrial, least educated, and least prosperous region in 1900

True

True or False: Half of Texas was still unsettled by the end of the Civil War

True

True or False: Many of the African American pioneers in Kansas soon abandoned their land and moved to the few cities in the state

True

True or False: The American Tobacco Company grew so large that the Supreme Court ruled that it violated the Sherman Anti-Trust act and ordered it broken up

True

True or False: The Indians were pushed onto land that was unsuited for agriculture

True

True or False: The South had a higher illiteracy and poverty rate than the rest of the nation, especially among African Americans in the South

True

True or False: The ability to ship huge numbers of western cattle by rail transformed ranching into a major industry which spurred rapid growth in the grasslands

True

True or False: The color line was drawn less strictly immediately after the Civil War and in some places of public accommodations (such as trains), color discrimination was sporadic

True

True or False: by 1900, the South had surpassed New England as the largest producer of cotton fabric in the nation

True

True or false: Between 1870 and 1900, Americans settled more land in the West than had been occupied by all Americans up to 1870

True

What happened at Fort Lyon/Sand Creek?

US forces under Chivington slaughtered 200 peaceful Indians who had come for protection

What was the great export crop of the West?

Wheat

Why did western farmers support inflation of the money supply?

declining crop prices caused chronic indebtedness.

Why did the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty eventually fail?

emigrants through the great plains began to encroach upon Indian lands rather than merely pass through them.

Who were sharecroppers?

farmers who worked someone else's land in return for supplies and a share of the crop, usually about half.

What gave Colorado a stable economic base during the gold rush years?

farming and grazing

What was the reservation policy inaugurated by the Peace Commission in 1867?

it extended a practice that dated from colonial Virginia where housing and feeding Indians on reservations cost less than fighting them.

Although legally not prevented from voting, what were the real disenfranchisement issues facing African Americans in the Bourbon South?

local fraud and intimidation

What was the crop-lien system?

merchants furnished supplies to farmers in return for high mortgages on their crops. Because of the high risk for the merchants, they required the farmers to plant cash crops like cotton, which ensured that cotton prices kept deflating and agriculture remained undiversified

Why did Americans change their mind about the Great American Desert?

mineral deposits were discovered, transcontinental railroads were completed, the buffalo were destroyed, Indian resistance collapsed, range-cattle industry developed, and techniques of dry farming and irrigation could make the land fruitful

What helped improve life on the plains?

railroads bringing lumber, and new and improved machinery, (such as the chilled-iron plow, new threshing machines, mowers...etc)

Why did the price of cattle rise?

the railroads pushed farther west, opening new markets

Why were most of the settlers in the far West relatively prosperous, white, native-born farmers?

the very poor could not afford to relocate