Farming Frontier• of 1862
• 160 acres of public land fee to any family that settled on it for a period of 5 years
• 1870-1890 about 500,000 families claimed land• About 2.5 million families purchased land from railroads and
speculators• Hardships
– Extremes of weather, grasshoppers, loneliness, lack of water, lack of wood, falling prices, cost of new machinery, not enough land
• Solutions– “soddies”, barbed wire (Glidden 1874), mail-order, windmills, steel plow,
new strains of crops, dams, irrigation
• 2/3 of homesteader farms failed by 1900
• Act• Land grants to promote development of western railroads
New New AgriculturalAgriculturalTechnologyTechnology
New New AgriculturalAgriculturalTechnologyTechnology
““Prairie Fan”Prairie Fan”Water PumpWater Pump
Steel Plow [“Sod Steel Plow [“Sod Buster”]Buster”]
Frontier Settlements: 1870-Frontier Settlements: 1870-18901890
Frontier Settlements: 1870-Frontier Settlements: 1870-18901890
Case File for Virgil Earp; Prescott, Arizona (1870-1905) National Archives
Homesteads From Public LandsHomesteads From Public LandsHomesteads From Public LandsHomesteads From Public Lands
18871887LandLand
PromotionPromotionPosterPosterfor thefor theDakotaDakota
TerritoriesTerritories
18871887LandLand
PromotionPromotionPosterPosterfor thefor theDakotaDakota
TerritoriesTerritories
What is the Message of this What is the Message of this Picture?Picture?
What is the Message of this What is the Message of this Picture?Picture?
The Realty--A Pioneer’s Sod House, The Realty--A Pioneer’s Sod House, SDSD
The Realty--A Pioneer’s Sod House, The Realty--A Pioneer’s Sod House, SDSD
Rain Follows the Plow!Rain Follows the Plow!Rain Follows the Plow!Rain Follows the Plow!
Newlands Reclamation Act Newlands Reclamation Act (1902)(1902)
Newlands Reclamation Act Newlands Reclamation Act (1902)(1902)
Francis NewlandsFrancis Newlands
Frederick Jackson TurnerFrederick Jackson TurnerFrederick Jackson TurnerFrederick Jackson Turner
The Significance of the Frontier The Significance of the Frontier in American Societyin American Society (1893)(1893)
Frontier Effects?
- optimism, future orientation, shedding of restraints due to land scarcity, and wastefulness of natural resources
Farm Protest
• Farmers of all regions faced same problems:
• Were becoming a minority in American society– Number of farms doubled between 1865-1900– People working as farmers declined from 60%
of population in 1860 to 37% in 1900
Agriculture
• Cotton Still King• 1870-1900 acres planted in cotton more than doubled• Increased productivity led to a decline in world markets by more
than 50%• Per capita income in the South actually declined• By 1900
– ½+ of white and ¾ of black southern farmers were tenants or sharecroppers
• George Washington Carver at Tuskegee Institute (AL) [founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881] promoted the growth of diverse crops such as peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans
• Discontent– Farmers’ Southern Alliance = 1 million + members– Colored Farmers’ National Alliance = 250,000 members
» Failed to unite
Changes in Agriculture
• Falling Prices• Increased American
production• Foreign competition
(Canada, Russia, Argentina)• Prices fell, farmers had to
grow more, causing prices to fall, …
• Rising Costs•Industrial corporations formed monopolies to keep prices high•Middlemen (wholesalers, retailers) took their cut•Railroads, warehouses charge high, discriminatory rates•Heavy taxes on property, but not income from stocks and bonds
•More commercialized
•More specialized (single crops per farm)
•Consumers dependent on stores for food and mail-order for manufactured goods
•As producers dependent on large and expensive machines such as steam engines, seeders, and reaper-thresher combines
•Larger farms of thousands of acres were run like factories
Farmers Fight Back
• National Grange Movement• National Grange of Patrons of Husbandry, by Oliver Kelley in 1868
as social and educational organization• B6 1870s organized economic ventures and political action• Greatest in the Midwest
– Established cooperatives (run by farmers)– Lobbied state legislatures to regulate rr and elevator rates
» Supreme Court upheld in Munn v. Illinois (1877)
• Interstate Commerce Act (1886)• Wabash v. Illinois (1886) Supreme Court ruled that only the federal
government could regulate interstate trade• Congress responded to farmers by passing the ICA
– Investigate and prosecute pools, rebates, and other discriminatory practices
– Took years to be useful to the farmers
Closest Current NJ Grange
Farmers Fight Back
• Farmers’ alliances• 1890 about 1 million farmers were members of alliances
(similar to granges)
• Ocala Platform, 1890• Direct election of US Senators• Lower tariff rates• Graduated income tax• New banking system regulated by the federal government• Increase money in circulation• (Would become part of the Populist Movement in 1892,
1896 elections)
“Cross of Gold”"Having behind us the
producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." - W.J. Bryan
The legal price is fixed ...
Legal Gold price of silveror how many tons of silver
you need to buy one ton of gold 16 :1
371 grains of pure silver
<= ONE DOLLAR IS DEFINED AS =>
23.5 grains
of pure gold
Bimetalism
... but the market price changes.
Market Gold price of silverFrom 1837 to the Civil War
15 :1
One silver dollar
One gold dollar
1 $ <= VALUE AS A LEGAL TENDER=> 1 $
You can pay your debt either in gold or in silver at the legal ratio
1.07 $ <= VALUE OF METAL IF MELTED=> 1 $
You will thus pay in the cheapest coin and melt or hoard the other.
If the market price of silver exceeds the legal price ...
... silver coins are melted and gold jewels are coined, changing the relative supply of both metals. Market price of silver declines and equilibrium is restored.
The legal ratio fixes the market ratio if enough big countries are on the same bimetallic system with the same legal ratio.
If the oversupply of silver is lasting, all the silver can be drained from the money stock.
Gold exchanges for silver at 15:1 on the bullion market, but only at 16:1 at the legal price.
$4.04 $4.25
You can either coin your silver bar directly at the mint, in which case you will get 4.04 $, or you can
first exchange it on the bullion market for gold and then coin the gold at the mint. In that case you will
get 4.5$, because silver is undervalued as a legal tender.
Silver is undervalued when used as money, so no one will use it.
Gold is overvalued when used as money, so gold coins will be the only one to circulate.
U.S. Mint
Adoption of Gold
Standard
Germany 1871
Scandinavia* 1874
Denmark 1875
Norway 1875
Sweden 1875
Holland 1875
Belgium 1873
Italy 1873
Switzerland 1873
France 1876
Spain 1876
Austria 1879
Russia 1893
India 1898
USA (officially) 1900
* as a monetary unionformed that year
Colt .45 RevolverColt .45 RevolverColt .45 RevolverColt .45 Revolver
God didn’t make men equal.God didn’t make men equal.Colonel Colt did!Colonel Colt did!
Legendary Gunslingers & Train Legendary Gunslingers & Train RobbersRobbers
Legendary Gunslingers & Train Legendary Gunslingers & Train RobbersRobbers
Jesse JamesJesse James
Billy the KidBilly the Kid
Dodge City Peace Commission, Dodge City Peace Commission, 18901890
Dodge City Peace Commission, Dodge City Peace Commission, 18901890
BlackBlack“Exoduster”“Exoduster”
HomesteaderHomesteaderss
Blacks Moving WestBlacks Moving West
The Buffalo Soldiers on the Great The Buffalo Soldiers on the Great PlainsPlains
The Buffalo Soldiers on the Great The Buffalo Soldiers on the Great PlainsPlains
A Romantic ViewA Romantic ViewA Romantic ViewA Romantic View
The Buffalo Soldiers & the Indian The Buffalo Soldiers & the Indian WarsWars
The Buffalo Soldiers & the Indian The Buffalo Soldiers & the Indian WarsWars
The “Chinese Question”The “Chinese Question”The “Chinese Question”The “Chinese Question”
Exclusion Act (1882)Exclusion Act (1882) - Oriental Exclusion - Oriental Exclusion ActAct - Chinese Exclusion - Chinese Exclusion ActAct
The Tong Wars: 1850s-1920sThe Tong Wars: 1850s-1920sThe Tong Wars: 1850s-1920sThe Tong Wars: 1850s-1920s
Began in San Francisco in Began in San Francisco in 1875.1875.
African American & ChineseAfrican American & ChinesePopulations:Populations:
1880-19001880-1900
African American & ChineseAfrican American & ChinesePopulations:Populations:
1880-19001880-1900