Freedom’s Boundaries, At Home and Abroad, 1890-1900

By: Sydnee Brown, Tania Tapia, Antonette Narvasa,, Roshandeep Singh

The Redeemers in Power

• Redeemers came to existence after the failure of Populism in the South for a new racial order.

• Redeemers claimed to have redeemed the South from alleged horrors of misgovernment and “black rule.”

• Redeemers were merchants, planters and business entrepreneurs.

• Reconstruction budgets were slashed and taxes were reduced.

The Failure of the South Dream

• Henry Grady believed in a New South that’ll be prosperous based on industrial expansion and agricultural diversification.

• The region sank deeper into poverty.

• The main attraction were the low wages and availability of convict labor.

• Largely dependent on the North for capital and manufactured goods.

Black Life in The South

• In the Upper South, economic development offered some opportunities– mines, iron furnaces, laborers, and many acquired land.

• Political autonomy became more restricted.

• 1890-1906: all southern states had laws against blacks voting.

• “Negro domination”

The Kansas Exodus

• 1879-1880: 40,000-60,000 blacks migrated to Kansas.

• They were seeking political equality, freedom from violence, access to education, and economic opportunity.

• The term, “Exodus” derived from the biblical account of the Jews escaping slavery in Egypt– indicated that its roots lay in deep longings for the substance for freedom.

The Law of Segregation

• Southern schools and many other institutions had been segregated during Reconstruction.

• Civil Rights Cases (1833)

• Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896), the Court gave its approval to state laws requiring separate facilities for blacks and whites.

Lynching• Blacks who challenged the system or

refused to accept demeaning behavior, faced not only political and legal power but also violent threats.

• 1880’s to mid-20th Century, nearly 5,000 people were lynched– murdered by a mob.

• Lynchings were done secretly at night or advertised in advance, attracting large crowds.

• Sam Hose, laborer who killed his employer in self-defense was lynched. His ears, fingers, genitals, were cut off and then burned alive. Executioners fought over pieces of bones as souvenirs.

The Politics of Memory

• Slavery was seen as a minor issue, not the war’s fundamental cause.

• Role of black soldiers in winning the war was all but forgotten.

• Civil War came to be remembered as a tragic family quarrel.

• Southern school textbooks pictured happy slaves and the evils of Reconstruction.

Redrawing the Boundaries

• “The South has its negro, the city has its slums… The friends of American institution fear the ignorant immigrant, and the workingmen dislikes the Chinese.”

• Americans embraced a more restricted definition of nationhood.

• Periodicals depicted blacks as savages and criminals.

The New Immigration And The New Nativism

• 3.5 million immigrants came from Southern and Eastern Europe to areas in the North and Midwest looking for substandard wages.

• Immigration Restriction League (1899) sought to reduce immigration by barring illiterate from entering the United States.

Chinese Exclusion and Chinese Rights

• Congress excluded Chinese from entering because they were preserving the health of white citizens.

• This was temporary for the first 10 years, starting from 1882. After then, it became permanent until 1965.

The Emergence of Booker T. Washington

• Born: April 5th, 1856

• Died: November 14th, 1915

• He was a educator, author, African American Civil Rights Leader

• He repudiated the abolitionist tradition that stressed ceaseless agitation for full equality. Urged blacks not to try to combat segregation, but instead seek assistance of white employers.

The Rise of The AFL

• As Homestead and Pullman strikes demonstrated, direct confrontation with corporations proved to be suicidal.

• Samuel Gompers, founder of AFL, sought Knights Utopian image, not economic independence, but a cooperative commonwealth.

• Membership was restricted to skilled workers.

The Women’s Era

• There was increased autonomy for women during these 3 decades.

• Although they weren’t able to vote, married women had control over their wages, property, and the right to sign separate contracts

• Women’s Christian Temperance Union (1874)was a comprehensive program of economic and political reform.

The Lure of Empire: American Imperialism and Expansionism

• America acquired Alaska from Russia and was interested in the Alevtian islands.

• Aim was to expand trade, not territorial expansion

• Jame C. Blaine influenced to try to acquire Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Cuba as strategic naval bases

• Dwight Moody inspired a student volunteer movement for foreign missions to send 8,000 missionaries to spread Christianity, prepare the world for the second coming of Christ and uplift poor

The “Splendid Little War”

• Cuba struggled for independence from Spain

• Cuba won support from the U.S.

• Teller Amendment was adopted by Congress that stated that the U.S. had not intention annexing of dominating the Island.

• McKinley embraced the idea of imperial expansion.

Roosevelt at San Juan Hill

• Roosevelt believed that war would reinvigorate the nation’s unity and sense of manhood

• Rough Riders was a cross section of American society and enrolled athletes from Ivy League colleges.

• He was elected governor of New York and became Vice President of McKinley in 1900.

An American Empire• McKinley convinced Congress that U.S. can’t

return Philippines to Spain or grant them independence.

• Treaty with Spain ended the war in which the U.S. got Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, and Guantanamo Bay.

• Open Door Policy (1899) by Sas John Jay demanded European powers to grant equal access to American exports to China

• It was a free movement of goods, NOT people

The Philippine War

• Cubans, Filipinos and Puerto Ricans believed with the Americans on their side, this would led to a new social reform and political self government

• Pres. McKinley came to intervene Filipino leader Emilio Aguinaldo after Aguinaldo established a new government based off the American Government

• This led to a new war that lasted 4 years (1899-1903) with 100,000 Filipino and 4,200 American casualties

• Americans modernized the Philippines with railroads, harbors, schoolteachers and public health officials

• But by the 1920s, the Philippines became one of the poorest countries in the Caribbean

Citizens or Subjects?

• After the Spanish-American war, the whole idea of “empire of liberty” was entitled to the Anglo-Saxons more than other people

• Puerto Rico was declared an “Insular Territory” because of The Foraker Act of 1900

• This gave P.R limited “American Freedom”, no taxation without representation and a government created by the people

• By 1917 Congress granted citizenship to P.R and became a Commonwealth.

Drawing the Global Color Line

• Americans idea toward racial attitudes was now known all over the world

• The Chinese exclusion in the US influenced the anti-Chinese laws in Canada

• Segregation in America helped model for new governments in both Australia and South Africa

• South African segregation later became known as apartheid

“Republic or Empire?”

• There was a debate on growing power the United States had in the world

• Instead of gaining power by claiming more land, they gained power by bringing “a new day of freedom” to other parts of the world

• This made sense in the way of breaking up large territories, such as Spain, made the US a stronger force by making Spain weaker