Estados Unidos en el siglo XIX

US History Review (I − V)
Part One
• Abraham Lincoln's Plan: To Forgive
♦ It offered the former slaves no role in the political future of the south
♦ He endorsed of limited black suffrage
♦ He granted African Americans the right to vote
♦ States must ratify the 13th amendment
♦ He was willing to pardon former confederates, except high officials, they had to make an oath
swearing loyalty.
♦ Prohibited slavery.
• Radical Republican's Plan: To Punish
♦ Leaders: Charles Summer, Thaddeus Stevens
♦ The thought that reconstruction couldn't be secure without black suffrage
♦ They wanted equal rights for the former slaves.
♦ They didn't agree on the issue of dividing the land of the large slaveholders among the former
slaves.
• 14th & 15th Amendment
♦ 14th: protected South against Black codes
◊ Black codes: series of laws passed to limit freedom/rights of blacks
◊ Protection of former slaves under the law
♦ 15th: no state may prohibit the right to vote because of race.
• Tenure of Office Act
♦ In order to limit Johnson's ability to interfere with its reconstruction plans, Congress passed
them. This measure barred the president from removing office holders, including cabinet
members, without the consent of the senate.
• Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
♦ Believing the law unconstitutional, Johnson dismissed the Secretary of War, an ally of the
radicals. This action the last straw, and Congress voted to impeach him. He wasn't removed,
but lost his power.
Part Two
• Reconstruction
♦ Successes:
◊ Some rights (in theory) 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments.
◊ Technology
◊ Public education in the south
◊ AA's in politics
♦ Failures:
◊ Blacks lacked many rights (in practice)
◊ Discrimination, terrorism
◊ Black Codes (Jim Crowe Laws, Grandfather Clause)
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• Union League:
♦ Throughout the south, new groups achieved political powers. Many former slaves joined the
Union League; they wanted to exercise their rights as citizens. The union League became
their political voice. They had meetings at churches, picnics, etc.
• Terms and Concepts
♦ Carpetbaggers: the Republican Party brought to power whites that were new to politics; they
had gone after, or during the war to the south. They were called like this, referring to their
luggage. Their opponents said that they went to the south to reap the spoils of office. Most of
them were former soldiers; others were investors who saw economic advantages in the
postwar South.
♦ Scalawags: native born southerners who joined the republican party. Most scalawags were
white farmers who hoped the reconstruction governments would help them recover from
wartime economic losses.
♦ Share Cropping: under this system each participating family rented a piece of land and
worked it relatively free from outside supervision. This system was very popular, at firs,
because not many former slaves had enough money to have a piece of land of their own. They
paid a share of the year's crops, to the landowner.
♦ KKK: a significant number of former southern leaders, embittered by their defeat, were
determined to overthrow the reconstruction government. In an order to restore white
supremacy, they resorted to violence and terror. The purpose of the Klan was to terrorize
African Americans who attempted to vote, and stand up for their rights. The scalawags and
carpetbaggers were also victims of that violence. In 1870 − 1871 the Congress passed the
Enforcement acts, outlawing terrorist societies and authorizing the use of the army against
them.
• Civil Rights act of 1866
♦ Acts passed by Congress that guaranteed citizenship to African Americans, and gave them
some rights. President Johnson later vetoed these bills.
• Elections of 1876
♦ In these elections the end of the reconstruction era was decided. The republican candidate,
Rutherford Hayes lost to Samuel Tilden, a democrat. However, a dispute erupted over the
electoral vote in several states. So they signed the Compromise of 1877, in this agreement the
Republican Party gained the elections. And the democrats gained a promise of the withdrawal
of all remaining federal troops from the south and federal support in internal improvements
such as the expansion of the southern railway system.
• Jim Crowe Laws
♦ J\Laws passed in the South after reconstruction, to segregate the races.
• Frederick Douglass
♦ US abolitionist lecturer and writer. He escaped from slavery in 1838. he founded North Star,
an abolitionist paper, he also supported women's suffrage.
♦ He believed that our reconstruction measures were radically defective because they failed to
give the ex−slaves any land.
Part Three
• Ranchers: the railroads played an important role in creating new ways to exploit the land. The
westward region had plenty of resources, like cattle and grass, conditions necessaries for ranches.
Railroads complemented ranching, because it provided transport of cattle to the eastern cities.
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• Cowboys: the growth of ranching gave birth to the cowboy. To move cattle from southern Texas to
Kansas, where the nearest railroads was, the ranchers needed someone to go along them, to keep the
cattle in the right direction. Because of what they were transporting, they had to adopt measure, taken
from the Spanish Vaqueros, like their vestment and equipment.
• Miners: this was one of the most popular jobs at the time. During the westward expansion, large
numbers of Americans, Irish, Chinese, Chilean, Mexican, German, etc. came in search of the
American dream. This movements kept from 1859's − 1870's
Those systems, wouldn't have survived, if it weren't for the railroads that permitted those immigrants to go to
the west, and to bring their products to the east, to sell it. Promontory Point, Utah, this was the point where the
two railroad lines interconnected, creating a connection between the two oceans. This was ended in 1869.
• Removal of Natives
♦ With all this westward expansion the country population started to grow drastically, driving
the natives to narrow places, where they couldn't survive, because they were nomads, that
went wherever the buffalos went. The mines and ranchers, especially, violently pushed those
tribes away, and took their lands; even the government used the force to gain lands.
♦ 1864, The Sand Creek Massacre. The Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes accepted an offer of
protection from the government. But instead of peace the natives met with disaster, a group of
soldiers attacked their camp; some tried to stop the fight by raising a white flag, but the result
was 450 natives were killed.
♦ Then, after many years of problems, the natives accepted to live in reservations, tracks of land
under the jurisdiction of the federal government.
♦ But still, some tribes like the Sioux didn't want to surrender, and they fought against the US
army, in the Battle of Little Big Horn, this was a victory, but later they surrendered, in 1877.
• Closing of the frontier
♦ In 1890, the government declared the frontier officially closed.
◊ This meant that it was no longer possible to leave the mistakes of the past behind and
move on to new lands and new hopes, now they had to know the past, to do
something in the present, to see the result in the future.
Part Four
• Terms and Concepts
♦ Trust: a common type of business consolidation in the 1880's − 1890's. it operated as one
huge company, controlling the prices, and by so, the competitions.
♦ Pool: business arrangements used in the 1870's and 1880's, in which several companies
agreed to divide available business in an area among themselves and prevent competitions, by
controlling prices.
♦ Corporation: is a type of business organization that is created when three or more people
apply for a charter or license from a state government. Under this system, the use of share,
they are sold in order to raise money, in return, the shareholders receive dividends, a portion
of the company's yearly profits.
♦ Monopoly: this means that a trust has complete control over an industry (production, supply,
quality, price, and wages)
◊ Technological advances. Like the invention of the telephone, typewriter, calculator,
light bulb.
◊ This advances also changed the way people worked. Inventors developed many
machines that displaced many workers. Instead of creating a product from start to
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finish, they specialized in some areas. And often a machine aided them. This brought
Mass production, which brought more products with a cheaper rate. Worker wages
decreased because of the immigrants. The work hours were about 15 hours a day, six
or seven days a week.
◊ Social Darwinism: Applied Darwinism to society. The survival of the fittest.
◊ Gospel of Wealth: Religious selection. It said that God had chosen some to be
wealthy, and that justifies the leaders wealth.
◊ Laissez−Faire: this said that the government should let the economy alone, except
when the business leaders wanted financial aid.
◊ Robber Barons / Captain of industry
Part Five
• Immigrants stories
♦ Don't come back `til you sell them all: A polish immigrant girl was sent to the streets by her
father to sell petticoats he had made. He told the girl not to come back until she had sold them
all. The money was to be used to get her mother out of the hospital (she had a baby). Her
father was too proud to ask for charity so he preferred to sell petticoats and have his dignity.
The girl did sell them all.
♦ Pictures − Brides: Japanese immigrants in order to find a wife often used the system of the
picture − bride. This system consisted in exchanging pictures with their future groom/bride.
The difference was that they would usually borrow a suit, take the picture in front of a
mansion or a factory and pretend to be rich. The women would get very disappointed after
they found out that they had married a poor guy.
◊ Nativism: it was anti− immigrants attitudes. People were competing for everything
and developed this feeling against those who were considered to be outsiders and that
threaten their position. For example workers for those who were willing to work for
low wages; Protestants against Jews and Catholics etc.
◊ Xenophobia: it is the hatred or fear for foreign or strangers. For example they posted
signs such as No Jews or dogs allowed, ethnics jokes, and calling names.
◊ Reasons for immigration:
♦ The opportunity to work in America's new factories.
♦ To escape intolerable conditions at their homelands.
♦ To earn money to their families.
♦ For the American dream: the search of hope, a better future and life to their families and
themselves.
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