Moving WestAfter the Civil War

This power point follows the objectives listed for Westward Expansion after the Civil War as listed for fifth grade in the Core Knowledge Sequence.

Words printed in red can be found in the Glossary on slide 28.

* Denotes helpful references which can be found in the Bibliography on slide 29.

One Nation

The Civil War was over, the South was in ruins, President Lincoln had been assassinated, our nation had paid a high cost in lives and dollars but we were still ONE nation.

Expansion

Much needed to be done to restore the nation after the Civil War. Even during this difficult time Western Expansion continued to dominate many peoples’ lives. People continued to move west to look for gold, to own their own land or to start a new life. The Civil War did not stop Westward Expansion.

Many of the people who were moving west came from more populated states in the East. This land of opportunity also attracted new settlers from other countries. A great wave of immigrants came to the United States in the last half of the nineteenth century. In fact, millions of people settled in the United States between 1850 and 1900. Why would so many people emigrate?

More Immigrants Arrive

There were plenty of reasons for emigrating. Freedom of religion continued to be a motivation for some, famine and economic depression in their homeland brought others to the United States. Some people were fleeing slavery or governments that did not allow them the freedoms and opportunities the United States offered. Whatever their motivation, they were positive their life would be better in the U.S.

A Better Place

The Homestead Act

The Great Plains had been crossed on the way west, but few settlers chose this harsh environment for their home. The railroads, which had received land as a part of the agreement to lay tracks through the Great Plains, offered bargains for transportation and land to potential settlers. The U.S. government developed an even better plan to attract settlers. The Homestead Act of 1862 offered free land in what is now Iowa and Nebraska. Both citizens and immigrants could have 160 acres of free land if they agreed to farm the land for at least five years. Over a period of forty years, 80 million acres of land were given away. As a result, agriculture production in the U.S. doubled between 1870 and 1900.

“Go West, Young Man”

Journalist Horace Greeley’s popularized advice, “Go west, young man, and grow up with the country,” was lived out by many settlers. Manifest Destiny and economic benefits depended on getting people to settle the West as quickly as possible.

All Aboard! New opportunities for transportation to the West developed in the nineteenth century. Canals, such as the Erie Canal, already connected waterways in the early nineteenth century.*4 Railroads built in the 1830’s and 1840’s brought even greater improvement for passage to the West. Train travel in these days was an improvement over wagon trains but certainly nothing like train travel today! Be sure to read more about the adventures and difficulties of traveling by train in the early nineteenth century. *6

Yes, the gold rush brought people to California - enough people to help it qualify for statehood. Yet, California was isolated from the rest of the continent. Getting goods and people from eastern states was difficult. There were only three ways to get there:

•by horseback or wagon,

• by ship around the southern tip of South America

• a trip by ship on the Atlantic to Central America, then crossing swamps on foot and finally boarding another ship to continue the journey on the Pacific

Each of these options was dangerous and difficult.

had become a state in 1850. Can you remember a discovery that caused many people to settle this far west?

California

Trains Trains were the easiest form of travel in that day, but you couldn’t get to California by train because tracks only reached as far west as Omaha, Nebraska. The country needed a railroad system to span the continent. Congress passed a law in 1862 to build a new rail line that would bridge the 1800 miles between Omaha and Sacramento, California. Building a Transcontinental Railroad became the biggest construction project of the century.

Tough WorkThe Transcontinental Railroad project was too large for one company, so the government named two companies to work together.

The Central Pacific company, which began their work in Sacramento in 1862, laid track toward the east. Their challenges included building track through the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

The Union Pacific line began their work in Omaha in 1865 and headed west. Can you explain what event delayed their start? Laying tracks through the Great Plains required workers to fight blizzards and the local Native American warriors who did not welcome this disturbance on their land .

The Transcontinental

Railroad

To help the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroads, the U.S. government loaned them money. The government also gave the companies free land bordering the tracks they laid. This project employed 20,000 men. The work was difficult and progressed slowly. Crews of 30 men each toiled six days a week, twelve hours a day. The crews faced challenges from the climate, geography and natives of the land.

The Ten-Mile

Day

As time passed, the crews became very efficient. You’ll want to read more about the bragging and challenges between the men and also between the two companies. The climax of this competition was “The Ten Mile Day” contest. Though others bet it couldn’t be done, the Central Pacific team laid ten miles of track in a single day! The project was nearing completion. Using ingenuity, simple tools and explosives, workers had laid 1800 miles of track. On May 10, 1869, a golden spike was placed to join the two rail lines at Promontory Summit, Utah. This amazing project was finished a full year ahead of schedule and changed the face of our nation. *1

Ethnic Groups and the Railroad

The railroad companies needed a huge work force to complete the Transcontinental Railroad. Only the U.S. Army was larger than this crew of railroad workers. Civil War veterans from the North and South worked side by side laying track. The work force included the Irish, Mexican Americans, African Americans, Native Americans and Chinese.

QuickTime™ and aPhoto - JPEG decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Chinese Workers and the Railroad

The Chinese immigrants were vital to the success of the project. They had rushed to California to join in the Gold Rush of 1849. Most of them did not find gold. As railroad workers, they had a reputation as hard workers who cooperated in teams. Chinese workers often did the most dangerous jobs. Hanging from baskets, they placed explosives to clear a path through mountainous routes.

Cattle Drives

Cattle roamed freely in Texas and multiplied. By 1860, there were more than five million head of cattle roaming between San Antonio, Texas and the Rio Grande River. Since cattle were so plentiful, they brought little profit when sold at local markets. Texans realized that if they could get the cattle north to the railroad towns in the Great Plains, cattle could be carried by train to the East and bring ten times the local profit. And so began the “long drives” to herd cattle to the railroad towns. * 3

Cowboys

What picture comes to your mind when you hear the word “cowboys?”

Think Again

The image:

Cowboys were strong, white, American men.

The reality:Cowboys were usually teens or young men. Many cowboys were African Americans or Native Americans, and 25 % - 33% of them were Mexicans called “vaqueros.”

Cowboys carried two six-shooters strapped to their hips. They were expert marksmen.

Most cowboys carried a rifle in their saddle bags and used it only for hunting. Few cowboys owned even one six-shooter.

The Image and Reality

The image:

Cowboys lived an exciting, adventurous life.

The reality:A cowboy’s work required a high level of skills but was most often routine. A stampede might cause danger at anytime, but most of their work was the same, day after day.

Cowboys were mavericks, independent thinkers, who lived life in their own way.

Cowboys were really hired hands who took orders from their boss.

The Wild, Wild West

The age of the cowboys began in the late 1860’s, yet by 1890 the days of open range round- ups and long drives had ended. Barbed-wire fencing and winter feeding changed the range forever. So how did the cowboy image become a dominant picture of life in the West ?

Famous movie cowboy, Gene Autry

LegendsAs more people settled in towns, imagining life in the West brought excitement into ordinary lives. Newspapers, always eager to sell more copies, exaggerated events of the West. “Dime novels” popularized bandits, stagecoach travel and life on the range, and soon became the popular reading choice of the day. In addition, a new form of entertainment called Wild West shows became popular. By the 1880’s there were fifty traveling Wild West shows featuring riding and shooting contests and dramas.

The Parley by Fredric Remington is a visual representation of a popular description of life on the range.

Buffalo Bill

Buffalo Bill Cody, a cowboy, Pony Express rider, scout and buffalo hunter, developed one of the most popular Wild West shows. His show starred Chief Sitting Bull and Annie Oakley. Annie Oakley was a sharp-shooter from Ohio, but she had never even been out West.

Outlaws

Some of the stories the newspapers published were stories about real people, but they were a romanticized version of reality. The stories made desperadoes, such as Billy the Kid and Jesse James, appear to be heroes. In reality these men were thieves who robbed banks, trains and stagecoaches. They were also murderers who killed anyone who got in their way. Both of these outlaws died violently. How does this description match the definition of a hero?

REWARD

($5,000.00)

WANTED

“BILLY THE KID”

DEAD OR ALIVE!

Jesse James

Buffalo Soldiers

African Americans served as U.S. troops in the early 1870’s. The all-black 10th and 11th units, known as Buffalo Soldiers, were assigned to keep Native Americans on the land set aside for them.

“Seward’s Folly”

In the 1700’s, Russian explorers claimed the land we call Alaska. For 100 years, Russian fur-trading companies traded with the natives. By the mid 1800’s most of the fur-bearing animals were gone, and Russia hoped to sell their claim to this land. William Seward, the Secretary of State, made a treaty in 1867 to purchase the land for $7.2 million. Many members of Congress, who needed to approve this treaty, mocked this plan. They called it, “Seward’s Folly,” “Seward’s Polar Bear Garden” and “Seward’s Ice Box.” Eventually the treaty was approved.

AlaskaAlaska became part of the U.S., which greatly increased the size of our country. In spite of the teasing, most people realized Seward had made a good decision. The proof came thirty years later, in 1897, when gold was discovered in Alaska. This discovery doubled the population of Alaska in just ten years. In 1900, more than 22 million dollars of gold was mined from the Yukon region. One hundred years after the purchase of Alaska, “black gold”(oil) was discovered there. Can you predict how the discovery of oil changed Alaska?

The End of the Frontier

For years, the western frontier had been moving. For more than three hundred years, there had always been more land to settle in the West. That all changed when the Census of 1890 declared that the frontier was closed. There remained unsettled land, but the government considered it too dry for farming.

The announcement was significant. It was the end of the era of Westward Expansion. This wasn’t the end of homesteading. There were still millions of acres behind the frontier in the Great Plains where settlers could get free land for farming. Opportunities for a good life continued in the “Land of the Free.”

GlossaryCensus - an official count

Desperadoes - Spanish term for outlaw

Dime Novels - a cheap paperback novel with a melodramatic story

Emigrant - someone who leaves a place, especially his native country, to go and live in another country

Frontier - the part of a country with expanding settlement that is being opened up by hunters, herders and other pioneers in advance of full settlement

Gold Rush - a sudden wave of migration to a new area because gold has been discovered there.

Homestead - a house, especially a farmhouse, with its dependent buildings and land

Homestead Act - an act passed by Congress in 1862, promising 160 acres of land to farmers.

Immigrant - somebody who has come to a country and settled there

Manifest Destiny -the 19th-century doctrine according to which the United States was believed to have the God-given right to expand into and possess the whole of the North American continent.

Maverick - a person who holds independent views and refuses to conform to other peoples’ standards.

Stampede - an uncontrolled headlong rush of frightened animals

Transcontinental - extending across a continent

Bibliography1. Fraser, Mary Ann. Ten Mile Day. New York, New York: Henry Holt

and Company, 1993. ISBN#0-8050-4703-4.

2. Freedman, Russell. Children of the Wild West. New York, New York: Clarion Books, 1983. ISBN#0-395-54785-7.

3. Freedman, Russell. Cowboys of the Wild West. New York, New York: Clarion Books, 1985. ISBN#0-89919-301-3.

4. Harness, Cheryl. The Amazing Impossible Erie Canal. New York, New York: Aladdin Paperbacks, 1995. ISBN#0-689-82584-6.

5. Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001

6. Murphy, Jim. Across America on an Emigrant Train. New York, New York: Clarion Books, 1993. ISBN#0-395-63390-7.

7. Pearson Publishing-Core Knowledge. Westward Expansion After the Civil War. Parsippany, New Jersey: Pearson Learning, 2002. ISBN#0-7690-5107-3.

Helpful Websites for Teachers and Students

http://cprr.org/Game/Interactive_Railroad_Project/teacher.htm

http://cprr.org/Museum/Chinese.html

http://teacher.scholastic.com/researchtools/researchstarters/immigration/.Research Starters: Immigration