The myth of progress in American culture (1492 - 1865)

Dates :

– 1492 : christopher Colombus discovers America

– 1620's : Ranaway to the persecution of the englican church, Puritain's arrival on the
Mayflowers ; founded the first settlement = Plymouth ( A new Jerusalem).

Names :

– Chirstopher Colombus : he discovered America in 1492, he tryed to sell it to the spain

kingdom.
– Ernest Tuveson : idea to create the perfect society ''millenarian nationalism''
– Thomas Moor : He wrote Utopia in 1516

Definition :

– Progress : movement to an improved or more developed state, orto a foward position.

– Civilization : advanced state of society, that has access to higher culture, technology and
istitutions.
– Savagery : a primitive state of society
– colonialism : acquirning control over other countries by occupying them.
– Millennium : the idea that a ''kingdom of God'' can be established on earth.
– American dream : the opportunity for prosperity and success, as well as an upward social
mobility.
– The Manifest destiny : God himself had a plan for america. US is missioned by God to
expand its dominion and spread democracy.

Pogress in the south : Reconstruction

Dates :

– Civil War : April 1860 – April 1865 = Main issue is slavery (North vs South)
- Secession Crisis : December 1860 – feb 1861, 11 = issued secession declarations
- War to preserve the Union : 1861 – 1863
- War turns into a liberator missions : 1863- 1865
– 1st January, 1863 = Emencipation proclamation : freed all the slaves in rebel states ; new
territories were freed states.
– 1866 - 1877 Post-Bellum Era : Period wich came after the civil war (Reconstruction's
period) .
– Reconstructions Laws :
- 1866 = Civil right Act : citizenship to anyone born or naturalized in the US : every one are
equally protected by the laws.
 - 1867 = Recinstructions Act : readmission of rebel states to full representation. Suppres
millitary occupation but also new construction and ratification.
- 1865 = 13th amendment : abolition of slavery
- 1868 = 14th amendemnt : granting former slaves to citizenship ans equal protection ''.
- 1870 = 15th amendment : progibiting voting descrimination '' on account of race, color...''

Names :

– Abraham Lincoln is the 16th president of the USA. He was elected in 1860 and
assassainated on april 15, 1865. He was the leader of the North forces during the Civil War
and wanted to emancipated slaves.
– The Freedmen's Bureau = guaranteeing African American'sright ; the real name is '' the
bureau of refuges, freedmen, and abandoned lands. It was created in March 1865 ; it is a
federal welfare service. Their goal is to hand out food, blankets, medecine, builed thousands
of black schools.
– The reconstruction president :
- Andrew Johnson (1865-1869) = was vice president (under Lincoln), a democrat, let the
south pass the black codes, defunded the freedmen's bureau, impeached (destituer) by
Congress in 1886.
- Ulysse S. Grant (1868-1877) = a civil war hero, republican, against the KKK, was the
mendator of the Naturalization Act.
- Rutherford Hayes (1877-1881) = elected because of the compromise of 1877, ending of
the reconstruction in 1877, repealed all south forces, re-emergence of KKK.
–

Definitions :

– Black Codes : an assets of local laws wich descriminated black people. It was shut down by
Congress in 1872.
– Nightriders : terrorist groups that terrorized black citizens
– KKK : formed in lates 1860's, they persecuted black people, they keep them to their
rightfull place.

The Indian Question in the West

Dates:

– 1845: the manifest destiny : term coined by John O'Sullivan

– 1824: The Bureau of Indians Affairs
– 1830 – 1850 : supervised' displacement (exile) inians to ''indian territory (in Mississippi)
– 1830: The Indian removal Act = they awarded lands West of Mississippi in exchange for
current land.
– 1838: ''Trail of tears'' : tens of thousand indians died
– 1851: the commissioner of Indian called for ''concentration;domestication;incorporation''.
- The Indian Appropriation Act: remove remaining Indians towards reservations
– 1867: President Grant did a campaign on ''peace policy'' = stop massacres; build
 infrastructures ---- but forced to christianize them.
– 1871: The 2nd Indian Appropriation Act = any group of Indians was no longer an
independent nation; no citizenship; no real right
– June 25-26, 1876 : The Battle of Little Bighorn = Natives tried to escape a reservation but
were hunted down and killed by American soldiers.
– 1890: was a massacre of nearly three hundred Lakota people by soldiers of the United States
Army.
– 1887: Dawes Act = destroying the reservations by giving out the land to individual families,
forcing them into the general population.
– 1924: citizenship was granted to all Native Americans.

Names:

– John O'Sullivan : aka manifest destiny

– Charles Darwin : wrote the origin of Spiecies in 1859. Gives birth to the ideologi '' Social
Darwinism''
– President Grant: Move on to end massacre btw indians and whites... but religius.

Définitions:

– The Manifest Destiny: est une expression apparue en 1845 pour désigner la forme
américaine de l'idéologie calviniste selon laquelle la nation américaine aurait pour
mission divine l'expansion de la « civilisation » vers l'Ouest, et à partir du XXe siècle
dans le monde entier. Elle est surtout liée à la conquête de l'Ouest américain.
– The Frontier: 'the meeting point btw savagery and civilization' = essential to America
identity.
– Ethnocide: when a group is denied the right to enjoy, develop, and transmit its own culture
and language
– Social Darwinism: Human races are destined to fight each other, the most adapted will take
over.
– An Indian reservation: is an area of land which government is could'nt move indians:
there were sometimes force to came in those ''camp''. Appears in 19 century.

The Gilded Age (1870s – 1890s): Growth vs. Progress

Dates :

– 1869 : first railway was built

– 1879: Edison's discovers = light bulb; electricity bacame a comercial platform : generators,
friges
– 1882 : Edison Electricity Illuminating Company Of N.Y
– 19th is the first version of cusumer society

Names:

– Thomas Edison : created the first light bulb. His company Edison Electricity Illuminating
Company Of NY in 1882 brought electricity into houses.
– Adam Smith : his theory is if you have a stable system of commerce, individuals would
respond to the incentive of wealth.
– Karl Marx: He's against capitalism ; encourrage poverty and classification of social class.
 – Robber Barons : thy're a symbol of the era, of the Gilded Age. They are named after
medieval lords known for robbing merchants. Curruption to get power, payed very badly.
– Comelius Vanderbilt or the Commodore: a buisness magnate who built his wealth in
railroads and shipping.
– J.D Rockfeller: was the Co. founder of the Standard Oil Company; one of the most richest
person in the world.
– J.P Morgan : He had made his fortune in finance, He spearheaded the formation of several
prominent multinational corporations including U.S. Steel, International Harvester, and
General Electric, which subsequently fell under his supervision.
– Andre Carnegie: Founded Carnegie Steel --- became the US steel Corporation.

Definitions:

– Railroad company were the biggest at that time : created a national economy, cultural
and market.
– Capitalism :An economic system in which private actors own and control property in
accord with their interest , and demand and supply freely set prices in markets in a way that
can ''serve the bestinterest of society''.
– Concept of Specialization: people should specialize in a particular system field of work, in
what there good at...
– Private property: The productions are privately owned.
– Socialism: If the state owns or strictly regulates most businesses to redistribute the profit.
Most countries today are a mix of socialism and capitalism.
– Mercantilism: It’s a nationalist way to look at commerce and money has to be made
autonomously, with no import of goods from other countries because it meant that you were
dependent of other countries. It’s prevalent until the 19th century.
– Gospel of efficiency : # mercantilism. It’s producing wealth rather than keeping it. The
power is transferred to industrialists.
– Plutocracy: power of the rich because they're rich.
– Philanthropy : The idea of giving back something to society

The Gilded Age (1870s – 1890s): The rise of Labor

Dates:

– 1830s : birth of Moderns Union in order to defend employees' interests.

– 1836 : 1st Union formed by the Lowell Mill Girls
– 1869: The Knight of Labor = They emphasized citizenship, social progress, workers
cooperation, and were racially inclusive. They held parades and marches, supported labor
parties.
--- They wanted a 8h workday, as well as the abolition of child and convict labor, and also
wanted graduated income taxes
– 1886 : creation of the main labour union which names his American Federation of Labour.
– July 1877: first big union-drive = The Demonstration is calls the Great Railroad Strike of
1877.
– On May 1886: Haymart Square Riot (in Chicago).
Definitions:

– Article I, section 10 : 'No state pass any law imparing the obligation of contracts.''
– Union : organized group of workers with power to negotiate on the behalf of their
members.:Imbalance of power between the employers and the employees.
– Corporation: It’s a company that is “incorporated” by the State. An organization, usually a
group of people or a company, authorized to act as a single entity, and recognized as such by
law.
– Tort Law: The area of law that covers most civil suits. Virtually inexistant then.
– Gilded Age: It’s an expression invented by Mark Twain in 1873 to satirize an era of serious
social problems, masked by a thin gold gilding. This harsh period would redefine the
meaning of progress and open the way for progressivism.