U.S.
Land Acquired in the 1800s
Manifest Destiny
• Americans
believed they
should own all the
land from the
Atlantic Ocean to
the Pacific Ocean;
coast to coast.
COSTS OF EXPANSION
• NEAR EXTINCTION OF BUFFALO.
• DAMAGE TO ENVIRONMENT
• DISPLACEMENT OF NATIVE AMERICANS
• TREATMENT OF IMMIGRANTS
THE PLAYERS
• MINERS
• FARMERS AND SETTLERS
• EXODUSTERS
• CATTLEMEN AND COWBOYS
• RAILROAD WORKERS
• RAILROAD OWNERS
• NATIVE AMERICANS
• POPULISTS
MINERS
• SERIES OF GOLD STRIKES
– COLORADO PIKES PEAK 1859
– NEVADA COMSTOCK LODE 1859
– IDAHO
– MONTANA
– ARIZONA
– SOUTH DAKOTA
– CALIFORNIA 1849
Gold Rush-1849 - 1870
• Gold was discovered in
California in 1849.
• The Comstock Lode, a
Bonanza, was later
discovered.
• People who moved west to
mine are called miners.
• Immigrants, such as Mexicans,
Chinese and the Irish, went to
work in the mines.
• Immigrants were treated poorly
with long hours, low pay and
very dangerous work.
People moved West to find gold.
Boom towns and Ghost towns.
Gold or Silver strike
1. Miners arrive and build a small town.
2. More people come to sell supplies.
3. Real houses get built.
Boom Town
1. Gold or silver production falls – decreases.
2. Miners move on.
3. The town is abandoned.
Ghost Town.
FOREIGN BORN MINERS.
• BY 1860 1/3 WESTERN MINERS WERE
CHINESE
• HOSTILITY TOWARDS MINERS
1. MINERS TAX
2. CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT 1882
FARMERS/SETTLERS
• EXODUSTERS
• SODBUSTERS OR SODDIES
• DRY FARMING
• HOMESTEADERS
• BOOMERS/SOONERS
African Americans Moved West.
African Americans were called
Exodusters.
• Many African Americans
moved to the West from
the 1840s to late 1890s.
• They were escaping the
difficult life in the South
where Whites practiced Jim
Crow Laws and denied
African Americans their
new Constitutional Rights.
• The Promised Land
• Opportunity to fail or
succeed on their own terms
Why were African Americans
called Exodusters?
• African Americans were called Exodusters
after the book from the Bible called the
Exodus.
• This book described how the Jews
escaped from slavery in Egypt.
• The African Americans were escaping
slavery in the South, just as Jews escaped
slavery from Egypt. That is why they were
called Exodusters.
Exodusters moving West.
PUSH FACTORS
• PUSH FACTORS
– DISPLACED FARMERS, FORMER SLAVES,
WORKERS
– COST OF EASTERN FARMLAND TOO
COSTLY
– ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS REPRESSION
– FRESH, NEW START
PULL FACTOR
• PULL FACTOR – PRIVATE PROPERTY
– LEGALLY ENFORCEABLE,
TRANSFERABLE PROPERTY RIGHTS
– LIMIT SETTLERS’ RISK
– LAND REGISTERED, MEASURED,AND
DEEDED
– BRANDING (CATTLE)
– WATER RIGHTS ESTABLISHED
– HOMESTEAD ACT
PULL FACTOR - GOVERNMENT
ENCOURAGEMENT OF SETTLEMENT
• PACIFIC RAILWAY ACTS 1862 & 1864
– Large land grants to Railroads
– Total lands about 175 million acres
• MORRILL LAND-GRANT ACT 1862
– State governments given land to sell to raise
money
– Sold to bankers and land speculators
• HOMESTEAD ACT 1862
– 160 acres, 5 years
The Homestead Act of 1862.
An application for land.
• People staked their
claim by finding a
section of land that
was marked. (160
acres)
• Then they registered
the piece of land with
the government.
• After cultivating the
land for five years, it
was theirs for free.
Homesteaders.
• People moved West to stake their claim.
People traveled West on wagon roads,
and on the railroad and by steamship.
Plowfarms, plows and families in front
of their sodhouses. (soddies and
sodbusters)
A difficult life for the farmers.
• Farmers had to cut through thick, hard earth
called sod.
• Winters were harsh; cold, windy with a lot of
snowstorms called blizzards.
• Summers were hot and had little rain.
• Farmers had to use a technique called dry-
farming (growing crops that needed little water.)
• Sometimes grasshoppers would eat all the crops.
• Farmers could not pay their debts (Coins?)
The Cattle Kingdom.
DEMAND SPURS GROWTH
• PRIOR TO CIVIL WAR – PORK
PREFERRED
• SNUBBING OF PORK –UNWHOLESOME
• NATIONAL BEEF BINGE!!!
• GROWTH OF CATTLE RANCHES
Cowboys and Vaqueros.
Ranchers and Cowhands drove the
cattle to the Transcontinental Railroad.
The Transcontinental Railroad
finished in 1869.
Many Immigrants, such as Irish, Mexicans
and Chinese were building the Railroad.
The Union Pacific meets the
Central Pacific in Utah in 1869.
Impact of the Railroads.
• Railroads brought growth and new settlement all
across the West.
• The railroads enabled people, supplies, and mail
to move quickly and cheaply and safer across
the plains and the mountains.
• The largest cities and towns developed where
major railroad lines met.
• Because of their rapid growth, western territories
began to apply for statehood. Nevada, Colorado,
North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and
Washington all became states from 1864 –
1890.
The Railroad spurs the growth of
other industries.
• The lumber industry grows, because wood
is needed to build the train tracks.
• The steel industry grows because steel is
needed to build the tracks.
• The coal industry grows because coal is
needed to fuel the train.
• The growth of these industries opens
thousands of new jobs for workers.
Native American Land
• Native Americans
lived here first.
• Native Americans
and Whites came
into bloody conflicts
over the land.
• They tried to protect
their lands, but
finally, the United
States government
forced them onto
reservations.
The buffalo hide business becomes
popular and settlers kill millions of
buffalo.
Indians defend their lands, but are
defeated in the end.
