The relationship between the natives and non-natives in the 19th century was marked with a varying level of cooperation and hostility.
The farmers who moved to the west were of ethnic diversity: lots of immigrants with 18% of famers being women.
The Homestead Act of 1862 said you could receive 160 acres of land free if you lived on the land 5 yrs, or you could pay $1.25 per acre and live on it 6 mon.
An exoduster is one of the 6,000 blacks who entered Kansas and filed claims for land. The largest military event in the US from 1870-90 was the Indian Wars. The Chinese workers of the Central Pacific RR experienced the highest fatality rates during the construction of the Transcontinental RR. │ The Cause of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre was the gov. tried to arrest Chief Big foot and troops opened fire on unarmed natives killing 300.
│Frederick Jackson’s ideas about the west and the American identity were that the west was full and it was connected to the ‘American Dream’ of making it big and moving west.
│ While constructing the transcontinental RR the Union Pacific encountered problems with: discrimination (Irish workers), Native American attacks, serious weather & insect problems & “Hell on Wheels”.
│The problems Custer encountered at the Battle of Little Big Horn were: he had terrible information, he insisted on being a pompous ass and engaging the Sioux first, Major Reno was drunk & retreated; Captain Benteen hated him and took his time getting there with the ammo.
│Miners were very ethnically diverse; mining was dangerous (1 in 18 die, pneumonia #1) and because of population rushes it hastens states entering the union. The most profitable ore  copper!
│Jim Crow laws disenfranchised black voters by: poll taxes, literacy tests, Grandfather clause (provide proof that grandfather voted in 1847).
│Thorstein Veblen said the great industrialists were part of conspicuous consumptions.
│ Social Darwinism: conservative social idea of survival of the fittestleft poor to themselves as opposed to NATURAL SELECTION they just let people up and die.
│The AFL is an example of successful labor union because it was practical, favored strikes, and only allowed skilled workers into the union.
│ Organized labor in the late 19th century was weak, but eventually picked up steam and armories were actually built to protect the people from the workers.
│The key industrialists of the 19th century were Cornelius Vanderbilt (railroad), J.P. Rockefeller (standard oil), Andrew Carnegie (steel business) and J.P Morgan (national banking transactions. They all consolidated industries/used vertical integration (aka they controlled every aspect of the company process.)
│ Haymarket Riots: