American Journey - Chapter 8

8. Prosperity and Crisis (1877-1900)

Beginning the Journey
Numerous modules within the American Journey Online contain sources relevant to this era: "The African-American Experience," "The Immigrant Experience," "Women in America," The Native American Experience," "The Asian-American Experience," "Westward Expansion," "The Constitution and Supreme Court," and "World War I and the Jazz Age," which begins its coverage in the 1890s.

To locate information within these modules related to the last several decades of the nineteenth century, a good initial strategy is to scan the "Key Topics." Because it's not always clear from the topic headings what the topics cover, though, users are advised to click on and explore all of the topics to determine which are relevant.

Users are also advised to use the "Years" and "Index" functions to locate information on subjects of interest. The latter is an especially good way to determine whether a particular module has information on a specific subject. It can also be scanned to simply see what a module covers, but that method of searching is not particularly efficient or time effective.

Activity 1
As settlers moved across the western United States, the federal practice of maintaining Native Americans on reservations underwent a change.

In order to open reservation areas to white settlement--and eventual statehood--the U.S. government adopted an allotment policy that transferred control of reservation lands, which previously had been held collectively, into individual hands through private ownership.

The goal of the allotment program was to weaken Native American control and assimilate individuals into mainstream society. The result for Native American was devastating, individually and collectively, and the allotment program constituted one more instance of federal government disregard for Native American culture.

Within "The Native American Experience," go to "General Allotment Act," "Curtis Act," and "Testimony of D. W. C. Duncan Before Senate Committee, November 1906." (The first two documents may be located by going to "Contents," then "Years," then "1887," then click on the titles. The third may be selected from the list of related items that appears at the top of the second.)

Read the documents and use them to answer the following questions.

How is the first document framed, that is, what tone does it take in laying out its provisions? Does the act seem straightforward? Do its provisions make sense? What would be the attraction of the act for Native Americans? What drawbacks does it contain?
Compare the second document with the first. How does the Curtis Act build on the General Allotment Act? How does it move beyond it? What assumptions guide both?
What consequences of the allotment policy does D. W. C. Duncan enumerate in his testimony? How does he come across as a witness? Would he have been credible? Would what he has to say have been received sympathetically? Why or why not? How does his testimony reveal flaws in federal policy toward Native Americans?

Although most Americans at the time agreed with the thrust of federal policy toward Native Americans, some voices of protest were heard. Go now to "Excerpt from A Century of Dishonor" within the same module. (One way to locate this source is to go to "Contents," then "Authors," then "Jackson, Helen Hunt," then click on the title.)

Use the document to answer the following questions.

What criticisms does Jackson offer of U.S. treatment of Native Americans? To what does she attribute the abuses she details? How do you believe Jackson's writings would have been received at the time? Would she have been deemed qualified to write about abuses against Native Americans? Why or why not?
Compare Jackson's critique of U.S. policy with that offered by Duncan in the document above. Note both similarities and differences.

Activity 2 The Indian Wars that began after the Civil War ended in 1890. It was in that year that federal troops were sent to suppress the Ghost Dance, a religious ritual being performed by Native Americans throughout the west.

Although the Ghost Dance was at heart a peaceful ritual, it worried authorities, who saw in it the seeds of rebellion and violence. The massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 certainly signaled the government's determination to control the Native Americans. It also revealed the continuing lack of white understanding of Native American culture.

Within "The Native American Experience," go to:

"The Revelation of Wovoka"
"The Ghost Dance in Oklahoma"
"Ghost Dance Shirt"
"Short Bull's Account of the Massacre at Wounded Knee"
"Native Accounts of Wounded Knee"
"The Day after at Wounded Knee."

All sources save the second one may be located by going to "Contents," then "Regions," then "Great Plains," then click on the title. The second source may be located by following the same procedure under "Oklahoma" instead.

Use these sources to answer the following questions.

What do the first three sources (one document and two images) reveal about the Ghost Dance's purpose and execution? Do these sources suggest to you a threat from the Ghost Dance? If so, what sort of threat?
Compare the different accounts of Wounded Knee contained in the fourth document ("Short Bull's Account") and the fifth (the composite accounts given at the official inquiry into the affair). Who do these different accounts blame for the massacre? How do they reveal divided loyalties among Native Americans between their own societies and the U.S. government? Does the fact that the testimony contained in the fifth document was delivered as part of the official government investigation call into question its truthfulness or usefulness to historians? If so, why?
What emotions does the image "The Day after at Wounded Knee" summon up? How does this photograph present the victims of the massacre? What does it suggest about the plight of Native Americans in general at the time?
The commentary for the third source (the image of the "Ghost Dance Shirt") reveals disillusionment with the movement in the face of federal military power. How is the remark recounted here symbolic of Native American feeling in general at the time? Compare this sentiment to those recorded in the fifth source ("Native Accounts of Wounded Knee").
How can the Ghost Dance episode and the massacre at Wounded Knee inform historians today seeking to understand relations between the federal government and Native American societies in the late nineteenth century? What does it say about the government's preferred method of dealing with Native societies?

Activity 3 The last decades of the nineteenth century witnessed a surge in immigration to the United States from abroad.

One large source of new immigrants, particularly on the west coast, was China. Competition from Asian immigrants for jobs and general racial prejudice resulted by the 1870s and 1880s in violence, denunciations, and legislation to limit new Asian immigration. (A good discussion of the Asian immigrant experience during this period may be found in the module "The Asian-American Experience" under the Key Topic "A Chinaman's Chance in America.")

Within that module, go to the following:

"The Chinese Question" (one way to locate this image is to go to "Contents," then "Images," then C," then scroll down to the title)
"Cartoon Exposing American Racial Prejudices" (this image may be accessed from the list of related items that appears at the top of the immediately preceding one)
"Anti-Chinese Riot in Denver" (you may locate this source by going to "Contents," then "Regions," then "Rockies," then click on the title)
"An Act to Execute Certain Treaty Stipulations Relating to Chinese" (this document may be located by going to "Contents," then "Years," then "1882," then click on the title)
"An Act to Prohibit the Coming of Chinese Laborers to the United States" (one way to locate this document is to search under the term "prohibit Chinese laborers"; the document is the second item in the list the search returns).

Use these sources to answer the following questions.

The first two images, both editorial cartoons, present contrasting views of Asian immigration. Compare the two, being sure to analyze such things as content, tone, and message. Which was likely more representative of public sentiment? Which do you feel presents a more persuasive case for its argument? Why?
The third image depicts anti-Chinese riots in Denver. What strikes you about the image? About the rioting in general? About the apparent determination of the rioters?
What are the most important provisions of the Chinese Exclusion Act (excerpted in source four above)? What do the act's provisions tell you about the climate in which it was formulated? About the concerns of those who pushed for it?
What groups does the last document target? How is this law different from the Chinese Exclusion Act? How does it reflect slightly different concerns? How does it spring from the same general assumptions?
Taken together, how do these sources reveal anti-Asian sentiment during the last decades of the nineteenth century? What do they tell historians about the concerns of contemporaries? About their conceptions of what their government should be willing to do for them? About the place of the United States in the world? About how other nations should deal with the United States?

Activity 4
The United States during the post-Reconstruction era industrialized rapidly. And as employers grew in size and became better able to take advantage of their workers, unions emerged to bargain collectively for workers in the increasingly expanding marketplace.

Relations between early labor unions and corporate employers were often very contentious, and strikes and labor violence became common. In an effort to defeat the unions and retain control over the workplace, employers tried to break the unions whenever they could. They also appealed to--and often received--assistance from different levels of government.

Within the module "World War I and the Jazz Age," go to "Homestead Strike, July 6, 1892," "Cover of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, July 14, 1892," and "Cover of Harper's Weekly, July 16, 1892." (One way to locate these sources is to go to "Contents," then "Regions," then "Northeast," then scroll down to the titles.)

Use the one document and two images to answer the following questions.

How does the tone of the document shape the way it covers the Homestead Strike? Cite specific examples from the document in your answer.
The document clearly takes sides in the strike. Which side does it support? How can you tell? Does the slant of the source present problems for scholars using it today? If so, how?
How do the two magazine covers bolster the account contained in the document? Do they diverge in any way? If so, how? Collectively, what were these three sources on the Homestead Strike trying to do?

Within the same module, go now to "Excerpt from Report of the U.S. Strike Commission, 1894." (This document may be located by searching under "U.S. Strike Commission." The document is the only item the search returns.)

Use the document to answer the following questions.

The document on the Pullman Strike apportions blame between the company and the workers. Of what is each side guilty? Who should bear more blame? Why?
Taking the Homestead and Pullman strikes together, how do they illustrate tensions within the United States at the end of the nineteenth century between management and organized labor? About the role that government was prepared to play in settling disputes between these two parties? About what some in society considered government's proper role in the economy?

Activity 5
The economic crisis that began in 1893 (and led to the Pullman Strike) resulted in calls by some for federal government assistance to the unemployed.

The idea that the federal government should provide aid to out-of-work Americans was revolutionary at the time and generated a vocal discussion about the responsibilities of the government to the people. One episode that helped to bring these issues to the forefront was the march of Coxey's Army in the spring of 1894.

The module "World War I and the Jazz Age" contains many sources on Coxey's Army. Within that module, go to "Help for the Unemployed?" "Excerpt from the Protest Coxey Didn't Read," and "Coxey's Army on the March." (These sources may be located by going to "Contents," then "Years," then "1894," then click on the titles.)

Use these sources to answer the following questions.

How does the newspaper article describe the events surrounding the arrival of Coxey's Army at the Capitol? Does the conduct of the marchers (as presented in the article) justify their treatment at the hands of the police? Why or why not? With which side in the episode does the article seem more sympathetic? How can you tell?
Coxey's unread speech (the second source) uses the Constitution to justify his march. What rights does Coxey invoke? Do his invocations seem logical?
Who does Coxey blame for the plight of his marchers? How have the guilty trampled on the rights of others? Why was Coxey ultimately unable to gain a fair hearing for his proposal?
What impressions of the marchers does the image present? Does the image square with the description of the marchers contained in the first source? Does their depiction in the photograph suggest that they deserved the treatment they received from the police?
Historians have studied Coxey's Army for the insights it provides into ideas about the responsibilities of government at the end of the nineteenth century. What do these ideas seem to be? What do governmental leaders seem to feel that they owe the American people?

Activity 6
Expansion had always been a part of American life from the very earliest settlements. By the late nineteenth century, however, the line of settlement had extended to the Pacific Ocean. In fact, the census of 1890 declared that the western frontier was officially closed.

Contemporary Americans were at first unsure of what to make of the closing of the frontier. In 1893, a history professor named Frederick Jackson Turner presented his take on the subject in what has become one of the most famous historical addresses in U.S. history.

Within the module "Westward Expansion," go to "The Significance of the Frontier in American History." (One way to locate this document is to go to "Contents," then "Authors," then "T," then "Turner, Frederick Jackson," then the title.)

Use the document to answer the following questions.

Why does Turner believe that the frontier has been important to American civilization? What has it provided for the country?
What does Turner fear will happen to the United States now that the frontier is symbolically closed? How serious is the threat from the closing of the frontier?
How does Turner's essay reveal a sense of American nationalism? How does it fit into the idea of American exceptionalism, that is, the idea that the United States is different from, and better than, other nations? Use examples from the document to support your answer.
Historians have studied Turner's essay for more than a century and have dismissed some of its conclusions. Yet the essay remains significant for its explication of prevailing sentiments at the end of the nineteenth century. What does this fact say about the way historians use historical sources, especially the importance of sources that reflect the way people thought at a particular time?
How is Turner's essay an example of historical revisionism at work? What previously accepted ideas does it refute? How does it reveal the sort of work that historians do?

Activity 7 African Americans in the south suffered a serious setback during the 1890s as individual states passed what came to be called Jim Crow Laws that gave legal sanction to race-based segregation in public facilities. Blacks sought to test these laws in court and ultimately have them declared unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause.

In 1896, a test of a Louisiana law mandating segregation in railroad cars reached the Supreme Court, where the decision was not at all what opponents of the segregation laws had hoped. Instead, the ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson upheld the state statute and denied that segregated facilities amounted to a denial of equal protection.

Within "The Constitution and Supreme Court" module, go to "Plessy v. Ferguson." (One way to locate this document is to go to "Index," then "S," then "Segregation," then click on the title.)

Use the document to answer the following questions.

What arguments does Justice Henry Billings Brown use to defend the Louisiana segregation statute? Make specific reference to his decision here.
Assess the logic of Brown's arguments. What assumptions are necessary to accept his decision? How common were those assumptions at the end of the nineteenth century?
Explain the dissenting opinion of Justice John Marshall Harlan. How does he use the Constitution to denounce the Louisiana law? What other arguments does he marshal to condemn it? Utilize specifics from his decision to answer these questions.
What does Justice Harlan predict for the future of the United States if segregation and discrimination are allowed to continue? How prescient was he?
How does the debate over Plessy v. Ferguson illustrate the fluidity of the Constitution? Is this likely the sort of debate intended by the Founding Fathers? What does it demonstrate about the factors influencing American society at the end of the nineteenth century?

Activity 8
Despite their lack of suffrage during the last decades of the nineteenth century, American women did not remain aloof from the important causes of the day. On the contrary, women formed various organizations to demonstrate their concern with improving society and their determination to leave their mark on the country.

The "Women in America" module of the American Journey Online database contains a good overall examination of these efforts under the Key Topic "Women and Charity, Women and Reform."

Within that module, go to "The Dignity of Labor in the Hands of Woman," "Excerpt from The Women's Club, A Practical Guide and Hand-book," and "Excerpt from Twenty Years At Hull House." (The first document may be found by searching for "Dignity of Labor" and selecting the only item the search returns. The remaining two may be selected from the list of related items that appears at the top of the Key Topic above.)

Use the documents to answer the following questions.

How does the first document make a case for female employment? What other rights should women also be granted in addition to the chance to work? How might this document have been considered dangerous at the time it was written?
What does the second document note as the positive features of the women's club movement? To what sort(s) of women is the club movement targeted? How does it help them? Which women seem to be excluded? What do these exclusions say about the nature of the club movement itself? About the larger society of which that movement was a part?
The third document details the first year or so of Hull House. How does Jane Addams explain the reason(s) behind the house's founding? How did local authorities initially respond to it--and to the women who ran it?
As spelled out in the document, what sorts of activities did Hull House undertake? Who did it serve? What did it mean to those who lived around it? Use specifics from the document to answer these questions.
How does the first document presage the developments discussed in the second and third documents? How do the documents together display the presence of both continuity and change in women's lives during the last decades of the nineteenth century?

Activity 9
Farmers throughout the 1890s experienced serious economic problems ranging from low prices, high interest rates, exorbitant transportation charges, and an overall lack of control over their livelihoods--and even lives.

Many farmers saw political action as the way to solve their problems. Accordingly, in 1890 the Populist (or People's) Party was organized. Although it had its origins in rural America, the Populist Party advocated a wide-ranging reform program designed to cure many of the ills facing factory workers and city residents as well as proposals aimed specifically at the problems of farmers.

Within the module "Westward Expansion," go to

"Women in the Farmers' Alliance" (one way to locate this document is to go to "Contents," then "Authors," then "L," then "Lease, Mary Elizabeth," then click on the title; be sure to play the accompanying audio)
"Platform of 1892" (this document may be selected from the list of related items that appears at the top of the first document)
"Cross of Gold (speech)" (one way to locate this document is to select it from the list of related items that appears at the top of the immediately preceding document).

Use these sources to answer the following questions.

How does Lease describe the farmers' movement in the first document? What is the movement seeking to accomplish? What makes the struggle a just one? Why is it deserving of support?
What role does Lease believe that women have to play in the farmers' movement? How important is this role?
What are the key demands laid out in the "Platform of 1892"? Do some demands seem more important than others? If so, which one(s)? Which provisions demonstrate that the Populists sought to be more than simply an organization for farmers?
What facets of the Populist platform does Bryan most enthusiastically defend in his speech? What imagery does he utilize in his defense? What rhetorical or argumentative devices does he use? How effective was his speech likely to have been at the time? How effective do you find it today?
Historians have explored the phenomenon of Populism, and especially the Populist agenda, for more than a century. What does this agenda suggest about the divisions that had developed in American society by the end of the nineteenth century? About the power of corporations, banks, and other institutions? About the way some were coming to see the legitimate responsibilities of government?

Activity 10
American foreign policy assumed a more outward thrust during the last decades of the nineteenth century. One incident that plunged the United States into world affairs was the Spanish-American War, fought over the space of four months in 1898.

As a result of the war, the United States secured control of various pieces of territory that had formerly belonged to Spain, including the Philippine Islands. The question of what to do with the Philippines sparked a vocal debate throughout the United States.

Studying the debate over the annexation of the Philippines and the creation of an "American Empire" demonstrates the continuing struggle to create an American national identity.

Within the module "World War I and the Jazz Age," go to "Platform of the Anti-Imperialist League, 1899," "An American Empire," and "Army Atrocities in the Philippines." (All of these documents may be located by going to "Contents," then "Years," then "1899," then click on the titles.)

Use these documents to answer the following questions.

What American traditions does the first document invoke to oppose annexation of the Philippines? How logical is the resort to these traditions? How effective was it likely to have been at the time?
How does the first document see American policy in the Philippines as having domestic consequences for citizens at home? Does it seem logical to postulate that foreign and domestic policies could be intertwined? Explain.
How does Senator Beveridge in the second document use many of the same arguments advanced in the first to argue exactly the opposite point? What does the fact that both sides in the debate over American imperialism used the same arguments say about the issue? About how Americans on all sides viewed the question?
How does Andrew Weir's story, as related in the third document, compare with the other two documents? Which position does it seem to support? Who or what does Weir blame for the events he witnessed in the Philippines? Why do they trouble him so deeply? What remedy does he seek?
Historians have studied the debate over the annexation of the Philippines for many reasons, not the least of which is what it can tell us about the continuing effort to define the United States. How do the three sources you've studied here relate to that debate? What differences do they suggest in the way contemporaries defined the nation and its place in the world? Why do you suppose one side won out in the argument over the other?