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18 The Industrial Age: North, South, and West
18-1 The North
Urbanization
Immigration
18-2 The “New South”
Southern Industries
Southern Urbanization
Segregation in the New South
Society and Culture in the Postwar South
18-3 The Industrializing West
Expansive Farming
Industry in the West
Western Cities
Outsiders in the Industrializing West
18-4 The Populists
Problems Confronting Farmers
Farmers Unite
Populism
REVIEW
Arkansas Mom Reviews Common Core
Common Core, 4:20
Liberty Beats "Common Core, Uncommon Conformity" 3:21
http://youtu.be/dzua7Oa0EwQ
Trump Car in Black Neighborhood (Social Experiment), 3:14
https://youtu.be/nQtHx5GY164
How Decades Of Democratic Rule Ruined Some Of Our Finest Cities
http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/how-decades-of-democratic-rule-ruined-some-of-our-finest-cities/
5:00
Donald Trump Requests Vote of Every African American Asks What They Have to Lose - 8/19/16
https://youtu.be/He-VT3k6Xu4
Industrial Revolution Lesson Plan
http://blog.flocabulary.com/industrial-revolution/
Video, 3:30
http://blog.flocabulary.com/industrial-revolution/
Every aspect of life changed during the Industrial Revolution, from food to work to housing to what people did in their free time. Innovative inventions spurred many of these changes. This lesson plan will challenge students to decide which invention changed the world the most.
Industrial Revolution Lesson Plan
Lesson Objective: Think critically about different Industrial Revolution inventions and support an opinion about which invention is most influential.Materials: Industrial Revolution video, Debate Worksheet, computer access for research, student notebook or document to take notes.
1. Play the free Flocabulary video, “The Industrial Dream.” Before you begin, tell students that the song describes the changes that the Industrial Revolution brought to industrializing nations. Ask them to write down as many inventions and changes as they notice while watching.
2. When the video is over, have students share the inventions that they heard and write them all up on the board. You may also want to describe changes in the song where inventions weren’t specifically mentioned, like the rise of factories. You may want to discuss new inventions in factories, like looms or assembly line production. Next, click on the lyrics below the video to learn more about the inventions.
3. Break students into small groups and hand out the debate worksheets. Have them fill in the “General Topic,” which is, “Which Industrial Revolution invention changed the world the most?” Ask each group to consider the various effects of each invention, and decide which invention was most influential. (ALTERNATIVE: Assign a different invention to each group and ask them to come up with arguments to support their invention’s influence.)
4. Before or after students make their choice (depending upon how you want to structure the lesson), give students time to research their invention. Have them list arguments on the debate worksheet for why their invention most changed the world. Make sure they use facts from the song or research to support their views.
5. Give each group time to present their arguments. Students should take notes on other arguments. Afterwards, give groups time to write down explanations as to why their invention was more influential than another groups. Students can discuss these rebuttals as a class if there is time.
6. When everyone has presented and had time to rebut, ask the class to vote on the most influential Industrial Revolution invention. Remind students that they shouldn’t just vote for their invention, but to really think about the most convincing arguments.
7. Extension: Ask students to write about or discuss the invention from the last 10 years has changed the world the most.
Railroads
Urbanization Changing the Landscape, 2:52
https://youtu.be/N_LS1hrWXW0
IMMIGRATION
New York Immigrants 1880 - 1920_0002.wmv, 4:04
https://youtu.be/s0H9ilIaKXI
A minority group in the U.S. are of German descent. There are fewer German-Americans than there are African-Americans or Hispanics. In 2000, people of German descent comprised the largest nationality or ethnic group (group of people who are not from the majority culture in the country in which they live and who keep some part of their former culture, language, and institutions) in the United States. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 46.5 million people, or 15.2 percent of the population, claimed German ancestry. About seven million Germans have immigrated to North America since the eighteenth century. Some left the Old World in response to the many historical events in Europe over the last two centuries. Most Germans came to the United States seeking economic opportunities or religious or political freedom. There were many different motivations behind the mass migrations (the movement of thousands, or even millions, of people from one country to another within a relatively short period of time) from Germany that took place between 1800 and 1920.
German immigration
http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/uhic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?zid=a1bdd01f59dacbddab4e6bea68b2a54e&action=2&documentId=GALE%7CCX3436800018&userGroupName=gray02935&jsid=f6ef0c62ec142c368bfc2a12c90b49ea
Mass immigration begins
Immigration from Europe to the United States overwhelmingly increased in the mid-1800s. The U.S. population recorded in the census of 1860 was 31,500,000; of that population, 4,736,000, or 15 percent, were of foreign birth. The greater part of these immigrants had come from two countries: 1,611,000 from Ireland, and 1,301,000 from Germany (principally from the southwestern states of Württemberg, Baden, and Bavaria). The mass migration from Germany had begun in the 1830s, but the peak decades were the 1850s, with more than 950,000 immigrants, and the 1880s, with nearly 1.5 million.By the 1850s, New York had become the principal port of arrival for German immigrants. Many chose to stay in the East, while others moved westward along the Erie Canal through Buffalo and out to Ohio. By the 1840s large numbers of German immigrants went to New Orleans on cotton ships from Le Havre, France. The majority moved to the valleys of the upper Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. By 1880, Wisconsin had more German Americans than any other state. Here, as in the East, those who settled in urban centers brought a range of crafts and professional skills, while others setting up farms brought their farming skills from Germany. In the years between 1860 and 1890, three-fifths of German immigrants moved to rural areas, while two-fifths moved to the cities. When they settled, they often established German-speaking communities, setting up their own churches, schools, newspapers, and other institutions, and keeping their cultural traditions alive in the New World.
Immigration Wave: Will Europe Still Be Europe? 5:31
Migrants are continuing to pour into Europe by the hundreds of thousands. But what if the migrant surge doesn't stop?
https://youtu.be/tXMkcZBvq7U
Record 64.7 million non-English speakers in U.S. Doubles since 1990, with Arabic fastest growing
De facto Religious Requirement for Immigration
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/syrian-refugee-tally-fy-2016-12486-muslims-68-christians-24-yazidis
12,587 Syrian Refugees Admitted in FY 2016: 12,486 Muslims, 68 Christians, 24 Yazidi
THE "NEW SOUTH"
Even before the Civil War, the South lagged behind the North in urbanization and industrialization, mainly because of its dependence on slavery and the domination of plantation owners in the state governments during the antebellum period.
But after the war, southerners such as Henry Grady, the owner and editor of the Atlanta Constitution, argued that the South should improve its cities and provide for the growth of industry.
It should partake in the Industrial Revolution and encourage economic relations with the North, including accepting northern loans.
Grady’s stirring speech “The New South” argued that the postwar South was a different world from the antebellum South, especially because it was not built on the subjugation of an entire race or the domination of a single industry like cotton.
A spirit of enterprise characterized southern life in the late 1870s and 1880s, he argued.
2011 Hall of Fame - Henry Grady, 4:24
https://youtu.be/LuqLDvAbnWg
SOUTHERN INDUSTRIES
Southern industry grew up around railroads, iron manufacture, textile production, and tobacco. However, the South never developed a strong industrial base, at least not one comparable to what was taking place in the North.
Railroads
Railroads led the South’s industrial expansion, attracting capital from wealthy northern investors. The railroads also provided much-needed connections between the cities and towns of the South. Before the Civil War and up until about 1880, southern railroad development was very slow. But between 1880 and 1890—just one ten-year period—southern rails grew from 16,605 miles to 39,108 miles, an increase of more than 100 percent. Southern state governments poured resources into supporting rail companies, and northern rail companies began to expand into southern states, seeing an opportunity for profit and growth in the developing southern economy. By 1890, southern railroads had become a model for railroad development worldwide.
Iron Production
The expansion of the railroads also helped foster the urbanization of southern cities and the growth of the iron industry. Many New South advocates hoped that iron production would become the central means for the South to compete with the North in industry. Because the demand for iron was high, especially in construction trades and in laying railroad lines, the iron industry seemed an ideal place to invest money and resources. As a result, it grew; the southern iron industry expanded seventeenfold in the 1800s.
SOUTHERN URBANIZATION
For supporters of the New South, Birmingham, Alabama, became the symbol of southern urbanization.
The city was ideally suited for growth because the Louisville and Nashville Railroad connected Birmingham with coal-mining towns all over Alabama, making it easy to ship the raw iron ore to the city’s production facility.
Birmingham became the center of the South’s iron production in the late nineteenth century.
Visitors from all over the world marveled at Birmingham’s growth and its promise for future expansion.
Many investors, including industrialist Andrew Carnegie, fueled this growth by pouring money into Birmingham’s iron production.
Birmingham was the crown jewel of southern urbanization.
Atlanta, Nashville, and Memphis all followed suit, taking precedence over water-centered, “Old South” cities like New Orleans and Charleston.
But beyond them, similar cities were slow to grow in the South.
There was simply not enough industry to merit continued urban expansion, in part because of southerners’ unwillingness to increase wages for the South’s black population, which would have expanded markets, encouraged growth, and made southern industry more competitive.
Immigrants, who could choose where to settle, chose the cities of the North over those of the South because of the depressed wages throughout the South.
Travel Guide: Birmingham, Alabama, 2:26
https://youtu.be/DA2QpqgIq6g
SEGREGATION IN THE NEW SOUTH
Worse than low wages, though, was the southern drive to repeal political and social rights for black people. After the North retreated from military rule of the South in 1877, race relations became increasingly rigid and violent, especially in areas where black and white Americans competed for economic opportunities. Southern white Democrats continued to deprive African Americans of their civil and political rights by passing laws that disenfranchised African Americans and separated blacks from whites. These efforts were coupled with an even more violent effort to block black citizens from participating in southern public life. Both efforts would prove only too successful. While the South did not have a monopoly on racism, it was where 95 percent of African Americans lived in 1865.
History shows that the Ku Klux Klan was the terrorist arm of the Democrat Party. This ugly fact about the Democrat Party is detailed in the book, A Short History of Reconstruction, (Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 1990) by Dr. Eric Foner, the renown liberal historian who is the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University. As a further testament to his impeccable credentials, Professor Foner is only the second person to serve as president of the three major professional organizations: the Organization of American Historians, American Historical Association, and Society of American Historians.
Democrats in the last century did not hide their connections to the Ku Klux Klan. Georgia-born Democrat Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan wrote on page 21 of the September 1928 edition of the Klan’s “The Kourier Magazine”: “I have never voted for any man who was not a regular Democrat. My father … never voted for any man who was not a Democrat. My grandfather was …the head of the Ku Klux Klan in reconstruction days…. My great-grandfather was a life-long Democrat…. My great-great-grandfather was…one of the founders of the Democratic party.”
Dr. Foner in his book explores the history of the origins of Ku Klux Klan and provides a chilling account of the atrocities committed by Democrats against Republicans, black and white.
On page 146 of his book, Professor Foner wrote: “Founded in 1866 as a Tennessee social club, the Ku Klux Klan spread into nearly every Southern state, launching a ‘reign of terror‘ against Republican leaders black and white.” Page 184 of his book contains the definitive statements: “In effect, the Klan was a military force serving the interests of the Democratic party, the planter class, and all those who desired the restoration of white supremacy. It aimed to destroy the Republican party’s infrastructure, undermine the Reconstruction state, reestablish control of the black labor force, and restore racial subordination in every aspect of Southern life.”
Heartbreaking are Professor Foner’s recitations of the horrific acts of terror inflicted by Democrats on black and white Republicans. Recounted on pages 184-185 of his book is one such act of terror: “Jack Dupree, a victim of a particularly brutal murder in Monroe County, Mississippi - assailants cut his throat and disemboweled him, all within sight of his wife, who had just given birth to twins - was ‘president of a republican club‘ and known as a man who ‘would speak his mind.’”
“White gangs roamed New Orleans, intimidating blacks and breaking up Republican meetings,“ wrote Dr. Foner on page 146 of his book. On page 186, he wrote: “An even more extensive ‘reign of terror’ engulfed Jackson, a plantation county in Florida’s panhandle. ‘That is where Satan has his seat,‘ remarked a black clergyman; all told over 150 persons were killed, among them black leaders and Jewish merchant Samuel Fleischman, resented for his Republican views and for dealing fairly with black customers.“
SOCIETY AND CULTURE IN THE POSTWAR SOUTH
The white South’s brutal restrictions on the region’s African American population gained greater popular acceptance in the late nineteenth century through a cultural revival that centered on the “myth of the lost cause.” This myth tried to diminish the importance of slavery as a cause of the Civil War by lionizing the rebels of the Confederacy as avid defenders of “states’ rights.” Not only were many southerners attempting to reinstitute antebellum social practices, but many were also aiming to glorify the cause and culture of institutionalized slavery.
Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931), more commonly known as Ida B. Wells, was an African-American journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, sociologist, feminist [1] Georgist,[2] and an early leader in the Civil Rights Movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.
Both of Ida's parents were active in the Republican Party during Reconstruction.[8]
In 1894, Wells helped form a Republican Women's Club in Illinois in response to women being granted the right to vote for a state elective office and the right to hold elective office as Trustee of the University of Illinois.[47] The club organized to support the nomination by the Republican Party of Lucy L. Flower to that position, and Flower was eventually elected.[48]
Ida B. Wells Biography - Ida B Wells Documentary 2015 [NEW] HD, 2:45
Ida B. Wells Biography - Ida B Wells Documentary 2015 [NEW] HD. Fearless Journalist And All-Round Badass Ida B. Wells Honored With Google Doodle. When Ida B. Wells was 22, she was asked by a conductor of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company to give up her seat on the train to a white man. She refused, and the conductor attempted to forcibly drag her out of her seat.
Wells wouldn't budge.
“The moment he caught hold of my arm I fastened my teeth in the back of his hand,” she wrote in her autobiography. “I had braced my feet against the seat in front and was holding to the back, and as he had already been badly bitten he didn't try it again by himself. He went forward and got the baggageman and another man to help him and of course they succeeded in dragging me out.”
The year was 1884 -- about 70 years before Rosa Parks would refuse to give up her seat on an Alabama bus.
Wells’ life was full of such moments of courage and principle. Born into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi in 1862, Wells was a vocal civil rights activist, suffragist and journalist who dedicated her life to fighting inequality.
On July 16, Wells’ 153rd birthday, Google honored the “fearless and uncompromising” woman with a Doodle of her typing away on typewriter, a piece of luggage by her side.
“She was a fierce opponent of segregation and wrote prolifically on the civil injustices that beleaguered her world. By twenty-five she was editor of the Memphis-based Free Speech and Headlight, and continued to publicly decry inequality even after her printing press was destroyed by a mob of locals who opposed her message,” Google wrote in tribute of Wells.
The journalist would go on to work for Chicago's Daily Inter Ocean and the Chicago Conservator, one of the oldest African-American newspapers in the country. As Google notes, she “also travelled and lectured widely, bringing her fiery and impassioned rhetoric all over the world.”
Wells married Chicago attorney Ferdinand Barrett in 1895. She insisted on keeping her own name, becoming Ida Wells-Barnett -- a radical move for the time. The couple had four children.
Wells died in Chicago of kidney failure in 1931. She was 68.
Every year around her birthday, Holly Springs celebrates Wells’ life with a weekend festival. Mayor Kelvin Buck said at this year's event that people often overlook “the historic significance of Ida B. Wells in the history of the civil rights struggle in the United States,” per the South Reporter.
https://youtu.be/glADiBuo1Lw
THE INDUSTRIALIZING WEST
If the Industrial Age brought to the North urbanization and immigration, and if the South entered the age still burdened by the oppressions of history, including a commitment to racial inequality and the myth of the lost cause, the West confronted the new era in its own way. The main concerns of those in the West during the late nineteenth century were getting soil to produce crops and keeping Indians and immigrants at bay. The federal government aggressively assisted in all these efforts. But working the land is of course difficult, and many farmers struggled to make a living off their newly acquired property. As they fought to make ends meet, another harbinger of the Industrial Age interceded. Large corporations were often lurking in the background, seeking to buy out failed farming endeavors in order to create what were then called bonanza farms and what we would today call agribusinesses. The West of the late nineteenth century inspired the lore of the “Wild West,” with its tales of cowboys and Indians. And indeed, some components of the development of the West were in fact wild. But for the most part, those most interested in the development of the West were corporations, usually with bases in the industrial capitals of the North. Like the South, which often depended on northern wealth to industrialize, the West too is sometimes referred to as a mere colony to the rest of the United States. Nevertheless, the Industrial Age did transform the West in ways that few could have predicted.
Westward Expansion: The Homestead Act of 1862 & The Frontier Thesis, 4:46
https://youtu.be/NbwVl-0AP6s
EXPANSIVE FARMING
American settlers in the West had always been farmers, and before the Civil War most Americans in the region were still involved in agriculture. They might have been grain elevator operators, agricultural commodities brokers, or farmers, but in general, most Americans in the West lived off the land. Chicago and St. Louis were booming towns, but most of their wealth was attributable to processing and distributing natural goods like lumber, corn, cattle, and wheat.
INDUSTRY IN THE WEST
Besides farming, three major industries shaped the post–Civil War western economy: (1) railroads, (2) cattle, and (3) mining.
Eric Foner on the late-19th-century industrial economy in the West, 1:09
Question: How did the distinctive farming and industrial economy take shape out West in the late nineteenth century?
https://youtu.be/1mL9RO5hjMU
Cattle Trails in the 19th Century,
https://youtu.be/3Qr8GsSwFtg
The History of Colorado Gold Mining, 5:42
https://youtu.be/pgEVltqrmJY
WESTERN CITIES
Farming, mining, and cattle were the lifeblood of the West, and that blood flowed through towns and cities. Western cities connected the natural resources of the West to urban centers in the East. Huge cities emerged rapidly in the West, humming with all the industries necessary to convert raw material into packaged goods ready for shipping. No city grew faster than the Midwestern city of Chicago. With its busy train station and its avid business promoters, Chicago became the capital of western commerce. It developed meatpacking plants to turn cattle into cash and a stock market where speculators could bet on that year’s yield. By 1900, 1.7 million people lived in Chicago. And Chicago was not alone. By 1890, a greater percentage of westerners lived in cities than in any other region in the nation. Cities like Dodge City, Kansas, transitioned from a fur-trading post to a cattle town to a stockyard city.
Virginia City is the Wildest West, 4:55
Virginia City, NV may be set in the 1800′s but the entertainment is timeless! It is a town rich in history and the home to a lot of firsts and lasts. Mark Twain first used his pen name here, Janice Joplin joined what would be her first band and they have the last full speed stagecoach ride.
There is an ever evolving calendar of events and something different almost every weekend! There are wild west show downs, themed balls, silly parades and museums galore. You can walk the town and enjoy the shops and saloons or dig in your heels and try every adventure. I love costumes and you have to love a town where you can dress in 19th century attire and blend in. With so much to do, the only thing you will have to worry about is how many days you can spare to stay. For more information on Virginia City:
http://www.virginiacity-nv.org/
https://youtu.be/FI8-72-v0HI
Outsiders in the Industrializing West
The two groups that did not mesh with the way of life developing in the West were the American Indians and the Chinese, and both were persecuted as outsiders.
THE POPULISTS
18-4 The Populists
In the topsy-turvy agricultural worlds of the South and the West, the corporations of the Industrial Age were rapidly turning into transformative players, dominating key industries like railroads and tobacco, and even challenging the sustainability of the self-sufficient farmer. Farmers both western and southern felt squeezed by a system that seemed stacked against them. Vulnerable to falling crop prices, often saddled with debt, and unable to meet the forces of corporate capitalism on a level playing field, during the 1860s, 1870s, and 1880s many farmers formed organizations to attempt to protect their rural interests. There were many kinds of farm advocacy groups developed during these years, varying in objective, degree of racial liberalism, and political techniques. But in the 1890s, farmers joined together in the Populist Party, which championed the cause of farmers over what it saw as the entrenched powers of banking and credit. Collectively, these agricultural advocates have come to be called the Populists.
The Populists, 1:21
The Democratic Party failed to respond to people's needs.
As a result, people were attracted to a third party.
The Panic of 1873 was the beginning of the Populist movement as farmers organized to reform government policies.
https://youtu.be/zRGYx5KAWAU
What Does It Mean To Be A Populist? - Newsy, 1:36
https://youtu.be/1cn1rwbaR9I
The
People's Party, also known as the Populist Party or the Populists, was a short-lived agrarian-populist political party in the United States that most historians agree was on the left-wing of American politics. It was highly critical of capitalism, especially banks and railroads, and allied itself with the labor movement.
Established in 1891, as a result of the Populist movement, the People's Party reached its zenith in the 1892 presidential election, when its ticket, composed of James B. Weaver and James G. Field, won 8.5% of the popular vote and carried five states (Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Nevada and North Dakota), and the 1894 House of Representatives elections, when it took over 10% of the vote. Built on a coalition of poor, white cotton farmers in the South (especially North Carolina, Alabama and Texas) and hard-pressed wheat farmers in the Plains states (especially Kansas and Nebraska), the Populists represented a radical crusading form of agrarianism and hostility to elites, cities, banks, railroads and gold.
The party sometimes allied with labor unions in the North and Republicans in the South. In the 1896 presidential elections the Populists endorsed the Democratic presidential nominee, William Jennings Bryan, adding their own vice presidential nominee. By joining with the Democrats, the People's Party lost its independent identity and rapidly withered away.
0:02 / 3:29 William Jennings Bryan's Cross of Gold Speech
High inflation during the American civil war benefited farmers who were debtors and who received high prices for farm products. After the war, the U.S. went back to the gold standard causing general deflation. Various rural-based inflation movements developed. By the early 1890s, the Populist Party and figures within the Democratic and Republican Parties advocated "free silver" (a silver-standard currency at a high price for silver that would bring inflation). The Populists represented an alliance of rural interests and silver mining interests. Free silver advocate William Jennings Bryan became the Democratic presidential candidate of 1896, delivering the famous "Cross of Gold" speech denouncing the gold standard. This is a radio broadcast on the 100th anniversary of the speech which includes a 1923 phonograph recording of excepts from the speech by Bryan. (Bryan ran for president 4 times. He was Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson for a time. And he became the prosecutor in the Scopes "Monkey Trial" in Tennessee, convicting Scopes for teaching evolution in the public schools.)
https://youtu.be/HeTkT5-w5RA
The terms "populism" and "populist" have been used in the 20th and 21st centuries to describe anti-elitist appeals against established interests or mainstream parties, referring to both the political left and right.
In 1886, a "People's Party" elected none members to the Wisconsin State Assembly and Wisconsin State Senate; but this was a labor party, and by the 1888 elections was using the Union Labor Party label.
In December 1888 the National Agricultural Wheel and the Southern Farmer’s Alliance met at Meridian, Mississippi where the national farmers convention was held that current year. In that meeting they decided to consolidate the two parties pending ratification. This consolidation gave the organization a new name, the Farmers and Laborers’ Union of America, and by 1889 the merger had been ratified, although there were conflicts between “conservative” Alliance men and “political” Wheelers in Texas and Arkansas, which delayed the unification in these states until 1890 and 1891 respectively. The merger eventually united white Southern Alliance and Wheel members, but it would not include African American members of agricultural organizations.
During their move towards consolidation in 1889, the leaders of both Southern Farmers’ Alliance and the Agricultural Wheel organizations contacted Terence V. Powderly, leader of the Knights of Labor. “This contact between leaders of the farmers’ movement and Powderly helped pave the way for a series of reform conferences held between December 1889 and July 1892 that resulted in the formation of the national People’s (or Populist) Party.”
1892 People's Party campaign poster promoting James Weaver for President of the United States.
The party's platform, commonly known as the Omaha Platform, called for the abolition of national banks, a graduated income tax, direct election of Senators, civil service reform, a working day of eight hours and Government control of all railroads, telegraphs, and telephones. In the 1892 Presidential election, James B. Weaver received 1,027,329 votes. Weaver carried four states (Colorado, Kansas, Idaho, and Nevada) and received electoral votes from Oregon and North Dakota as well.
The party flourished most among farmers in the Southwest and Great Plains, as well as making significant gains in the South, where they faced an uphill battle given the firmly entrenched monopoly of the Democratic Party. Success was often obtained through electoral fusion, with the Democrats outside the South, but with alliances with the Republicans in Southern states like Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. For example, in the elections of 1894, a coalition of Populists and Republicans led by Populist Marion Butler swept state and local offices in North Carolina, and the coalition would go on to elect Republican Daniel Lindsay Russell as Governor in 1896.
Quite separate from the Populists were the Silverites in the western mining states, who demanded Free silver to solve the Panic of 1893. By allowing the coining of silver coins, they hoped to make the value of the money more than what it represented, which would lead to inflation of the currency, and thus, reduce the debt of the farmers to the Eastern Elites. This idea led to former Greenback Party members to join the Populist Party.
The Populists followed the Prohibition Party in actively including women in their affairs. Some southern Populists, including Thomas E. Watson of Georgia, openly talked of the need for poor blacks and poor whites to set aside their racial differences in the name of shared economic self-interest. Regardless of these rhetoric appeals, however, racism did not evade the People's Party. Prominent Populist Party leaders such as Marion Butler, a United States Senator from North Carolina, at least partially demonstrated a dedication to the cause of white supremacy, and there appears to have been some support for this viewpoint among the rank-and-file of the party's membership. After 1900 Watson himself became an outspoken white supremacist and became the party's presidential nominee in 1904 and 1908, winning 117,000 and 29,000 votes.
The Presidential Election of 1896
The Wizard of Oz and the 1896 Presidential Election, 3:48
Excerpt from NPR program on the hypothesis that the book, The Wizard of Oz, was based on the 1896 presidential election and the controversy over gold vs. silver as a monetary standard. It might be noted that the hypothesis is still a matter of controversy.
https://youtu.be/Aevuhg4mFl8
Presidential election of 1896
The Populists had the choice of endorsing Bryan or running their own candidate. After great infighting at their St. Louis convention they decided to endorse Bryan but with their own vice presidential nominee, Thomas E. Watson of Georgia. Watson was cautiously open to cooperation, but after the election would recant any hope he had in the possibility of cooperation as a viable tool. Bryan's strength was based on the traditional Democratic vote (minus the middle class and the Germans); he swept the old Populist strongholds in the west and South, and added the silverite states in the west, but did poorly in the industrial heartland. He lost to Republican William McKinley by a margin of 600,000 votes, and lost again in a rematch in 1900 by a larger margin. Historians believe this was because of the tactics Bryan used, which were not used ever before; he had aggressively "run" for president, while traditional candidates would use "front porch campaigns."
Fading fortunes
The effects of fusion with the Democrats were disastrous to the Party in the South. The Populist/Republican alliance which had governed North Carolina, the only state in which it had any success, fell apart. By 1898, the Democrats used a violently racist campaign to defeat the North Carolina Populists and GOP, and in 1900 the Democrats ushered in disfranchisement.Populism never recovered from the failure of 1896. For example, Tennessee’s Populist Party was demoralized by a diminishing membership, and puzzled and split by the dilemma of whether to fight the state-level enemy (the Democrats) or the national foe (the Republicans and Wall Street). By 1900 the People’s Party of Tennessee was a shadow of what it once was.
In 1900, while many Populist voters supported Bryan again, the weakened party nominated a separate ticket of Wharton Barker and Ignatius L. Donnelly, and disbanded afterwards. Populist activists either retired from politics, joined a major party, or followed Eugene Debs into his new Socialist Party.
Reorganization
In 1904, the party was re-organized, and Thomas E. Watson was their nominee for president in 1904 and in 1908, after which the party disbanded again.Debate by historians over Populism
Since the 1890s historians have vigorously debated the nature of Populism; most scholars have been liberals who admired the Populists for their attacks on banks and railroads. Some historians see a close link between the Populists of the 1890s and the progressives of 1900-1912, but most of the leading progressives (except Bryan himself) fiercely opposed Populism. For example, Theodore Roosevelt, George W. Norris, Robert LaFollette, William Allen White and Woodrow Wilson all strongly opposed Populism. It is debated whether any Populist ideas made their way into the Democratic party during the New Deal era. The New Deal farm programs were designed by experts (like Henry Wallace) who had nothing to do with Populism.
Frederick Jackson Turner and a succession of western historians depicted the Populist as responding to the closure of the frontier. Turner explained:
- The Farmers' Alliance and the Populist demand for government ownership of the railroad is a phase of the same effort of the pioneer farmer, on his latest frontier. The proposals have taken increasing proportions in each region of Western Advance. Taken as a whole, Populism is a manifestation of the old pioneer ideals of the native American, with the added element of increasing readiness to utilize the national government to effect its ends.[18]
In the 1930s C. Vann Woodward stressed the southern base, seeing the possibility of a black-and-white coalition of poor against the overbearing rich. Georgia politician Tom Watson served as Woodward's hero. In the 1950s, however, scholars such as Richard Hofstadter portrayed the Populist movement as an irrational response of backward-looking farmers to the challenges of modernity. He discounted third party links to Progressivism and argued that Populists were provincial, conspiracy-minded, and had a tendency toward scapegoatism that manifested itself as nativism, anti-Semitism, anti-intellectualism, and Anglophobia. The antithesis of anti-modern Populism was modernizing Progressivism according to Hofstadter's model, with such leading progressives as Theodore Roosevelt, Robert LaFollette, George Norris and Woodrow Wilson pointed as having been vehement enemies of Populism, though William Jennings Bryan did cooperate with them and accepted the Populist nomination in 1896.
Michael Kazin's The Populist Persuasion (1995) argued that Populism reflected a rhetorical style that manifested itself in spokesmen like Father Charles Coughlin in the 1930s and Governor George Wallace in the 1960s.
Postel (2007) rejects the notion that the Populists were traditionalistic and anti-modern. Quite the reverse, he argued, the Populists aggressively sought self-consciously progressive goals. They sought diffusion of scientific and technical knowledge, formed highly centralized organizations, launched large-scale incorporated businesses, and pressed for an array of state-centered reforms. Hundreds of thousands of women committed to Populism seeking a more modern life, education, and employment in schools and offices. A large section of the labor movement looked to Populism for answers, forging a political coalition with farmers that gave impetus to the regulatory state. Progress, however, was also menacing and inhumane, Postel notes. White Populists embraced social-Darwinist notions of racial improvement, Chinese exclusion and separate-but-equal.
Populists saw the Panic of 1893 as confirmation that evil global conspiracies and big city villains were to blame. Historian Hasia Diner says:
- Some Populists believed that Jews made up a class of international financiers whose policies had ruined small family farms, they asserted, owned the banks and promoted the gold standard, the chief sources of their impoverishment. Agrarian radicalism posited the city as antithetical to American values, asserting that Jews were the essence of urban corruption.[23]
Is Bernie Sanders a populist?
Is Donald Trump?
Election of 1896, 2:39
A music video sung by William McKinley, asking for your votes. Ms. Clark's Period 5 AP U.S. History Class.
https://youtu.be/lTRM8MyZFOY
William Jennings Bryan "Cross of Gold" Speech (1896 / 1921) [AUDIO RESTORED], 9:41
This is a speech from Democratic Candidate William Jennings Bryan, which he originally delivered in 1896. Unfortunately, no recordings exist of his original speech from 1896. Thankfully, Bryan recorded himself reading the speech 25 years later in 1921 so we have a good idea of what it sounded like. As always, I have remastered this version quite a bit to remove static and give it a bit of a boost. The speech is about the issue of whether to endorse the free coinage of silver at a ratio of silver to gold of 16 to 1.
https://youtu.be/UV2wRCcWJa8?list=PLHwcjg7SEDdOFAWuLwgVlffeuXq3Sj3TG
Fun Fact: William Jennings Bryan was an attorney in the Scopes Trial and argued for the prosecution. He strongly opposed evolution in the classroom and fought for creationism against Clarence Darrow and Mr. Scopes.
For historical authenticity, here is the original:
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5354/
Populism, Free Silver Movement, William Jennings Bryan
Populism, Free Silver Movement, William Jennings Bryan
REFERENCES
Discussion
"North, South and West" Please respond to the following: (Note: Please make a substantive comment to one (1) of your classmates.)
- From the scenario, examine the impact of immigration on the need for post-Reconstruction period legislators to create policies. Provide at least two (2) reasons why white politicians saw other minority groups as a threat and acted to limit their freedoms. Provide a rationale for your response.
18 The Industrial Age: North, South, and West
18-1 The North
Urbanization
Immigration
18-2 The “New South”
Southern Industries
Southern Urbanization
Segregation in the New South
Society and Culture in the Postwar South
18-3 The Industrializing West
Expansive Farming
Industry in the West
Western Cities
Outsiders in the Industrializing West
18-4 The Populists
Problems Confronting Farmers
Farmers Unite
Populism
Ian Hunter Ta Shunka Witco Crazy Horse 2012 with lyrics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgJPIB3Do2c
All American Alien Boy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRbo1A4A0rw
Question 1: Multiple Choice Correct At the "Scopes Monkey Trial," Given Answer: Correct famous defense lawyer Clarence Darrow volunteered to defend science teacher John Scopes, who was arrested for teaching evolution. Correct Answer: famous defense lawyer Clarence Darrow volunteered to defend science teacher John Scopes, who was arrested for teaching evolution. out of 5 points Question 2: Multiple Choice Correct What did the 18th Amendment do? Given Answer: Correct It made prohibition the law of the land. Correct Answer: It made prohibition the law of the land. out of 5 points Question 3: Multiple Choice Correct Immigration to America changed a great deal during the 1920s, as all of the following happened EXCEPT Given Answer: Correct Congress passed new laws encourging immigrantion from Asia and Africa. Correct Answer: Congress passed new laws encourging immigrantion from Asia and Africa. out of 5 points Question 4: Multiple Choice Correct The Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution was proposed in 1923 and approved by Congress in ____, but never ratified by the requisite three-quarters of the states. Given Answer: Correct 1972. Correct Answer: 1972. out of 5 points Question 5: Multiple Choice Incorrect Immigration to America changed a great deal during the 1920s, as Given Answer: Incorrect the U.S. Congress adopted Americanization as the basic American policy; immigrants would be expected to leave behind old cultural ways and become fully American. Correct Answer: Congress passed laws establishing quotas for immigrants based on their home country. out of 5 points Question 6: Multiple Choice Correct Writers and other intellectuals in America tended to place the blame for the Depression on Given Answer: Correct unbridled competition among wealthy individuals that sacrificed the good of society for selfish gains. Correct Answer: unbridled competition among wealthy individuals that sacrificed the good of society for selfish gains. out of 5 points Question 7: Multiple Choice Correct Which of the following agencies put millions of men to work building roads and repairing national parks? Given Answer: Correct Civilian Conservation Corps Correct Answer: Civilian Conservation Corps out of 5 points Question 8: Multiple Choice Correct Which of these is NOT a true statement about the Communist Party in America in the 1930s? Given Answer: Correct It showed a strong concern for WWI veterans and organized the Bonus March on Washington. Correct Answer: It showed a strong concern for WWI veterans and organized the Bonus March on Washington. out of 5 points Question 9: Multiple Choice Correct As the "last hired, first fired," African Americans during the Great Depression used which of these strategies? Given Answer: Correct All of the above. Correct Answer: All of the above. out of 5 points Question 10: Multiple Choice Correct As approved, the Social Security Act (1935) would Given Answer: Correct be a safety net against poverty for people who couldn't support themselves -the elderly, the unemployed and single mothers. Correct Answer: be a safety net against poverty for people who couldn't support themselves -the elderly, the unemployed and single mothers.
Question 1: Multiple Choice Correct In the improving American economy of the 1920s, Given Answer: Correct the percentage of national wealth that went to the poorest 60 percent fell by almost 13 percent during the 1920s, causing the wealthy to increase their wealth at the expense of the poor. Correct Answer: the percentage of national wealth that went to the poorest 60 percent fell by almost 13 percent during the 1920s, causing the wealthy to increase their wealth at the expense of the poor. out of 5 points Question 2: Multiple Choice Incorrect What did the 18th Amendment do? Given Answer: Incorrect It gave women the right to vote. Correct Answer: It made prohibition the law of the land. out of 5 points Question 3: Multiple Choice Correct At the "Scopes Monkey Trial," Given Answer: Correct famous defense lawyer Clarence Darrow volunteered to defend science teacher John Scopes, who was arrested for teaching evolution. Correct Answer: famous defense lawyer Clarence Darrow volunteered to defend science teacher John Scopes, who was arrested for teaching evolution. out of 5 points Question 4: Multiple Choice Incorrect Marcus Garvey is best known for Given Answer: Incorrect founding the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Correct Answer: encouraging blacks to own businesses and assisting them in the back-to-Africa movement. out of 5 points Question 5: Multiple Choice Incorrect Immigration to America changed a great deal during the 1920s, as Given Answer: Incorrect most Americans fell in line behind the "melting pot" theory, which stated that all cultures would contribute parts of their cultures to make a single, all-new mix of peoples who were specifically American. Correct Answer: Congress passed laws establishing quotas for immigrants based on their home country. out of 5 points Question 6: Multiple Choice Incorrect The purpose of the 21st Amendment, enacted in December 1933, was to Given Answer: Incorrect give women the right to vote. Correct Answer: repeal the Prohibition Amendment. out of 5 points Question 7: Multiple Choice Incorrect Hollywood during the 1930s Given Answer: Incorrect began to hammer away at the old and disproven "rags-to-riches" mythology of the past. Correct Answer: took gentle jabs at the elites while reassuring audiences that the American "rags-to-riches" dream was alive and well. out of 5 points Question 8: Multiple Choice Correct As approved, the Social Security Act (1935) would Given Answer: Correct be a safety net against poverty for people who couldn't support themselves -the elderly, the unemployed and single mothers. Correct Answer: be a safety net against poverty for people who couldn't support themselves -the elderly, the unemployed and single mothers. out of 5 points Question 9: Multiple Choice Correct As the "last hired, first fired," African Americans during the Great Depression used which of these strategies? Given Answer: Correct All of the above. Correct Answer: All of the above. out of 5 points Question 10: Multiple Choice Correct The Glass-Steagall Act created the Given Answer: Correct Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Correct Answer: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
