CHAPTER 18
The New South and the New West,
1865–1900
This chapter covers economic and agricultural developments in the New South and West after the Civil
War. The chapter opens by outlining attempts to diversify the southern economy with textile mills and
buffalo. The Daws Severalty Act (1887) brought an end to the wars and the new efforts to “Americanize”
the Indians. In 1893 in his “frontier thesis,” Frederick Jackson Turner declared that “the frontier has gone,
and with its going has closed the first period in American history.”
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. The Myth of the New South
II. The Failings of the New South
A. Southern Poverty
B. The Crop-Lien System
C. Falling Cotton Prices
III. Race Relations during the 1890s
A. Disfranchising African Americans
B. The Spread of Segregation
C. Mob Rule in North Carolina
D. The African American Response
i. Ida B. Wells
IV. The Settling of the New West
A. The Western Landscape
B. The Migratory Stream
C. The African American Migration
D. Western Mining
E. Mining Boomtowns
V. Life in the New West
A. The Cattle Boom
B. Chicago
VI. The Fate of Western Indians
A. Indian Relations in the West
C. Spreading Conflict
D. Indian Relocation
E. Grant’s Indian Policy
VII. The End of the Frontier
A. Frederick Jackson Turner
B. Discontented Farmers
LECTURE IDEAS
1. Sharecropping opens a window for a discussion about the intersections of class, ethnicity, and
economics after the Civil War. Give an overview of the sharecropping system and its economic, social,
2. The story of the Exodusters helps to emphasize the long story in African American history of people
seeking a better life by moving. This is a theme that a later lecture ought to cover with the Great
3. Read the Fourteenth Amendment to the students and then ask them why “Indians not taxed” might
have been included. This allows you to make the simple point that amid the Reconstruction era
4. An analysis of western art from the 1860s and 1870s, including Albert Bierstadt’s The Oregon Trail
from 1869 and John Gast’s American Progress, helps students connect the dots between the imagined
5. For a lecture on the role of women in the farmers’ frontier, see Joanna L. Stratton’s Pioneer Women:
6. One lecture topic likely to capture students’ attention is a discussion of the activities of some of the
(2003). In this lecture, explore whether or not Jesse James was one of the classic Robin Hood–type
figures that emerged in various different countries and time periods. Other outlaws to potentially
IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES
1. The 1890 census is invariably cited as the origin of Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis, but few
actually go back to that or other censuses to make their own sense of the data they offer. Indeed much
of the 1890 census was lost in a 1921 fire in the Commerce Department building (source:
2. Cowboys are still remembered for the songs they sang. A selection of these song lyrics can be found at
the website for the PBS series The West
3. Abilene, Kansas is identified as the first successful “cow town.” The Abilene Reflector, a newspaper
from the era, has been digitized and is available at
4. The historical records on Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois have suffered historical biases
since the era of their leadership. To provide students with a general understanding of the two noted
black leaders during the late nineteenth century, you might ask students to watch Robert J. Norrell’s
In this in-class activity, students will outline and debate the merits of the different approaches
Washington and Du Bois took in responding to racism during the late nineteenth century. Ask the
students to split into two groups. One will outline the beliefs of Washington for the class and the other
will present the views of Du Bois. Drawing on quotes from the Atlanta Compromise and information
from their textbook, students should address questions such as the following during the discussion:
• In what ways did the priorities and demands of the two leaders diverge and overlap?
• How did each of them feel about the strategy of “ceaseless agitation”?
• What role did “quiet efforts” play in the black response to racism?
5. After the Civil War, the U.S. Army worked to keep Native American land protected through the
formation of reservations. Despite these efforts, settlers increasingly moved onto Indian lands, and
tensions rose to the point of war. Ask students to consider the late nineteenth century from the
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What are the main myths and stereotypes of the South and West? How important are those myths and
stereotypes to understanding the historical trajectory of each region?
2. What are the most important environmental factors to understand when learning about the South and
West during the latter part of the nineteenth century?
3. What was the role of women in the West? Although society continued to be dominated by men, in
4. How do the historical realities of an urban West compare with Hollywood’s version of the region?
5. If you were an African American during this period, were your prospects better in the West than
South? What were the advantages and disadvantages of migrating to the West as opposed to staying
in the South?
6. How did African Americans respond to the continued spread of segregation and white supremacy
across the South in the late nineteenth century? What important legacies did they form through
accommodation, on the one hand, and activism on the other?
PRACTICING CITIZENSHIP
This chapter is about two regions of the country that changed significantly in the years immediately
following the Civil War. As the South industrialized after slavery and as trains crisscrossed the mining and
cattle country of the West, some people seemed to profit more than others. Who were the winners and
what did they gain? Who were the losers and what did they lose? Think about the parts of the United
States that appear to be changing most significantly today. What is changing, and who are the apparent