Period+3

The Rough 1860's

Period 3 toc

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Commercial: media type="custom" key="11587902" Sources for video: http://tcrr.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3OM_UnnCNM http://www.phsc.ca/shields.html

The Homestead Act of 1862
The Homestead Act is a federal law initially signed by Abraham Lincoln that entitled any applicant to a freehold of up to 160 acres of land. It was influenced by manifest destiny, a concept, which heavily influenced American policy in the 1800s. It was an idea that was the driving force behind the fast expansion the USA from the East into the West, and it was heavily promoted in the media. While it in itself was not an official government policy, it led to the passing of the Homestead Act, which encouraged Westward colonization. The Act was put into effect in the government belief that only cultivated land had value. It was meant to distribute America's wealth more evenly by enabling poor citizens to start farms. The requirements to be a homesteader and complete the filing process were not simple. A homesteader had to be the head of a household or at least 21 years of age to claim a 160-acre parcel of land. Each homesteader had to live on the land, build a home, and make improvements and farm for 5 years before they were eligible to "prove up". First, they had to file their interest at the nearest Land Office, where a check for previous ownership claims would be made for the land in questions. There was a filing fee of $10 to temporary claim the land, and $2 for the land agent. With these papers, the person went to the land to build a home and farm, both requirements for “proving” up at the end of 5 years. When the requirements were completed, the person got two people who would vouch for the truth of the land’s improvements and sign a document. After this form and a $6 payment were complete, the homesteader got a patent for the land. Of the two million claims made under the Homestead Act only 40% earned the deed from the government. Evidence of the Act in Media: As a stamp.As another stamp. This is a primary source. It is a poster that alerted many to the inexpensive land for sale in Iowa and Nebraska. It says “Millions of Acres. Iowa and Nebraska. Land for Sale on 10 years Credit by the Burlington & Missouri River R. R. Co. at 6 per acre Interest and Low Prices.” Evidence of the Act in Colonists Moving

 Theodore Jerdine sod house, Osnabrock, North Dakota / photo by Melin in June 1906. Theodore was born in Sweden and immigrated to America and became a homesteader.

The effects of the Act were initially beneficial. This act enabled thousands of people to own land for cultivation and create farms on underdeveloped lands in the US. This was the first act to allow anyone to apply for a homestead title, including black people and former slaves as well as immigrants from Europe and other countries. Over time, more than a quarter of a billion acres of land were acquired and developed under the Act. However, homesteaders weren't required to have the necessary equipment or know anything about farming, so many could not be productive. After time, it was noticeable that, through trickery and deceit, much of this land wound up in the hands of railroad developers. In the long run, the act resulted in privatization of almost ten percent of the land in the US with a total of 270,000,000 acres. Due to the ignorance of many homesteaders, this was often some of the best land. This initiative was eventually discontinued in 1976, when the government decided to gain back control over public lands and passed a Federal Land Policy and Management Act. The Homestead Act significantly harmed the environment as well. It caused a lot of fraud with the lands not being used for farming or cultivation, but rather to control resources such as water and minerals. The building of the railroad wiped out herds of bison and endangered the lives of those who relied on the buffalo. The expansion of farming itself also caused damage to the environment, by eliminating prairies and subsequently entire ecosystems. The same was true of the over farming of dry lands, a practice that greatly contributed to the giant dust storm in the 1930s, the Dust Bowl. Droughts, blizzards, harsh winds and plagues of insects made the production of crops difficult. Settlers also didn’t have the necessary acreage in order to be successful on the dry plains, 160 acres was not sufficient. Overall, those who endured these adversities benefitted from new railroads that provided transportation and made things easier. By 1934, 10% of all US lands were owned by individuals that had been granted homesteads. This act also helped greatly with the growth and spread of the United States. Currently, the Homestead Act, substantially amended, is still in effect in the United States today. Due to the absence of good uncultivated and undeveloped land, however, the Act is rarely used. media type="custom" key="11587108"

=The Emancipation Proclamation=

The **Emancipation Proclamation** is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with nearly all the rest freed as Union armies advanced. The Proclamation did not compensate the owners; it did not make the ex-slaves, called Freedmen, citizens.

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=The 13th and 14th Amendments= The first of three Reconstruction Amendments enacted in the years immediately following the Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment officially prohibited slavery in the United States and its territories. Originally proposed by Senator John Henderson in January 1865 and almost immediately adopted by the U.S. Congress, although not without considerable debate, the amendment received the requisite number of state endorsements on December 18, 1865. The selective enforcement of certain laws allowed blacks to continue to be subjected to involuntary servitude in some cases such as the Black Codes. Yet, the Black Codes, which were the laws passed by states and municipalities denying many rights of citizenship to free blacks after the Civil War, were still enforced in some states contributing to involuntary servitude.
 * 13th Amendment Background**

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
 * 13th Amendment Clauses**

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

One of the most controversial and debated provisions of the U.S. Constitution, the Fourteenth Amendment was one of three Reconstruction amendments enacted in the years immediately following the Civil War. The Fourteenth Amendment was remarkable for two primary reasons: first, it expanded the definition of U.S. citizenship to include people of all races, specifically African Americans; and second, it commanded the federal government to ensure the protection of certain fundamental rights at the state level. Suggested by a congressional committee of 15 members that began drafting the amendment in 1866, it received congressional endorsement on June 13, 1866 and had garnered sufficient state support by July 28, 1868 to be officially adopted and enacted.
 * 14th Amendment Background**

It also had many clauses contributing to many fields:
 * Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship.
 * Its Due Process Clause prohibits state and local governments from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without certain steps being taken to ensure fairness. This clause has been used to make most of the Bill of Rights applicable to the states.
 * Its Equal Protection Clause requires each state to provide equal protection under the law to all people within its jurisdiction.

Also, this amendment outlawed the black codes. It also disappointed several peoples as well. Radical Republicans thought that it failed to give the vote to black people outright and advocates of women’s suffrage were disappointed because it is the first time using the word male in the Constitution to define who could vote. It alsohad little immediate impact in the South. Yet, after the passage, white violence against black people began to increase. In the 1870s, several decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court diminished some provisions of the amendment, but this would become an important cornerstone for African-American rights in the future.

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
 * 14th Amendment Clauses **

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. media type="custom" key="11593594"

The Sand Creek Massacre of 1864
The Sand Creek Massacre is the mass murder of the Cheyenne and Arapho tribes in Colorado. John Chivington, a Methodist minister who had organized Denver’s first Sunday school, led a militia force to the Sand Creek camp of a band of Cheyennes under Black Kettle, an advocate of peace and accommodation. Militia attacked camp without warning. With howitzers and rifles, soldiers fired into the camp and assaulted survivors with swords and knives. Hundreds of women, children, and men were killed on this day very brutally.

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**The Ku Klux Klan (The First Group)**
The first group of the Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1865 and led by ex-confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, along with 6 other confederate veterans from the Civil War. The secret organization was created after the end of the Civil War, when African Americans in the South began to gain more rights. The fact that the war ended and African Americans gaining more rights, the white race (Nathan Bedford Forrest) began to think that the white race was losing their honor and authority as more powerful over the African Americans. Nathan created the KKK so that he can prove that the white race is as strong as ever and nothing can bring them down. In this secret organization, they targeted African Americans, homosexuals, people of mixed ethnicity, and anyone who questioned their authority. The members of the organization grew and grew until they had reached a total of 550,000 members of the KKK. The members of the KKK wore white robes with a red cross on it, white hates, white masks, and rode on dark horses. The white clothing represents the superiority of the white race and the masks were meant to hide their identities. They rode on dark horses and decided to do all of their attacks by night, because the horse was dark and would blend in with the night, making the KKK member appear as a flying ghost, also showing that the white have more power over the African Americans. In their attacks, they have used the burning of the cross, lynching (hanging of African Americans), rape, and tried everything they can to inflict fear into everyone. The first group of the KKK died out in 1870 because a federal jury had declared that the ku klux klan to be a "terrorist organization" and prosecuted all members of the organization. Surprisingly, Ex-Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, leader of the KKK, also agreed with the federal jury because his attentions of proving the white race was superior to all was being taken the wrong way the members of the Ku Klux Klan.



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=The Transcontinental Railroad=

The First Transcontinental Railroad was a major breakthrough for American Engineers, businessmen, and politicians. It paved the way for further expansion into the Western United States, which includes California, Nevada, and many other future states. Before the building of the railroad, it took a total of six months to travel from one side of the country to another, which made it difficult for businesses, individuals, and adventurers to move into the western world. The travel time was cut substantially, from six months to seven days. Now reaching California could be achieved, if the right amount of money was procured. media type="custom" key="11587392"