In the years after the Civil War, towns and cities in the great plains had to convince settlers to move in. They needed the sale of land to fund the current towns. One way to convince settlement was to create cleaver ads that would convince people of the fertility of these areas. In the Oklahoma … Continue reading Class Notes →

With the growth of abolitionism, southern slave holders found the need to protect slavery more than they ever had before. They used history, religion, and biology to make a defense of slavery, but their most important weapon was paternalism. The idea of paternalism was that slaves were basically children. Just as plantation masters had to … Continue reading Class Notes →

In the Election of 1876, the Democrat candidate Samuel Tilden was one vote shy of winning the Electoral College. The problem was that four states were not being counted because of electoral disputes. Three of those states were in the south, LA, SC and FL (why is it always Florida), and the Democrats had taken … Continue reading Class Notes →

There were several ways in which slaves could protest their enslavement. They could work slowly, pretend illness, break tools, burn down barns or homes, poison food, run away or finally they could revolt. While the consequences grew in severity as the protests did, all forms of protest had negative effects. Even if not caught, most … Continue reading Class Notes →

After the death of Lincoln, Congress reasserted itself as top-dog and passed the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. In this amendment citizenship was defined as anyone born in the U.S. who is not subject to another jurisdiction. It imposed penalties on any state that denied citizens voting rights. Finally, it prohibited former Confederate leaders from … Continue reading Class Notes →