Becoming and Being an American
in the 19 th Century
From Civil War to World War
Dale Steiner
California State University, Chico
Period of dramatic change
• Affected all groups
• None more than
African Americans
– Civil War not fought
to free the slaves
Why the Civil War was fought
“…I would save the Union. If I could
save the Union without freeing any
slave I would do it, and if I could
save it by freeing all slaves I would
do it, and if I could save it by
freeing some and leaving others
alone I would also do that. What I
do about slavery, and the colored
race, I do because I believe it
helps to save the Union. And what
I forbear I forbear because I do not
believe it would help to save the
Union.”
But emancipation a major result
• Emancipation began
when war did
– Army = magnet
• Even in border states
• Runaways rarely
returned to masters
• But political
considerations
delayed further
action by Lincoln
Emancipation Proclamation
• September 22, 1862
– Preliminary proclamation
– Element of blackmail
• January 1, 1863
– Element of hoax
• Main points
– States/areas declared in rebellion
– Slaves in states/areas declared free
– Ex-slaves: no violence; work for pay
– Ex-slaves accepted into army
Boosted war effort
• Revitalized Northern
morale
• Ended possibility of
foreign intervention
• Created new source
of manpower
“Lincoln plays the trump card”
But incomplete
• Border states, exceptions
• Addressed by 13th
Amendment, Feb. 1865
– Sec. 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.”
• Civil Rights Act of 1866
– “all persons born or naturalized in”
Reconstruction US = citizens
– Asserted basic rights
– Passed over Johnson’s veto
• 14th Amendment, 1868
– Solidified assertion of citizenship
• Reinforced right to equal protection of
the law
– Protected voting rights of males
• 1st reference to gender
• 15th Amendment, 1870
– Established right to vote
• Civil Rights Act of 1875
– Asserted right to equal enjoyment
Andrew Johnson of public accommodations
But after Reconstruction ended…
• Racial segregation in South
institutionalized, 1870s-90s
– “Jim Crow” laws
Supreme Court narrowed 14th
• Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896
– Constitutionality of Jim Crow laws
upheld by Supreme Court (7-1)
– Segregation by race permissible if
separate facilities equal in quality
• Rule of “separate but equal” established
Aspects of the Jim Crow System
• Social (1870s-90s) • Political (1890s-1900s)
– Inferior status cemented – 1890-1910 number of
• Rigid racial separation blacks voting in South
required by law declined by 96%
– Touched every aspect • Various means
• Atlanta: courtroom Bibles – Inconvenient registration,
confusing ballot, poll tax,
• Mississippi: graveyards
literacy test
• Economic (1870-1910) • Violent
– Carpenters: 21%>12%
– Masons: 24%>13%
– Painters: 30%>9%
The black response
• Not unified
• Washington and DuBois
= primary spokesmen Booker T. T. Washington
Booker Washington
– Different experiences
– Different views
• NAACP founded 1909
– Reaction to 1908 riot in
Springfield IL
– Among 8 founders – 3
women
W. E. B. DuBois
Two rights movements
• Closely connected since • 1869
before Civil War – 15th Amendment – intro.
– Women’s movement – AERA split over strategy
subordinated • National Woman Suffrage
• But at war’s end….
Association – NY
• 1866 – Fought on national level
– American Equal Rights
Association formed
• American Woman
• For universal suffrage Suffrage Association –
• Stanton, Anthony, Douglass Boston
– 14th Amendment – intro. – Focused on state level
• Protected male vote • Limited impact
Fought in East, but won in West
• Wyoming Territory 1869
• Women can vote, hold office
– Other western states &
territories followed suit
• 1870 Utah Territory
• Women in short supply
– Valued more highly
– Contributions more apparent
Economic and social
changes
• New job opportunities
– Impact of technology
• Office work
• Declining birth rate
– Improved birth control
– Why limit family size?
• Urbanization
• Declining infant mortality
• Quality of life
Met Life 1896
Changes for immigrant women too
• Not all positive
– Since elderly didn’t emigrate,
meant loss of extended
family
• Extended family became
nuclear family in America
– In old country older
generation helped with
children, chores
– Provided emotional support
Females still a minority
• In fact, % shrinking
– Disturbed many
Americans
– “Proved” immigrants not
interested in staying,
becoming Americans
Positive changes
for female
immigrants
• Legal
– More rights and protection in
US
• 1911 guidebook for Italian
immigrants: “It is a crime severely
punished in all states for a man to
strike his wife….” • Social
• Economic – Relative scarcity of
– In old country hard to place immigrant women =
value on work leverage
• In US pay envelope had earner’s – Impact of American
name on it women on self-image
Impact on courtship and marriage
• Old country marriages often
arranged
– Business deal, with contract
– Standard feature = dowry
• Not in US - females seen differently
• Another change: age of bride
– From liability to asset
• Parents not as eager to marry off
Working immigrant women
• Able to find jobs
more easily than
men
– Most common:
servant
• Preferred factory
jobs
Industrial jobs
• Paid < men ~50%
– Yet contributed ~50% of
family income
• Worked more regularly,
longer hours, extra jobs
• Faced more hazards
– Dress codes, fashion
– Textile mills
• Deafness
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire • “white lung”
1911/New York/136 dead
Other significant developments
Total per decade • Numbers
– 1815-64 ~5,000,000
– 1865-1914 ~27,000,000
• Origins
– From NW Europe to SE
Europe, Asia, Middle
East
• Where settled
– Less rural, more urban
• Rate of return
– Higher among newer
The case for restriction
• 41 volume report 1907-11
– A complete sham
• Commission members biased
• Framed questions to get desired answers
• Manipulated data
• Compared “old” and “new” immigrants
– Why they came
– Where they came from
– Where they settled
– Whether they brought families
– Whether they went back
– Whether they assimilated
– Whether they had skills
• Basically: “They’re not like us”
The Chinese: no one less “like us”
• Personified – in extreme
way – what Americans
hated most about “new”
immigrants
– Not from NW Europe
– Not interested in staying
– Kept to selves and refused
to assimilate
– Low percentage of women
– Undercut wages
• 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act Restriction had
– Virtually eliminated Chinese
immigration
already begun
• 1871-80: 123,201
• 1883: 279
• 1884: 22
• 1882 Immigration Act
– Prohibited entry by convicts,
idiots, lunatics, and those likely to
become a public charge
• Prohibited list expanded
– 1891 - paupers, polygamists, …
– 1903 - epileptics, anarchists, …
– 1907 - imbeciles, TB, moral
turpitude, …
Supported by “science”
• 1859: Darwin - The
Origin of Species
– Twisted by “Social
Darwinists”
Charles
Darwin
Rationalized racism, removal
1879
“EVERY DOG” (NO DISTINCTION OF COLOR) “HAS HIS DAY.”
RED GENTLEMAN TO YELLOW GENTLEMAN: “Pale face ’fraid you crowd him out, as he did me.”
Manifest
Destiny in
action
• Indians tricked into treaties
– Forced onto reservations
– Resistance crushed
• Indian Appropriations Act 1871
– US wouldn’t recognize, or make
treaties with, any more tribes
Destruction of the buffalo
• Central to lives of Great
Plains Indians
– Source of food, shelter,
clothing, tools, weapons
– Spiritually important
• Seen as hindrance by
railroads, cattlemen
• 1850 ~13,000,000
buffalo
– 1890 <1,000
An appeal to conscience
• A Century of Dishonor,
1881
– Detailed mistreatment of
Indians, broken promises
by government
– Sent copy to each
member of Congress
– Inspired outcry, calls for
reform
Dawes Severalty Act, 1887
• Reversed reservation
policy
– Ended communal land
ownership
– Allotted land to individual
families
– Awarded citizenship to
those who accepted
allotments
• Expected Indians would
adopt whites’ values Senator Henry Dawes
How it worked out
• Unallotted land sold to
fund Indian education
– Within 50 years Indian
lands reduced 62%, from
138,000,000 acres to
52,000,000 acres
• Indian children sent to
boarding schools far
from home
– Required to speak
English, wear US clothes