
Violent Land The West and the Civil War of Incorporation
The Frontier and Industrialization • Mining Operations • “Gold Rushes” and Placer Operations • Boom Towns and “Ghost Towns” • Corporate Mining • The Anaconda Mine, Butte, Montana • Immigrants and the Division of Labor
The Railroads, Eastern Tables and Western Beef • Pacific Railroad Act (1861) • Eastern Tables and Western Beef: The Cattle Kingdoms • Pork vs. Beef • Texas Longhorns “8 lbs of hamburger on 800 lbs. of bone and horn.” • Joseph G. McCoy and the Chisolm Trail • Gustavus Swift • Cattle Corporations
Agricultural Empire • Why did pioneers “go west?” • The Homestead Act (1862) • Homesteaders • Western farmers and the Capitalist Economy • Financial backing • Costs • Markets
Violent Land? • Why the West was a violent place. • Demographic roots— “Surplus males” • “Honor cultures” • Vigilantism • The doctrine of “no duty to retreat.” • The Western Civil War of Incorporation (1870-1920) • Pro Incorporation (northern, Republican) • “Resisters” (Texan, Southern, Democrat)
Cattle Trails Chisolm Trail Western Trail
Wild Bill Hickock Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp, 1877
Jesse James as adult Jesse James at 16