Frontier & Expansion in America

• Frontier & Expansion
  • Frontier Thesis: Frederick Jackson Turner's concept that the frontier shaped American democracy and individualism.
  • Manifest Destiny: The belief that Americans had a divine right to expand westward.
  • Homestead Act (1862): Granted settlers 160 acres of land to encourage western migration.
  • Dawes Act (1887): Divided Native lands into individual plots, undermining tribal unity.
  • Indian Removal Act (1830): Forced relocation of Native American tribes, leading to the Trail of Tears.
  • Western Conquest: Systematic military, economic, and political efforts to seize Native land and resources.
  • Settler Colonialism: Settlers aim to replace Indigenous populations rather than coexist​.
  • Genocide (UN Definition): Intent to destroy a group through killing, forced removal, or cultural erasure​.
  • Plains Wars: Conflicts between Native American tribes and U.S. expansionists. Examples include the Red River War and the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Race, Labor & Violence in the West

• Social Construction of Race: Race is not biologically real but is used for political and social control​.
• Racial Violence in the West: Mass lynchings, exclusion laws, and violent attacks on marginalized groups​​ occurred.
• Chinese Exclusion Act (1882): The first law to restrict immigration based on race/nationality​.
• Anti-Chinese Massacre (1871): 17-22 Chinese men were killed in Los Angeles​.
• Rock Springs Massacre (1885): White miners killed Chinese laborers in Wyoming​.
• Alien Land Laws: Restricted land ownership by Asian immigrants in the West​.
• Foreign Miners' Tax: aimed at Chinese and Mexican miners in California​.
• Mexican Resistance to Mob Violence: Mexican communities resisted lynching and racial violence​.

Reconstruction & Racial Politics

• 13th Amendment: Abolished slavery.
• 14th Amendment: Granted citizenship.
• 15th Amendment: Protected voting rights​.
• Jim Crow in the West: Racial segregation and legal discrimination occurred in California and other western states​.
• Black Codes: Restricted Black people’s freedoms after the Civil War, often forcing them into labor contracts​.
• Lynching and Racial Terror: A tool of white supremacy used against African and Mexican Americans​.
• Freedom Claims in the West: African American efforts were aimed at claiming rights and resisting segregation in California​.
• City of Inmates (Hernandez): There is a connection between racial control and mass incarceration in Los Angeles​.

Economic & Political Forces in the West

• Railroad Expansion: Transcontinental railroads facilitated migration while exploiting labor​.
• Mining Boomtowns: Temporary settlements formed around mining rushes, often leading to environmental destruction​.
• Mexican American Dispossession: Land loss and economic exploitation of Mexican communities occurred in the Southwest​.
• Violence & Resistance in the West: Marginalized communities pushed back against racial violence​.
• Sharecropping System: A labor system replaced slavery but kept Black farmers in debt​.
• The Fight for the Frontier (Limerick): Conquest, not democracy, shaped the West​.
• Incarceration as Racial Control: Imprisonment was used to police and remove marginalized groups from society​.

Key People & Groups

• Biddy Mason:
  • She was forced to work for her slave owner in California despite it being a "free soil" state.
  • Challenged slavery in court in California.
  • She made an effort to bring the lack of freedom into state’s political atmosphere
  • She founded the 1st African Methodist church in LA.
  • A judge ruled against Smith and granted her freedom to work independently.
  • Mason became one of wealthiest African Americans.
  • Displays the early political action from those often overlooked in abolitionist efforts.
• Pio Pico:
  • Race is not biological but shaped by social construct.
  • Born into a Spanish-speaking family in California with a mixed background.
  • His racial identity was viewed differently based on who was in power.
• Tongva Gabrielinos:
  • Native American indigenous to the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands in California.
  • They resisted against San Gabriel Mission.
• Perkins Family:
• Jesse Washington:
  • Brutally lynched after being accused of killing Lucy.
  • Media did NOT show coverage about this event
  • Authorities in Waco made efforts to ‘bury’ this occurrence.
  • White people displayed pride at the scene.
  • Shops and schools closed for people to watch.
• San Gabriel Mission:
  • A Spanish mission to colonize and indoctrinate Native Americans.
  • It forced the spread of Christianity and eradicated Native traditions.
  • The mission relied on seizing control over indigenous populations in their moral, economic, and physical freedoms.
• Comanche:
  • A Native American population that resisted European conquerors.
  • Seized horses and became successful breeders.
  • This provided mobility and helped form tribal identity.
  • Maintained traditions and culture despite European presence.
  • Their survival is defiance.
• Indian Removal Act:
  • All Native Americans west of the Mississippi needed to be relocated and stripped of their land.
• Toyperina:
  • “Boxcar people”.
• Mother Jones:
• CF&I:
• IWW:
  • Diverse recruitment, including people of color and women.
  • Aided social equality.
  • Addressed women's issues, i.e. birth control and suffrage.
• AFL:
  • Shaped the U.S. labor movement and advocated for worker rights.
  • Focused on skilled labor unions.

Laws/Acts

• 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act
• The Geary Act
• Anti-Testimony Law
• 1852 Fugitive Slave Act

Events

• Lynching of Jesse Washington
• Boarding Schools
• Chinese Massacre
• Ludlow Massacre

Limerick's Critique of Frontier Theory

• Biased narrative favoring "only one of the contesting groups".
• East to west narrative erases/oversimplifies preexistence of diverse populations.
• The theory makes it Impossible to define the frontier's beginning and end.
• The traditional narrative retells westward expansion with “innocence and exceptionalism”.
• Relied too heavily on Frederick Jackson Turner's definition of the frontier.
• Turner believed the frontier encouraged individualism and innovation.
• There's a narrative that the West was open for taking due to a perceived lack of development, justifying colonization.