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Samuel Brannan (1819-1889). Courtesy of the Utah Historical Society.

On February 4, 1846, 27-year-old Samuel Brannan sailed from New York City aboard the Brooklyn. On board were 238 fellow Mormons. They were bound for the Mexican territory of California, where they hoped to build a Mormon kingdom without the conflicts they had experienced in the United States. During the six months the Brooklyn was at sea, the United Stated went to war with Mexico. When the Mormons sailed into San Francisco Bay, they were dismayed to learn the Americans were in control. Elder Brannan settled his people in California anyway. He would soon make a vast fortune.

Waiting for Brigham Young
Back east, the energetic Brannan had been a promoter of his church. In California he became an ambitious leader. He constructed flour mills, bought land, and printed the California Star, San Francisco's first newspaper. All the while, Brannan awaited Brigham Young, who was leading 15,000 Mormons west on the overland trail. Brannan hoped Young would come to California, but Young preferred a desolate spot to the east, near the Great Salt Lake. He reasoned that California's abundance might attract other settlers.

Gold! Gold!
Brannan stayed in California, but rejected the Mormon church and the church excommunicated him. In the fall of 1847 he opened a store at John Sutter's Fort. A few months later, rumors circulated that gold had been found nearby at Coloma. In early May, Brannan headed to the mines to see for himself. He learned "there was more gold than all the people in California could take out in fifty years." Brannan made plans for a second store. Then, he packed some of the precious metal into a quinine bottle and traveled the hundred miles back to San Francisco. As he stepped off the ferry, Brannan swung his hat, waved the bottle and shouted, "Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!" By the middle of June, three-quarters of the male population had left town for the mines.

Entrepreneur for the Gold Rush
Brannan didn't actually dig for gold, but gold swelled his investments to a fortune. His store made enormous profits by selling as much as $5,000 (about $120,000 in 2005 dollars) in goods per day to miners. Brannan also convinced some Mormon miners to pay him a percentage of their income in exchange for his attempts to secure title to the goldfields, which he never did. He opened a third store. He had several buildings in San Francisco and was on his way to being the largest landowner in the new town of Sacramento.

Vigilante Justice
Brannan made money with a reckless passion and energy. His more destructive impulses, such as drinking, womanizing and fighting, also burst forth. With property to defend, Brannan took up a vigilante brand of law and order. When a group of drunken Americans assaulted some Chileans in San Francisco, Brannan climbed atop a barrel and hurled invectives at the Americans. The men were rounded up, tried and sentenced to hard labor. There were no prisons, so some were hanged instead. In the years to come, Brannan would play a key role in San Francisco's Vigilance Committee, which through rudimentary trials dealt harshly with problems like theft, arson, murder, and criminal gangs.

The Richest Man
During the 1850s and 1860s Brannan was known as the richest man in California. The chaos of the gold rush had played to his personality and business instincts, but he plunged into some schemes with the care of a gambler. He once sailed to Hawaii to overthrow the king, a coup that failed. He bought 3,000 acres in Napa Valley, hired Japanese gardeners to tend the land and bought 800 horses. He called his new resort Calistoga and catered to San Francisco's wealthy. In typical fashion, Brannan got in a drunken fight one night with some employees. He was shot eight times. He bled profusely, but survived.

Divorce Leads to Collapse
Brannan invested in railroads, which should have made him richer, but he built a track to Calistoga and the resort was too small to make it pay. Brannan faltered financially. Then came the divorce. Bitter about her husband's notorious infidelity, Ann Eliza Brannan insisted on a cash settlement. Sam Brannan was forced to transform his immense paper fortune into cash in 1870, a low moment for the California economy. His empire collapsed.

Selling Pencils
He spent the next two decades negotiating land deals in Mexico, but his schemes failed. Impoverished, he moved to Nogales, Arizona. In 1887 Brannan sold pencils door-to-door to raise the money for a trip to San Francisco. The newspapers covered the former tycoon's visit. One reporter described him as "old, gray, broken in strength, able only to get about with the aid of a cane. The old keenness of the eye alone shows that his spirit has survived the decay of his body." Brannan died on small fruit farm outside San Diego on May 5, 1889, leaving his children but a few dollars apiece.

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Samuel Brannan: Gold Rush Entrepreneur | American Experience | PBS

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Brannan didn't actually dig for gold, but gold swelled his investments to a fortune.

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The Mission

From Californio Ranchos to Cosmopolitan Neighborhood
The Californios' tenure was to last less than two decades. Their hold on the land was guaranteed by treaty with the United States government when the area came under American dominion after Mexico lost the Mexican-American was of 1846. But such paper promises meant nothing in the face of the land-grabbing fortune hunters who heard the siren call of the California Gold Rush of 1849. Practically overnight, the population of San Francisco exploded from less than 1,000 to more than 34,000!
The newcomers stayed on after the Gold Rush faded, and turned the area into a bona fide city primarily populated by working people. Real estate speculators bought up the Californios' ranchlands and turned them into residential neighborhoods, dotted with thousands of hastily erected yet sturdy Victorian houses chosen from catalogs. These became the homes of the people who worked the factories, shipyards and restaurants of San Francisco. They hailed from all over the globe - from European countries such as Germany, Scandinavia and Ireland, and from Latin American homelands such as Puerto Rico, Chile, and Colombia. By the early 1900's, the Mission District had become home to a rich diversity of ethnic groups and cultures, from blue collar workers to the city's elite.

What Sparked the Gold Rush?

It began with rumors, but the rumors weren't confirmed until a gentleman by the name of Samuel Brannan visited Coloma and Mormon Bar on the American River in 1848. He returned to San Francisco and walked up and down the streets brandishing glittering particles of gold, shouting "Gold, gold, gold from the American River!"

By the summer of that year, gold fever had struck southern California and northern Mexico. It later spread to Hawaii, Oregon and other parts of the United States. Almost three quarters of California's newcomers were from the continental United States, originally hailing from countries in western Europe. Males outnumbered females 12 to 1.

Later on Chileans, Australians and some Chinese joined the ranks of fortune-hunting prospectors. Still later, thousands of impoverished or persecuted Europeans took to the high seas and braved cholera, thirst and numerous other hardships in the hope of a better life for the distressed and the lure of an easy fortune for the greedy. In the first three years of the Gold Rush, more than 200,000 people came to California, in one of the greatest peaceful mass migrations in human history.

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Californio Ranchos to Cosmopolitan Neighborhood

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The Californios' tenure was to last less than two decades. Their hold on the land was guaranteed by treaty with the United States government when the area came under American dominion after Mexico lost the Mexican-American was of 1846.

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Play a game of Kahoot! here. Kahoot! is a free game-based learning platform that makes it fun to learn - any subject, in any language, on any device, for all ages!

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America The Story of Us Railroad PartII & Sears

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America the Story of Us: Gold Rush | History

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CNN Article black cowboys fight for their place in history

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The Surprisingly Short History of the Pony Express

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7 Most Dangerous Men of the Old Wild West

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Cowboys played an important role during the era of U.S. westward expansion. Though they originated in Mexico, American cowboys created a style and reputation all their own. Throughout history, their iconic lifestyle has been glamorized in countless books, movies and television shows-but the rough, lonely and sometimes grueling work of a cowboy wasn't for the faint of heart.

Vaqueros

In 1519, shortly after the Spanish arrived in the Americas, they began to build ranches to raise cattle and other livestock. Horses were imported from Spain and put to work on the ranches.

Mexico's native cowboys were called vaqueros, which comes from the Spanish word vaca (cow). Vaqueros were hired by ranchers to tend to the livestock and were known for their superior roping, riding and herding skills.

By the early 1700s, ranching made its way to present-day Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and as far south as Argentina. When the California missions started in 1769, livestock practices were introduced to more areas in the West.

During the early 1800s, many English-speaking settlers migrated to the West and adopted aspects of the vaquero culture, including their clothing style and cattle-driving methods.

Cowboys came from diverse backgrounds and included African-Americans, Native Americans, Mexicans and settlers from the eastern United States and Europe.

Manifest Destiny and American Cowboys

In the mid-1800s, the United States built railroads that reached further west, and cowboys played a central part in the nation's " Manifest Destiny " expansion efforts.

Cowboys herded and rounded up livestock that were transported by rail around the country for sale.

To distinguish what cattle belonged to which ranch, cowboys would brand the animals by burning a special mark into their hides. It took between eight and 12 cowboys to move 3,000 head of cattle along cattle drives.

Open Range vs. Barbed Wire

By the time the Civil War ended in 1865, the Union Army had largely used up the supply of beef in the North, increasing the demand for beef. The expansion of the meat-packing industry also encouraged consumption of beef.

By 1866, millions of heads of longhorn cattle were rounded up and driven toward railroad depots. Cattle were sold to northern markets for as much as $40 per head.

Ranching continued to be widespread through the late 1800s. White settlers were permitted to claim public lands on the Great Plains as "open range" to raise purchased cattle.

But by the 1890s, most of the land became privatized after feuds over land ownership were settled and the use of barbed wire became widespread.

During the winter of 1886-1887, thousands of cattle died when temperatures reached well below freezing in parts of the West. Many scholars believe that this devastating winter was the beginning of the end for the cowboy era.

Cowboys in the 20th Century

Cattle drives continued, but on a smaller scale, up until the mid-1900s. Most cowboys gave up the open trail life and were hired by private ranch owners in the West.

Even though the cowboy's role began to decline at this time, Hollywood movies popularized the cowboy lifestyle with Westerns from the 1920s to the 1940s. These films featured stars like John Wayne, Buck Jones and Gene Autry.

Cowboy Life

Cowboys were mostly young men who needed cash. The average cowboy in the West made about $25 to $40 a month.

In addition to herding cattle, they also helped care for horses, repaired fences and buildings, worked cattle drives and in some cases helped establish frontier towns.

Cowboys occasionally developed a bad reputation for being lawless, and some were banned from certain establishments.

They typically wore large hats with wide brims to protect them from the sun, boots to help them ride horses and bandanas to guard them from dust. Some wore chaps on the outsides of their trousers to protect their legs from sharp cactus needles and rocky terrain.

When they lived on a ranch, cowboys shared a bunkhouse with each other. For entertainment, some sang songs, played the guitar or harmonica and wrote poetry.

Cowboys were referred to as cowpokes, buckaroos, cowhands and cowpunchers. The most experienced cowboy was called the Segundo (Spanish for "second") and rode squarely with the trail boss.

Everyday work was difficult and laborious for cowboys. Workdays lasted about 15 hours, and much of that time was spent on a horse or doing other physical labor.

Rodeo Cowboys

Some cowboys tested their skills against one another by performing in rodeos-competitions that were based on the daily tasks of a cowboy.

Rodeo activities included bull riding, calf roping, steer wrestling, bareback bronco riding and barrel racing.

The first professional rodeo was held in Prescott, Arizona, in 1888. Since then, rodeos became-and continue to be-popular entertainment events in the United States, Mexico and elsewhere.

Cowboys Today

Over the years, the number of working cowboys has declined, but the occupation isn't obsolete. The cowboy lifestyle and culture is still found in certain areas of the United States, albeit to a lesser degree than a century ago.

Cowboys continue to help run large ranches in states like Texas, Utah, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2003 there were about 9,730 workers in the category "support activities for animal production," which included cowboys. These workers made an average of $19,340 per year.

While opportunities may have shifted, the American cowboy is still very much a part of life in the West.

Sources

Cowboys, PBS.
The History of the Vaquero, American Cowboy.
The Ways of the Cowboy, USHistory.org.
The Last Cowboy, PBS.
15 Places in the U.S. Where Cowboy Culture Is Alive and Well, Wide Open Country.
5 Amazing Facts You Never Knew About the American Cowboy, Ancestry.

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Cowboys played an important role during the era of U.S. westward expansion. Though they originated in Mexico, American cowboys created a style and reputation all their own. Throughout history, their iconic lifestyle has been glamorized in countless books, movies and television shows-but the rough, lonely and sometimes grueling work of a cowboy wasn't for the faint of heart.

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On this day in 1860, the first Pony Express mail, traveling by horse and rider relay teams, simultaneously leaves St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. Ten days later, on April 13, the westbound rider and mail packet completed the approximately 1,800-mile journey and arrived in Sacramento, beating the eastbound packet's arrival in St. Joseph by two days and setting a new standard for speedy mail delivery. Although ultimately short-lived and unprofitable, the Pony Express captivated America's imagination and helped win federal aid for a more economical overland postal system. It also contributed to the economy of the towns on its route and served the mail-service needs of the American West in the days before the telegraph or an efficient transcontinental railroad.

The Pony Express debuted at a time before radios and telephones, when California, which achieved statehood in 1850, was still largely cut off from the eastern part of the country. Letters sent from New York to the West Coast traveled by ship, which typically took at least a month, or by stagecoach on the recently established Butterfield Express overland route, which could take from three weeks to many months to arrive. Compared to the snail's pace of the existing delivery methods, the Pony Express' average delivery time of 10 days seemed like lightning speed.

The Pony Express Company, the brainchild of William H. Russell, William Bradford Waddell and Alexander Majors, owners of a freight business, was set up over 150 relay stations along a pioneer trail across the present-day states of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and California. Riders, who were paid approximately $25 per week and carried loads estimated at up to 20 pounds of mail, were changed every 75 to 100 miles, with horses switched out every 10 to 15 miles. Among the riders was the legendary frontiersman and showman William "Buffalo Bill" Cody (1846-1917), who reportedly signed on with the Pony Express at age 14. The company's riders set their fastest time with Lincoln's inaugural address, which was delivered in just less than eight days.

The initial cost of Pony Express delivery was $5 for every half-ounce of mail. The company began as a private enterprise and its owners hoped to gain a profitable delivery contract from the U.S. government, but that never happened. With the advent of the first transcontinental telegraph line in October 1861, the Pony Express ceased operations. However, the legend of the lone Pony Express rider galloping across the Old West frontier to deliver the mail lives on today.

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Pony Express debuts - Apr 03, 1860 - HISTORY.com

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On this day in 1860, the first Pony Express mail, traveling by horse and rider relay teams, simultaneously leaves St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. Ten days later, on April 13, the westbound rider and mail packet completed the approximately 1,800-mile journey and arrived in Sacramento, beating the eastbound packet's arrival in St.

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Sutter's Mill

On January 24, 1848, James Wilson Marshall, a carpenter originally from New Jersey, found flakes of gold in the American River at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Coloma, California.

At the time, Marshall was working to build a water-powered sawmill owned by John Sutter, a German-born Swiss citizen and founder of a colony of Nueva Helvetia (New Switzerland, which would later become the city of Sacramento). As Marshall later recalled of his historic discovery: "It made my heart thump, for I was certain it was gold."

Did you know? Miners extracted more than 750,000 pounds of gold during the California Gold Rush.

Days after Marshall's discovery at Sutter's Mill, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, ending the Mexican-American War and leaving California in the hands of the United States-a remarkable twist of fate with important ramifications for an America eager for westward expansion.

At the time, the population of the territory consisted of 6,500 Californios (people of Spanish or Mexican descent); 700 foreigners (primarily Americans); and 150,000 Native Americans (barely half the number that had been there when Spanish settlers arrived in 1769).

Sutter, in fact, had enslaved hundreds of Native Americans and used them as a free source of labor and makeshift militia to defend his territory and expand his empire.

Gold Fever Strikes

Though Marshall and Sutter tried to keep news of the discovery under wraps, word got out, and by mid-March at least one newspaper was reporting that large quantities of gold were being turned up at Sutter's Mill. Though the initial reaction in San Francisco was disbelief, storekeeper Sam Brannan set off a frenzy when he paraded through town displaying a vial of gold obtained from Sutter's Creek.

By mid-June, shops and businesses stood empty, as some three-quarters of the male population of San Francisco had abandoned the city for the gold mines, and the number of miners in the area ballooned to some 4,000 by August.

As news reports-many wildly overblown-of the easy fortunes being made in California spread worldwide, some of the first migrants to arrive were those from lands accessible by boat, such as Oregon, the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii), Mexico, Chile, Peru and China.

Polk Spreads Gold Fever

When the news reached the East Coast, press reports were initially skeptical. Gold fever kicked off nationwide in earnest, however, after December 1848, when President James K. Polk announced the positive results of a report made by Colonel Richard Mason, California's military governor, in his inaugural address.

As Polk wrote, "The accounts of abundance of gold are of such an extraordinary character as would scarcely command belief were they not corroborated by the authentic reports of officers in the public service."

The '49ers Come to California

Throughout 1849, people around the United States (mostly men) with gold fever borrowed money, mortgaged their property or spent their life savings to make the arduous journey to California. In pursuit of the kind of wealth they had never dreamed of, they left their families and hometowns. In turn, women left behind took on new responsibilities such as running farms or businesses and caring for their children alone.

Thousands of would-be gold miners, known as 49ers for the year they arrived, traveled overland across the mountains or by sea, sailing to Panama or even around Cape Horn, the southernmost point of South America.

By the end of the year, the non-native population of California was estimated at 100,000, (as compared with 20,000 at the end of 1848 and around 800 in March 1848). To accommodate the needs of the 49ers, gold mining towns had sprung up all over the region, complete with shops, saloons, brothels and other businesses seeking to make their own Gold Rush fortune.

The overcrowded chaos of the mining camps and towns grew ever more lawless, including rampant banditry, gambling, alcoholism, prostitution and violence. San Francisco, for its part, developed a bustling economy and became the central metropolis of the new frontier.

Gold Rush Politics

The Gold Rush undoubtedly sped up California's admission to the Union as the 31st state. In late 1849, California applied to enter the Union with a constitution that barred the Southern system of racial slavery, provoking a crisis in Congress between proponents of slavery and anti-slavery politicians.

According to the Compromise of 1850, proposed by Kentucky's Senator Henry Clay, California was allowed to enter as a free state, while the territories of Utah and New Mexico were left to decide the legal status of slavery for themselves.

California's Mines

After 1850, the surface gold in California largely disappeared, even as miners continued to arrive. Mining had always been difficult and dangerous labor, and striking it rich required good luck as much as skill and hard work. Moreover, the average daily take for an independent miner working with his pick and shovel had by then sharply decreased from what it had been in 1848.

As gold became more and more difficult to reach, the growing industrialization of mining drove more and more miners from independence into wage labor. The new technique of hydraulic mining, developed in 1853, brought enormous profits but destroyed much of the region's landscape.

Though gold mining continued throughout the 1850s, it had reached its peak by 1852, when some $81 million was pulled from the ground. After that year, the total take declined gradually, leveling off to around $45 million per year by 1857. Settlement in California continued, however, and by the end of the decade the state's population was 380,000.

Impact of the Gold Rush

New mining methods and the population boom in the wake of the California Gold Rush permanently altered the landscape of California. The technique of hydraulic mining brought enormous profits but destroyed much of the region's landscape.

Dams designed to supply water to mine sites in summer altered the course of rivers away from farmland, while sediment from mines clogged others. The logging industry in the area was born from the need to construct extensive canals and feed boilers at mines, further consuming natural resources.

In 1884, hydraulic mining was outlawed by court order, and soon agriculture became the dominant industry in California, and it remains so today. While a few mines and Gold Rush towns remain, much of the heritage of that era is preserved at places such as Bodie State Historic Park, a decaying ghost town, and at Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park, where Sutter's Mill once stood.

Sources

Environmental Impact of the Gold Rush. Calisphere.org.
After the Gold Rush. National Geographic.

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Gold Rush: California, Date & Sutter's Mill | HISTORY

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The Gold Rush in California started in 1848 after gold was found at Sutter's Mill. Within a year, hundreds of thousands of 49ers seeking fortune poured into the state.

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Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, people were kidnapped from the continent of Africa, forced into slavery in the American colonies and exploited to work in the production of crops such as tobacco and cotton. By the mid-19th century, America's westward expansion and the abolition movement provoked a great debate over slavery that would tear the nation apart in the bloody Civil War. Though the Union victory freed the nation's four million enslaved people, the legacy of slavery continued to influence American history, from the Reconstruction to the civil rights movement that emerged a century after emancipation and beyond.

When Did Slavery Start?

Hundreds of thousands of Africans, both free and enslaved, aided the establishment and survival of colonies in the Americas and the New World. However, many consider a significant starting point to slavery in America to be 1619, when the privateer The White Lion brought 20 enslaved African ashore in the British colony of Jamestown, Virginia. The crew had seized the Africans from the Portuguese slave ship Sao Jao Bautista.

Throughout the 17th century, European settlers in North America turned to enslaved Africans as a cheaper, more plentiful labor source than indentured servants, who were mostly poor Europeans.

Though it is impossible to give accurate figures, some historians have estimated that 6 to 7 million enslaved people were imported to the New World during the 18th century alone, depriving the African continent of some of its healthiest and ablest men and women.
READ MORE: The Last Slave Ship Survivor Gave an Interview in the 1930s. It Just Surfaced
In the 17th and 18th centuries, enslaved Africans worked mainly on the tobacco, rice and indigo plantations of the southern coast, from the Chesapeake Bay colonies of Maryland and Virginia south to Georgia.

After the American Revolution, many colonists-particularly in the North, where slavery was relatively unimportant to the agricultural economy-began to link the oppression of enslaved Africans to their own oppression by the British, and to call for slavery's abolition.

Did you know? One of the first martyrs to the cause of American patriotism was Crispus Attucks, a former enslaved man who was killed by British soldiers during the Boston Massacre of 1770. Some 5,000 Black soldiers and sailors fought on the American side during the Revolutionary War.

But after the Revolutionary War, the new U.S. Constitution tacitly acknowledged the institution of slavery, counting each enslaved individual as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of taxation and representation in Congress and guaranteeing the right to repossess any "person held to service or labor" (an obvious euphemism for slavery).

Cotton Gin

In the late 18th century, with the land used to grow tobacco nearly exhausted, the South faced an economic crisis, and the continued growth of slavery in America seemed in doubt.

Around the same time, the mechanization of the textile industry in England led to a huge demand for American cotton, a southern crop whose production was limited by the difficulty of removing the seeds from raw cotton fibers by hand.

But in 1793, a young Yankee schoolteacher named Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, a simple mechanized device that efficiently removed the seeds. His device was widely copied, and within a few years, the South would transition from the large-scale production of tobacco to that of cotton, a switch that reinforced the region's dependence on enslaved labor.
READ MORE: 40 Years a Slave: The Extraordinary Tale of an African Prince Stolen from His Kingdom
Slavery itself was never widespread in the North, though many of the region's businessmen grew rich on the slave trade and investments in southern plantations. Between 1774 and 1804, most of the northern states abolished slavery or started the process to abolish slavery, but the institution of slavery remained vital to the South.

Though the U.S. Congress outlawed the African slave trade in 1808, the domestic trade flourished, and the enslaved population in the United States nearly tripled over the next 50 years. By 1860 it had reached nearly 4 million, with more than half living in the cotton-producing states of the South.
READ MORE: The Shocking Photo of 'Whipped Peter' That Made Slavery's Brutality Impossible to Deny
History of Slavery

Enslaved people in the antebellum South constituted about one-third of the southern population. Most lived on large plantations or small farms; many masters owned fewer than 50 enslaved people.

Landowners sought to make their enslaved completely dependent on them through a system of restrictive codes. They were usually prohibited from learning to read and write, and their behavior and movement were restricted.

Many masters raped enslaved women, and rewarded obedient behavior with favors, while rebellious enslaved people were brutally punished. A strict hierarchy among the enslaved (from privileged house workers and skilled artisans down to lowly field hands) helped keep them divided and less likely to organize against their masters.

Marriages between enslaved men and women had no legal basis, but many did marry and raise large families; most owners of enslaved workers encouraged this practice, but nonetheless did not usually hesitate to divide families by sale or removal.
READ MORE: Enslaved Couples Faced Wrenching Separations, or Even Choosing Family Over Freedom
Slave Rebellions

Rebellions among enslaved people did occur-notably, ones led by Gabriel Prosser in Richmond in 1800 and by Denmark Vesey in Charleston in 1822-but few were successful.

The revolt that most terrified enslavers was that led by Nat Turner in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831. Turner's group, which eventually numbered around 75 Black men, murdered some 55 white people in two days before armed resistance from local white people and the arrival of state militia forces overwhelmed them.

Supporters of slavery pointed to Turner's rebellion as evidence that Black people were inherently inferior barbarians requiring an institution such as slavery to discipline them, and fears of similar insurrections led many southern states to further strengthen their slave codes in order to limit the education, movement and assembly of enslaved people.

Abolitionist Movement

In the North, the increased repression of southern Black people only fanned the flames of the growing abolitionist movement.

From the 1830s to the 1860s, the movement to abolish slavery in America gained strength, led by free Black people such as Frederick Douglass and white supporters such as William Lloyd Garrison, founder of the radical newspaper The Liberator, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, who published the bestselling antislavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin.

While many abolitionists based their activism on the belief that slaveholding was a sin, others were more inclined to the non-religious "free-labor" argument, which held that slaveholding was regressive, inefficient and made little economic sense.

Free Black people and other antislavery northerners had begun helping enslaved people escape from southern plantations to the North via a loose network of safe houses as early as the 1780s. This practice, known as the Underground Railroad, gained real momentum in the 1830s. Conductors like Harriet Tubmanguided escapees on their journey North, and " stationmasters" included such prominent figures as Frederick Douglass, Secretary of State William H. Seward and Pennsylvania congressman Thaddeus Stevens. Althoughestimates vary widely, it may have helped anywhere from 40,000 to 100,000 enslaved people reach freedom.

The success of the Underground Railroad helped spread abolitionist feelings in the North; it also undoubtedly increased sectional tensions, convincing pro-slavery southerners of their northern countrymen's determination to defeat the institution that sustained them.
READ MORE: How the Underground Railroad Worked
Missouri Compromise
WATCH: Missouri Compromise
America's explosive growth-and its expansion westward in the first half of the 19th century-would provide a larger stage for the growing conflict over slavery in America and its future limitation or expansion.

In 1820, a bitter debate over the federal government's right to restrict slavery over Missouri's application for statehood ended in a compromise: Missouri was admitted to the Union as a slave state, Maine as a free state and all western territories north of Missouri's southern border were to be free soil.

Although the Missouri Compromise was designed to maintain an even balance between slave and free states, it was able to help quell the forces of sectionalism only temporarily.

Kansas-Nebraska Act
WATCH: Kansas-Nebraska Act
In 1850, another tenuous compromise was negotiated to resolve the question of slavery in territories won during the Mexican-American War.

Four years later, however, the Kansas-Nebraska Act opened all new territories to slavery by asserting the rule of popular sovereignty over congressional edict, leading pro- and anti-slavery forces to battle it out-with considerable bloodshed-in the new state of Kansas.

Outrage in the North over the Kansas- Nebraska Act spelled the downfall of the old Whig Party and the birth of a new, all-northern Republican Party. In 1857, the Dred Scott decision by the Supreme Court (involving an enslaved man who sued for his freedom on the grounds that his master had taken him into free territory) effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise by ruling that all territories were open to slavery.

John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry

In 1859, two years after the Dred Scott decision, an event occurred that would ignite passions nationwide over the issue of slavery.

John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia-in which the abolitionist and 22 men, including five Black men and three of Brown's sons raided and occupied a federal arsenal-resulted in the deaths of 10 people and Brown's hanging.

The insurrection exposed the growing national rift over slavery: Brown was hailed as a martyred hero by northern abolitionists but was vilified as a mass murderer in the South.

Civil War

The South would reach the breaking point the following year, when Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln was elected as president. Within three months, seven southern states had seceded to form the Confederate States of America; four more would follow after the Civil War began.

Though Lincoln's anti-slavery views were well established, the central Union war aim at first was not to abolish slavery, but to preserve the United States as a nation.

Abolition became a goal only later, due to military necessity, growing anti-slavery sentiment in the North and the self-emancipation of many people who fled enslavement as Union troops swept through the South.
READ MORE: How Many US Presidents Owned Enslaved Workers?
When Did Slavery End?

On September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued a preliminary emancipation proclamation, and on January 1, 1863, he made it official that "slaves within any State, or designated part of a State...in rebellion,...shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free."

By freeing some 3 million enslaved people in the rebel states, the Emancipation Proclamation deprived the Confederacy of the bulk of its labor forces and put international public opinion strongly on the Union side.

Though the Emancipation Proclamation didn't officially end all slavery in America-that would happen with the passage of the 13th Amendment after the Civil War's end in 1865-some 186,000 Black soldiers would join the Union Army, and about 38,000 lost their lives.
READ MORE: What Is Juneteenth?
The Legacy of Slavery
WATCH: The Civil War and Its Legacy
The 13th Amendment, adopted on December 18, 1865, officially abolished slavery, but freed Black peoples' status in the post-war South remained precarious, and significant challenges awaited during the Reconstruction period.

Previously enslaved men and women received the rights of citizenship and the "equal protection" of the Constitution in the 14th Amendment and the right to vote in the 15th Amendment, but these provisions of the Constitution were often ignored or violated, and it was difficult for Black citizens to gain a foothold in the post-war economy thanks to restrictive Black codes and regressive contractual arrangements such as sharecropping.

Despite seeing an unprecedented degree of Black participation in American political life, Reconstruction was ultimately frustrating for African Americans, and the rebirth of white supremacy-including the rise of racist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)-had triumphed in the South by 1877.

Almost a century later, resistance to the lingering racism and discrimination in America that began during the slavery era led to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, which achieved the greatest political and social gains for Black Americans since Reconstruction.
PHOTOS: See America's First Memorial to its 4,400 Lynching Victims

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Slavery in America was the legal institution of enslaving human beings, mainly Africans and African Americans. Slavery existed in the United States from its founding in 1776 and became the main cause behind the country's bloody Civil War. Slavery officially ended in America with the passage of the 13th Amendment following the Civil War's end in 1865.

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WESTWARD DOCUMENTARY

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You will write a Press article to give news about the American West to people in England..  Your letter must describe the conditions of living and the spirit of that particular era as well as the usual things found in an article.
Don't forget to mention:
-The indians
-The former slaves
-The train
-The telegraph
-The gold rush
-The pony express
-The other settlers
-Life in town

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6th April
1830

Mormons founded

Joseph Smith founded the Mormon religion. Smith claimed that, after seeing a vision of an angel called Moroni, he discovered some hidden gold plates bearing inscriptions. The translation of the inscriptions was published in 1830 in the 'Book of Mormon'. The official name of the religion is The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints but they are more commonly known as Mormons.

26th May 1830

Indian Removal Act

The US Government decreed that the Indian tribes could freely inhabit the Great Plains. A Permanent Indian Frontier was established on the eastern edge of the Great Plains.

Spring 1843

Fort Bridger established

Jim Bridger, a former mountain man, built Fort Bridger on the Oregon Trail. Fort Bridger contained a store where travellers could purchase supplies as well as a workshop and forge where wagons could be repaired.

August 1862

Little Crow's War

This was a revolt by the Santee Sioux led by chief Little Crow in protest against the reservations.

The Santee Sioux had moved onto a reservation that had poor land and their crops failed. Compensation payments that had been promised by the government had not been delivered and the tribe faced starvation.

In August 1862 the Santee Sioux warriors attacked the government Agency. They continued to attack white settlers and the army for three months before being defeated by the army.

1892

Johnson County War

The Johnson County war was a range war fought by rival ranchers over cattle and land.

Cattle ranching had been firmly established in Johnson County since the 1870s and many ranch owners had become wealthy and influential. During the 1880s they wanted more land and tried to buy-out small time ranchers and farmers. Those small-time ranchers and farmers who resisted were accused of cattle-rustling and some were hanged.

In 1892 the cattle barons had hired a vigilante group to get rid of the 'rustlers'. The small time ranchers and farmers formed their own army to counter the vigilante group. The army of small time ranchers and farmers managed to force the vigilante group back to their base and hold them under siege. The situation had to be resolved by the intervention of the US cavalry to free the vigilantes.

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Date Summary Event 6th April 1830 Mormons founded Joseph Smith founded the Mormon religion. Smith claimed that, after seeing a vision of an angel called Moroni, he discovered some hidden gold plates bearing inscriptions. The translation of the inscriptions was published in 1830 in the 'Book of Mormon'.

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When did the Wild West begin?Why was it called the Wild West?

Wild West: Wild Bill Hickok

Wild West for kids: FAQ's for Kids
There are several FAQ's (frequently asked questions) asked about the Wild West and this is a good place to start when learning about fast, fun and interesting facts and history about this important historical era in the United States of America.
Questions and Answers about the Wild West for Kids
The era known as the Wild West began after the Civil War in 1865.

The untamed territories were in the west and noted for their lawlessness which gave rise to wild, rowdy, unrestrained, disorderly and unruly behavior
When did the Wild West end?
The period ended around 1895, lasting for 30 years List of Famous Cowboys, Outlaws, Gunslingers and Lawmen of the Wild West
Where was the Wild West?
The frontier area west of the Mississippi River during the late 1800's, the frontier territories of Dakota, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Arizona, California New Mexico, and Colorado
List of Famous Cowboys, Outlaws, Gunslingers and Lawmen of the Wild West
Who was the most famous gunslinger in the Wild West?
James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok and William H. Bonney aka "Billy the Kid".

Wild West: List of famous Outlaws, Gunslingers and Lawmen
The names of the famous gunslingers, outlaws and lawmen of the Wild West are legendary and play a part in the history of the United States. How many names do you recognize?

Bat Masterson ● Ben Thompson ● Bill Tilghman ● Billy the Kid ● Billy Clanton ● Black Bart ● Butch Cassidy ● Clay Allison ● Cole Younger ● Dalton Gang ● Doc Holliday ● Frank Canton ● Frank McLaury ● Frank Stillwell ● Frank James ● Heck Thomas ● Henry Starr ● Hole in the Wall Gang ● Jesse James ● Joe Walker ● Johnny Ringo ● John Wesley Hardin ● Judge Roy Bean ● Morgan Earp ● Pat Garrett ● Robert Ford ● Sam Bass ● Slade the Terrible ● Sundance Kid ● Texas John Slaughter ● The Wild Bunch ● Tom McLaury ● Virgil Earp ● Wild Bill Hickok ● Wyatt Earp

Wild West: Wild Bill Hickok
James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok (1837-1876) was an American scout, lawman, gambler and gunslinger in the Wild West. The picture above depicts Wild Bill Hickok after killing Davis Tutt in a duel in February 1867. Wild Bill Hickok was killed as he was playing poker by Jack McCall on August 2, 1876 (aged 39) at Deadwood in Dakota Territory. When he was shot, he was holding a pair of aces and a pair of eights, all black cards and since that time that hand is referred to as Dead Man's hand.

Wild West: Billy the Kid
The legendary William H. Bonney aka "Billy the Kid" (1859-1881) was a notorious outlaw and gunslinger who was charged with 21 murders during his short and violent life in the Wild West. He was trailed for six months by Sheriff Pat Garrett who killed Billy the Kid with a single shot at Fort Sumner, New Mexico. William H. Bonney aka "Billy the Kid" was just 21 years old when he died on July 14, 1881.

Wild West: The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is one of the most famous events in the history of the Wild West. The famous gunfight occurred at about 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, Arizona Territory. The gunfight was between lawmen and the Clanton Gang of outlaws and cowboys. The lawmen were headed by Deputy Marshall Wyatt Earp and his brothers Virgil Earp and Morgan Earp with the support of Doc Holliday. The lawmen and outlaws headed for a showdown at the O.K. Corral. Billy Clanton and gang members Tom McLaury and Frank McLaury were shot down and killed but Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne escaped. Virgil Earp and Morgan Earp were wounded but Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday were unharmed.

Cowboys of the Wild West for Kids: Cowboy Clothes
The legends of the Cowboys of the Wild West are known throughout the world and the iconic images of the cowboys are immediately recognized by the Cowboy clothing that they wore - for history, facts and information refer to Cowboy Clothes of the 1800s.

Facts about the Wild West: Facts for kids
Interesting Wild West Facts for kids are detailed below. The history of the Wild West is told in a fast, fun sequence consisting of a series of interesting, short facts providing a simple method of relating the history of the Wild West for kids, schools and homework projects.

Wild West Facts for kids

Did you know that the term "cowboy" was once used to refer to an outlaw, rustler, bandit, desperado or horse thief. Legitimate cowmen were referred to as cattle herders or ranchers now aka as Wild West Fact 1: Cowboys of the Old West.

Wild West Fact 10: The Oregon Trail: The 2000 mile Oregon Trail started in Independence, Missouri and ended Oregon City. Early pioneers and settlers traveled in large wagon trains using covered wagons to carry their supplies for the six month journey.

Wild West Fact 12: Santa Fe Trail: The Santa Fe Trail ran 900 miles from Independence, Missouri, to Santa Fe (now New Mexico). The Santa Fe Trail was one of America's great trade routes until 1880, when it was replaced by the railroad.

Wild West Fact 17: Pony Express: The Pony Express relay mail service during frontier days. Pony Express riders rode in relay across their routes delivering mail across 2000 miles in 10 days. The Pony Express service only ran for 18 months from April 3, 1860 to October 24, 1861 and was replaced by the telegraph.

Wild West Fact 18: Prairie Schooner: The Prairie Schooners were horse-drawn covered wagons used by pioneers in the Wild West. Its white canvas top resembled a schooner sailing on the prairie. Prairie schooners were about half the size of the Conestoga freight wagons that were in common use at the time.

Wild West Facts for kids

Wild West Facts for kids - President Grover Cleveland Video
The article on the Wild West provides detailed facts and a summary of one of the important events during his presidential term in office. The following Grover Cleveland video will give you additional important facts and dates about the political events experienced by the 22nd and 24th President of the United States whose presidencies spanned from March 4, 1885 to March 4, 1889 and from March 4, 1893 - March 4,1897.

Wild West

● Interesting Facts about Wild West for kids and schools
● Summary of the Wild West in US history
● The Wild West, a major event in US history
● Grover Cleveland history timeline of major events
● Fast, Wild West about major events in his presidency
● Foreign & Domestic policies of President Grover Cleveland
● Grover Cleveland Presidency and Wild West for schools, homework, kids and children

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When did the Wild West begin?Why was it called the Wild West? Wild West: Wild Bill Hickok Wild West for kids: FAQ's for Kids There are several FAQ's (frequently asked questions) asked about the Wild West and this is a good place to start when learning about fast, fun and interesting facts and history about this important historical era in the United States of America.

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Although the "Wild West" is a time period generally defined from 1865 to 1895, there are many events that shaped the American West as a region from ancient times up to 1916.
50,000-5000 B.C.

Paleo-Siberians migrate to North America from Asia via the Bering Strait land bridge.
1500 B.C.-1000 A.D. 1492 1540 1541 1542

Portuguese navigator Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo lands at San Diego, California.
1548

Captain James Cook, seeking the Northwest Passage, charts part of the Oregon coastline.
1549 1560 - 1570 1598 1608

Captain John Smith published his account of the New World, urging more colonists to follow.
1610

Don Pedro de Peralta founds Santa Fe, New Mexico.
1621

On March 22, the first colonial treaty with Native Americans was signed between Massasoit, Chief of the Wampanoag, and English pilgrims on behalf of King James I at Strawberry Hill, Massachusetts.

On June 18, the first duel in America reportedly took place in the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.

1641 1680 1682

The Spanish establish the first permanent settlement in Texas at Ysleta, near present-day El Paso.
1685

A short-lived French colony is founded at Matagorda Bay, Texas
1692-94

Diego de Vargas re-conquers New Mexico.
1706

Juan de Ulibarri claims Colorado for Spain.
1743

Louis-Joseph and Francois Verendrye explore South Dakota, seeking a water route to the Pacific Ocean.
1763 1769 1775 1776 1781 1783

Britain recognizes American independence.

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Although the "Wild West" is a time period generally defined from 1865 to 1895, there are many events that shaped the American West as a region from ancient times up to 1916. 50,000-5000 B.C. Paleo-Siberians migrate to North America from Asia via the Bering Strait land bridge. 1500 B.C.-1000 A.D.

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Go West, young man, and grow up with the country."

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Go West, young man, and grow up with the country."

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Note the important steps and concepts present in the text. Sum up the text orally in a few sentences.

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landmarks and timeline:
Identify the figures represented in the painting and write a comment for each one of them.