OCR Specification focus:
‘Westward Expansion shaped the rights of Native Americans, women, workers and African Americans.’
Westward Expansion between c.1875 and c.1895 profoundly transformed civil rights in the United States, reshaping land, labour, social structures and political power for diverse groups.
The Impact of Westward Expansion on Civil Rights
The rapid settlement and development of the American West in the late 19th century was driven by economic opportunity, Manifest Destiny, and federal policy, but its effects on civil rights were complex and uneven. It both created new possibilities and entrenched inequalities across racial, gender, and class lines.
Native Americans: Dispossession and Cultural Suppression
Loss of Land and Sovereignty
Westward Expansion had its most devastating impact on Native American communities. Federal policy promoted settler occupation of indigenous land, often justified by Manifest Destiny —
Manifest Destiny: The 19th-century belief that the United States was destined by God to expand its territory across the North American continent.
Key developments included:
The Homestead Act (1862) and subsequent land acts encouraged white settlers to claim land in the West, displacing Native peoples.
The expansion of the railroads facilitated migration, accelerating encroachment on tribal territories.
Military campaigns and the Plains Wars (1854–1877) forced Native Americans onto reservations and ended effective resistance.
These policies undermined Native sovereignty and transformed tribal landholding. The reservation system, often enforced through coercion and broken treaties, was designed to contain Native populations and assimilate them into Euro-American culture. Tribal leaders lost political authority, and traditional governance structures were weakened or destroyed.
Cultural Assimilation and Rights Denial
Assimilationist policies aimed to erase indigenous identity:
The Dawes Act (1887) introduced allotment, dividing communal lands into individual plots and selling “surplus” land to white settlers. This eroded communal traditions and led to massive land loss.
Native children were removed from their families and sent to boarding schools where they were forced to abandon their language and culture.
These measures denied Native Americans fundamental civil rights — including land ownership, cultural expression, and self-determination — and redefined them as wards of the state rather than autonomous nations.
African Americans: New Opportunities and Persistent Racism
Migration and the Exoduster Movement
For African Americans, Westward Expansion offered limited new possibilities amid ongoing discrimination in the South. In the late 1870s, thousands participated in the Exoduster Movement, migrating to states like Kansas:
Motivated by the end of Reconstruction and the rise of Jim Crow laws, they sought land, autonomy, and safety from racial violence.
Black farming communities such as Nicodemus, Kansas, were established, demonstrating aspirations for independence and civil equality.
However, opportunities were restricted by systemic racism:
African Americans often received inferior land or faced violent hostility from white settlers.
Segregation and disenfranchisement followed them westward, limiting political participation and economic advancement.
Exoduster families on a levee during the 1879 migration to Kansas. The movement created Black agrarian communities—most famously Nicodemus—seeking autonomy amid southern discrimination. This photograph depicts the material reality of migration and settlement on the Great Plains. Source
Labour and Military Service
Some African Americans found employment building railroads, working in mines, or serving as Buffalo Soldiers in the U.S. Army, which provided steady pay and relative security. Yet, they remained subject to racial prejudice and unequal treatment, reflecting broader societal inequalities.
Women: Expanding Roles and Civic Rights
Frontier Life and Social Roles
The West reshaped women’s roles, offering opportunities unavailable in the more rigid East. On the frontier, women’s labour was essential for family survival:
Women farmed, managed homesteads, and worked in new urban economies.
Their contribution challenged traditional gender norms and expanded their public roles.
Suffrage and Political Rights
Western territories became pioneers in women’s suffrage:
Wyoming Territory (1869) granted women the vote, followed by Utah (1870), Colorado (1893), and Idaho (1896).
Frontier conditions, where women’s work was vital, fostered acceptance of their political rights earlier than in the East.
NAWSA campaign map highlighting where women could vote by 1912. Western pioneers—Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Idaho—are clearly marked, supporting your discussion of earlier enfranchisement in the West. This map includes states added after 1895 to provide context for the expanding pattern. Source
These developments reflected a growing recognition of women as citizens with political agency, laying groundwork for the national suffrage movement.
Workers: Labour, Industry, and Organisation
Labour Demand and Migration
Westward Expansion fuelled industrial growth, creating demand for labour in:
Railroad construction, vital to connecting the West to national markets.
Mining and agriculture, attracting workers from across the United States and abroad.
This demand transformed labour relations. Workers — including immigrants from China, Ireland, and southern and eastern Europe — built critical infrastructure but faced harsh conditions, low pay, and limited rights.
Labour Conflict and Discrimination
Workers organised to demand better conditions, but employers and governments often resisted:
Strikes and protests, such as those linked to the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, were sometimes suppressed with violence.
Chinese labourers, essential to railroad construction, faced severe discrimination, culminating in the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), the first significant federal immigration restriction.
Racial and ethnic divisions were exploited to weaken labour solidarity, limiting the effectiveness of early unions and hindering collective advancement of workers’ rights.
Federal Government and the Law: Reinforcing Inequality
Federal Policy as a Tool of Expansion
The federal government played a central role in shaping civil rights outcomes during Westward Expansion:
Policies like the Homestead Act and Pacific Railway Acts encouraged settlement and economic growth but prioritised white settlers’ interests.
Native treaties were frequently violated, and Supreme Court decisions often upheld restrictive policies or denied citizenship rights to non-white populations.
State Governments and Legal Inequality
State and territorial governments in the West often entrenched discrimination:
Segregation laws extended to schools, public spaces, and employment, limiting African American and Mexican American rights.
Women’s property rights varied, though western legal codes sometimes granted greater autonomy than eastern states.
The legal landscape thus reinforced existing inequalities even as it facilitated national expansion.
Cultural Ideologies and Civil Rights Narratives
Justifications for Expansion
Westward Expansion was justified through cultural narratives that shaped civil rights:
Manifest Destiny promoted the idea of Anglo-American superiority and divine sanction for conquest.
Concepts of “civilisation” and “progress” rationalised the dispossession of Native peoples and exclusion of non-white groups.
These ideologies influenced policies that prioritised white male settlers, shaping long-term patterns of inequality.
Intersections and Contradictions
The effects of Westward Expansion were deeply interconnected yet contradictory:
It created new economic and political opportunities for white settlers and some women.
It entrenched racial hierarchies, dispossessed Native Americans, marginalised African Americans, and excluded many immigrant workers.
It sparked early experiments in women’s suffrage and labour organisation, laying foundations for future civil rights struggles.
Westward Expansion was thus both a catalyst for progress and a mechanism of oppression, profoundly shaping the trajectory of civil rights in the United States between c.1875 and c.1895.
FAQ
The transcontinental railroads accelerated migration westward, intensifying pressure on Native lands and leading to increased displacement and reservation confinement.
They created labour demand that attracted immigrant and African American workers, though many faced poor conditions and racial discrimination.
Rail expansion also facilitated the growth of new communities where women could take on varied roles and, in some cases, advocate for suffrage earlier than in the East.
The government distributed land primarily through legislation such as the Homestead Act (1862), granting settlers parcels if they improved them.
It also enacted the Dawes Act (1887), which divided tribal lands into individual allotments, undermining Native communal landholding and selling “surplus” to white settlers.
These policies heavily favoured white settlers and speculators, entrenching inequality and limiting land access for Native Americans and many African Americans.
Initially, policy focused on removal and containment, forcing Native peoples onto reservations. By the 1880s, the emphasis shifted towards assimilation, aiming to integrate Native Americans into white society.
This shift was driven by ideas of “civilising” Native peoples, often through education and Christianity, but it still involved coercion and cultural suppression.
Assimilation policies ignored tribal sovereignty and identity, framing Native peoples as wards of the state rather than citizens with rights.
Western campaigns often achieved quicker successes due to frontier conditions that valued women’s contributions to survival and community-building.
Territories like Wyoming granted suffrage to attract settlers and present an image of progressive governance.
Eastern campaigns faced entrenched opposition and a more rigid social structure, delaying national suffrage until 1920. The West thus acted as a proving ground, demonstrating that women’s political participation was possible and beneficial.
Practice Questions
Question 1 (2 marks):
Identify two ways in which Westward Expansion affected the rights of Native Americans between c.1875 and c.1895.
Mark Scheme:
Award 1 mark for each correct point identified, up to a maximum of 2 marks.
Possible answers:
It led to the loss of tribal lands through policies like the Dawes Act. (1 mark)
It forced Native Americans onto reservations, undermining their sovereignty. (1 mark)
Assimilation policies, including boarding schools, attempted to suppress Native culture. (1 mark)
Broken treaties and military campaigns reduced Native political autonomy. (1 mark)
Question 2 (6 marks):
Explain how Westward Expansion influenced the civil rights of women and African Americans between c.1875 and c.1895.
Mark Scheme:
Level 1 (1–2 marks): Basic description with limited detail and little explanation.
Mentions that some African Americans migrated west or that women gained more opportunities, but with minimal detail.
Level 2 (3–4 marks): Developed explanation showing some understanding of how rights were affected.
Describes how African Americans sought new opportunities through the Exoduster Movement but still faced discrimination.
Explains how frontier life required women to take on significant roles, challenging gender norms.
Level 3 (5–6 marks): Well-developed explanation showing clear understanding and supported by specific examples.
Explains that African Americans migrated west seeking land and freedom from Jim Crow, forming settlements such as Nicodemus, yet often faced hostility and segregation.
Explains that frontier conditions expanded women’s roles and led some territories, such as Wyoming (1869) and Utah (1870), to grant women suffrage earlier than in the East.
Demonstrates clear links between Westward Expansion and evolving civil rights for both groups.
