In Red Earth: Race and Agriculture in Oklahoma Territory, Bonnie Lynn-Sherow gives an in-depth agricultural and racial account of the Oklahoma Territory settlement focusing on African Americans, white settlers, and Native Americans after the land rush. Throughout the book, Lynn-Sherow depicts the Oklahoma Territory from the first Oklahoma land rush in 1889 to the year before it became a state, 1906. Lynn-Sherow puts emphasis on three specific counties in Oklahoma Territory that are identified with each of the three groups of people previously mentioned. The counties include Logan County, Blaine County, and Caddo County. The sources used throughout Red Earth, which include oral accounts, aid in her explanation by explaining how different life …show more content…
She explained that many African Americans decided to partake in the Rush because they saw this as a wonderful opportunity to get away from the horrible past they had lived and a way to own their own land. Red Earth gives great insight as to how the African Americans utilized their land they came to own. Many of them took part in subsistence farming as well as market farming finding success by keeping their farms diversified. Lynn-Sherow talks about Robert Slaughter and how he successfully maintained his farm through subsistence and market farming by growing wheat, corn, and cotton as well as fruit trees like peach, cherry, and …show more content…
In Red Earth, it is explained that the white settlers stole horses from the Kiowas and the Kiowas expected the whites to be punished. Lynn-Sherow gives an account of how the white settlers and Kiowa Indians were not treated equally but one better than the other. General Sheridan told the Indians that when white people commit crimes they are punished, so if the Indians commit crimes they will also be punished. That did not occur as it should have when an Indian came up to Sheridan and explained that there was a group of Utes, Osages, and some others that killed some of his warriors; Sheridan responded saying that he did not have anything to say about that matter. Lynn-Sherow also mentions that whites would dress up like Indians and steal from other whites and Mexicans so the blame can be placed on the neighboring
Document B talks about how it was also hard for colored farmers to make a living especially after the Civil War. “They had to get the local merchant or someone else to supply the food for the family to eat while the first crop was being made.” (Document B) After the Civil War they didn’t have much land and many became homesteaders who were given 160 acres along with regulations they must follow. Only 40% of the applicants actually completed the process and were given the extra land promised for them completion of 160 acres. However many found it difficult to make profit off such little amount of land during that time, for that was the reason most failed to finish
It is hard to imagine what it must have felt like to be the Cherokee Indians in the year of 1838. However, in order for one to try to come to some sort of empathetic conclusion, it may be necessary to imagine themselves living and growing up somewhere their whole lives in a place that they love. They would need to imagine having such strong connections to the place that they have called their home and the land surrounding it, and being unable to even comprehend what they would do if they lost their home. For one to attempt an understanding they must imagine that this meaningful home of theirs is being taken away and is no longer theirs to call home. They need to preview images
“The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado” Written by Elliott West. I chose to write about this book because of the large range of events and transitions that occurred throughout the American West that the author includes in the text. Elliot West highlights the struggles that many endured while trying to create better circumstances for not only themselves but also their families by moving to the west. He chronicles the adaptations that many white settlers arriving in the west faced in order to be able to make a living for themselves. But another reason why I found the book interesting was because of the way Elliot West provided perspective for each side of the struggle over the American West. He gives us the
He probably had little to no experience dealing with the real world and business, and until he gained some he would have no where to stay and no way to support himself. One of the only options he had was to stay with his former owner and engage in a practice known as sharecropping. Share-cropping was when a former slave worked for a white plantation owner, keeper about half of the crops they harvested in exchange for lang, a cabin, and some supplies. As nice as this may sound, it was just another sort of trap. Sharecropping was a huge cause of debt in the African Americans and soon lead to poverty bad enough that it forced them to stay and work for the plantation owner. If the former-slaves were lucky enough, they were able to make enough money to buy their own farming equipment, a process that moved them up from sharecropping to ‘tenant-farming’ where they got to keep up to ¾ of their harvests. This eventually lead to most freedmen having enough money to leave and start the life they had hoped for, but this was all because they had been forced into labor just as they had been when they were legally
There are many ways in which we can view the history of the American West. One view is the popular story of Cowboys and Indians. It is a grand story filled with adventure, excitement and gold. Another perspective is one of the Native Plains Indians and the rich histories that spanned thousands of years before white discovery and settlement. Elliot West’s book, Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers and the Rush to Colorado, offers a view into both of these worlds. West shows how the histories of both nations intertwine, relate and clash all while dealing with complex geological and environmental challenges. West argues that an understanding of the settling of the Great Plains must come from a deeper understanding, a more thorough
Oklahoma was once referred to as the “Unassigned Lands” (Fugate,138). This land was land inside Indian Territory that had not been claimed by one of the tribes (Hoig). Whites believed they were entitled to this land and wanted to get the statement across that America is a “white man’s country” (Dorman, 38). Immediately after Benjamin Harrison, the United States of America’s president at the time, announced the land would be opened for settlement, people began gathering their belongings, loading their wagons, or preparing their horses for travel. Thousands of people crowded the borders of the Unassigned Lands in hopes of establishing a settlement in the area (Fugate,140). At noon on April 22, 1889, people dashed across the land with their belongings seeking a plot of land. The Oklahoma Land Run was an exciting, puzzling, and in some cases, a violent day in Oklahoma’s history.
In the 1870’s, the Unassigned Lands in the part of the Oklahoma Territory that would become Norman, Oklahoma was a sight to behold. Just north of the North Canadian River, which is the main tributary of the Canadian River, which in turn is the largest tributary of the Arkansas River, Abner Ernest Norman led his federal surveying crew to what would develop into the town bearing his namesake. “Norman, a 23-year-old surveyor from Kentucky, was hired to oversee part of this project. Norman’s work crew set up camp near what is today the corner of Classen and Lindsey streets; it was there that the men, perhaps jokingly, carved a sign on an elm tree that read “Norman’s Camp,” in honor of their young boss.” (Mills)
The combined tribe known as the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma that is currently located near the four-state area, consists of members who survived throughout the rough journeys, such as the Trail of Tears, which the majority of Indians went through. These Indians were once a part of the Iroquois Confederacy, which originated from New York State. Later, these tribes united in Oklahoma, also known as “Indian Territory”, after the nineteenth century war, between the States.
Annotated Bibliography Pennick, Edward ““Jerry””. "The Struggle for Control of America's Production Agriculture System and Its Impact on African American Farmers." Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts 5, no. 1 (2011): 113-20. doi:10.2979/racethmulglocon.5.1.113. The South African agriculture, mainly the smallholders have been impacted negatively by the advancement of technology in this industry. There have been arguments about the best suitable type of food and fiber for not only Americans, but the whole world. As population increased, both corporate and sustainable agriculture were introduced to regulate the future of agriculture. Although a large number of African Americans in southern rural area of America counted on agriculture
The immigrant history of African –Americans is unlike the acclimation of any other migration of other ethnic groups with the ambition to live better lives. As one of the most important colonizers of the Americas, the British had the difficult task of seizing and securing land from Native Indians and creating frontier settlements. The fight to establish Caucasian presence was not absent from the blood, sweat and tears of many to survive long winters with the continuation of establishment of new colonies.
Most of us have learnt about the Trail of Tears as an event in American history, but not many of us have ever explored why the removal of the Indians to the West was more than an issue of mere land ownership. Here, the meaning and importance of land to the original Cherokee Nation of the Southeastern United States is investigated. American land was seen as a way for white settlers to profit, but the Cherokee held the land within their hearts. Their removal meant much more to them than just the loss of a material world. Historical events, documentations by the Cherokee, and maps showing the loss of Cherokee land work together to give a true Cherokee
Thus the census of 1890 shows, in the Northwest, many counties in which there is an absolute or a relative decrease of population. These States have been sending farmers to advance the frontier on the Plains, and have themselves begun to turn to intensive farming and to manufacture. A decade before this, Ohio had shown the same transition stage. Thus the demand for land and the love of wilderness freedom drew the frontier ever onward.
considered to be ignorant and hostiles by the “White” settlers, forced to live on reservations, lost
Understandably, American Indians soon began to distrust and resent their white oppressors. Simon Pokagon put it nicely in his speech The Red Man's Greeting :
Shawnee leader, Tecumseh, was not a happy Native. He blamed the greed and oppression of the Europeans for the destruction of the Native American cultures. The Europeans greed led them to strip the land from the Natives, and try in forcing their religion upon the Natives. Tecumseh believed that the land was for all. There was nothing about selling, taking, and giving the land away. The Europeans just did not have that mindset at all. Red Jacket was a Seneca leader. He was very discouraged of the fact that they took the land of the Natives, but even more because they wanted to force their religion upon the Native Americans. The Europeans were ruthless when it came to this. They did not think about their feelings and the actions that could hurt the Natives. (Doc 4, 5, 6)