Buffalo Soldiers in the Heart of America

This week in History Class, we watched 6 short videos about Buffalo Soldiers, the African-American Cavalry Soldiers that were used to protect settlers as they moved west, and to support the westward expansion. Each group in our class was assigned a topic to take notes on, and we created a shared Google Doc to collaborate.  After watching the videos, we analyzed three documents, Excerpts from the 1887 Dawes Act,  Helen Hunt Jackson's Century of Dishonor 1881, and a visual of the Federal Native American Policies.  

After taking 2 days worth of notes, we came together as a class to come up with this weeks essential question.  Many students had the same ideas, so we combined all of them to create the question; during westward expansion, did the impact of federal policy towards Buffalo Soldiers and Native Americans match the intent?  I do not believe that the government's intent of the policies matched the impact that they left on Native Americans.

As it can be seen in the picture below, the policies began with Pres. Andrew Jackson initiating the Indian Removal in 1830. When it was realized that the Indians were not going to move out of their places of origin without putting up a fight, Buffalo Soldiers were placed on the Great Plain to fight the Native Americans, in hopes of gaining their land for the rest of the country. As the fighting was happening, the government set up new plots of land intended for the Indians to move to. This was very unfair towards the Natives; as this was a completely new and different way of life- something that would take time and work to become accustomed to. The federal policies put in place by the American Government benefitted themselves, just not the Native Americans (like it was supposed to).

American Frontier Policies

Mixing Business and Charity

Did the captains of industry have a positive or negative impact on the public?

For the most part, the captains of industry had a positive impact on the American society.   Andrew Carnegie was an Irish philanthropist that invested a large amount of money in his successful steel industry. John Rockefeller, was a wealthy business man that was a supporter of the Union Army during the Civil War.

Carnegie and Rockefeller were also known as “robber barons”, men who bribed government officials, destroyed rival business, and built personal armies.  

Carnegie was born a poor Scottish man, and eventually became one of the richest Americans of his time by establishing himself in the steel business. Carnegie was a mostly well-liked man, and he also donated a lot of his money towards education, which included promoting the building of public libraries.

Rockefeller was not a very well-liked businessman, because he was known to take “immoral” risks.  With the ambition to become the richest American man, he helped start up his father’s oil business.  As he became more and more successful, he strived to create a monopoly in the oil industry, and did so by buying out other companies that were competing against him.  Many Americans considered his actions both unfair and greedy, but he did do some good deeds.  In Rockefeller’s lifetime, he donated about half a billion dollars to education funds and charities.  

After watching ABC-Clio videos on some of America’s most successful businessmen, I came to the conclusion that both Andrew Carnegie and John Rockefeller made a positive impact on society.

"John D. Rockefeller had to perform a delicate balancing act to maintain his reputation as a philanthropist while living the live of a wealthy businessman."
Political Cartoon of John Rockefeller
http://www.ushistory.org/us/36b.asp