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1870-1879 |
Political and
Social History |
Literature |
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1870 |
Franco-Prussian War.
John D. Rockefeller founds the Standard Oil
Company.
Territory of Utah gives full suffrage to
women; the first election in which they vote occurs on 1 August
Congress enacts the "Ku Klux Klan Act of 1870"
or "Enforcement Act" to stop southern white resistance to the power African
Americans have gained during Reconstruction.
22 June. Department of Justice is created.
5 December. When the 41st Congress meets,
every state is represented, the first such Congress since 1860.
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Birth of
Frank Norris in Chicago (d. 1902)
Emerson, "Society and Solitude"
Scribner's Monthly (1870-81)
Bret
Harte, The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Sketches
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1871 |
3 March. The Indian Appropriation Act of 1871
marks a step backward as it makes tribal members wards of the state rather
than preserving their rights as members of sovereign nations.
8 October. Chicago is almost destroyed by
fire. See the
"Great Chicago Fire" website (image courtesy of this source.)
Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man
8 July. Tweed Ring exposed in the New York
Times and is overthrown.
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Edward Eggleston, The Hoosier Schoolmaster
Henry James, Watch and Ward (in Atlantic; book form,
1878)
Birth of
Stephen Crane and
Theodore Dreiser
Howells, Their Wedding Journey; becomes editor of The Atlantic
Monthly (1871-1881)
Whitman, Democratic Vistas and A Passage to India
Louisa May Alcott, Little Men
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1872 |
5-6 June. The Republican party meets in
Philadelphia and nominates Grant for re-election to the presidency. Meeting
in Baltimore on 9 July, the Democrats nominate Horace Greeley.
The Credit Mobilier Scandal erupts when the
New York Sun reports news of events during the building of the
transcontinental railway. Massachusetts congressman and shovel manufacturer
Oakes Ames and the Union Pacific Railway had created a company called Credit
Mobilier of America, which was awarded all construction work for building
the Union Pacific line west of Nebraska. Ames sweetened the deal by giving
shares in the company to many government officials, including both of U. S.
Grant's vice-presidents. Congress ultimately pays $94 million to the
company for work worth $44 million.
Grant wins the presidency by a landslide,
gathering 3,597,132 votes to Greeley's 2,834,125.
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Twain, Roughing It
Birth of
Paul Laurence Dunbar (d. 1906)
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1873 |
3 March. Homesteaders willing to plant trees
on their land are granted an additional quarter section (160 acres).
Congress votes itself a 50% salary increase
and makes the increase retroactive for two years, an action that causes such
an outcry that the raises are rescinded.
18 September. Financial Panic of 1873 begins
with the failure of Jay Cooke and Company after years of inflation,
speculation, and the overproduction of paper currency. The Stock Exchange
closes for 10 days.
Herbert Spencer, The Study of Sociology.
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Howells, A Chance Acquaintance
Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, The Gilded Age
Birth of Willa Cather (d. 1947)
Louisa May Alcott, Work
The Delineator (1873-1937)
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1874 |
Women's Christian Temperance Union founded in
Cleveland.
8 May. Massachusetts limits women's working
days to 10 hours, a significant reform.
First Impressionist exhibition in Paris.
Barbed wire becomes available, thus making
possible the inexpensive enclosure of grazing lands in the west.
Featuring educational as well as religious
lectures, the Chautauqua Movement begins at Lake Chautauqua, New York.
Samuel Tilden becomes governor of New York.
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Birth of Ellen Glasgow (d. 1945) |
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1875 |
Civil Rights Act states that no citizen can be
denied equal use of public facilities.
Second Sioux War erupts after the Sioux refuse
to sell lands north of the Platte to the federal government.
The Supreme Court decision of Minor v.
Happersett allows states to set suffrage requirements and denies women
voting rights.
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Bret
Harte, Tales of the Argonauts
Louisa
May Alcott, Eight Cousins
Howells, A Foregone Conclusion
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1876 |
Alexander
Graham Bell invents the telephone.
25 June. Ignoring warnings of a massed Sioux
army of 2,000-4,000 men, Custer and 250 soldiers attack the forces of
Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse at the Little Big Horn. Custer and all of his
men die in the attack. Sitting Bull escapes to Canada, returning to the
United States in 1881 as a participant in wild west shows.
Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.
In an election marred by fraud, Republican
Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893) is elected president over Democrat Samuel J.
Tilden after compromising with southern Democrats over the restriction of
Reconstruction. Tilden receives 4,284,020 popular votes and Hayes receives
4,036,572. (Visit the
Harper's Weekly site for an overview of the election, political
cartoons, and other information.)
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Twain, Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Whitman, Leaves of Grass (Centennial Edition)
Melville, Clarel (poem)
James, Roderick Hudson
Louisa May Alcott, Silver Pitchers and Independence (containing
"Transcendental Wild Oats"); Rose in Bloom
Birth of
Jack London, Sherwood Anderson
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1877 |
29 January. The Electoral Commission Bill
authorizes a committee of 15 to decide the election between Hayes and
Tilden. The committee's votes split along party lines. On 3 March, Hayes
is announced as President after House Republicans agree, among other
concessions, to pull Federal troops from the South. On 5 March, Rutherford
B. Hayes is inaugurated as President of the United States (1877-81).
Nez Perce war. After a battle between Nez Perce forces under Chief
Joseph and those of Col. Miles in Idaho, Chief Joseph's band is sent to a
reservation in Oklahoma
14 July.
The Great Strike of 1877 begins with railroad workers walking out;
later, workers from other industries will follow. (Accounts
from Harper's Weekly)
Edison patents the phonograph.
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James,The American
Jewett,Deephaven
December 17
Mark Twain gives his infamous
"Whittier Birthday Dinner Speech" in front of an assembled multitude of
literary dignitaries.
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1878 |
Edison establishes Edison Electric Light
Company in New York City.
Women's Suffrage Amendment is introduced into
Congress but fails.
The
Timber
and Stone Act permits the cutting of timber on public lands to increase
the cleared acreage for farmers; timber lands are sold for as little as
$2.50 an acre.
The Northern Cheyenne escape from their
reservation in Oklahoma in an attempt to reach their lands in Montana
Territory.
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James, The Europeans; (Daisy Miller) |
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1879 |
Using first carbonized cotton and then
carbonized bamboo for a filter, Edison invents a functioning light bulb.
A bill to restrict Chinese immigration is
passed by Congress but vetoed by President Hayes.
Hearing rumors that Kansas had been set aside
for settlement by former slaves, between 7,000 and 15,000 African
Americans move to Kansas; they are called
"exodusters"
after their exodus into the dusty lands of Kansas.
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James, Daisy Miller
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