April 15 2015 Friday Night Lights o Thesis Why should we read this book o Major historical actors o Race relations o School life and gendered behavior Flames True o All the following occurred except Whatley called the task force o Alternative Bertha Williams o Author Monte Akers o Witness interviews say that race relations in Kirven in 1920 were good The Cattle Kingdom The Spanish brought cattle to Texas and the wild cattle will flourish o Become known as free range o Not owned by anybody o Cattle were an untapped resource to anyone who could round them up take them on a trail to the nearest railroad station and sell them for meat o A source of money for bankrupt Texans Time of the Cattle Kingdom o 1860 s 1890 s Cattle will be rounded up and exported to other states Cattle drives became a major economic element in Texas o A hugely successful enterprise Two important trails o Chisholm Trail Major route out of Texas for cattle 1867 1884 It will provide a steady source of income and answer the need for beef from eastern markets The cattle will be rounded up by cowboys Cowboys would be white Mexican American and African American They would ride Mustang ponies Very small So the cowboy had to be very small strong but wiry gentleman Move the cattle to the nearest railroad station o Goodnight Loving Trail Answered to the western markets o Very exceptional woman called Elizabeth Williams A schoolteacher who becomes an entrepreneur in the cattle industry In 1871 having bought her own cattle brand would round up cattle She will achieve legendary status as Texas s first cattle queen She drove the cattle along the Chisholm Trail and is thought to be the first woman to ride the Chisholm with her cattle She marries a man named Ezekiel Williams o She forces her husband to sign a pre nuptial agreement o She keeps all of her fortune o She retains control of her property Her personal fortune was a quarter of a million dollars at her death o Cattle drives go into decline in the late 1890 s early 1900 s Early movement Ranchers would buy land preferably land with a watering hole on it To surround their ranches they would protect their land with barbed wire which was invented by Joseph Glidden in 1873 o To keep out the free range cattle Movement of railroad stations into Texas Long drives were no longer necessary Weather 1876 o Extremely hot summer o Hot summer was followed by a devastating winter with blizzards o Ordinarily the cattle would move in front of the storms but now they got caught in the barbed wire traps They died of hypothermia frozen solid against the gates o XIT Ranch time Situated in the Panhandle there were over three million acres Biggest ranch in Texas Land was sold to a syndicate of investors called the Capitol Syndicate Buying this land will finance the building of the new Capitol building in Austin o Cattle kingdom was important because it brought cash to Texas at a critical moment in It also adds to the myth of Texas the American male Europeans think of American males as tall broadly built rugged cowboy hat and jeans on the Western frontier Continuing Population Growth o 1860 o 1900 Half a million Over three million o This population growth is over the national average o People are living in urban areas 1860 1900 4 15 Southern Honor o Code of Chivalry o Southern Honor European gentleman s code of chivalry Reputation for toughness Willingness to use violence Respect and defend a woman s honor Economic Changes Industrial growth o New lumber milling and mining industries coal in particular o Move from subsistence agriculture to market agriculture o Growing number of tenant farmers Farmers who will rent the land Woman s Role Changing gender roles Women in the late 19th century become more active in the public role o Myth of domesticity Reduction in the number of children being born in families o 1800 o 1875 Public role Between 7 and 8 children Between 4 and 5 children o WCTU Women s Christian Temperance Union One Texan chapter created in 1874 with a membership of 1 5 thousand women o Populism Farmers and the populist movement 1876 Constitutional Convention o Some discussion of women s suffrage Unfortunately that s all there was No action Lawlessness Texas became notorious for lawlessness o Bandits cattle rustlers 1874 Frontier Battalion o Permanent ranger force o Made up of 6 companies o Each company would have 75 mounted men o They had a slogan One Riot One Ranger A couple of outlaws o Sam Bass o John Wesley Hardin Born in Indiana but moved to Denton in 1870 He was a gambler He would hold up stagecoaches and trains When one train pulled up in Nebraska he stole 60 000 in newly minted gold coins 1878 he planned to hold up a bank in Round Rock However one of his gang members betrayed him and told the rangers of this plan to rob the bank Rangers were lying in wait Sam Bass is shot by the rangers and dies at age 27 Gentleman killer Born in Bonham Texas Begins his career at age 15 Suspected to have killed 30 men Rangers will eventually arrest Hardin in Florida Following the arrest he is convicted of murder and given a 25 year sentence While he s in jail he s not going to waste time He studies law and when he is released he becomes a lawyer One of his clients had a very beautiful wife Hardin embarked on an affair with the client s wife He loved this woman and hires a hit man to kill the husband However he refused to pay the hit man so the hit man kills Hardin instead Hardin always insisted that he killed in self defense o He said he never killed a man who didn t need killing Cultural Developments William Sydney Porter O Henry o Moves to Texas to live with friends o Got his nickname because he calls the family cat O Henry o Takes employment as a teller at the First National Bank of Austin Scott Joplin o Henry was found guilty of embezzlement and served 35 years in jail when they found money missing o He wrote short stories in jail and gained fame as America s favorite short story writer o After his death he is eulogized as the master of the modern short story o Composer and a pianist o Born in 1867 his father was a slave o However he was given free piano lesson from a very young age o His adult life he would travel city to city playing the piano in saloons and he becomes famous for a type of music known as jig piano or ragged time Became Ragtime music o His most famous is the Maple Leaf Rag Sheet music sells over a million copies o He is also famous for The Entertainer which is part of
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