Current Lecture19th century postwar TexasSigns of the new modernity in Texas during the remainder of the century following the civil war includedRising numbers of townsIncreasing Rail Road track mileageGrowing labor unionsEducational and infrastructuralBut several forces tied the state to its frontier rootsMost people still lived in the ruralTowns were smallNo city in Texas compared to any of the urban giants back east like in New York and ChicagoTransportation services left much room for improvementLack of good roads and communication kept people isolatedEven the inhabitants of the most populated cities endured relative primitive conditionsThe state’s population remained predominately male1880 Men to women 111:1001890 Men to women 110:100The median age of Texas by 1900 was still 18.7 years of ageThe census of that year reported that 41.6 % of the population was under 15The state’s demographic helped fuel the frontier demographicHorse and gun cultureMen settled scores outside the lawViolence on minorities, including Indians, continued much as it had during prewar daysNumerous factors played a part in pushing and pulling people into the states sparsely settled sectionsThe civil war’s end permitted expansionist tendenciesPacification of Indian people and confining them to reservations outside of Texas bordersRemoved a formidable obstacle for settlers pushing westCattlemen found new grazing areas in the range lands of west TexasFarmers followed the cattle bringing with them families and social institutions that gave the new settlements an appearance of permanenceRailroad lines went hand in hand with the push of movingHelped give birth to urban sitesFurthered the stability of this transplanted cultureFrontier TexasNot everything in the area seemed like progress and healthy growthPatterns of violence only worsened during reconstruction and persisted all the way into the turn of the 20th centuryIn efforts to explain this phenomenon of growing violence, historians have cited several factors for increasing violence**Bitterness arising from the civil war and reconstructionIndian warfareNew waves of banditryRegional conflicts stemming from the cattle industryAgrarian discontent (pissed off poor farmers)Political difficultiesTensions related to modernizationRace relationsFinal drive to close or settle the last of the frontierAs land gets scarcer and scarcer, people get more tensionWalter Scott Web - In the 1870s, Texas could be a perilous place to liveWhere all men are armed, conflicts are inevitable and the violent death of some is certain.Post-War violence was the rise of vigilante movements90,000 mile triangular expanse framed by Houston near the gulf coast, the Hill Country and to the North around the Dallas Ft Worth regionFrom 1865, to the end of the century, the area witnessed over 60 incidences involving vigilantesIn addition to vigilantism, feuding eruptedWhile some of these long drawn out conflicts were family affairs, most of the major (8) feuds have been identified as community feudsOne community rallies behind the court group that originated the conflict forming a coalition of sympathetic acquaintances and others with a vested interest in the feuds outcomeUsually economicThe most notorious of the conflictsSutton / Taylor feudSpread over surrounding countiesBegan in 1867-8Two ex confederates, Hays and Taylor, murdered 5 blue coats who were forcing military rule in the reconstruction of TexasTo avenge the deaths of the Yankees, Sutton and his followers (Union sympathizers) killed two members of the Taylor clan in 1868A community feud instead of a family feud because Bill Sutton was the only member of the Sutton family to become in the conflictThe Taylors had closer ties to the community leadership; they had ties with mercenary gunslingers and other soldiers of fortune.By the summer of 1874, some 2000 men in the community prepared to do battle in DeWitt countyTexas Rangers arrived in time to halt warfareThe feuding people continued their vendetta for yearsAlso responsible for violence were several notorious gunfireJohn Wesley HardinTexas native who killed more men thanBilly the KidJesse JamesWild Bill Hickok1868 - Hardin killed more than 20 men and is acknowledged to have sent more men to their grave from shootouts than any other desperado in the dayA master of the quick drawSo accurate that he ranks among the few shootists capable of drawing second and still killing his opponentHateful racistTerrorized blacksUnrelenting supporter of the southern causeVented his rage on the state policeHired mercenary, he shot down many men as he did on behalf of the Taylors in the Sutton / Taylor feudLegal system sent Hardin to prison for murdering a deputy sheriff1895 - After Hardin’s release from prison, he was shot and killed in El PasoOther gun slingersAll killed in gun fights in TexasBen ThompsonJim MillerJohn SelmanDallas StoutemierKing FisherJim CurtwrightJohn HughesBill LongleyBecame affectionately known as the Nigger KillerAmassed a record of killings for men of every persuasionCrimes they could prove were atleast 32 murdersWhites Killing BlacksAll groups felt the effects of rampant violenceBlacks living in East Texas communities experienced it in vicious formsEast Texas countiesWhite men in the 1880s used a variety of pretexts to dilute the strength of the black vote or to drive the blacks out of officeLynching or the threat of it by white cappers and loyalists of the KKK was common practiceRape and other heinous crimes allegedly claimed by whites warranted savage crueltyAlthough lacked figures on the number of blacks lynched from the 1870s to 1900 was at about 500 African AmericansOnly GA and MS exceeded Texas in this recordVictims were tortured and burned alive by hundreds of onlookersLegislature passed an Anti-lynching law but it was ineffectiveWhites Killing TejanosSouth and West Texas violence grew as more whites entered the regionWhites lynched Tejanos on just accusations of having committed crimesNo trial by jury or anythingSuspicion of colluding with periodic raiders from Mexico was also an easy excuse to bring wrath on the TejanosWhite supremacyIf Mexicans would assemble to protest their injustice by whites, whites would charge them with rioting and