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CHAPTER 18 |
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FRONTERS
OF
CHANGE, |
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STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS 18.a.6 Gunmen of the West 18.c.5 Booker T. Washington and the
theory of "accommodation" xword solution (scroll
down) |
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GUNMEN OF THE WEST |
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Code the Old West |
The "No Duty to Retreat" code of the west contributed to gunplay. Westerners typically rejected the English common law tradition that required a man to retreat when confronted with a violent situation. "No Duty to Retreat" demanded that a man hold his ground with his gun. Throughout the 1870's and 1880's the courts justified homicide based on the "No Duty to Retreat" mentality. |
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corporate gunslingers |
Corporate gunmen were hired by big business mining syndicates and cattle barons. They were usually Republicans and northern by birth. Famous hired corporate guns were Wyatt Earp, Doc Hollady, and Frank Canton. |
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populist gunslingers |
Populist gunmen were sometimes hired by small prospectors, ranchers, or farmers resisting corporate encroachment on their lands. The populists were usually Texans and Democrats. Famous names are Billy the Kid and Jesse James. Their robberies of trains and banks made them somewhat popular amongst those who saw these institutions as oppressors of the people. |
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[c.5] |
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON & THE THEORY OF ACCOMMODATION |
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theory of accomodation |
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Tuskegee |
BTW realized his vision when he established the Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, in 1881. One of the clearest statements of his objectives for African-Americans is stated in his book The Future and the Negro, (1899). |
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critiscism of BTW |
Many African-American leaders criticized BTW. They claimed he was out of touch with new methods of production. The advent of the assembly line, for example, was making skilled artisans obsolete. Furthermore, even if Blacks did acquire skills, white discrimination prevented African-Americans from obtaining factory jobs becoming available in the New South. |
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challenge from Du Bois |
W.E.B. DuBois believed college training was the path to equality and a better life for African-Americans. He believed training people to think would provide the leadership the Black community needed. |
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RELATED WWW LINKS |
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The
western gunmen so often portrayed in Hollywood films came in
two varieties: the Corporate and Populist or
"dissident" types. The civil war of incorporation of the
American west pitted the two types against each other, the
one assisting eastern business in their endeavor to
"incorporate" the west, and the other one resisting
incorporation on behalf of the common people (or
themselves).
Booker
T. Washington (1856-1915) proposed "accommodation" as the
best way to cope with white supremacy in the South. The
idea, first proposed in the 1891 Atlanta Comromise, was a
practical approch to racism. BTW argued that training in the
industrial and agricultural sciences was the clearest path
to Black self-sufficiency. His reasoning was
straightforward: If African-Americans became the best brick
layers, farmers, masons, and mechanics, Anglos would seek
them out and pay them well. Thus could African-American
"accommodate" themselves to segregation without sacrificing
standard of living.