By the winter of 1898, the Spanish had begun forcing Cubans living in certain cities to relocate to concentration camps.
This had me wondering why of certain areas? Was it because they were easier to control and take over? It is interesting to know they held concentration camps instead of jails or prisons.
Nearly seventy thousand members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (commonly called Mormons) migrated west between 1846 and 1868
I have always wanted to learn more about Mormons as it is an interesting religion and way of life. To know that it exist in this time is baffling to me, but to know it dates back to the mid 1800's is shocking. Makes me wonder how this type of faith is allowed.
Native Americans had lived in the American West for between ten and fifteen thousand years.
This part of history is always intriguing to me. I love the native culture along with the story. To find out Native Americans have been in the West for ten to fifteen years is not shocking. That is a long time though.
Debs was arrested on ten counts of sedition and sentenced to ten years in prison.
I found this to being very interesting to learn he ran for president. Despite being behind bars he gained hundred of thousands of votes which is hard to understand. What was the reasoning behind the vote towards him?
To deal with the lack of currency and credit available to farmers, the platform advocated postal savings banks. It called for the establishment of a network of federally managed warehouses called sub-treasuries, which would extend government loans to farmers who stored crops in the warehouses as they awaited higher market prices.
This was a kind way to make sure that farmers still had ways to keep their crop business alive. It seemed to be a difficult time back then for farmers. Postal saving banks becoming available to farmers seemed to be their break in luck.
New technologies like the McCormick reaper, the John Deere plow, and chemical fertilizers made America the world’s breadbasket by the 1870s.
Both McCormick and John Deere are still the top selling names we hear and see today. I found this really interesting that production exploded over time to the biggest production leading it to the world's breadbasket. The discovery of how to distribute the workers that would benefit the production quicker was a very strategic move that helped the United States placing them above other countries.
The Workingmen’s Party, founded in 1876 by followers of Karl Marx, organized a protest in Chicago attended by tens of thousands.
I found this information knew to me. It is interesting that Chicago would be the meeting place for the protest and wonder why Chicago. Such a tragedy that so many protesters lost their lives and that so many others had to endure the horrible event.
The wealthy president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, Thomas Andrew Scott, who had been Assistant Secretary of War for Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, is often named as one of the first Robber Barons of the Gilded Age. Scott suggested that if striking workers complained they were hungry, they should be given “a rifle diet for a few days and see how they like that kind of bread.”
I find this absolutely baffling to know that a "rifle diet" could be the solution to any problem. It does not seem back in this time that a human life was looked at as such and instead quickly replaceable if it does not benefit the person seeking something. A president suggesting this type of behavior is just as worrying and questionable as to why.
I could not wrap my mind around the idea that this could be a punishment. I feel that humans were not looked at as such instead as easily replaceable. Benefiting off others hard work and time yet lacking the empathy and gesture to pay them accordingly seems to be what happened in that time. It is scary to think that strikes got this violent and chaotic back then and the best solution to end the problem would be death. The Rifle diet method is extreme it gives an idea how life did not mean anything.