Joseph Rainey, first black congressman in American government
African-Americans in Congress
After the Civil War, in 1865, the United States changed its Constitution to make slavery illegal. For a few years, black people were able to vote. Black men like Joseph Rainey served in Congress.
Early US government
More about the Civil War
Constitutional amendments
All our American history articles
Jim Crow and Federalism
But soon northern people lost interest in helping the black people. Racist white people forced the black people to stop voting and pushed them out of Congress. But also after the Civil War the United States government got to have much more power over the states than it had before. Now the states had to do what the United States government said, unless the Supreme Court said it was against the Constitution.
What does the Constitution say?
Sitting Bull, who had his own American government
Native American governments
In the western part of North America, however, many people had their own governments. They were not part of the United States or Canada. The Navajo, the Ute, the Paiute, the Modoc, the Shoshone, the Comanche, the Cheyenne, the Sioux, the Blackfeet, the Chinook and the Inuit are good examples.
The Navajo Long Walk
Ute fight the Mormons
The Cheyenne and cholera
Californians fight the Missions
The Comanche get rich
Mount Rushmore – After the Army forced the Sioux out of the Black Hills, the United States carved the Presidents into the Black Hills.
To resist the United States army better, many Native governments organized alliances so they could fight together: the Sioux began to unite under leaders like Sitting Bull.
Poor white men organize as progressives
In the late 1800s, more and more poor people began to live in cities and work in factories. Poor city men became important to winning elections. (Women still couldn’t vote.)
American economic history
Public buildings in the US
Girls working in a mill, about 1900 AD
To get their votes, men who wanted to be mayors or congressmen or presidents promised to fix up the poor parts of cities where these men lived. The Progressive movement got started.
What did Progressives think?
Progressive people thought that the states and the United States government should work harder to help poor people. Mayors and congressmen should tell businesses how to treat their workers. They should regulate how much to pay the workers.
American houses
Food in the United States
Blackfoot man with horse
Officials should decide what kinds of houses poor people should live in. They should make sure that their food and water were clean and safe. All kids should be able to go to school instead of working in factories. During this time, the government did work on a lot of these problems.
The United States seizes Native land
By 1900, the United States and Canada forced most of the people of the western part of North America onto reservations or under the power of the United States or Canada. But there were still some independent Inuit, Paiute, and Nez Perce groups. And the Navajo and Pueblo people still lived on their own land.
