Lawless Towns

New settlements and towns were popping up all over America. Often there were no policemen or judges in a town. This caused many problems and earned the area the name 'The Wild West'.

American population diversity

Lots of Chinese migrants entered California during the 1852 famine.
Slavery was not abolished in the USA until 1865 and many African people were still kept as slaves in America.
Plains Indians were the indigenous population of America, but they were being forced into reservations.
Between 1870 and 1900, 7 million migrants came to America from Northern Europe (Britain, Ireland and Scandinavia) and 3 million migrants came from Southern Europe (places like Italy).
There was huge diversity in America.

Gangs of New York

In New York, between the 1830s and 1850s, the Forty Thieves of Five Points and the Bowery Boys of lower Manhattan were notorious gangs. The gangs were involved in violence, fighting, gambling, the sale of alcohol, and prostitution.

Gangs of San Francisco

The population of California grew to 380,000 people by 1858. San Francisco was its largest town at the time. The Gold Rush was unsuccessful for most migrants. They were now stuck on the West Coast, away from their families, with no jobs and no money. These are the perfect conditions for gangs to recruit people into a criminal life.
The homicide (murder) records for San Francisco show suspected murderers as the Hounds (who were an anti-foreign migrant gang) and the Chileans (who were migrants from Latin America).

Vigilantes

Local police forces were very small.
In response, citizens set up 'vigilance groups', which became known as vigilantes. These people would hunt down and punish suspects without the legal system.
Miners' courts were created in mining camps. Here, a group of fellow miners who judge cases and claims.

Isolated settlements

Settlers could set up remote farms in locations all across the Great Plains.
Mining communities could well be in very remote areas.
This meant that there could be no way of enforcing the law within communities or with criminals trying to attack these communities.

Tackling Lawlessness in Settlements

Marshals and sheriffs were appointed in order to try to resolve the problem of lawlessness in the west of the United States.

US and town marshals

The federal (central) government appointed US marshals. The US marshals would be in charge of a whole region or State. States are enormous, for example the state of California covers 424,000 square kilometres. This is a big area to police.
US marshals would then appoint deputy marshals. They would look after smaller regions within a state.
Town marshals would be elected by local citizens. Lots of crime in the 1800s was linked to alcohol, drinking, gambling, and saloons (bars).

Sheriffs

Sheriffs were the local law enforcer.
They would be allocated a county and they could rally 'posses' to chase criminals. Sheriffs usually had a tenure of 2 years.

Logistics and transport

In 1852, there were 23,000 miles of telegraph wiring in the United States. However, telegraph communication was imprecise, slow and ineffective relative to today's communication systems.
It could take weeks or days for a marshal to find out about a crime and by then, the criminal could be miles away in any direction, having escaped on horseback.
Marshals and sheriffs didn't get much training, weren't paid well, and this made them vulnerable to corruption.

1The Early Settlement of the West, c1835-c1862

1.1The Plains Indians: Beliefs & Way of Life

1.1.1The Plains Indians - Social Structure

1.1.2The Plains Indians - Way of Life

1.1.3End of Topic Test - Social & Tribal Structures

1.1.4Grade 9 - The Plains Indians

1.2Migration & Early Settlement

1.2.1The Oregon Trail & Gold Rush

1.2.2Manifest Destiny

1.2.3Major Migrations - Donner, Mormon & Farmer

1.2.4End of Topic Test - Migration and Early Settlement

1.2.5Grade 9 - The Early Settlement of the West

1.3Conflict & Tension

1.3.1Fort Laramie Treaty & Indian Appropriations Act

1.3.2Lawless Towns

1.3.3End of Topic Test - Conflict & Tension

2Development of the Plains, c.1862–c.1876

2.1The Development of Settlement in the West

2.1.1Causes of the American Civil War

2.1.2The American Civil War

2.1.3Homesteading & Railroads 1862-1876

2.1.4Continuing Law & Order Problems 1862-1876

2.1.5Ranching, Cattle & Cowboys 1862-1876

2.1.6End of Topic Test - Development of the Plains

2.2Changes in the Way of Life of the Plains Indians

2.2.1Impact of Railroads & Settlers 1862-1876

2.2.2Impact of the Peace Policy & Reservations

2.2.3The Indian Wars (1862-1868)

2.2.4End of Topic Test - Changes in the Way of Life

2.2.5Grade 9 - Development of the Plains

3Conflicts & Conquest, c.1876–c.1895

3.1Changes in Farming & Settlement

3.1.1Farming & the Cattle Industry 1876-1895

3.1.2The Exoduster Movement & Oklahoma Land Rush

3.1.3End of Topic Test - Exodusters, Land Rush & Cattle

3.2Conflict & Tension

3.2.1Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp and the Range Wars

3.2.2Little Big Horn, the Ghost Dance & Wounded Knee

3.2.3Destroying the Indian Way of Life

3.2.4End of Topic Test - Conflict and Tension

3.2.5Grade 9 - Conflicts & Tension

Jump to other topics