American West: Topic 3 - Law and Order
- Created by: danielgrieve
- Created on: 23-05-16 18:54
View mindmap
- Topic 3 - Law and Order
- Reasons
- Geographical
- Vast areas of land with slow transport
- Political
- Towns grew quickly
- Lack of reliable officers in place
- Government did not think it necessary to train officers
- Social
- Lots of Ethnic groups living close together
- Civil War soldiers found it hard to adjust to normal life
- Attitudes
- The West believed in a code of honour
- Men were happy to settle disputes with guns and 'manliness'
- Economic
- Friction between homesteaders, barons, ranchers, miners)
- Geographical
- Crimes
- Bank Robbery
- Ex-soldiers turned to robbery after the Civil War
- Train Robbery
- 1870-1880 = realgar train robberies by fans of outlaws
- These were so successful that Train companies had to take actions
- Shootings
- many men became gunfighters
- Racial attacks
- Blacks, Indians, Mexicans, Chinese all suffered racial attacks
- Horse Stealing
- Horses were essential but stealing them was punishable by hanging
- Cattle rustling
- Often stolen before branding
- Cowboys would steal cattle to start their own ranch
- Fence Cutting
- Homesteaders would cut through the cattle barons barbed wire to access water
- Bank Robbery
- Control
- US Marshalls
- Appointed by the President to oversee a state
- Town Marshalls
- Appointed by a town annually
- Sheriffs
- Elected by county people but had to look after a large area of land (often too big)
- Texas Rangers
- Small army of lawmen employed to enforce law in Texas
- Judges
- Appointed by the President to enforce law
- Criminals often escaped before trial
- Calamity Jane - strong female figure who enforced the law
- Vigilantes
- People who took the law into their own hands
- Caused a lot of trouble due to punishing innocent people
- Problems
- Corruption
- Some sheriffs were often corrupt
- Some could be bribed with money or protection
- Pay
- Most law jobs were badly paid so men were not willing to become lawmen
- Some could be bribed with money or protection
- Most law jobs were badly paid so men were not willing to become lawmen
- Corruption
- US Marshalls
- Reasons
Comments
No comments have yet been made