Henry Demarest Lloyd

Henry Demarest Lloyd was born in New York City on 1st May, 1847. His father was a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church but in 1860 he left and opened a small bookshop. After graduating from Columbia College in 1867 Lloyd attended Columbia Law School. He then worked as an assistant secretary for the American Free Trade Association. He also joined the Young Men's Municipal Reform Association, which helped to overthrow William Tweed, the mayor of New York.

In 1872 Lloyd joined the Chicago Tribune. He worked as literary editor from 1872-1874. In 1874 he became financial editor of the newspaper. Then, Lloyd became the newspaper's chief editorial writer in 1880. While working for the Chicago Tribune Lloyd published a series of articles exposing corruption in business and politics. These articles caused a scene and Lloyd has been described as America's first investigative journalist. 

Over the next few years Lloyd was a part of the campaign to bring an end to child labor and to achieve clemency for the men accused of the Haymarket Bombing. He was also a strong supporter of women's suffrage and the trade union movement. Lloyd became a leading figure in the reform movement and influenced a generation of political activists including John Peter Altgeld, Clarence Darrow, William Dean Howells and John Dewey. 

The Battle of Little Bighorn

The Battle of the Little Bighorn, was fought on June 25, 1876, near the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory. Federal troops led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer were against a band of Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. Tensions between the two groups had been rising since the discovery of gold on Native American lands. When numerous tribes missed a federal deadline to move to reservations, the U.S. Army, including Custer and his 7th Calvary, were dispatched to confront them.

The U.S. Cavalry was attempting to force the Indians back to their reservations and divided into three columns to attack. One of the columns was led by Lt. General George Custer. He spotted a Sioux camp and decided to attack it. Indian forces outnumbered his troops 3 - 1. Custer and his troops were forced to rearrange. While waiting for help from the other Cavalry forces, another group of Indian forces trapped Custer and his troops. In a desperate attempt to hold off the Indian warriors, Custer ordered his men to short their horses and stack their bodies to form a barricade to protect them from the Indians.

It took less than an hour for the arrows and bullets of the Indians to wipe out General Custer and his men. Despite having won this battle, the Indians were not victorious. Outrage over the death of the popular Custer led the U.S. government to redraw the boundaries of the Black Hills so that the land would not be part of reservation property, which left it open for white men to settle.

Chinese Immigration and Exclusion

After the American Civil War, Chinese workers migrated to the United States. First, to work in the gold mines, but also to take agricultural jobs, and factory work, especially in the garment industry. Chinese immigrants were active in building railroads in the American west, and as Chinese laborers grew successful in the United States, a number of them became entrepreneurs in their own ways. As the numbers of Chinese laborers increased, so did the numbers of anti-Chinese sentiment among other workers in American. This finally resulted in legislation that aimed to limit future immigration of Chinese workers to the United States, and threatened to divide diplomatic relations between the United States and China.



According to Document A, an Anti-Chinese Play from 1879 called, " The Chinese Must Go," Americans passed the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act because the Chinese complained and expected too much. Their ideas were that they were smarter and should only work and get payed - not the Americans. "Chinaman plenty work, plenty money, plenty to eat. White man no work, no money, die-sabee?"According to Document B, a Political Cartoon from 1871 by Thomas Nast for Harper's Weekly, Americans passed the 1822 Chinese Exclusion Act because the Chinese are not only taking the Americans' jobs but the other immigrants' jobs as well. The cartoon displays immigrants vs immigrants and in the wall on the back many negative things are being said about the Chinese. "The lowest and vilest of the human race."

According to Document C, a speech to the workingmen of San Francisco from August 1888, Americans passed the 1822 Chinese Exclusion Act because, again, Chinese are taking away the Americans' jobs. "The boot, shoe and cigar industries are almost entirely in their hands." 
According to Document D, an excerpt from Lee Chew's autobiography from 1903 called "The Biography of a Chinaman," Americans passed the 1822 Chinese Exclusion Act because the other immigrants envied the Chinese for their good qualities of work. The Chinese were simply better. "The Chinese were persecuted, not for their vices [sins], but for their virtues [good qualities]."