Railroad Tied Together

There were a number of things that the railroads gave America, good and bad alike. They improved the travel, trade, and communication throughout our country. There were also some setbacks for certain peoples who inhabited the areas in which they were built. These thing include the wholesale slaughter of Native Americans, Cowboys not being able to herd their cattle, and the massacre of the bison population.

When needing to travel quickly, in the terms of that era, from one place to another now had the means to do so in hoards. The businessmen who needed to get to that meeting, or the woman who needing to return home to see her dying family member one last time now had the resource to do so, if they had the money of course (2-10 cents per mile depending on the ride).

During this time frame they did not have the preservatives that we do, so getting food from other places was not a common occurrence. The railroads made it easier and more convenient for merchants to go farther away and sell their products without them spoiling. This moved certain products and demands into places where they had never been before.

As our ancestors moved farther and farther west we pushed the Natives in that direction as well. In that situation the white and privileged were the ones doing the herding, only this time it was of other humans. It was the white man versus the native man and eventually the advanced technology and weaponry won out against the Native Americans. Whole tribes were killed off or shoved into small reservations that are still around today, though they are only a miniscule fraction of what it was that they used to hold claims over.

Lastly, the bison. Herds 2 million strong, decimated and destroyed as a whole. People would get tickets for train rides and they would shoot them for fun. This activity hurt the entire population of the animal and in turn injured the Native American culture and society more than the western settlers already