lawless towns

• 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.
• What were the anti-gang groups called in the American West?

  vigilantes
• 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).
• Who appointed US marshals in the American West?

  the federal government
• Issues with the legal system in the American West:

  Communication was slow

  Marshals, sheriffs and their deputies were badly paid

  Corruption was common
• 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).
• How big is the State of California?

  424,000 square kilometres
• Who would be in charge of law enforcement in a whole state?


  us marshal