Situation

Below are some of the current situations that exist on the American Frontier.

Boom Towns
With the discovery of gold comes a surge of prospectors looking to get rich. As such, many frontier areas have exploded in population. However, gold is not the only commodity. Silver mines and even guano mines prove profitable enough in current times to support their own boom towns. The creation of the railroads also drives these booms.

Frontier Justice
The frontier is mostly lawless, being far from the reach of the U.S. government. As such, towns in these areas elect their own sheriffs to dispense justice. Frontier courts typically inflict the harshest punishments for all manner of crimes, since life is hard enough without having to deal with criminals.

Manifest Destiny
The United States sees it as its God-given right to expand all across North America, and they will not be satisfied until the whole of their country is tamed. As such, the native groups are pushed from their ancestral homes and slaughtered whenever they deign to fight back. The Civil War was only a minor setback to this doctrine, and President Grant is now pushing hard to settle even the most far-flung American lands.

Mining Claims
Due to the absence of law in most of the boom towns and gold flowing rivers, a system of impromptu rules are put into place by miners with regards to claims. Though they vary regionally, the most basic rule is that an individual or group that finds a mineral deposit in unclaimed land can lay claim to it and any land around it up to the amount that a single person or small group could realistically work.

Slavery
Though slavery has been abolished, many African-Americans are still in bondage due to the dubious practices of prison labor and debt peonage.