USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Barbed wire, like a tattoo, originated in the criminal world. Prisoners used it to count their time outside of freedom: each spike symbolized one year of imprisonment. Such a tattoo was a secret symbol of the prison world. When people were released from jail, it was the symbol by which they recognized others like them.

Detailed explanation-2: -In the American West Fences of smooth wire did not hold stock well, and hedges were difficult to grow and maintain. Barbed wire’s introduction in the West in the 1870s dramatically reduced the cost of enclosing land.

Detailed explanation-3: -The fence demonstrates that they aren’t just in “government custody, ” they’re in prison. In the early and chaotic days of Manzanar, barbed wire signifies the complete exclusion of Japanese Americans from society, and the drastic actions which prejudice can spur.

Detailed explanation-4: -Without the alternative offered by cheap and portable barbed wire, few farmers would have attempted to homestead on the Great Plains, since they could not have afforded to protect their farms from grazing herds of cattle and sheep. Barbed wire also brought a speedy end to the era of the open-range cattle industry.