RSJ Terms

Great Awaking 

A religious revival that impacted the english colonies in America during 1730s and 1740s.

Mercantilism

An economic system that focused on accumulating more wealth by exporting more goods than importing

Declaration of Independence

Document Congress issued on July 4th, 1775. Beginning of the American Revolution.

Constitution

A fundamental set of principles, laws, and established rules that guide the governance of a Country, state, or organization. Document crafted creating a new representative system of government and splitting the Federal government into three branches.

Checks and Balances

A system created in the constitution in which each branch of government would monitor and limit the power of the other branches in order to maintain balance

Federal Naturalization Law of 1790

Law that limited who the US gave citizenship to, idea of citizenship reserved for white 

People

Bill of rights

The first ten amendments of the constitution that detail the basic rights of being a US citizen

Amendments

Changes made to the constitution to keep it up to date

Judicial Review

Power of the court to decide wether laws are constitutional or strike down the ones that are not. Marbury vs madison

Missouri Compromise

Compromise balancing free and slave states of the US by establishing the 36 30 line above which slavery couldn't exist

Trail of Tears

even though some Cherokee assimilated to American culture, the US government still ordered their removal to lands west of the Mississippi. this event proved that all Native people would still have a difficult time coexisting with Americans.

Abolitionism

Believed slavery was morally wrong and therefore needed to end immediately.

Political and social movement with the goal to end slavery and the slave trade world wide

Fugitive Slave Law

Was a part of the Compromise of 1850 and strengthened previous fugitive slave laws. It made it much easier for slave owners to capture and return runaway slaves (or any black person) to slavery.

Dred Scott Decision

Supreme Court decision which upheld the right of Southerners to not only own slaves but take them anywhere they choose. Slaves were property and therefore could be taken anywhere in the US.  

Gettysburg Address

Speech given by Abraham Lincoln to try to give meaning to the deaths in the Civil War. He called for a new birth of freedom. This helped lead later to the 13th amendment.

Emancipation Proclamation

Part of Lincoln's Civil War strategy. This freed slaves in Confederate territory, but did NOT free slaves in any state which was allied with the North.

Sea Island Experiments

Set forth by field order #15. Declared that land owned by white southerners could be seized set aside for freed blacks. This was put into action on islands off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina. Later, this order was rescinded.

Freedmans Bureau

Federal organization given the job of providing assistance (food, jobs, protection) to freed blacks (and needy whites) in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Ku Klux Klan

Attacked African Americans and white Republicans in the South. Their aim was to keep these groups from voting booths and thereby regain power for white democrats.

14th Amendment

Attempt to provide equal rights for African Americans after the Civil War. Its early interpretation focused on business rights, and therefore didn't really help African Americans as it was intended. Citizenship to anyone born in the US 

US vs. Reese

Said that attempts to keep blacks from the voting booths (literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather clause) WERE legal because these methods didn't violate the 15th amendment.

Sharecropping

arose after the Civil War as a way to keep former slaves as agricultural workers. workers worked the land, kept half of the crop and gave the rest to the owner of the land. they also borrowed money and supplies from the owner of land.

Compromise of 1877

agreement between the North and South that allowed Rutherford Hayes to ascend to the presidency. the most important part of the agreement was the decision the remove military troops from the south.

Jim Crow

series of laws whose purpose was to LEGALIZE the separation of the races. appeared after the Civil War as a way to retain white dominance.

“Birth of a Nation”

DW Griffith's film that solidified the stereotypes of African Americans as stupid, lazy, and lustful. shows the KKK as positive for the south and the nation.

Atlanta Compromise

Booker T Washington's speech (given to a white audience) which said that blacks should not expect social equality. What they should do is prove their worth, and then whites would treat them equally.

NAACP

created in 1909, its purpose was to fight for civil rights for African Americans by challenging segregation and other civil rights abuses in the courts

Social Darwinism 

Many Americans in the industrial age ( especially those in power) held this belief that taught "survival of the fittest for human beings". it was used to justify long hours, low pay, and bad conditions

Lewis Hine

a photographer who tackled the child labor problem by taking thousands of photographs which showed the stark realities of children working. his efforts later led to the keating-owen act

American Federation of Labor

one of the US's early labor unions. focused on basic issues facing workers- higher wages, safer working conditions, and shorter work days

Pullman strike

conflict between workers and employers in Pullman, IL. workers wanted their wages to not be cut unless their rents were cut too. the US government sent in troops to restore order. showed that during the age of industrialism the government would side with businesses

Exodusters

term given to African-Americans who fled the South and settled in the West- specifically Kansas. They did so to escape the racism of the post Civil War South. They claimed land under the terms of the Homestead Act.

Reservations

land which the federal government set aside for Native Americans. One of the ways the government sought to "solve" the Indian problem

Dawes Act

1887 law that distributed reservation land into private family plots. Similar to the Homestead Act, except that the government often sold off the best reservation land to whites.

Massacre at Wounded Knee

1890 shooting by the US army troops of a group of unarmed Sioux who were off reservation to do the Ghost Dance. Indians realized the Ghost Dance didn't work, and basically gave up hope.

Bonanza farms

large farms that appeared as smaller homesteaders failed (they sold the land and were paid to work it). Gave power to big farms

Buffalo Bill

Wild West show that solidified stereotypes of whites and Natives in the West. Progressive with gender roles (Annie Oakley & Calamidy Jane).

ethnic communities

the existence of these allow immigrants to have an easier time getting used to life in the US. They can slowly adjust to the US because ethnic communities have similar food, language, and cultural traditions of their home country.

Gentlemen’s Agreement

similar to Chinese Exclusion Act, this, however, affected Japanese. It disallowed unskilled Japanese workers from emigrating to the US. In exchange, Japanese students in the US would not be segregated in school.

Angel Island

West Coast version of Ellis Island (in SF bay). The difference is that many immigrants were detained here until it was determined they were either legal immigrants or deported.