period 6 + reconstruction FLASHCARDS

Civil War ended

Civil War ended

ended with General Lee’s surrender to General Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia

Military Reconstruction Act

• South divided into 5 military districts, each commanded by Union troops

• required to ratify 14th amendment

• had to grant black men the right to vote

13th amendment

abolished slavery

14th amendment

granted citizenship + due process of law to all

15th amendment

granted black male suffrage

end of Reconstruction era

Union troops left the South in exchange for election of Rutherford B. Hayes as president (contested election of 1876)

Chinese Exclusion Act

banned Chinese immigration to U.S. to decrease economic labor competition + cultural clashes

Haymarket Riot

peaceful labor demonstration in Chicago turned violent, ruining the reputation of the Knights of Labor

Sherman Antitrust Act

intended to restrict trusts/monopolies to keep business fair

Homestead Strike

failed strike by Carnegie steelworkers protecting wage cuts

Panic of 1893

severe economic depression that affected both the U.S. and Europe

Pullman Strike

nationwide strike by railroad workers protesting wage cuts and poor working conditions

Plessy v. Ferguson

SCOTUS case that ruled segregation was legal (separate but equal) after Homer Plessy refused to leave a whites-only traincar

purchase of Alaska

negotiated by William Seward, bought from Russia for $7.2 million

Transcontinental Railroad completed

Union/Central Pacific met in Promontory, UT

women vote in Wyoming

first American women to be able to vote

formation of Standard Oil

John D. Rockfeller’s oil company in Ohio (controlled 90% of oil refining by 1880 - horizontal integration: lowered prices enough that competitors couldn’t compete and then bought the failing competitors to dominate the industry)

first immigration wave (western)

over 2 million immigrants arrived; primarily western European (especially Irish/German)

Indian Appropriation Act

aimed to erase tribal identity by weakening the authority of tribal leaders and ending tribal sovereignty

founding of the Grange

aka Patrons of Husbandry; founded to advance agricultural methods + promote the social/economic needs (supported groups like the Greenback-Labor Party/Populist Party/Progressives) (“Granger laws” established standard freight rates/passenger fares)

Munn v. Illinois

SCOTUS case that confirmed state governments’ power to regulate private industries that affected the “common good” (later overturned in 1886 Wabash Case - said states could not regulate interstate commerce)

Yellowstone National Park Act

set areas of the Wyoming and Montana territories aside for public recreation

National Park Service founded

created to oversee the 35 parks/monuments set aside at the time

Credit Mobilier scandal

scandal in which the Union Pacific Railroad took too much federal money for “railroad construction” but actually passed it on to powerful politicians (bribery)

Resumption Act

deflation measure during Panic of 1873 that helped with the decline in general prices

Carnegie Steel opens

largest U.S. steel plant; just outside Pittsburgh, PA

Whiskey Ring scandal

group of St. Louis distillers disliked excess taxes on their product and John McDonald (Grant administration official) helped them reduce these taxes by intentionally undercounting the kegs of whiskey they produced (eventually caught/convicted; tainted the Grant presidency)

Battle of Little Bighorn

“Custer’s last stand” - General Custer + 200 of his men at the hands of Sioux/Cheyenne warriors

Nez Perce War

when hostilities between settlers and the Nez Perce Indians became violent (clashed in Montana/Idaho → Natives surrendered → relocated to Kansas/Oklahoma)

Great Railway Strike

nationwide railroad worker strike originating from West Virginia protesting low wages + bad working conditions (“Great Labor Uprising”)

Helen Hunt Jackson’s A Century of Dishonor

exposed the federal government’s mistreatment of Native Americans in the West (fraudulent treaties, violence, etc.)

trusts pioneered by Standard Oil

“trusts” = collectives of companies that worked under one name as a monopoly to corner the market of a good; designed by Rockefeller/Standard Oil to get around state laws preventing one company from owning stock in another

Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act

passed to minimize political corruption (think the scandals from Grant’s administration) and patronage (ability to control appointments to office) by enforcing competitive exams + merit requirements for the hiring of civil servants

American Federation of Labor founded

formed by trade unions to organize skilled workers; focused on practical demands like better hours, pay, and working conditions (not political/social issues)

Interstate Commerce Act

held railroads subject to federal intervention; largely passed in response to public demand/pressure from populist groups

Dawes Act

• allowed Native reservation land to be broken up into small plots that could be sold to individuals

• supposed to encourage Natives to become farmers but the plots were too small

• intended to deny tribal sovereignty + erase Native culture

“Gospel of Wealth”

• Andrew Carnegie’s essay that claimed philanthropy was the only honorable use of wealth

• the wealthy had a duty to improve society through donation

• Carnegie himself built around 2500 public libraries to benefit communities

Hull House opened

• Chicago settlement house run by Jane Addams

• offered help to immigrants (education, job training, food)

• helped professionalize field of social work

Bison nearly extinct

• had been hunted to extinction by 1890 following increase in western migration

• only hunted for pelt

• waste of meat/rest of bison shocked Native Americans

Jacob Riis’ How The Other Half Lives

• book documenting living conditions among NYC immigrants

• had national influence (even influenced Teddy Roosevelt)

McKinley Tariff

• extremely high protective tariff

• intended to:

  • promote both smaller and established industries

  • raise workers’ wages

  • protect workers against low-wage competition

  • further home market for farm goods

• introduced by future president William McKinley

Wounded Knee

• U.S. troops killed around 200 Sioux (mostly women/children) at Wounded Knee Creek

• Sioux had gathered there as part of the Ghost Dance movement

  • Americans afraid of this organization/reinvigoration of Native practices

Hawai’i annexed

• strategic location for military warfare (Pearl Harbor)

• good climate for sugar planting

• Queen Lili’oukalani had planned to restore power to the native Hawaiians but annexation came first

General Electric formed

• founded by J.P. Morgan (America’s most successful banker)

• merged Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company

Homestead Steel Strike

when the manager of Andrew Carnegie’s steel plant in Homestead, PA (Henry C. Frick) cut wages and attempted to quell the union, the workers protested and Frick closed the plant, refusing to negotiate with the union. eventually the protesters were put down by militias and blacklisted

Omaha Platform (@ Populist Party Convention)

• Populist Party = for the people

• supported by Western farmers

• advocated for:

  • federal economic regulation

  • graduated income tax

  • free silver (flexible currency → inflation)

  • national ownership of railroads/telegraph lines

  • an 8-hour workday

  • ban on immigrants owning land

Atlanta Compromise

• Booker T. Washington’s speech in Atlanta

• said that African-Americans should make peace with their current situation, not advocate for further rights

• focus on trades (founded Tuskegee Institute)

• popular with many whites and some blacks