Stacy/Ellington, Fabric of a Nation for AP® U.S. History, 2e, Period 6 (1865-1898), English

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

A trade-union federation founded in 1886. The AFL sought to organize skilled male workers into trade-specific unions and encouraged the vigorous use of the strike in pursuit of better wages and working conditions.

Battle of the Little Bighorn

A major battle in the Montana Territory in which Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and all of his troops were killed by the Lakota Sioux in 1876. This was the last major victory of the Lakota in their attempt to defend their lands from U.S. encroachment.

Billion Dollar Congress

The Republican-controlled Congress of 1890 that spent huge sums of money to promote business and other interests.

buffalo soldier

A Black cavalryman, many of whom had been formerly enslaved, who fought in the West against American Indians in the 1870s and 1880s.

Chinese Exclusion Act

A law enacted in 1882 that banned most Chinese immigration into the United States and prohibited resident Chinese from becoming naturalized American citizens.

collective bargaining

The process of negotiation between labor unions and employers.

Comstock Lode

The Comstock Lode was the first major discovery of silver ore in the United States, and it led to a rush in 1859 for silver in the West on par with the gold rush in California. Silver production from the Comstock Lode declined precipitously after the mid-1870s but continued into the early twentieth century.

convict lease

The system used by southern governments to furnish mainly Black prison labor to plantation owners and industrialists. The program was designed to raise revenue for the states. In practice, convict labor replaced slavery as the means of providing a forced labor supply.

corporate capitalism

An industrialized, market economy that is dominated by large corporations.

corporation

A legally recognized form of business ownership in which the liability, or financial risk, of shareholders in a company is limited to their individual investments. The formation of corporations in the late nineteenth century greatly stimulated investment in industry, and large corporations came to dominate certain industries.

Coxey’s army

A protest movement led by Jacob Coxey. In 1894, Coxey and five hundred supporters marched from Ohio to Washington, D.C., to protest the lack of government response to the Panic of 1893. Although the movement garnered widespread support, this and subsequent marches did little to effect change in governmental policy.

Dawes Act

An 1887 act that ended federal recognition of tribal sovereignty and divided American Indian land into 160-acre parcels to be distributed to American Indian heads of household to promote assimilation. The act dramatically reduced the amount of American Indian-controlled land and undermined American Indian solidarity by eroding social and cultural institutions.

deflation

A fall in prices caused by supply exceeding demand.

eugenics

The pseudoscience of producing genetic improvement in the human population through selective breeding. Supporters of eugenics often saw ethnic and racial minorities as genetically “undesirable” and inferior.

Farmers’ Alliance

A regional economic organization formed in agrarian areas in the late nineteenth century to advance the interests of farmers, many of whom were heavily indebted by the second half of the century.

frontier thesis

The argument, made by historian Frederick Jackson Turner in the 1890s, that the conquest of the West symbolized American exceptionalism and shaped its democratic spirit and, conversely, that its closing endangered the existence of democracy.

ghettos

Neighborhoods dominated by a single ethnic, racial, or class group.

Ghost Dance

A religious ritual performed by the American Indians in the late nineteenth century. The ritual was created following a vision received by Paiute prophet Wovoka in 1888. Wovoka believed performing the Ghost Dance would cause white people to disappear and allow American Indians to regain control of their lands.

Gilded Age

The term created by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner to describe the late nineteenth century. It implies the glittering appearance of the era was a shell that covered the corruption and materialism of the superrich.

“The Gospel of Wealth”

An essay by Andrew Carnegie published in 1889 in which he argued the rich should act as guardians of society through the wealth they earned. Carnegie advocated that the wealthy generate programs to uplift intelligent self-starters by using their surplus income for the benefit of the community, creating public libraries or community centers, rather than engaging in charity.

Grange

An organization founded in 1867 to meet the practical economic, social, and cultural needs of farmers. Grangers advocated the use of farm cooperatives and took an active role in the promotion of the economic and political interests of farmers during the 1870s.

Great Plains

The territory between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains characterized by flat topography and a drier climate, consisting mainly of prairie and grassland. Much of this region was acquired by the United States through the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

gross domestic product

The yearly output of all of a nation’s goods and services.

Haymarket riot

A labor rally in Haymarket Square in Chicago in May 1886 that resulted in violence, including the deaths of several police officers. The carnage was blamed on the supposedly radical nature of the labor movement and contributed to the demise of the Knights of Labor.

holding company

A form of business consolidation in which one company holds controlling stock in multiple corporations, thereby giving the holding company control over those corporations simultaneously.

Homestead Act

The Homestead Act of 1862 granted free 160-acre lots to western settlers, on condition that they live on and farm their land for at least five years, as an incentive for western migration.

Homestead strike

The violent 1892 strike by locked-out steelworkers at Andrew Carnegie’s Homestead Steel Works. The strike collapsed after the National Guard took control of the mill from workers and a failed assassination attempt on Carnegie’s plant manager, Henry Clay Frick.

horizontal integration

The use of mergers or acquisitions to create a company with a large enough market share to dominate an industry and control pricing. John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company, a horizontally integrated corporation, controlled most oil refining in the United States and, therefore, much of the petroleum market.

Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

A socialist labor organization that grew out of the activities of the Western Federation of Miners in the 1890s and was formed by Eugene V. Debs and other prominent labor leaders. Known as the “Wobblies,” the IWW attempted to unite all skilled and unskilled workers in an effort to overthrow capitalism.

interlocking directorate

A system of corporate economic collusion accomplished by having members on multiple corporations’ board of directors working in unison rather than in competition.

Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)

Created by the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887, the ICC required railroads to make their rates public and could bring lawsuits to force shippers to reduce “unreasonable” fares. The ICC had limited success in the late 1800s due to court rulings and the influence of business interests.

Jim Crow law

Any late-nineteenth-century state or local law that established legal segregation in the South. Many Jim Crow laws were enacted in the South, helping ensure the social and economic disfranchisement of southern Black people.

Knights of Labor

A labor union founded in 1869 that aimed to unite all workers under a single national union that would be powerful enough to challenge the power of corporate capitalists. Not limiting themselves to pay, benefits, and working conditions, the Knights of Labor became politically active and sought broader social changes.

labor union

An organized group of workers, who, through power in numbers and collective efforts, seek to secure and improve the pay, benefits, and working conditions from their employers. Union movements rose in prominence in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century, although they were countered by business and government efforts.

laissez-faire

French for “let do.” Advocates of laissez-faire believed the marketplace should be left to regulate itself, claiming that by allowing individuals to pursue their own self-interest without any government restraint or interference, the market would produce a natural balance.

land rush

The 1889 government-sanctioned race to acquire land in formerly American Indian territory in Oklahoma.

Long Drive

Cattle drive from the grazing lands of Texas to rail depots in Kansas. Once in Kansas, the cattle were shipped eastward to slaughterhouses in Chicago.

melting pot

A popular metaphor for immigrant assimilation into American society. According to this ideal, despite their varied cultures and differences, all immigrants underwent a similar process of Americanization that produced a homogenous society.

Mormon

A follower of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young who migrated to Utah in the 1840s to escape religious persecution; the religious denomination is also known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS).

nativism

The belief that religious or culturally diverse foreigners pose a serious danger to the nation’s society and culture. Nativist sentiment rose in the United States as the size and diversity of the immigrant population grew in the nineteenth century.

“New South”

Term popularized in the 1880s by newspaper editor Henry Grady, a proponent of the modernization of the southern economy in order for a distinctively industrial “New South” to emerge.

Panic of 1893

A severe economic downturn triggered by railroad and bank failures. The severity of the depression, combined with the failure of the federal government to offer an adequate response for half a decade, led to a realignment of American politics.

Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act

An act passed in 1883 that required the elimination of favoritism and nepotism in the hiring for federal jobs. The act established that positions would be awarded based on merit rather than political connections.

Pinkerton Agency

A company of private investigators and security guards sometimes used by corporations to violently break up strikes and labor disputes, most famously at the Homestead strike of 1892.

Plessy v. Ferguson

A Supreme Court ruling in 1896 that upheld the legality of Jim Crow legislation. The Court ruled that as long as states provided “separate but equal” facilities for white and Black people, Jim Crow laws did not violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

political boss

The head of the local political machine. The boss worked to maintain authority by strengthening the machine and its loyalists.

political machine

A type of urban political organization that dominated many late-nineteenth-century cities. Machines provided the organization and funding needed to provide services to the urban poor, but they also fostered corruption, crime, and inefficiency.

poll tax

A common tactic in southern states to disenfranchise poor, mostly Black voters by charging a fee to cast a ballot.

Populists

Originating in the agrarian movements in the late 1800s, Populists attempted to unite farmers and laborers in a coalition promoting broad economic and political reforms.

Pullman strike

A strike by workers against the Pullman railcar company in 1894, which expanded to a broader railroad strike when American Railway Union workers refused to handle any trains with Pullman cars. When the strike disrupted rail service nationwide, threatening mail delivery, the government sought an injunction against the union, which was followed by a presidential order by Grover Cleveland for federal troops to intervene.

robber baron

A negative term applied to late-nineteenth-century industrialists and capitalists who became very rich by dominating large industries while employing low-cost labor alongside new money-saving technologies.

Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company

The 1886 Supreme Court decision that determined a corporation was considered a “person” under the Fourteenth Amendment. This ruling gave corporations the same right of due process that the framers of the amendment had meant to give to freedpeople, thus shielding corporations from government regulation of the workplace.

scientific management

Also known as Taylorism, a management style developed by Frederick W. Taylor that aimed to continually improve the efficiency of employees by reducing manual labor to its simplest components. While aiming to increase productivity and decrease cost for employers, scientific management proved more successful in accelerating the loss of worker autonomy than in cutting costs.

segregation

The purposeful separation of people into ethnic or racial groups. Segregation was often actively perpetuated and enforced through “Black codes” and Jim Crow-era legislation that persisted into the latter half of the twentieth century.

settlement house

A community center started by urban reformers in the late nineteenth century. Settlement house organizers resided in the institutions they created and were often female, middle-class, and college educated. More than two hundred settlement houses were established in the United States by 1905.

Sherman Antitrust Act

A law enacted in 1890 banning monopolies and business practices that restrained free trade or fixed prices in interstate or foreign commerce. This act was the first congressional legislation to address the problems of trusts.

Sherman Silver Purchase Act

The 1890 act that increased the amount of silver the U.S. government was required to purchase to back production of federal dollars. The goal of this annual silver purchase was to raise inflation, and thereby raise the prices farmers were paid for their crops.

Social Darwinism

A belief that human society should be governed by the same principles of natural selection and survival of the fittest that Charles Darwin described in his work on evolutionary theory. Social Darwinism was often employed to justify economic inequality, racism, imperialism, and hostility to federal government regulation.

social gospel

A religious movement that advocated the application of Christian teachings to social and economic problems. The ideals of the social gospel inspired many progressive reformers but were largely ineffectual, as their reforms sought to change the individual rather than larger social structures and their impact.

Socialist Party of America

A political party established in 1901 by Eugene V. Debs. It advocated labor interests and economic reforms, as well as public ownership of business through democratic processes.

subtreasury system

A reform proposal to use government warehouses to hold excess farm products to control supply and maintain crop values. In return, farmers would receive government loans for 80 percent of the value of the product stored.

sweatshops

Small factories or shops in which workers toiled under poor conditions. Business owners, particularly in the garment industry, turned tenement apartments into sweatshops.

Tammany Hall

NewYork City’s political machine during the nineteenth century. The term became a byword for political corruption and favoritism.

tenement

A multifamily apartment building that housed many poor urban dwellers at the turn of the twentieth century. Tenements were crowded, uncomfortable, and dangerous. Their poor living conditions and safety violations inspired government regulations regarding housing safety.

transcontinental railroad

A railroad linking the East and West Coasts of North America. Completed in 1869, the transcontinental railroad facilitated the flow of migrants and the development of economic connections between the West and the East and symbolized American industrial and economic achievement.

Treaty of Fort Laramie

A treaty of 1851 that sought to confine American Indian tribes on the northern plains to designated areas in an attempt to keep white settlers from encroaching on their land. In 1868, the second Treaty ofFort Laramie gave northern tribes control over the “Great Reservation” in parts of present-day Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The treaty was ineffective in keeping out white settlers and hunters.

Treaty of Medicine Lodge

The 1867 treaty that provided reservation lands for the Comanche, Kiowa-Apache, and Southern Arapaho to settle. Despite this agreement, white hunters soon invaded this territory and destroyed the buffalo herd.

trust

A business monopoly formed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through mergers and consolidation that inhibited competition and controlled the market.

United States v. E. C. Knight Company

The 1895 Supreme Court ruling that manufacturing was a local activity within a state and that, even if it was a monopoly, it was not subject to congressional regulation. This ruling rendered the Sherman Antitrust Act virtually powerless, because it left most trusts in the manufacturing sector, thus beyond the act’s jurisdiction.

vertical integration

An organizational technique used by a company to gain control over all steps in the production of a product. Carnegie Steel, an example of a vertically integrated corporation, controlled the mines where iron ore was acquired and the mills where it was turned into steel.

Williams v. Mississippi

The 1898 Supreme Court ruling that upheld Jim Crow voter qualifications, such as poll taxes and literacy tests, which disenfranchised Black Americans.

Wounded Knee massacre

A massacre committed by the U.S. military in South Dakota, December 29, 1890. The Plains Indians, on the edge of starvation, began the “Ghost Dance,” which they believed would protect them from bullets and restore their old way of life. Following one of the dances, a rifle held by an American Indian misfired. In response, U.S. soldiers invaded the encampment, killing some 250 people.