APUSH Time Period 6 Terms

1865-1898

Transcontinental Railroad

Many railroad lines that connected the U.S. and made the east and west now accessible to each other.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

“The Commodore” Owned shipping and railroads(steel) to get things places. Philanthropy: Vanderbilt University

Interstate Commerce Act of 1887

Result of major railroads being rife with corruption and using graft to accomplish goals. Railroad plutocracy was controlling everything. 1st attempt by the feds to regulate business in the interest of society. It was ineffective until the 20th century.

Thomas Edison

Created the incandescent light bulb, which fostered an increase in industrial productivity

Andrew Carnegie

One of the main 3 Gilded Age Industrialists. Founded Carnegie steel, a monopoly. Used the business practice of vertical integration.

J.P. Morgan

Banker who founded a monopoly by taking control of the bankrupt railroads and consolidating them after the financial panic in 1893. Took part in the interlocking directorate.

John D. Rockefeller - Standard Oil

Founded the Standard Oil Company, a monopoly, and practiced horizontal integration. As the company grew, this person acquired a trust.

“Trust” companies

Monopoly in which several businesses work together to control a large portion of the market.

“Gospel of Wealth”

Pragmatic religious justification in the era of industrialization that the wealthy should give back to communities. Highlights the interdependent relationship between the wealthy elites and consumers. Supports the ideas that the rich are best suited to most effectively direct money and leave a legacy to improve society. Inequality is inevitable and good.

Social Darwinism

“Survival of the fittest” and natural selection, ideas from Charles Dawin, should be applied to the marketplace.

Sherman Anti-Trust Act

As a result of the middle-class citizens’ fear of the trusts’ unchecked power, reformers moved Congress to pass this to prohibit any “contract, combination, in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce.

Knights of Labor

A second national labor union that began as a secret society in order to avoid detection by employers. It was opened to all workers, including African Americans and women. The group advocated for worker cooperatives, abolition of child labor, and abolition of trusts and monopolies. The group was loosely organized, so violence was hard to control, and the Haymarket Riot turned public opinion against the union and labor force.

Haymarket Riot

Labor violence broke out at Chicago’s McCormick Harvester plant in Chicago. Workers held a public meeting, and as the police attempted to disband the meeting, someone threw a bomb, which killed seven police officers. This incident led many Americans to believe that the union movement was radical and violent, which caused the Knights of Labor to lose membership.

American Federation of Labor

Most influential labor union. Concentrated on attaining economic goals. Led by Samuel Gompers, this association focused on higher wages and improved working conditions for skilled workers.

Samuel Gompers

Leader of the American Federation of Labor. Unofficial representative of the working class.

Eugene Debs

Leader of the American Railroad Union who directed railroad workers not to handle any trains with Pullman cars. This person took part in the Pullman strike, and the Supreme Court approved the use of court injunctions against strikes, which gave employers a very powerful weapon to break unions. From the conclusion of his sentence, this person turned to socialism and helped found the American Socialist Party after he realized that more radical solutions were needed to cure labor’s problems.

The “Wobblies”

Industrial Workers of the World Union

“New Immigrants”

Southern and eastern people who migrated to the United States. Many were poor and illiterate peasants who had left autocratic countries and were unaccustomed to democratic traditions. Newcomers were largely Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, and Jewish.

Urbanization

Shift from rural to urban to seek new opportunities in industrial and commercial jobs. This included African Americans.

Nativism

Favoritism/preference towards native-born Americans

Ellis Island

Immigration center that opened in New York after the Contract Labor Law of 1885 was passed.

Ethnic Neighborhoods

In their crowded tenement quarters, different immigrant groups created distinct places where each group could maintain its own language, culture, church or temple, and social club. Sometimes called “ghettos” these places often served as springboards for ambitious and hardworking immigrants and their children to achieve their version of the American dream.

“dumbbell” Tenements

Attempt to relieve unlivable conditions, NYC passed a law that required each bedroom to have a window. The landlords responded with this.

Jane Addams

Leader of the Social Gospel Movement rejected Social Darwinism, preaches salvation through service to the poor and established Hull House. Middle and Upper Class women could find out about the poor conditions faced by the labor force through muckrakers.

Settlement Houses

Community centers in some poor areas that provide assistance, mostly to immigrants. Run mostly by middle class, college educated women. Provides educational, cultural, and social services.

Political Machines

Organized group that controlled political parties in the city. Uses graft (bribery: illegal use of political influence for personal gain).

Boss Tweed & Tammany Hall

Example of Political Machine.

Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WTCU)

Alcohol is a convenient scapegoat for all problems associated with urbanization. Puritan values and Nativist ideology plays into the Temperance movement. Actions lead to the passing of the 18th Amendment. (Later repealed by 21st Amendment)

Mark Twain

Realist author who is known for The Adventures in Huckleberry Finn, and revealed the greed, violence, and racism in American society.

Chinese Exclusion Act

Passed in 1882 it prohibited Chinese immigration for 10 years.