APUSH: Reconstruction, Gilded Age, and Industrialization Key Concepts

14th Amendment

Defined citizenship and guaranteed equal protection under the law.

Jim Crow Laws

State and local segregation laws in the post-Reconstruction South.

Solid South

The Democrat-controlled South after Reconstruction.

Waving the Bloody Shirt

Republican political strategy of reminding voters that Democrats had supported the Confederacy.

Sam Tilden & the Compromise of 1877

Samuel Tilden (Democrat) won the popular vote in 1876.

Talented Tenth

W.E.B. Du Bois's idea that the top ten percent of educated Black Americans should lead the fight for civil rights.

Atlanta Compromise

1895 speech by Booker T. Washington accepting segregation temporarily while pushing economic improvement.

Railroads & Time Zones

Largest industry of the era; standardized time zones for scheduling.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Consolidated major rail lines; symbol of railroad capitalism.

Standard Oil & John D. Rockefeller

Dominated oil refining through horizontal integration (buying competitors) and trusts.

Andrew Carnegie & the Gospel of Wealth

U.S. Steel; used vertical integration (controlling every step from raw materials to distribution).

James B. Duke

American Tobacco Company; industrialized cigarette production.

Types of Monopolies

Horizontal integration: buying out competitors (Rockefeller).

Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)

First federal attempt to limit monopolies; vague and initially weak.

Social Darwinism

Applied natural selection to society; justified wealth inequality and limited government regulation.

Russell Conwell

Promoted 'Acres of Diamonds,' arguing anyone could become rich with hard work.

Yellow Dog Contracts

Agreements where workers promised not to join unions.

Samuel Gompers

Leader of the American Federation of Labor (AFL).

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

First major national strike; caused by wage cuts.

Haymarket Bombing (1886)

A bombing at a labor rally in Chicago.

Pullman Strike (1894)

Organized by Eugene V. Debs and the American Railway Union.

Molly Maguires

Secret labor society among Pennsylvania coal miners.

Who Coined the Term 'Gilded Age'

Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner.

Credit Mobilier Scandal

Fake construction company used by Union Pacific insiders to steal railroad money.

Salary Grab Act (1873)

Congress doubled its pay; public backlash.

Tammany Hall & Urban Machines

Political machines trading services for votes.

Rutherford Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Arthur

Garfield's assassination led to the Pendleton Act.

Pendleton Act (1883)

Established civil service exams; reduced patronage.

Grover Cleveland

First Democratic president since the Civil War.

McKinley & the Dingley Tariff

McKinley Tariff (1890): extremely high tariffs.

Homestead Act (1862)

Offered 160 acres to settlers who improved the land.

Morill Land Grant Act

Gave states land to build agricultural/technical colleges.

Educating Indigenous People / Assimilation Policy

Policies to force assimilation, including boarding schools and farming instruction.

Dawes Severalty Act (1887)

Broke up tribal lands into private allotments; aimed to assimilate Indigenous people.

Sioux & Western Conflict

U.S. army campaigns vs. Plains tribes.

Bison Decline

Result of overhunting, railroad expansion, and federal policy; devastated Plains cultures.

Battle of Wounded Knee (1890)

U.S. troops killed Lakota people during tension over the Ghost Dance movement.

Joseph Glidden

Invented barbed wire, which changed ranching and helped farmers fence land.

Frederick Jackson Turner

Frontier Thesis argued that the frontier shaped American democracy and individualism.

Bi-Metallism & the Silver Issue

Farmers wanted silver coinage to inflate currency and ease debts.

Opponents of the Gold Standard: Populist Party

Represented farmers, laborers, and reformers.

Omaha Platform (Populist Platform) & 16th Amendment

Populists demanded a graduated income tax.

Bland-Allison Act (1878)

Required limited silver purchases, but not enough to satisfy silver supporters.

Coxey's Army (1894)

Unemployed workers marched to demand public works programs.

James B. Weaver

Populist presidential candidate in 1892.

Chinese

Faced discrimination in the West, especially during railroad construction.

American Protective Association

Anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant nativist organization.

Wabash v. Illinois (1886)

Limited state power to regulate railroads; only Congress could regulate interstate commerce.

Interstate Commerce Act (1887)

First federal regulation of railroads; created the ICC.

Sand Creek Massacre

U.S. troops attacked a Cheyenne and Arapaho camp in Colorado.

Meat Packing

Chicago became the center of meat processing due to refrigerated railcars.

Big Themes

Industrialization produced massive corporations, labor conflict, and federal regulatory beginnings.