Unit 6 - APUSH

Homestead Act (1862)

a. law
b. United States
c. This law allowed a settler to acquire 160 acres by living on it for five years, as long as they "improved" the land. The law brought about a massive settlement of the western United States.

Morrill Act (1862)

a. law
b. United States
c. Through this law, "land grant" colleges acquired space for campuses in return for promising to institute agricultural programs. One example of this includes the University of Maine.

John Wesley Powell

a. Geologist
b. United States
c. This geologist warned Americans that so little rain fell in the Midwest that farming was only possible through mass irrigation. His report on the issue led Congress to fund massive irrigation programs in the Midwest.

Yellowstone National Park

a. National Park
b. Wyoming
c. This park, established by President Grant, was the first national park in the United States. It demonstrates an increasing interest by the federal government to preserve the environment.

Elk v. Wilkins

a. Supreme Court decision
b. United States
c. In this Supreme Court decision, the Court agreed with lower court rulings that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments did not apply to Native Americans. The plaintiff, John Elk, was not granted U.S. citizenship even though he had resided in Omaha, Nebraska for years.

Ghost Dance

a. spiritual dance and ritual
b. American West
c. This was a ritual the Sioux performed in hopes of bringing back the buffalo and returning the Native American tribes to their land. Some white settlers felt threatened by this dance and used it as a pretext for massacres like Wounded Knee.

Wounded Knee

a. massacre
b. South Dakota
c. In 1890, this was a confrontation between U.S. cavalry and Sioux that led to a massacre of 90 Sioux and the death of 30 U.S. soldiers. This massacre marked the end of Indian resistance.

Transcontinental Railroad

a. railroad
b. United States
c. Completed in 1869 at Promontory, Utah, it linked the eastern railroad system with California's railroad system. The construction of this railroad revolutionized transportation in the west.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

a. captain of industry / robber baron
b. New York
c. He was an American financier who accumulated great wealth from railroad and shipping businesses. He is perhaps best known for his construction of Grand Central Station and ruthless business practices that put many competitors out of business.

Rebates

a. railroad business practice
b. United States
c. This was a railroad business practice in which a special discount was given to a railroad company's best customers. Many smaller businesses and farmers argued that this practice was unfair and put them at a disadvantage.

Pools

a. railroad business practice
b. United States
c. This was often a secretive railroad business practice in which companies in the same market would agree to divide up business to avoid competition. This practice put consumers at a distinct disadvantage.

Price Fixing

a. practice
b. United States
c. An agreement among firms to charge one price for the same good. This practice was common among railroad companies, and often disadvantaged the consumer.

National Grange

a. organization
b. United States
c. This social and educational organization was founded in 1867 to gain more political representation for farmers and to improve their living standards. This organization eventually led to the establishment of the Populist Party.

Munn v. Illinois (1877)

a. Supreme Court decision
b. Washington, D.C.
c. In this case, the Court decided that states could regulate businesses "clothed in the public interest." One of these businesses included the railroads.

Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad Company v. Illinois

a. Supreme Court decision
b. Washington, D.C.
c. In this Supreme Court decision, the Court ruled that the federal government could oversee railroad activities. The Court also required the railroads to publicize their rates and file them with the federal government. Furthermore, these rates must be "reasonable and just."

Interstate Commerce Act of 1887

a. Law
b. United States
c. This law established the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission) which monitors the business operation of carriers transporting goods and people between states. The ICC was created to regulate railroad prices.

Captain of Industry / Robber Baron

a. terms
b. United States
c. These terms refer to the industrial giants, like John D. Rockefeller. The first term idolizes the industrial giants as leaders of industry. The second term refers to this as ruthless businessmen that rob from society.

John D. Rockefeller

a. businessman
b. United States
c. He established the Standard Oil Company, an incredibly powerful and wealthy company that, at one point, controlled 90% of the world's oil. He was also a philanthropist and the world's first billionaire.

John Pierpont Morgan

a. businessman
b. United States
c. He was an American financier (JP Morgan) and industrialist who organized the US Steel Corporation after buying it from Andrew Carnegie. He founded JPMorgan, and incredibly powerful bank.

Andrew Carnegie

a. industrialist
b. United States
c. He was a Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist that founded the Carnegie Steel Company in 1892. By 1901, his company dominated the American steel industry.

Collective bargaining

a. process
b. United States
c. This was the process by which a union representing a group of workers negotiates with management for a contract. This was a commonly-used process for unions to secure higher wages and better working conditions for their members.

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

a. organization
b. United States
c. This was a national organization of labor unions founded in 1886 by Samuel Gompers. This organization focused on better wages, hours, and working conditions and believed that immigration was detrimental to American labor.

Frederick Jackson Turner

a. historian
b. United States
c. This American historian argued that humanity would continue to progress as long as there was new land to move into. He believed that the frontier provided a place for homeless and solved social problems. His ideas were known as the "frontier thesis."

Frontier Thesis

a. thesis
b. United States
c. This argument by Frederick Jackson Turner stated that the frontier experience helped make American society more democratic. The frontier experience emphasized cheap, unsettled land, the absence of a landed aristocracy and equality between settlers.

Looking Backward

a. book
b. United States
c. This book was written in 1888 by Edward Bellamy. It tells the story of a young man who wakes in 2000 to find that all industries have been nationalized, that an
Industrial Army produces and distributes all goods equally to all citizens and that everyone retires at age 45.

Chinese Exclusion Act

a. law
b. United States
c. This law denied any additional Chinese laborers to enter the country while allowing students and merchants to immigrate. This law demonstrates the fear of immigrants and anti-Asian discrimination, especially in the American West.

New Immigration

a. wave of immigration
b. United States
c. This was the second major wave of immigration to the U.S. that occurred between 1865 to 1910. During this period 25 million new immigrants arrived. Unlike earlier immigration, which had come primarily from Western and Northern Europe, the New Immigrants came mostly from Southern and Eastern Europe, fleeing persecution and poverty. Language barriers and cultural differences produced mistrust by Americans.

New Nativism

a. racist attitude
b. United States
c. This was the rise in new anti-immigrant sentiment during the late nineteenth century. It was a wide-spread fear of the influx of immigrants that resulted in anti-immigrant legislation, increased deportation, militarization of the U.S. Mexico border, and criminalized undocumented immigrants.

Lynchings

a. mob
b. United States
c. This was when small vigilante mobs or elaborately organized community events where an individual (typically black) was publicly hung due to a crime (true or perceived). The Smithsonian found that nearly 2,000 African Americans were lynched in the post-war period.

Ida B. Wells

a. journalist
b. United States
c. This African American journalist published statistics about lynching and urged African Americans to protest by refusing to ride streetcars or shop in white-owned stores. She pushed for federal anti-lynching laws, which were never achieved.

Jim Crow

a. laws
b. Southern United States
c. These laws were written to separate blacks and whites in public areas. These laws ensured that African Americans had unequal opportunities in housing, work, education, and government.

Plessy v. Ferguson

a. Supreme Court decision
b. United States
c. This 1896 Supreme Court decision legalized state-ordered segregation so long as the facilities for blacks and whites were "equal." This decision ensured the legality of Jim Crow laws throughout the South until the decision was overturned in Brown v. Board of Education.