Unit 6: Western Settlement + Gilded Age

32) Immigration in the 1880s

Huge wave of “new immigrants” coming from southern & eastern Europe (Italy, Poland, Russia, etc.).
They mostly settled in cities, worked factory jobs for low pay 💸, and lived in crowded tenements 😬.
Faced nativism (aka ppl being mad they existed).

33) Jane Addams / Settlement Houses

Jane Addams founded Hull House in Chicago 🏠.
Settlement houses helped immigrants + urban poor by teaching English, job skills, childcare, and healthcare.
Social Gospel vibes ✝ + real reform energy.

34) Booker T. Washington

Booker T. Washington believed Black Americans should focus on economic success first 💼.
Supported vocational education and said civil rights could wait (Atlanta Compromise 😬).
Founded Tuskegee Institute.
Basically: “Get money first, rights later.”

35) W. E. B. DuBois

W. E. B. DuBois HARD disagreed with Washington 😤.
Believed in immediate civil rights, political equality, and higher education.
Supported the “Talented Tenth” and helped found the NAACP.
Basically: “Nah. Rights NOW.”

36) Ida B. Wells

Ida B. Wells was a journalist who exposed lynching in the South 📰.
Used data + newspapers to prove lynching wasn’t about crime but racial terror.
Absolute fearless queen behavior 👑.

37) World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893

Huge world’s fair held in Chicago 🎡 to celebrate Columbus (400 years later).
Showed off new tech, architecture, and the City Beautiful Movement ✨.
Made America feel modern and powerful (even tho problems were still everywhere).

38) Horatio Alger

Horatio Alger wrote stories about poor boys becoming rich through hard work + luck 📈.
Promoted the “rags to riches” myth.
Lowkey unrealistic but VERY American.

39) Reservation System for American Indians

U.S. government forced Native Americans onto reservations (usually bad land 😐).
Goal = control + assimilation into white American culture.
Tribes lost land, freedom, and resources.

40) Sand Creek Massacre

In 1864, U.S. troops attacked a peaceful Cheyenne village in Colorado.
Killed ~150 people, mostly women and children 💔.
One of the most brutal examples of U.S. mistreatment of Native Americans.

41) Battle of Little Bighorn

1876 battle where Sioux warriors defeated U.S. troops led by Custer 💀.
Native leaders like Sitting Bull won BIG here.
Spoiler: this victory made the U.S. even more determined to crush resistance.

42) Chief Joseph

Chief Joseph led the Nez Perce tribe.
Tried to peacefully escape to Canada but was forced to surrender 😔.
Famous quote: “I will fight no more forever.”
Heartbreaking stuff.

43) Helen Hunt Jackson’s A Century of Dishonor

A Century of Dishonor exposed how the U.S. repeatedly broke treaties with Native Americans.
Written by Helen Hunt Jackson.
Made some Americans more sympathetic but still pushed assimilation.

44) Battle of Wounded Knee

1890 massacre of Sioux in South Dakota 😞.
Over 150 Native Americans killed.
Marked the end of armed Native resistance on the Plains.

45) Dawes Act

1887 law that broke up tribal land into individual farms 🧑‍🌾.
Goal = force assimilation and destroy tribal culture.
Result = Native Americans lost MOST of their land. Massive L.

46) Homestead Act of 1862

Gave settlers 160 acres of land if they lived on it for 5 years 🌾.
Encouraged westward expansion BIG time.
Often taken from Native American land (ofc).

47) Frederick Jackson Turner’s “Frontier Thesis”

Frederick Jackson Turner argued the frontier shaped American identity 🇺🇸.
Said it made Americans independent, democratic, and self-reliant.
Announced in 1893 when the frontier was “closed.”
Lowkey ignored Native Americans entirely 🙃.

48) Pullman Strike

1894 railroad strike after Pullman cut wages but NOT rent 😡.
Workers walked out → rail traffic shut down.
Federal government sent troops to break it up = violence.
Showed gov usually sided with big business.

49) Eugene V. Debs

Eugene V. Debs led the Pullman Strike ✊.
Went to jail for it but became a HUGE labor leader.
Later ran for president as a socialist (from prison once, which is wild).