Reconstruction and Gilded Age Vocabulary Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, influential historical figures, concepts, and legislation from Reconstruction through the Gilded Age.

Reconstruction

The period of post-war rebuilding in the American South following the Civil War.

Andrew Johnson

Southern Democrat President who succeeded Lincoln, constantly vetoed Radical Republican bills, owned slaves until after the Civil War, and was impeached by Congress.

Radical Republicans

Members of Congress (House of Representatives and Senate) who sought to rebuild the South by remaking it in the image of the North.

Jim Crow Laws

Laws established in the South designed to block African American men from voting or exercising social rights granted by the 14th and 15th Amendments, using measures like literacy tests and poll taxes.

Nativism

The thought or belief that people who have inhabited a place for a long time are, by right, the only people who should inhabit it.

Americanization/Anglicization

The process by which immigrants adapt to American or English customs.

The Gilded Age

A period from 1865 to 1914 marked by rapid industrial growth, massive natural resource consumption, and technological innovation in America.

Bessemer Process

An industrial innovation during the Gilded Age that purified iron ore into steel.

Laissez-faire

An economic system that allowed businesses to operate with little to no government oversight and keep their earnings by paying minimal taxes.

Patent

A government-issued right provided to inventors to grant them exclusive control over their inventions.

Thomas Edison

An American inventor granted 1,093 patents, including those for the lightbulb, motion picture camera, and phonograph.

Corporation

A business structure established by law where multiple business owners pool resources, allowing individuals to invest capital without facing total bankruptcy if the enterprise fails.

J.P. Morgan

An investor and financier who controlled much of Wall Street during the late 1800s and early 1900s, growing major corporations such as US Steel, General Electric, AT&T, and Western Union.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

A shipping and rail businessman who owned the New York Central Railroad and restructured America's transportation infrastructure.

Monopoly

Complete control over a product or the method by which that product is delivered.

Cartel

An association of corporations that agree to work together to keep prices high and limit production.

Horizontal Integration

A strategy where a business creates or acquires various firms under one parent organization to give consumers the illusion of choice while expanding market control.

Trust

A legal structure in which a board of trustees runs and combines the stocks of multiple separate organizations.

Vertical Integration

A business strategy where a single parent company owns every step of the manufacturing and supply chain.

John D. Rockefeller

An oil businessman who founded Standard Oil, utilized trusts and vertical integration, and became the first billionaire in United States history.

Robber Barons / Captains of Industry

Conflicting perceptions of Gilded Age business leaders—either as exploitative figures charging high prices and forcing out small businesses, or as positive figures who built universities, libraries, and created millions of jobs.

Social Darwinism

A theory advanced by Yale professor William Graham Sumner applying 'survival of the fittest' to American capitalism and laissez-faire economics.

Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)

The first federal commission set up by the Senate in 1887 to monitor and regulate American businesses, specifically overseeing the railroad industry.

Sherman Anti-Trust Act

An 1890 act passed by the Senate that outlawed trusts operating 'in restraint' of trade among states.