time period 6 apush

Transcontinental Railroad

First railroad linking East and West (Union Pacific + Central Pacific). Enabled national markets, migration, and economic growth; symbol of industrial expansion.

Railroad Technology

Innovations like steel rails, standard gauge, air brakes, and Pullman cars that made railroads safer and more efficient, driving national integration.

Stock watering

Inflating stock values to deceive investors; symbolized Gilded Age corruption and helped spark federal regulation.

Interstate Commerce Act (Wabash case)

1887 act regulating railroads after Wabash limited state authority; created ICC, the first federal regulatory agency.

Andrew Carnegie (vertical integration)

Steel leader who controlled all stages of production; model of industrial efficiency and corporate power.

John D. Rockefeller (horizontal integration)

Founder of Standard Oil who consolidated competitors into a monopoly; drove anti-trust reform.

J. Pierpont Morgan (interlocking directorates)

Banker who placed allies on company boards to control industries; concentrated financial power but stabilized markets.

Gospel of Wealth

Carnegie’s belief that the rich must use their wealth for public good; justified inequality while promoting philanthropy.

"Ohio Idea"

Proposal to redeem Civil War bonds with greenbacks to help debtors; reflected postwar monetary conflict.

"Waving the Bloody Shirt"

Republican tactic invoking Civil War memories to discredit Democrats; helped maintain GOP power.

Black Friday (Fisk, Gould)

1869 attempt to corner the gold market that caused economic chaos and exposed scandals tied to Grant.

Boss Tweed (Tweed Ring, Thomas Nast)

NYC political machine boss exposed by cartoonist Thomas Nast; symbol of urban corruption.

Credit Mobilier

Railroad scandal where Congressmen were bribed; damaged public trust in federal government.

Whiskey Ring

Scandal where officials stole liquor tax revenue; further undermined Grant’s administration.

Liberal Republican Party (Horace Greeley, Election of 1872)

Reform party opposing corruption; pressured both major parties toward civil service reform.

Panic of 1873

Financial depression caused by overbuilding and speculation; weakened Reconstruction and fueled labor unrest.

Greenbacks (hard money)

Inflationary paper money from the Civil War; central to national debate over monetary policy.

Resumption Act of 1875

Law withdrawing greenbacks and restoring the gold standard; reassured creditors but hurt farmers/debtors.

Crime of 1873

Act ending silver coinage; angered farmers and miners and fueled the free-silver movement.

Stalwarts (Roscoe Conkling)

Republican faction backing patronage politics; opposed reformers.

Half-Breeds (James Blaine)

Moderate Republicans favoring civil service reform; opposed Stalwarts.

Compromise of 1877

Deal awarding the 1876 election to Hayes in exchange for ending Reconstruction by removing troops from the South.

Civil Rights Act of 1875

Law guaranteeing equal access to public accommodations; weakly enforced and struck down later.

Crop lien/sharecropping

Farming system trapping poor whites and Black Southerners in debt; perpetuated economic slavery.

Plessy v. Ferguson

1896 ruling upholding “separate but equal”; legalized Jim Crow segregation.

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

Nationwide strike over wage cuts; showed rising labor unrest and government’s willingness to use force.

Kearneyites

Anti-Chinese labor agitators in California; reflected racism and economic frustration.

Chinese Exclusion Act (US v. Wong Kim Ark)

1882 law banning Chinese immigration; court case upheld birthright citizenship for Chinese Americans.

Pendleton Act of 1883

Established merit-based civil service exams; first major step toward ending patronage.

Mugwumps

Republicans who supported Democrat Cleveland in 1884 over corruption concerns; influenced political reform.

Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion

Anti-Democratic slur attacking Catholics and Southerners; backfired and helped elect Cleveland.

McKinley Tariff (Billion Dollar Congress)

1890 tariff dramatically raising rates; hurt farmers and deepened party divides over tariffs.

Sherman Anti-Trust Act

1890 law banning monopolies; weak early on but became foundation of trust-busting.

James B. Duke

Tobacco industrialist who built a major tobacco monopoly; example of Southern industrial rise.

Gibson Girl

Popular image of the independent, modern young woman; reflected changing gender roles.

Yellow dog contract

Worker contract prohibiting union membership; used to suppress unions until outlawed.

National Labor Union

First major national labor organization; paved the way for future unions but collapsed in 1873 depression.

Knights of Labor (Terence Powderly)

Large inclusive labor union seeking broad reforms; reputation damaged after Haymarket Riot.

Haymarket Riot

1886 Chicago labor rally turned violent; turned public opinion against labor movements.

John Altgeld

Illinois governor who pardoned Haymarket defendants; supported labor rights and progressive causes.

AF of L (Samuel Gompers)

Federation of skilled workers focusing on wages and working conditions; most successful long-term labor union.

Skyscraper (trolley)

Steel-frame skyscrapers and electric trolleys transformed urban life by enabling dense vertical cities and suburban commuting.

Department store

Large retail stores offering fixed prices and variety; promoted consumer culture.

Dumbbell tenement

Crowded, poorly ventilated urban housing; symbol of immigrant poverty and unsafe conditions.

New Immigration

Immigration wave from Southern and Eastern Europe; increased diversity and fueled nativism.

Birds of passage

Immigrant workers who returned home after seasonal labor; part of global labor movement.

Political machines

Urban organizations trading services for votes; helped immigrants but encouraged corruption.

Social Gospel

Movement applying Christian ethics to social problems; inspired reform and charity.

Jane Addams (Hull House, Florence Kelley)

Settlement house pioneers aiding immigrants; key figures in social reform and labor activism.

Nativism (American Protective Association)

Anti-immigrant movement targeting Catholics and “new immigrants”; influenced restrictive laws.

Salvation Army

Religious charity providing aid in cities; promoted spiritual and material support.

Mary Baker Eddy

Founder of Christian Science; promoted spiritual healing and new religious ideas.

Chautauqua movement

Popular adult education and lecture movement; expanded public learning.

Booker T. Washington

Advocated vocational training and gradual equality for Black Americans; influential educator.

George W. Carver

Scientist who promoted new crops like peanuts to improve Southern agriculture.

W.E.B. Du Bois (NAACP, talented tenth)

Civil rights leader who demanded immediate equality; co-founded NAACP.

Henry George

Economist who proposed land-value tax in Progress and Poverty; criticized inequality.

Victoria Woodhull

Reformer advocating free love and women’s rights; challenged Victorian norms.

Comstock Law

Laws banning distribution of “obscene” content including birth control info; limited reproductive rights.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Feminist writer promoting women's economic independence; shaped early feminist thought.

Carrie Chapman Catt

Suffrage leader who pursued voting rights through political strategy; key in winning the 19th Amendment.

Ida B. Wells

Journalist who exposed lynching; early civil rights and anti-violence advocate.

WCTU

Women’s Christian Temperance Union advocating prohibition and women’s reforms.

Carrie Nation

Radical temperance activist who smashed saloons; symbol of extreme reform tactics.

Dime novels (Horatio Alger)

Cheap stories promoting “rags to riches” themes; reinforced belief in social mobility.

Reservation System

Definition: A federal policy that placed Native American tribes on designated reservations, often in isolated areas, under the control of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It restricted tribes like the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Apache to fixed boundaries and forced dependence on government rations.
Significance: The reservation system dismantled traditional Native life by limiting mobility, encouraging assimilation, and opening the Great Plains to railroad expansion and white settlement, setting the stage for violent conflicts and cultural destruction.

Sand Creek Massacre

Definition: An 1864 attack led by Colonel John Chivington in which the Colorado militia slaughtered more than 150 peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho at Sand Creek.
Significance: The massacre radicalized many Native groups, leading directly to increased warfare along the Plains and exposing the brutality of U.S. western policy.

Battle of Bighorn (Custer)

Definition: A major 1876 battle where a coalition of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors under leaders like Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse defeated George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Cavalry.
Significance: Though a huge Native victory, it prompted overwhelming federal retaliation that crushed Plains resistance and accelerated reservation confinement.

Nez Perce

Definition: A Northwestern tribe led by Chief Joseph who attempted in 1877 to flee to Canada to avoid forced relocation.
Significance: Their surrender symbolized the end of major Native attempts to negotiate autonomy and exposed the broken promises of U.S. Indian policy.

Apache (Geronimo)

Definition: A Southwest tribe who, under the leadership of Geronimo, resisted U.S. and Mexican authorities through guerrilla warfare until their 1886 surrender.
Significance: Their defeat marked the final collapse of organized Native military resistance in the Southwest.

Bison

Definition: The central food, cultural, and economic resource for Plains Indians, hunted nearly to extinction by white commercial hunters and railroad companies.
Significance: The destruction of the bison crippled Native independence and forced tribes onto reservations.

Peace Policy

Definition: A federal policy supported by President Grant that attempted to manage Native Americans through Christian reformers and assimilation rather than military violence.
Significance: Despite aiming for humanitarian reform, it reinforced cultural suppression and justified institutions like boarding schools.

Helen Hunt Jackson

Definition: Author of A Century of Dishonor (1881), which documented U.S. cruelty and treaty violations toward Native Americans.
Significance: She raised national awareness but unintentionally encouraged assimilationist reforms such as allotment schools and land division.

Battle of Wounded Knee

Definition: The 1890 massacre of Lakota Sioux by U.S. troops during tensions over the Ghost Dance movement.
Significance: It marked the end of the Indian Wars and symbolized the final suppression of Native autonomy.

Dawes Severalty Act

Definition: An 1887 law that divided tribal lands into private allotments to force assimilation and end communal ownership.
Significance: Resulted in massive Native land loss and undermined tribal identity and government.

Carlisle Indian School

Definition: A federal boarding school founded to “civilize” Native youth by stripping them of tribal language and culture.
Significance: Became the model for forced assimilation nationwide.

Battle of Wounded Knee (ghost dance)

Last major conflict between the Sioux Indians and the United States, occured because of the Ghost Dance. Resulted in the Indians not being allowed to bury their dead.The Ghost Dance movement was a spiritual and religious revival that emerged among Native American tribes in the late 19th century, particularly in response to the traumatic effects of westward expansion and the loss of traditional lands and ways of life. It aimed to restore Native American culture, unite tribes, and bring about the return of deceased ancestors, as well as a new world free of oppression from white settlers.

fifty-niners (Comstock lode, “silver senator)

Definition: Prospectors who rushed to Nevada after the 1859 discovery of the Comstock Lode, the largest silver strike in U.S. history.
Significance: Sparked western migration and fueled national debates over silver currency, contributing to future Populist demands.

plains indians

Definition: Diverse tribes across the Great Plains who relied on the buffalo, horses, and seasonal mobility.
Significance: Their cultures were dismantled by U.S. expansion, military defeat, and the reservation system.

long drive

Definition: The cattle herding system in which cowboys drove cattle from Texas to Kansas railheads.
Significance: Created the cattle kingdom and iconic cowboy culture, but ended as railroads and barbed wire spread.

homestead act of 1862

Definition: A 1862 law granting settlers 160 acres if they improved the land, attracting “sodbusters” who farmed the tough Plains soil and used dry-farming techniques in the arid regions.
Significance: Encouraged mass western settlement but often failed due to climate challenges and corporate land speculation.

100th meridian (sodbuster, dry farming)

Definition: A natural dividing line marking the shift from humid eastern climate to arid western lands.
Significance: Many settlers underestimated its impact, leading to crop failure and major adjustments in western agriculture.

oklahoma (sooners, boomers)

Definition: The 1889 land rush in which “Boomers” raced to claim land while “Sooners” illegally entered early to gain the best plots.
Significance: Symbolized the “closing of the frontier,” later declared by the 1890 Census.

Frederick jackson turner

Definition: Historian who argued that the frontier shaped American democracy, individualism, and innovation.
Significance: His thesis influenced generations of scholars and shaped U.S. views of expansion.

combine

first invented by Hiram Moore, revised several times after that. Machine that harvests grain crops such as wheat, oats, rye, barley, corn, soybeans, and flax. Combines reaping, threshing, and winnowing into a single process. Significant invention because it was one of the most economically important labor saving inventions. It enabled just a small fraction of the population to have to be engaged in agriculture, opening room for more other jobs.

the grange

(1867-today) fraternal organization in the U.S. which encourages families to band together to promote the economic and political well-being of the community and agriculture.

granger laws

Granger laws were primarily implemented in Midwestern states like Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota during the 1870s and 1880s. These laws focused on establishing maximum freight rates that railroads could charge farmers, aiming to combat price gouging.

farmers alliances

a late 19th-century agrarian movement, growing from Texas, that united farmers to fight economic hardships by creating cooperatives, challenging railroad monopolies, and advocating for political reforms like increased money supply, graduated income tax, and direct election of senators, ultimately forming the foundation for the Populist Party (People's Party) in 1892. 

populists (Mary lease)

A US political party that sought to represent the interests of farmers and laborers in the 1890s, advocating increased currency issue, free coinage of gold and silver, public ownership of railroads, and a graduated federal income tax. Also called People's Party. Mary Elizabeth Lease was a prominent American political activist, lecturer, and author known for her strong advocacy for the Populist Movement.

Omaha Platform

The Omaha Platform highlighted the economic hardships experienced by farmers and laborers during the Gilded Age by advocating for reforms that aimed to combat corporate greed and inequality. It addressed issues like high railroad rates, debt burdens on farmers, and low wages for workers.

homestead strike

(1862) a federal law that gave settlers 160 acres of land for about $30 if they lived on it for 5 years and improved it by, for example, building a house on it. Significant because it helped make land accessible to hundreds of thousands of westward-moving settlers, however, many people were disappointed when their land was infertile or other people grabbed up the best land.

grandfather clause

Grandfather clauses allowed voting to anyone whose father or grandfather also had the right to vote. This law enabled voting to white people who could not pay tax or pass the literacy test.

depression of 1893

The Panic of 1893 was a severe economic depression that began in the United States, triggered by the collapse of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and a subsequent decline in the stock market. This financial crisis revealed weaknesses in the American economy and significantly affected politics, leading to increased public unrest and demands for economic reform during a time known as the Gilded Age.

Practice Questions for Panic of 1893

Coxey’s army

Was a protest march by unemployed workers from the United States, led by Ohio businessman Jacob Coxey. They marched on Washington D.C. in 1894, the second year of a four-year economic depression that was the worst in United States history to that time, demanding economic relief.

pullman strike

Definition: A major 1894 labor strike against the Pullman Company over wage cuts and company-town control, supported by the American Railway Union.
Significance: Federal troops crushed it, showing government alignment with big business over labor.

William mckinley

Definition: Republican candidate and winner of the 1896 election supporting tariffs and the gold standard.
Significance: His victory ended Populist hopes and confirmed America’s industrial capitalist direction.

William jennings bryan

Definition: Democratic-Populist leader advocating free silver, best known for his “Cross of Gold” speech.
Significance: Represented struggling farmers and reformers but lost influence after 1896.

cross of gold speech

Definition: Bryan’s passionate endorsement of bimetallism at the 1896 Democratic convention.
Significance: Energized Populists and Democrats but ultimately failed to change U.S. monetary policy.

gold bugs

Definition: Supporters of the gold standard, mostly from business and banking sectors.
Significance: Their influence helped defeat free-silver proposals and shaped national monetary policy.

alfred t. mahan

Definition: Naval strategist and author of The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, arguing national greatness required a strong navy and overseas bases.
Significance: Influenced U.S. imperial expansion and inspired leaders like Roosevelt to build a modern fleet.