History 222 Midterm

Black Codes

• Who: Targeted African Americans/ blacks 

• What: State laws that reduced blacks to second-class citizens, excluded blacks from voting, serving on juries, owning land

• Where: Southern States 

• When: In 1860’s 

• Significance: Formalize racial hierarchy

Freedmen’s Bureau

• Who: U.S. Congress 

• What: Federal Agency that created a labor system based on free labor, oversaw relations between landowners and former slaves, supervised labor contracts, provided medical care and clothing, set up schools

• Where: United States

• When: 1865-1870

• Significance: Allowed formalized education for African Americans

Blanche K. Bruce

• Who: One of the first African Americans elected to the U.S. Senate

• What: Served on the senate 

• Where: United States 

• When: During reconstruction 

•  Significance: He was a former slave and one of the first to represent federally

Ku Klux Klan

• Who: Opponents of reconstruction 

• What: Campaigned violence and terror targeting blacks 

• Where: South

• When: Started in 1866

• Significance: Showed resistance to reconstruction as a democratic party 

13th Amendment

• Who: African Americans

• What: Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except for punishment as a crime

• Where: United States

• When: December 6, 1865 

• Significance: Needed on a national level

14th Amendment

• Who: Citizens of the U.S. particularly african americans 

• What: Defined all native-born or naturalized people including African Americans as citizens of the U.S., gave the option of states to enfranchise black males or lose congressional seats and electoral votes, disqualified ex-confederates from holding offices, guaranteed national debt, empowered Congress to enforce 14th amendment

• Where: United States

• When: 1866

• Significance: Places the principle of citizenship and gives Congress the power/ responsibility to protect citizens

15th Amendment

• Who: African American men

• What: Prohibits federal and state governments from denying citizens the right to vote on account of race, color, or previous servitude

• Where: United States

• When: 1870

• Significance: Reinforces the right of suffrage and prevents future revocation in reconstructed southern states 

Compromise of 1877

• Who: Northern Republicans and Southern Democrats   

• What: Hayes promised to appoint a southern as a postmaster general and end bayonet rule. Both parties want to rebuild the economy.

• Where: United States

• When: 1877

• Significance: Put an end to reconstruction

Homestead Act

• Who: Male and Female citizens over 21

• What: Allowed them to claim 160 acres of land, had to live on the land for 5 years build a home make improvements, and farm in order to keep the land

• Where: United States

• When: May 20, 1862

• Significance: Central to the border process of conquest and colonization in the American West and facilitated movement to the West

Chinese Exclusion Act

• Who: Chinese Immigrants

• What: Put a 10-year moratorium on Chinese immigration but exclude merchants and businessmen to help U.S. economics

• Where: United States

• When: 1882 and renewed in 1892

• Significance: First federal law to target a specific immigrant group

Dawes Severalty Act

• Who: American Indians

• What: Terminated communal ownership of Indian land by tribes, breaks Indian reservations into individual allotments with remaining land sold by the federal government

• Where: United States

• When: In effect from 1887-1934

• Significance: Forced assimilation, suppressed religion, and education

Wounded Knee Massacre

• Who: Big Foot's band and the 7th Calvary 

• What: When Big Foot troops went to surrender at Wounded Knee, two soldiers attempted to seize a gun from a deaf Lakota soldier but the gun fired, and Col. James Foresight ordered his men to fire killing 300 women, children, and men

• Where: Wounded Knee in Pine Ridge

• When: 1890

• Significance: Symbolized the death of 19th-century Plains Indian Culture

Ida B. Wells

• Who: Journalists, Feminist, civil rights advocate

• What: launched an anti-lynching campaign and published a series of reports exposing the epidemic of lynching, the research found that the majority of lynchings had been on the stereotype of black men raping white women, but most were not accused of rape. Found evidence of consensual romantic relationships

• Where: South 

• When: Between 1865-1900’s

•  Significance: Challenged lynching

Grandfather Clauses/ Literacy Test/ Poll Taxes

• Who: Blacks, illiterate whites 

• What: Allowed illiterate whites to vote as long as their grandfather or father could vote in 1867. Mississippi voters have to prove they lived in the state for 2 years and targeted black tenant farmers who moved frequently, disqualified blacks who committed certain crimes, required all voters to pay their taxes and demonstrate they could read or understand the U.S. Constitution

• Where: South

• When: 1890’s

• Significance: Aimed at restricting black voting rights

Jim Crow Laws

• Who: African Americans

• What: State laws that mandated segregation in public facilities

• Where: South

• When:1860’s 

• Significance: Enforced racial segregation  

Plessy v. Ferguson

• Who: Homer Plessy 

• What: Plessy was arrested for violating the law by riding on separate railroad cars by testing the constitutionality of the separate car law

• Where: United States

• When: 1896

• Significance: Upholds the principle of racial segregation

Great Railroad Strike

• Who: Railroad Workers

• Railroad companies had cut wages by 35% after the panic of 1873 and an additional 10% in 1877. Workers of the Baltimore and Ohio and others walked off the job and shit down rail traffic. Strikers burned buildings, freight cars, and locomotives

• Where: United States

• When: July 1877

•  Significance: First nationwide labor strike in U.S. history and the first time in U.S. history a large number of federal troops are used to suppress a labor uprising 

Knights of Labor

• Who: Labor workers

• What: A union under the leadership of Terrance Powderly. Organized by industry but Haymarket made membership decline. Their reforms: 8-hour work day, better working conditions, equal pay for women, public ownership of railroads, graduated income tax, and end child labor. Argued wage labor system conflicted with the Republican system of government and turned Americans into common wage slaves 

• Where: United States

• When: 1886

• Significance: Allowed both skilled and unskilled workers to be represented by a union for the first time and promoted equal participation of races and sexes

American Federation of Labor

• Who: Labor Workers

• What: The Union organized laborers by trade. Reforms: higher wages, shorter hours, safe working conditions. Each union represented a set of skilled workers. The leader was Samuel Gompers. Only represented a fraction of industrial workers

• Where: United States

• When: 1886

• Significance: “Pure and simple unionism” 

Haymarket

• Who: Strikers

• What: Police fired on strikers protesting at Haymarket Square after an attack. Someone from a labor union threw a bomb leaving 50 wounded and 10 dead. 

• Where: Chicago

• When: May 4, 1886

• Significance: Set off a fear of labor unions in America

Homestead Strike

• Who: Frick, strikers, and Pinkerton agency 

• What: Gunfire between labor union strikers and Pinkerton agents at the Carneiges plant. Frick had given strikers an ultimatum after demanding wage cuts. Frick hired 300 armed agents to sneak into the steel mill. Workers found out and lined around the river bank to keep agents out. Workes beat the agents. Frick ordered to staff the mill with strikebreakers. Lasted until November 

• Where: Andrew Carnegie Steel Mill

• When: 1892

• Significance: Showed the power of labor strikers

Pullman Strike

• Who: Members of the American Railway Union and workers

• What: Members of the railway union and Pullman workers boycotted and refused to run trains of Pullman cars after the company laid off ⅓ of workers and cut wages by 30%. President Grover Cleveland sent in federal troops to break the strike. 

• Where: Illinois 

• When: 1894

• Significance: Demonstrated the power of labor movements in the U.S. and established a greater role for the intervention of the federal government in labor disputes 

Farmers Alliance

• Who: Farmers

• What: Alliance to improve farmers' lives and help them financially. Recruited farm families and established warehouses for crops, inexpensive transportation clubs, and cooperatives. Argued the only successful way to challenge the power of railroads and merchants was by uniting. 

• Where: United States

• When: 1870’s

• Significance: Showed the power of farmers during the rise of corporate America

People’s Party

• Who: farmers and Agrarian workers

• What: Political party that wanted “equal rights to all, special privileges to none.” 6 key reforms: government ownership of railroad telegraph and telephone system, free and unlimited coinage of silver, creation of a sub-treasury program to advance farm loans and store crops, graduated income tax, direct election of senators, and laws to protect labor unions

• Where: United States

• When: 1890’s

• Significance: First political party to challenge corporate gains in America

Progressivism

• Who: Democrats, Republicans, populists, and socialists 

• What: Called for regulation of industry, protection of consumers, and creation of social welfare systems. Deep faith in the scientific method, in experts, and in the mobilization of knowledge to create change. Worked with social scientists to research problems, educate the public about them, and legislate for change. 

• Where: United States

• When:1890’s

• Significance: Worked to preserve capitalism and eliminate its excess through reform

Muckrakers

• Who: Jacbor Riis, Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, Upton Sinclair, George Kibble Turner

• What: Journalists/ writers who wrote about issues and educated the public through aggressive journalism. They had success through expanded magazines. 

• Where: United States

• When: 1890s during the Progressive era 

• Significance: They exposed issues to promote reform

Hull House

• Who: Women

• What: The first settlement house. Inhabited by poor and largely foreign-born working-class families. Established by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Sponsored orchestra, reading groups, and a lecture series. Included a nursery, bank, employment bureau, public bath, gym, and sponsor health clinic, etc. Investigations in the Hull House led to Illionis’s first factory law: which prohibited child labor, limited the employment of women to 8 hours, and authorized the state to hire inspectors to enforce the law.

• Where: Chicago 

• When: 1889

• Significance: Center of Women Reform work

Initiative/ Referendum/ Recall

• Who: Reformers

• What: Initiative: Allowed reformers to put legislative proposals before voters in a general election. Referendum: Gave voters the right to repeal laws passed by state legislatures in a general election. Recall: Allowed voters to remove public officials from office 

• Where: United States

• When: Progressive Era

• Significance: Strengthened the influence of ordinary voters

Theodore Roosevelt Square Deal

• Who: Roosevelt, citizens 

• What: Greater government control of corporations, conservation of natural resources, and consumer protection. He believed industry and finance must be regulated for the public good. Signed legislation that created new parks, passed the Antiquities Act, and created 45 national forests.

• When: 1900s during the Progressive era 

• Where: United States

• Significance: First president to use his executive power to control big business and extend federal control over the environment more than previous presidents

The Jungle

• Who: Upton Sinclair

• What: A novel by Sinclair that made claims and exposed the meat industry

• When: 1905

• Where: United States

• Significance: Helped the passing of the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 and eventually the creation of the Food and Drug Act of 1986 

Progressive Party

• Who: Reformers

• What: Political party that had 4 key elements: regulation of corporations, protection of workers, graduated income tax, and women's suffrage. Nominated Roosevelt for president after his New Nationalism. 

• When: 1910

• Where: United States

• Significance: Helped them become a reform platform nationally

Federal Reserve Act

• Who: Citizens, federal banks 

• What: The most important law passed during Wilson’s first year. Established 12 regional banks each controlled by the private banks in its region. Each private bank is required to deposit 6% of its assets into the Federal Reserve Bank in their region. The Federal Reserve used to make loans to members and issue paper currency to facilitate financial transactions. The president appoints a Federal Reserve Board responsible to the public. 

• When: 1913

• Where: United States

• Significance: Strengthened the country's financial structure and represented a significant increase in the government's control of banking