The Gilded Age and the Rise of Big Business (1877-1900)

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, people, laws, and events from the notes on the Gilded Age, industrialization, labor movement, immigration, urban problems, and reformers.

Gilded Age

A period (1877–1900) when glittering wealth masked serious economic and social problems.

Second Industrial Revolution

Late 19th-century phase of rapid industrial growth with big corporations and new tech (electricity, steel, oil, assembly line).

Corporation

A large business entity owned by shareholders, formed to raise capital and operate on a large scale.

Laissez-faire

Hands-off government policy with minimal regulation of business.

Captain of Industry

A business leader who built fortunes and expanded industry; often philanthropic.

Andrew Carnegie

Steel magnate who led Carnegie Steel and helped expand the U.S. steel industry.

Carnegie Steel

Dominant steel producer in the late 19th century. Highly integrated production.

Philanthropy

Charitable giving by wealthy individuals to public causes.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Railroad magnate who built a fortune in railroads; key figure in late 1800s transport.

Railroads

A major industry enabling national markets and mass distribution in the Gilded Age.

Rockefeller

Founder of Standard Oil; used strategies to control the oil industry.

Standard Oil

Oil company controlled by Rockefeller; became a trust controlling many competitors.

Horizontal integration

Merging with or acquiring competitors to control a market.

Sherman Anti-Trust Act

1890 federal law to curb trusts and monopolies and promote competition.

Trust

A large business arrangement that reduces competition by controlling multiple companies.

Dissolve Standard Oil (1911)

Supreme Court ordered the breakup of the Standard Oil Trust under the Sherman Act.

Labor union

An organization of workers that bargains collectively for better wages and conditions.

Pullman Strike

Major 1894 railroad strike in Chicago; federal troops intervened to end it.

Eugene V. Debs

Leader of the socialist movement; imprisoned during the Pullman Strike; ran for president.

Socialist Party

Political party advocating socialist reforms and workers’ interests.

Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

Labor union that advocated government control of all businesses (per notes).

Populist Party

Political movement (primarily farmers) seeking railroad regulation and monetary reform.

Overproduction

Excess agricultural output leading to falling prices for farmers.

Farmers’ debts

Rising costs and falling crop prices contributing to farmer debt.

Nativism

Policy and sentiment favoring native-born citizens over immigrants.

Immigration restriction laws

Laws intended to limit or regulate immigration to the U.S.

Chinese Exclusion Act

Legislation banning Chinese immigration for nearly 60 years—the first race-based immigration ban.

Jim Crow Laws

State laws enforcing racial segregation in the South.

Plessy v. Ferguson

1896 Supreme Court decision upholding ‘separate but equal’ facilities.

15th Amendment

Amendment prohibiting denial of the right to vote based on race; often undermined by other methods.

Poll taxes

Taxes required to vote, used to disenfranchise African American voters.

Literacy tests

Tests used to restrict voting rights among certain groups.

Grandfather clauses

Provisions allowing certain voters to bypass new restrictions based on ancestry.

Slums

Poor, overcrowded urban neighborhoods often lacking services.

Tenements

Crowded, unsafe multi-family housing in urban areas.

Graft

Political corruption involving bribery and misuse of public funds.

Political machines

Corrupt city governments that traded services for votes by aiding immigrants.

Jane Addams

Founder of Hull House; established the first settlement house to assist immigrants.

Hull House

Settlement house in Chicago providing services to immigrants and the poor.

W. E. B. Du Bois

Harvard-educated civil rights leader; co-founder of the NAACP; advocated for African American rights.

Ida B. Wells

Journalist and anti-lynching advocate; later a founder of the NAACP.

NAACP

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; promotes civil rights through legal action and lobbying.