The Gilded Age and Reconstruction (1865-1901): Key Terms and Concepts

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the Reconstruction and Gilded Age eras (1865-1901) based on the UIL Social Studies Study Guide, highlighting major political figures, industrial moguls, legislative acts, Supreme Court decisions, and labor struggles.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Shipping and railroad magnate known as the 'Commodore' and considered an original U.S. 'robber baron,' who dominated Hudson River steamboats before assembling a vast rail empire connecting New York to Chicago.

Bessemer process

Key industrial method for mass-producing quality steel, patented by Henry Bessemer in 1856, which involves injecting oxygen through a blast furnace to remove impurities from molten pig iron.

Homestead Act of 1862

Federal legislation designed to spur western settlement by granting 160 acres of surveyed public land to any individual who resided on and improved the plot for five years.

Special Field Order No. 15

Military order issued by General William T. Sherman in January 1865 that confiscated and set aside 400,000 acres of coastal land in Georgia and South Carolina into 40-acre tracts for settlement by freed Black families.

Freedmen's Bureau

Formally the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, a federal War Department agency established in 1865 under General Oliver O. Howard to assist former slaves with food, labor negotiations, and education.

Black Codes

Statutes passed by Southern state legislatures in 1865 and 1866 using vagrancy laws, strict employment contracts, and labor restrictions to maintain white supremacy and a cheap agricultural workforce.

Civil Rights Act of 1866

The nation's first federal civil rights legislation, which defined national citizenship and declared that all citizens regardless of race enjoyed equal rights to make contracts, sue, and hold property.

Reconstruction Amendments

The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery (1865), guaranteed birthright citizenship and equal protection under the law (1868), and prohibited race-based voting denial (1870).

Black Friday (1869)

Wall Street financial crash that occurred on September 24, 1869, when an attempt by Jay Gould and James Fisk to corner the national gold market collapsed after the U.S. Treasury injected $4 million of gold into circulation.

Knights of Labor

Labor union founded in 1869 as a secret society by Uriah Smith Stephens and expanded under Terence V. Powderly to include skilled and unskilled workers, reaching 700,000 members before faltering after 1886.

Standard Oil Company

Corporate petroleum empire founded in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller and Henry Flagler that achieved control over 90% of American oil refining through aggressive price cutting, secret railroad rebates, and trust structures.

Crédit Mobilier Scandal

Political corruption scandal exposed in 1872 involving a fraudulent Union Pacific construction company that distributed discounted stock and dividends to influential congressmen, leading to the censure of Representative Oakes Ames.

Coinage Act of 1873

Federal law—denounced by agrarian and western debtor interests as the 'Crime of '73'—that discontinued the minting of standard silver dollars and effectively placed the nation on a gold standard.

Colfax Massacre (1873)

Violent conflict in Grant Parish, Louisiana, on April 13, 1873, in which an armed white militia attacked Republican defenders at a courthouse, resulting in the murder of approximately 150 Black militia members.

Comstock Act (1873)

Federal legislation championed by Anthony Comstock that made it a federal crime to transport or receive 'obscene, lewd, or lascivious' publications, as well as articles or information regarding contraception or abortion.

Panic of 1873

Severe economic depression initiated on September 18, 1873, when the banking house Jay Cooke & Company collapsed due to excessive railroad bond speculation, precipitating bank panics and prolonged unemployment.

Civil Rights Act of 1875

Reconstruction-era federal law designed to guarantee all citizens equal access to public transportation, inns, theaters, and places of public amusement regardless of race, before being invalidated by the Supreme Court.

Compromise of 1877

Political resolution to the contested 1876 presidential contest that awarded all disputed electoral votes to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes in exchange for removing remaining federal troops from the South.

Munn v. Illinois (1877)

Supreme Court ruling declaring that private property devoted to a public use, such as commercial grain elevators and warehouses, is subject to government regulation by state police powers in the public interest.

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

Nationwide wildcat strike triggered by a 10% wage reduction on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad that paralyzed over half the country's rail network and was subdued only by state militias and federal troops.

Bland-Allison Silver Act (1878)

Currency measure enacted over President Rutherford B. Hayes's veto that required the U.S. Treasury to purchase between $2 million and $4 million worth of silver bullion each month for coinage into legal-tender silver dollars.

Dumbbell Tenements

Apartment buildings designed to meet the New York Tenement House Act of 1879, shaped with narrow indented airshafts on each side to provide minimal interior light and ventilation to multiple family units.

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

Federal statute that suspended the immigration of Chinese skilled and unskilled laborers for ten years and explicitly prohibited state and federal courts from granting citizenship to Chinese immigrants.

Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883)

Civil service reform statute enacted after the assassination of President James A. Garfield that replaced partisan patronage with competitive examinations administered by a bipartisan Civil Service Commission.

The Civil Rights Cases (1883)

Supreme Court decision ruling the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional on the grounds that the 14th Amendment prevents discrimination by state governments but does not reach individual or private business actions.

Rock Springs Massacre (1885)

Deadly anti-immigrant riot in Wyoming Territory where white coal miners aligned with the Knights of Labor attacked a Chinese immigrant community, killing 28 miners and destroying their homes.

Haymarket Affair (1886)

Violent Chicago labor clash on May 4, 1886, in which an unknown individual hurled a dynamite bomb at police dispersing a labor meeting, killing seven officers and resulting in the controversial execution of four anarchist leaders.

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

National confederation of skilled trade unions founded in 1886 by Samuel Gompers that emphasized 'pure and simple' economic goals—better wages, shorter working hours, and safer conditions—over political radicalism.

Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railway Company v. Illinois (1886)

Supreme Court ruling declaring state laws regulating interstate railroad freight rates unconstitutional, establishing that the Commerce Clause reserves exclusive authority over interstate trade to the federal government.

Interstate Commerce Act (1887)

First major federal regulatory statute, establishing the five-member Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to oversee railroads, mandate 'just and reasonable' rates, and prohibit pools and discriminatory rebates.

Looking Backward: 2000-1887

1888 utopian socialist novel by Edward Bellamy portraying a Boston citizen who awakes in the year 2000 to find an equitable society where all production has been peacefully nationalized into one public trust.

Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)

Antitrust measure authored by Senator John Sherman prohibiting every contract, combination, or conspiracy in restraint of interstate trade, as well as monopolization of commerce.

McKinley Tariff (1890)

High protective tariff passed by the 'Billion Dollar Congress' that boosted average ad valorem import duties to nearly 50% while placing raw sugar on the free duty list and authorizing reciprocal treaties.

Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)

December 29, 1890 confrontation in South Dakota where the U.S. Seventh Cavalry killed over 140 Lakota Sioux followers of Chief Big Foot amid fears surrounding the Ghost Dance movement, ending armed frontier resistance.

Homestead Strike (1892)

Violent labor confrontation at Carnegie's Pennsylvania steel plant where company chairman Henry Clay Frick locked out union workers and hired 300 Pinkerton detectives, resulting in a pitched gun battle.

People's Party (Populists)

Agrarian third-party political organization formed in 1892 that rallied behind the Omaha Platform, advocating the free coinage of silver at 16:1, government ownership of railroads, and a graduated income tax.

Panic of 1893

Acute economic contraction sparked by overextended railroad finance and the insolvency of the National Cordage Company, leading to over 500 bank failures, widespread wage cuts, and depletion of gold reserves.

Pullman Strike (1894)

Nationwide rail walkout organized by Eugene V. Debs's American Railway Union to boycott Pullman sleeping cars following wage reductions, which was broken by federal court injunctions and army troops.

Coxey's Army (1894)

Protest march of unemployed workers led by Ohio businessman Jacob Coxey that traveled to Washington, D.C., to petition Congress for a $500 million public road construction program funded by legal tender currency.

United States v. E.C. Knight Company (1895)

Supreme Court ruling that the American Sugar Refining Company's 98% control of national sugar refining did not violate the Sherman Antitrust Act because manufacturing is distinct from interstate commerce.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Landmark Supreme Court decision upholding a Louisiana railroad segregation statute under the 'separate but equal' doctrine, establishing that state-mandated racial segregation did not violate the 14th Amendment.

Election of 1896

Crucial realignment election where Republican William McKinley defeated Democrat and Populist William Jennings Bryan after Bryan's 'Cross of Gold' speech, ending free silver agitation and establishing lasting GOP dominance.

United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898)

Supreme Court decision holding that under the Fourteenth Amendment, a child born within the United States to non-citizen Chinese parents subject to U.S. jurisdiction acquires birthright citizenship by jus soli.

Gold Standard Act of 1900

Federal legislation that formally established gold as the sole standard for redeeming all paper currency and mandated a minimum Treasury gold reserve of $150 million, effectively ending the bimetallism controversy.

U.S. Steel Corporation

First billion-dollar corporation in world history, created in 1901 when financier J.P. Morgan bought out Andrew Carnegie for $480 million and consolidated numerous steel and wire manufacturers into a $1.4 billion enterprise.

Northern Securities Company

Enormous railroad holding corporation chartered in 1901 by J.P. Morgan, James J. Hill, and E.H. Harriman to control northern transcontinental routes, which was dissolved in 1904 under the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Social Darwinism

Socioeconomic doctrine adapted from Herbert Spencer by theorists like William Graham Sumner, asserting that competition and the 'survival of the fittest' naturally govern human society and justify extreme disparities in wealth.

The Significance of the Frontier in American History

1893 historical thesis presented by Frederick Jackson Turner asserting that the continuous westward expansion across an advancing frontier shaped American democracy, individualism, and national character.

Tammany Hall

Dominant Democratic political machine in New York City that exercised vast electoral control and municipal patronage, notorious for extensive political corruption under William 'Boss' Tweed and later run by Richard Croker.

Ida B. Wells

Investigative journalist and anti-lynching crusader who published 'Southern Horrors' (1892) and 'The Red Record' (1895) to expose the economic, sexual, and racial falsehoods used to justify lynchings across the South.