US History Exam : The Gilded Age

Union

• An organized association of workers formed to protect and further their rights and interests

Strike

• A refusal to work organized by a body of employees as a form of protest, typically in an attempt to gain a concession from their employer

Boycott

• Organized effort by a union to discourage the public from purchasing products or services from a company with which it has a labor dispute

Sabotage

• Deliberate destruction of an employer’s property

• Intentional slowing of work by laborers, typically as a tactic in labor disputes

Lockout

• A temporary stoppage initiated by an employer to pressure employees or a labor union during a dispute or contract negotiation

Yellow Dog Contract

• A contract between a worker and an employer in which the worker agrees not to remain or join a union

Scabs

• Derogatory term for a worker who replaces striking workers or refuses to join a union

Cross the Picket Line

• To work at a company during a strike

Spoils System

• Introduced by A. Jackson in 1829

• Elected officials appointed by friends and supporters to government jobs regardless of their qualifications

• Ensured loyalty – pay off those who helped with elections, etc.

• By the 1870s the government was filled with unqualified, dishonest people

Laissez-Faire

• Hands off approach to economic matters

• No government regulation

• Limited role in business

• Social Darwinism

Tariffs

• High tariffs on imported goods

• Encourage people to buy American goods

Subsidy

• A payment made by the government to encourage the development of certain key industries

  • Ex. railroads

Socialism

• Economic and political philosophy that favors public/social control of property and income, not private control

• Society should be in charge of the nation’s wealth, not individuals

• Wealth should be distributed to everyone

Knights of Labor

• National Union organized in 1869

• Hoped to organized ALL working men and women (including African Americans): skilled and unskilled

• Pursued broad social reform

  • Equal pay for equal work, 8 hour work day, end to child labor

• Failed strikes

  • By the 1890s they disappeared

Wobblies

• 1905 Chicago: Groups who opposed the AFL

• Focused on unskilled workers

• Radical

• Socialists

• Violent strikes

American Federation of Labor

• 1886 - Samuel Gompers

• Organize only skilled workers in a network of smaller unions each devoted to a specific craft

  • Women and African Americans were excluded

  • Wages, hours, and working conditions

• Relied on economic pressure

  • Boycotts and strikes

• Collective bargaining

  • A process in which workers negotiate as a group with employers

• “Closed shop“

  • A workplace in which only union members would be hired

Collective bargaining

• A process in which workers negotiate as a group with employers

Effects of the Great Strikes

• Violence, property damage, arrests (short term)

• Some unions lost support, some gained national recognition (short term)

• Spread of ideas/other strikes/leaders (short term)

• Establishment of Unions/workers protections (long term)

  • 8 hour work day

  • Collective bargaining

• Child labor laws (long term)

Political Machine

• Unofficial city organization/ring of people

• Designed to keep a particular party or group in power

• Usually headed by a single, powerful “boss“

Boss

• Political leaders who got people to vote for them/specific person by giving favors

  • Jobs, contracts, etc

  • In exchange for votes

• Sometimes held office

  • Other times helped people run for office and win

• Many immigrants were taken advantage of by political machines

Graft

• A form of political corruption defined as the immoral use of a politician's authority for personal gain

  • Example: funds intended for public projects are intentionally misdirected in order to maximize the benefits to private interests.

Boss Tweed

• William Marcy Tweed, aka “Boss Tweed“

  • One of the most powerful political bosses of the time

  • Became head of Tammany Hall

• With his "Tweed ring" cronies, they systematically plundered New York City of sums estimated at between $30 million and $200 million (that would be worth between $365 million and $2.4 billion today)

• Rigged elections, stole money

• Arrested and escaped for

• Arrested thanks to a political cartoon by Thomas Nast

Tammany Hall

• New York City’s most powerful Democratic political machine

Thomas Nast

• Political cartoonist that attacked the graft, corruption, and outright theft carried out by the Tweed Ring and Tammany Hall

• Published a series of political cartoons that aided in the recapture of Boss Tweed in Spain

James A. Garfield

• Hoped to reform Spoils System

• Had VP Chester A. Arthur

• Assassination July 1881

  • Lawyer shot Garfield - died 3 months later

  • Loyal Republican

  • Expected a job from Garfield

• Death caused a public outcry against the Spoils System

Chester A. Arthur

• Vice President to James A. Garfield

• Defender of the Spoils System

• Once in office as president, he wanted to reform

  • Pendleton Service Act became a law in 1883

Rutherford B. Hayes

• Elected 1870

• Refused to use the Spoils System

• Reformed the Civil Service

  • Angered many

    • Met with great opposition from Congress

  • Appointed qualified politicians to positions

  • Fired those who were not needed/unqualified

• Strengthened the government, but weakened the Republican Party

• Did not seek a 2nd term

Pendleton Civil Service Act/Reform

• Created a merit system for hiring based on exams

• Ended the spoils system

• Federal jobs required exams to ensure qualification

  • People were against it because the spoils system allowed them to collect multiple salaries, hold positions of power, and increase interest in the government/patriotism

Jim Crow

• A system of legal segregation

• Public places

• Education

• Voting restrictions

  • Poll tax

  • Grandfather clauses

• Found all over the South and in many Northern states

• ‘Jim Crow‘ referred to actor Daddy Rice who would cover his face in charcoal and sing and dance in a silly way

  • People used this character to describe black people in a negative way

Minstrel Shows

• An American form of entertainment that developed in the early 19th century

• Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that mocked people specifically of African descent

• The route of the term ‘Jim Crow’

Segregation

• Most schools throughout the country were segregated

  • African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asians, Native Americans

• Public accommodations

Booker T. Washington

• Born into slavery in Virginia

• Graduated from a vocational school

• Founded the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama to prove industrial and academic training for African Americans

• Believed that vocational training would provide a way for African Americans to build social status and economic self-sufficiency

• Tuskegee trained both men and women under Washington’s leadership, but the curriculum varied based on gender

  • Training for women focused disproportionately on historically female occupations like cooking, nursing, and sewing

  • Men tended to learn occupations like carpentry, shoemaking, and farming

• Opposed women’s suffrage

• Skillful politician and public speaker

W.E.B. DuBois

• Raised in a free, landing-owning family in Massachusetts

• Attended integrated public schools

• First African American to earn a PhD from Harvard University

• Du Bois was not opposed to vocational education for some black students, but he believed that African Americans should also have access to a classical education, which focused on academic subjects typically studied in the top schools and universities at the time, like math, history, Latin, and Greek

• Believed that the most talented African American students and leaders should receive a classical education

  • “Talented tenth”

  • Help establish a class of elite leaders that would promote the rights and interests of all African Americans

• Du Bois was an advocate for women’s rights and favored women’s suffrage, but he was not clear about what role women would play in his vision of the “talented tenth”

Plessy v. Ferguson

• 1896 U.S. Supreme Court case

• Homer Plessy, who was 1/8th black, sat in a railroad car designated for whites only

• He was arrested and charged with violating the Separate Car Act

• Plessy argued that it violated the 13th and 14th Amendments

  • Lost case

• Led to the legalisation of separate but equal

  • Segregated public facilities were constitutional as long as they were equal

    • There was little to no enforcement of the ‘equal‘ part of this law

The Atlanta Riot

• 1906

• Series of violent attacks by white mobs against Black Atlantans

  • Sparked by false newspaper reports of alleged rapes of white women by Black men

• Lasted several days

• Results in dozens of deaths and property damage