APUSH 3rd 9 Weeks Test

Sharecropping

White landowners would provide land, tool, seeds, and a place to live for poor African American or white farmers. In return, sharecroppers would give a significant portion of their crops to the landowner as rent. The crop yield usually would not be enough to pay off the debts for supplies, so farmers would be stuck in debt

Tenant Farming System

tenant farmers rented the land from the landowner and pay with crops or cash, rather than being tied to a specific harvest. Tenant farmers had more freedom than sharecroppers because they had more control in the way they worked

Why did African Americans benefit least from sharecropping?

The Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation and discrimination. They would be paid less, charged with high interest rates, and faced disenfranchisement

What efforts did Southern states make to keep African-Americans from voting during the Jim Crow era?

Southern States imposed poll taxes (individuals had to pay to vote, meaning African Americans could not afford the tax), literacy tests (Southerners made literacy tests purposely hard for Black voters), grandfauther clauses (allowed individuals to vote if their grandfathers were able to vote, This excluded Black people from voting bc their ancestors were slaves but let poor white men vote without literacy tests or taxes), violence and discrimination from supermacist groups like the KKK, and much more

How did the U.S. government usually respond to Native American resistance to westward expansion by white settlers? What ultimately happened to most Native American tribes? 

The US govt. used military actions to suppress Native Americans (Massacre at Wounded Knee), forced relocation (Indian Removal Act of 1830), Assimilation Policies (Dawes Act), cultural suppression (Ghost Dance)

Explain the concept of “company towns” during the Gilded Age. Who built these towns and why? What was the advantage for business owners? What were the advantages and disadvantages for workers living in these towns? 

• Communittes built and owned by industrial employers during the Gilded Age, often centered around a single company or industry. These towns were designed to house workers who were employed at the company’s nearby factories, mines, or mills

• By building these homes, employers could guarantee that workers were available to work long hours and did not have to travel long distances

• Business owners could control every aspect of workers’ lives, including where they lived and how they spent their time

• Businesses charged inflated prices for goods and services at company-owned stores

• Workers had access to housing near their place of employment and were given basic amenities. However, they had limited freedom. Wages were low and products were overpriced.

Explain how Black activists and reformers like W.E.B. DuBois related to the Progressive movement as a whole, and specifically explain what DuBois’s views were of what would constitute Black progress. Also be able to explain DuBois’s relationship to civil rights groups for African-Americans, including the NAACP. 

DuBois believed that education, political engagement, and civil rights were the keys for Black Progress. Du Bois argued that the most educated and skilled African Americans should lead the race. He rejected the notion of gradualism promoted by people like Booker T. Washington. He was a coleader for the NAACP, which became the most significant civil rights organization for African Americans during the 20th century. His involvement in the NAACP campaigned against Jim Crow Laws, voter disenfranchisement, and racial violence. Bookter T. Washington Advocated for vocational training and agricultural skills while accepting segregation temporarily. DuBois believed in the necessity of immediate action. He criticized the movement of now doing enough for the challenge of systematic racism.

Populist Party

• Advocated for the interests of farmers, laborers, and working-class Americans. Their platform focused on free silver, government regulation of railroads, direct election of senators, progressive income tax, and subsidies for farmers

• They campaigned through grassroots movements, rallies, and alliances with labor organizations

• Many of their policies were adapted into the 16th amendment (income tax) and 17th amendment (direct election of senators) and regulation of railroads

Women’s Suffrage Movement

• Aimed to secure voting rights for women, pushed for broader legal rights including property ownership, child custody, and labor protections

• Used lobbying, protests, and civil disobedience

• Culminated the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote

Socialists

• Sought to establish a more equitable society by promoting public ownership of the means of production, the establishment of social safety nets, and the elimination of capitalism

• They used political campaigning, labor organizing, and educational campaigns

• Never became a major political party, but influenced key reforms like labor laws, social security, and worker’s rights

Prohibition

• Sought to ban alcohol in the US, arguing that consumption led to social ills like domestic violence, poverty, and crime

• Lobbying, public education, and persuasion

• Led to the 18th Amendment, which prohibited the production, sale, and transportation of alcohol, but was eventually repealed by 21st amendment

The Grange

• Initially an organization for farmers that aimed to promote cooperation among farmers, improve cultural practices, and influence policy on issues like railroad regulation

• Cooperatives, lobbying, and educational events

• Led to reforms in railroad regulations

Knights of Labor

• Advocated for improved working conditions, 8 hour work day, equal pay for work

• Strikes, boycotts, political lobbying

• Failed to contain internal divisions and Haymerket Riot led to decline in power, but their calls for worker rights influenced later labor movements

U.S. Involvement in the Philippines During the Spanish-American War

• US entered Spanish-American War to defeat Spain’s colonial rule and gain territories like the Philippines, which was seen as strategically important

• Emilio Aguinaldo was a leader in Filipino independence and initially allied with the US. But, after the US defeated Spain, US decided to annex the Philippines rather than grant independence. Aguinaldo declared independence, leading to the Phillipine American war, which used brutal tactics including concentration camps and widespread violence

• The Philippines became a US colony until 1946

• Imperialists supported annexation while anti-imperalists didn’t, as they saw it as contradicting democratic principles

African-American Soldiers After WWI

• When African American soldiers returned home from WWI, they were not accorded with the respect or equal rights they thought they had earned from their service. They were still subject to segregation and racial violence

• White Americans considered African Americans as inferior

• Red Summer of 1919: Race riots broke out across the country

Ida B. Tarbell

exposed the monopolistic practices of John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil. Her work led to public outrage and contributed to legal action against monopolies, including the trust-busting movement

Lincoln Steffens

Focused on political corruption in cities, exposing how machine politics and bribery dominated urban government. His work helped galvanize calls for urban public reform

Jacob Riis

Documented the harsh living conditions of the poor in NYC, especially in Tenement housing

Four Freedoms

• Freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear

• Aimed at gaining public support for entering WWII by framing it as a fight for these universal freedoms

Immigration Quotas

• Imposed due to fears of overpopulation, cultural changes, job competition, and Nativism

• Belief that immigrants from Italy, Russia, and Eastern Europe would bring socialism and anarchism

• Largest group of immigration during this time period came from Southern and Eastern Europe, particularly Italy, Poland, Russia

Women’s Rights After 19th

• Women’s rights activists turned to issues like equal pay, workplace discrimination, divorce laws, and birth control

• 1920s brought consumer culture and women were given new opportunities in the workforce

• Women were given more freedom outside of the home, leading to new gender roles and family dynamics