APUSH Period 6

Agriculture

Increased mechanization of this industry was replacing human labor. Increased productivity of crops (ex. corn and wheat) and obsolescence of small subsistence farms. Prices of crops decreased.

National Grange Movement

Organized movement of farmers resistance to bring isolated farms together for socialization and education.

Granger Laws

Pushed mid-Western states to pass laws regulation of railroads carrying grange and made abusing corporate practices that were hurting farmers illegal.

Interstate Commerce Act

Granger law. Required railroad rates to be reasonable and just and established a federal agency (the Interstate Commerce Commission) to ensure they fulfilled this.

Pacific Railroad Act

Granted huge swats of land to railroad companies who would eventually build the Transcontinental Railroads. 4 more railroads would be built later on.

Homestead Act of 1862

Granted potential migrants 160 acres of free land out west as long as they’d farm and settle it. Many of these farmers when bankrupt because of this size of land was relatively small.

Boomtowns

A town undergoing rapid growth due to sudden prosperity. Many diverse ones formed during the Gold Rush (ex. Denver City).

Sodbusters

The first people to farm on the lands out west.

Barbed Wire

This invention was used to settle and protect lands. It also contributed to the end of the cattle drive as there was a decreasing amount of open land to roam and move cattle.

Fredrick Jackson Turner

Published the Significance of the Frontier in American History arguing that the closing of the frontier was troubling because Westward expansion was a means of releasing American discontent and leveling class and social hierarchies.

Reservation Systems

Indian populations were assigned to live on tracks of land with strict boundaries. This would have been a bigger issue if Americans had not decimated the buffalo population that many Natives followed.

Sioux Wars

A series of conflicts between the United States and various bands of Natives that caused the Federal government to make more treaties with the natives and decrease their reservations.

Indian Appropriation At (1871)

Ended Federal recognition of the sovereignty of Indian nations and nullified all previous treaties made with them leading to further wars with Natives.

Dawes Act

Authorized the President to break up reservation land, which was held in common by the members of a tribe, into small allotments to be parceled out to individuals. Thus, Native Americans registering on a tribal "roll" were granted allotments of reservation land.

Ghost Dance Movement

Spread across the continent spreading that if Natives participating in a ritualistic dance, their ancestors would return and move the white men out of their lands.

Battle of Wounded Knee

Slaughter of approximately 150–300 Lakota Indians by United States Army troops. Ended the period of Native American resistance.

New South

A future for the South based on economic diversity, industrial growth, and laissez-faire capitalism. This resulted in increased railroads and textile manufacturing in the South.

Plessy vs. Ferguson

When man who was 1/8 black rode in a white passenger car was asked to leave, he refused and was arrested. This case established “separate but equal.”

Jim Crow Laws

Laws that segregated almost every aspect of society. They forbade Black people to serve on juries, run for public office, and were frequently denied trials. These also increased lynchings.

Ida B. Wells

Editor of black newspaper based in the South. She editorialized against lynching and Jim Crow, leading her to getting many death threats the destruction of her presses.

Henry Turner

Founded the International Migration Society which facilitated the migration of Black Americans to Liberia, Africa.

Booker T. Washington

Viewed that Black people did not need to fight for equality on a political level, but an economic level. This vision was seen as extremely impractical.

Change in Production

Americans began mass producing goods to be sold all over the world instead of making them themselves to be sold locally. New technology like the railroad made this change easy.

Bessemer Process

Process which allowed railroad companies to create more steel with higher quality. Increased access to natural resources also helped increase railroad production.

Telegraph and Telephone

Increased speed and distance of communication. This also led to the laying of a transatlantic cable connecting America Europe.

Industrialism

A social or economic system built on manufacturing industries.

Gilded Age

Period of rapid industrialization characterized by the extreme wealth of a few individuals, while many others lived in poverty. This era is often associated with political corruption and exploitation of immigrant labor.

Standard Oil Company

John D. Rockefeller’s oil company. It controlled 90% of the oil refinery business and consisted of various companies that Rockefeller had acquired, which were managed by a board of trustees controlled by Rockefeller.

Andrew Carnegie

A Scottish immigrant to the US who worked up his way from poverty to superintendent of a PA railroad, and then a steel manufacturing magnate. He used salesmanship, the latest technology, and vertical integration to become one of the number 1 steel producers.

Laissez Faire Policies

A policy or attitude of letting things take their own course, without interfering. This, underpaying workers, and economic Social Darwinism allowed many business leaders to become so wealthy.

Gospel of Wealth

Argued that very wealthy men had a responsibility to use their wealth for the greater good of society. Supported by Andrew Carnegie. Inspired further philanthropy in the wealthy class.

Robber Barons

Used frequently to describe successful industrialists whose business practices were often considered ruthless or unethical.

Conspicuous Consumption

The purchase of goods or services for the specific purpose of displaying one's wealth (ex. the Biltmore Mansion as a vacation home).

Economic Changes

Despite it seeming to be economically harsh, deflation, increased standards of living, and real wages increased for unskilled workers.

Labor Unions

Represents collective interests of workers, bargaining with employers over such concerns as wages and working conditions. Tactics included political action, slowdowns, and strikes.

Great Railroad Strike (1877)

The country's first major rail strike and witnessed the first general strike in the nation's history. The strikes and the violence it spawned briefly paralyzed the country's commerce.

Pullman Strike

Refusal to meet with workers to hear their requests for higher wages, lower rents, and better working conditions caused workers to walk off the job. The American Railway Union agreed to assisted these workers.

Knights of Labor

National union open to all workers, black, female, and unskilled laborers. Worked to abolish child labor, increase wages, and better working conditions.

Haymarket Square Riots

Peaceful labor protest rally near Chicago's turned into a riot after someone threw a bomb at police. At least eight people died as a result of the violence that day. Caused violence and bombing associating with the Knights of Labor.

American Federation of Labor

Union of skilled workers led by Samuel Gompers. They had goals to abolish child labor, increase wages, and better working conditions.

Immigration

Large amounts from Eastern Europe were escaping from poverty, joblessness, religious persecution, and overcrowding. Large amounts from China and Asia as well.

Tenements

Housing for the urban poor, with well-established connotations for unsafe and unsanitary conditions. They were inhabited mainly by immigrants during this period.

Exoduster Movement

First general migration of black people following the Civil War. Offered blacks (in theory) the opportunity to escape the racism and oppression of the post-war South and become owners of their own tracts of private farmland.

Assimilation

The process whereby individuals or groups of differing ethnic heritage are absorbed into the dominant culture of a society. Aligns with nativist thinking.

American Protective Assocation

Nativist organization against Catholics (mainly Irish immigrants). Aligned with the perspective of Socia Darwinists and labor unions who felts immigrants were taking their jobs.

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

Banned all further Chinese immigration into the United States. Only law to target a specific nationality to be excluded from immigration.

Settlement Houses

Solution by Jane Addams which provided support services to the urban poor and European immigrants, often including education, healthcare, childcare, and employment resources.(ex. Hull House).

White Collar Workers

Workers who work in an office.

Typewriter

The skill which came with these allowed women more jobs and opportunities in the work force.

Leisure Activites

An increase in amusement parks, sports, circuses, and more.

Single Tax - Henry George

Tax that believed all government revenue should be derived from a tax equivalent to the full rental value of land.

Socialism

A political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

Social Gospel

Believed that Christian principles ought to be applied not merely to one’s self, but to cure the ills of society as well.

National American Women’s Suffrage Association

Founded by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Worked tireless for women’s rights and supported a federal amendment for women's suffrage. Women also made up much of the temperance movement.

Anti-Saloon League

An organization founded to work for unification of public anti-alcohol sentiment and temperance law. Carrie Nation was a female temperance activist who destroyed alcohol in bars and saloons.

Panic of 1893

Financial panic with a run on currency, and banks closing, and businesses and manufacturers not being able to open because they had not cash to pay workers or buy materials.

Open Door Policy

Called for protection of equal privileges for all countries trading with China and for the support of Chinese territorial and administrative integrity.

Democrats

Southerns who championed state’s rights, racial segregation, and counted on votes from big city political machines and immigrants.

Republicans

Northerns who were more industrial and counted on votes from black people, middle class businessmen, and Protestants.

Patronage

The appointment or hiring of a person to a government post on the basis of partisan loyalty. Andrew Jackson and the spoils system was a big example of this.

Pendleton Act (1881)

Established a merit-based system of selecting government officials and supervising their work. Discontinued the patronage system.

Issues Between Political Parties

Protective tariffs, gold standard, unlimted coinage of silver.

Populist Party

Agrarian-based political movement aimed at improving conditions for the country's farmers and agrarian workers.

Omaha Platform

Advocated for the direct election of senators, use of initiatives and referendums which allowed the people to propose and vote on legislation, unlimited coinage of silver, graduated income tax, and an 8 hour workday.

Political Machines

A party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives and that is characterized by a high degree of leadership control over member activity (ex. Tammany Hall and Boss Tweed helping and indebting vulnerable communities to them).

Collective Bargaining

A process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers.

Thomas Nast

A political cartoonist considered to be the "Father of the American Cartoon.” Instrumental in rousing public outrage over Boss Tweed which resulted in his eventual downfall. A member of the Realist movement.

Cross of Gold Speech - William Jennings Bryan

Famous speech at the 1896 Democratic National Convention. Advocated for silver and not gold to be America's bullion standard (bimetallism). It was his goal to create inflation to help those in debt.

A Century of Dishonor - Helen Hunt Jackson

Non-fiction book published in 1881 that chronicled the experiences of Native Americans in the United States, focusing on injustices.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

American business magnate who was controlling two burgeoning industries: the steamboat industry and the railroad industry.

J.P. Morgan

Helped the railroad industry recover after the 1893 financial panic. Merged railroad companies and became a stockholder in every one of them. He made a fortune in railroads.

Whiskey Ring Scandal

Whiskey distillers bribed officials from the U. S. Department of the Treasury to increase profits and evade taxes.

Federal Land Grants

The federal govt provided 80 railroad companies with huge subsidies in the form of loans and 170 million acres of public land grants. This led to new settlers in the west, increased value of govt. lands, preferred rates for carrying mail and transporting troops, but also hasty, poor construction and govt. corruption.

Union Pacific & Central Pacific

A railroad that started in Omaha, NE, and one that started in Sacramento, CA. They employed thousands of workers and came together on May 10, 1869 at Promontory Point, Utah, to link the Pacific and Atlantic States.

Jay Gould

Railroad speculator who entered the business to get rich quick. He made millions by selling off assets and watering stock, which inflated the value of his corporation’s assets before selling to the public.

Sherman Antitrust Act

An act from 1890 that prohibited any “contract, combination, in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce”. Although it was supposed to prevent monopolies, it was largely ineffective until the Progressive Era.

US v. EC Knight Co. 1885

SC court case that ruled that the sherman Antitrust Act was only applicable to commerce, not manufacturing. Because of this, the dept of justice secured few convictions of monopolies.

Social Darwinism

The belief that Darwin’s theories of natural selection and survival of the fittest should be applied to the marketplace. This led to the idea that helping the poor was wrong and concentrating all the wealth of in the hands of the “Fit” was right.

Alexander Graham Bell

the inventor of the telephone in 1876. The phone became a crucial part of business operations

National Labor Union

the first attempt to organize all workers in all states in 1866. It fought for higher wages, 8 hour days, equal rights for women and Blacks, monetary reform, and worker coops, but fell apart in 1877.

Homestead Strike

a failed strike precipitated by Henry Clay Frick’s cutting of wages by 20% in 1892. After 5 months, Fruck’s lockout, private guards, and strikebreakers, the workers of Andrew Carnegie’s homestead steel plant in Pittsburgh were defeated.

Vertical integration

Business strategy in which a company controls every stage of the industrial process, from mining the raw materials to transporting the finished product. Carnegie steel used this model and managed to produce more steel than all the mills in Britain

Horizontal integration

a business strategy in which former competitors are brought together under a single corporate umbrella. Standard Oil used this model and monopolized the oil industry, controlling 90% of it.

Interlocking dictorates

when members of a corporate board of directors serve on the boards of multiple corporations. It happened a lot to monopolize businesses

World’s Columbian Exposition

A world fair hosted in Chicago that saw 12 mill people and focused on architecture. Visitors saw the progress of American civilization as represented by the new industrial techs and grand visions of an ideal urban environment

City Beautiful Movement

Movement in the 1890s that advanced plans to remake American Cities with tree-lined blvds, public parks, and public cultural attractions.

Hull House

Established by Jane Addams, it prompted more settlement houses

Women’s Christian Temperance Union

Led by Frances Willard, it advocated for the total abstinence of alcohol

Morrill Tariff Act (1861)

Raised tariff rates to increase revenue and protect American manufacturers. Its passage initiated a Republican program of high protective tariffs to help industrialists.

Morrill Land Grant Act (1862)

Encouraged states to use the sale of federal land grants to found and maintain agricultural and technical colleges. These schools not only educated farmers, engineers, and scientists, but they also became centers of research and innovation.

Sand Creek Massacre

in 1864 Colonel Chivington’s Militia massacred in cold blood 400 NAs who though they had been granted immunity

Battle of Little Big Horn

Custer’s 7th cavalry set out to suppress the Indians and return them to their reservation, attacking 2,500 well armed warriors. They were completely annihilated by the NAs, making one of the only successful battles for the NAs

Carlisle Indian School

A boarding School in PA that segregated NA children from their families. It made them assimilate into American Culture through education, religion, and industrial/farming skills

WEB Du Bois

A young AA leader and writer who demanded an end to segregation and the granting of civil rights to ALL Americans

ICC

the first federal regulatory agency. It could investigate and prosecute pools, rebates, and other discriminatory practices to help farmers, but ended up helping railroads by stabilizing rates

The Farners’ Alliance

State and regional groups that taught about scientific farming methods and had the goal of economic and political action. By 1890 1 million farmers of both races had joined

Ocala platform

A platform of farmers that supported direct election of senators, lower tariff rates, a graduated income tax, and a new banking system regulated by the federal govt. Many of their ideas were passed onto the populist movement.