UNIT 6

1877

Great Railroad Strike

1882

Chinese Exclusion Act

1887

Dawes Severalty Act

1890

Massacre at Wounded Knee; Closing of the Frontier

1896

Plessy v Ferguson

Transcontinental Railroad

This linked the U.S. from Atlantic to Pacific by both rail and telegraph. This railroad accelerated the development and eventual closure of the frontier. See: Promontory Point.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

A business tycoon who amassed a fortune in the steamboat business and invested this fortune in the consolidation of many smaller rail lines under one company, the New York Central Railroad.

Robber barons

A pejorative name for investors who artificially inflated the value of their company's stock, sold the stock to the public, and pocketed the profits. The company would then go bankrupt, leaving stockholders with nothing. Additionally, the fierce competition of the Gilded Age coupled with lack of federal regulation often led to dishonest business practices.

Alexander Graham Bell

A Scottish-born scientist. He is best known for patenting the telephone in 1876. He also founded the Bell Telephone Company in 1879 and the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1885.

Bessemer process

Developed by an English inventor, this process revolutionized steel production by making it faster and cheaper. The increased availability and affordability of steel caused its use to increase in many industrial applications.

Andrew Carnegie

A Scottish immigrant who became a titan of industry. He cornered the railroad business in the 1860s, focusing on innovation, investment in technology, operating at full capacity, and keeping costs (including wages) low. Authored "The Gospel of Wealth," which asserted that wealth was a result of God's will and that, in turn, the wealthy had an obligation to give money away to better society. In contrast to rival J. P. Morgan, ________ favored driving competitors out of business. See: trickle down economics, vertical integration.

Vertical integration

The process of controlling every aspect of the production process for a product, from the acquisition of raw materials to the distribution of the final product. A favored practice by Andrew Carnegie. See: horizontal integration.

J.P. Morgan

A notable investment banker who helped railroads and other major corporations raise capital. After purchasing Carnegie's steel business, he consolidated the industry to form U.S. Steel, the first corporation with a capitalization of over one billion dollars. He essentially bailed out the U.S. economy during the Panic of 1893. In contrast to rival Andrew Carnegie, _____ favored buying competitors out. See: interlocking directorates.

John D. Rockefeller

The richest American of all time, worth well over $300 billion when adjusted for inflation. He monopolized the oil industry with the Standard Oil Company. While an avowed Social Darwinist, in his later years he turned to philanthropy, such as by founding the University of Chicago among other schools.

Horizontal integration

The process of merging companies that all compete in one aspect of a long production process, such as refinement in the oil industry, thereby creating either a monopoly (total control by one company) or an oligopoly (control by few companies). See: John D. Rockefeller, Standard Oil Company, trust, vertical integration.

Trust

It was a common form of monopoly around the turn of the twentieth century. Essentially, the stockholders of several companies would sell their stock to the owner of a larger company in exchange for trust certificates, which entitled them to a share of the profits as silent partners. The several companies still technically existed but were now effectively one entity. See: John D. Rockefeller, Square Deal, Theodore Roosevelt.

Monopolies

The total or near-total domination of an industry by one business. ______ can artificially fix prices and stifle innovation, as a lack of competition means they have little reason to reinvest their profits in improving their products. See: Bill Gates, interlocking directorates, Gilded Age, horizontal integration, robber barons, trusts.

Laissez-faire

First articulated by the economist Adam Smith in his treatise The Wealth of Nations, _________ economics states that natural market forces, not government regulations or subsidies, should control the marketplace. However, the growth of monopolies during the Gilded Age prevented any natural competition from occurring, leading to antitrust laws. The term derives from the French for "let do," or in essence "Let the economy run itself."

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

A nationwide strike that took place from July 14 to September 4, 1877. More than 100,000 railroad workers were ultimately involved, and the strike affected such cities as Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Chicago. The state National Guardsmen were often called in, but most militia members (and local residents) were sympathetic to the strikers. Ultimately, President Rutherford B. Hayes authorized the use of federal troops to break the strike. More than 100 workers were killed in the crackdown, and the strikers gained nothing. However, it led to more organized unionizing efforts.

Rutherford B. Hayes

Nineteenth President. Served 1877-1881. While a Civil War veteran and a Republican, he ended Reconstruction as part of the Compromise of 1877 to resolve the disputed 1876 election. Enacted modest civil service reform. Ordered federal troops in to break up the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Pledged not to run for reelection and returned to Ohio.

Scabs

A type of strikebreaker. Specifically, someone who crosses a picket line of striking workers in order to take up a striking worker's job.

Haymarket Square Riot

On May 4, 1886, a rally in support of the eight-hour workday was held in Chicago's _______. When police began to break up what had been a peaceful public meeting, someone in the crowd threw a bomb at the police, and police fired into the crowd. Several dozens were killed. Rumors circulated that alleged the Knights of Labor were tried to the anarchist bombing, which fatally weakened the Knights. However, it ultimately became a global rallying point for the eight-hour workday. May Day began, in part, as an international commemoration for ______.

American Federation of Labor

Founded in 1886, the AFL was a federation of 20 craft unions (unions of skilled workers, each representing a particular trade). The AFL concentrated on what they considered to be basic economic issues, such as the eight-hour workday and higher wages, rather than social change. Because the AFL was made up of skilled rather than unskilled laborers, their workers could not be as easily replaced by scabs if a strike were called. See: collective bargaining, closed shops, National Labor Relations Act.

Collective bargaining

The practice of negotiating between owners and a designation group of employees that represent all other employees. Contrast with: blacklisting, locking out, yellow-dog contract.

Homestead Strike

A major strike in 1892 at the Carnegie Steel Company's Homestead, Pennsylvania factory. After the workers went on strike, and the factory's manager hired 300 private Pinkerton detectives to protect the plant and enable strikebreakers to enter and restart the steel operations. After an exchange of gunfire between the Pinkerton men and the workers, nine strikers and seven Pinkerton men were dead and many more people were wounded. Pennsylvania's governor sent in 8,000 state militia to assist scabs to enter the mill. It was a major setback in unionizing the steel industry.

Turner's "Frontier Thesis"

An idea articulated by historian Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893. He argued that the frontier's existence shaped the American character: a propensity for democracy, egalitarianism, individualism, and violence, as well as a disinterest in high culture. However, by 1890 the U.S. had no unsettled lands left. The Frontier Thesis partly reflects a then-budding romanticization of the American West, leading to the preservation of wilderness by conservationist and such things as the name for Kennedy's "New Frontier" agenda.

Populist Party

Also known as the People's Party. Their 1892 policy platform advocated for a silver standard, a graduated income tax, direct election of U.S. senators, and ownership of railroads, telegraph, and telephone lines. While the ______ won five Western states in the 1892 election, the Democrats absorbed their policies thanks to William Jennings Bryan.

Interstate Commerce Act

An 1887 law that which would regulate and investigate railroad companies that participated in interstate rail trafficking. The first example of the federal government regulating private industry in U.S. history. See: Interstate Commerce Commission.

Interstate Commerce Commission

Authorized under the Interstate Commerce Act, the ICC originally investigated railroad companies in order to ensure fair rates. However, in its early years the ICC lacked enforcement powers. Farmers did not gain much from its formation, as they lost most of the cases brought before it. In later decades, the ICC also regulated other sectors of interstate commerce, such as busing, telegraphs, and telephones. Dissolved in 1996.

Battle of Little Bighorn

Sometimes called Custer's Last Stand, it is the most famous victory of American Indian forces over the U.S. military (although not the largest in death toll). The Sioux killed over 260 troops and their leader, Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer. The Sioux were hunted down and killed by other U.S. forces. See: Northwest Indian War, Blue Turtle.

George Custer

A Lt. Colonel who marched his column of men deep into Sioux territory only to discover some 2,500 Sioux warriors waiting for them at the Little Big Horn River. He and his men were then destroyed at the Battle of Little Bighorn—also known as ____'s Last Stand.

Ghost Dance movement

A Dakota Sioux movement that began in 1870. It intended to bring about a rebirth of native tradition and a repulsion of white incursion. As part of the U.S. government's efforts to suppress it, the respected Sioux leader Sitting Bull, was killed.

Wounded Knee Massacre

A massacre of over 200 American Indian men, women, and children that took place in December 1890 in South Dakota. Over 20 soldiers involved were awarded the Medal of Honor.

Dawes Severalty Act

An 1887 act which stripped tribes of their official federal recognition and land rights and would only grant individual families land and citizenship in 25 years if they properly assimilated. Former reservation land was sold, and the proceeds funded "civilizing" ventures for natives, such as so-called Indian Schools which were rampant with abuse and neglect. This forced-assimilation policy remained the federal government's way of dealing with American Indians until 1934.

Plessy v. Ferguson

Landmark Supreme Court case (1896) that upheld segregation, codifying the doctrine of "separate but equal." Partially overturned by Brown v. Board of Education. Functionally overturned by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Jim Crow laws

Laws that enforced segregation, primarily but not exclusively in the South. The name references a famous nineteenth century blackface act called Jump ____.

Booker T. Washington

A self-educated former slave, he advocated for the education of African Americans to allow them access to the growing economy. His Tuskegee Institute in Alabama was founded to instruct African Americans in the industrial arts and the ability to work within the system. Contrast with: W. E. B. Du Bois.

Chinese Exclusion Act

Prompted by racist attitudes toward _____ immigrants in Los Angeles and San Francisco, this 1882 law restricted ____ immigration to the United States. See: Central Pacific Railroad, Emergency Quota Act, Immigration Act of 1965, nativist.

Nativists

Anti-immigrant activists in the nineteenth century. In this period, many native-born Americans were Protestants of English ancestry. They disliked the large numbers of Irish and Germans that began to arrive in the mid-1840s, especially due to their Roman Catholic faith, which attracted paranoia about them being a fifth column for the Pope. Many Central Europeans were also leftists fleeing from prosecution after the failed Revolutions of 1848. On the West Coast, Chinese immigrants prompted similar xenophobic sentiments. See: American Party (Know-Nothing Party), Chinese Exclusion Act, Emergency Quota Act.

Tammany Hall

A famous political machine in New York City. Led by Boss Tweed.

Boss Tweed

A famous leader of the Tammany Hall political machine. He and his fellow Irish gave aid to small business owners, immigrants, and the poor in exchange for votes. A muckraking 1871 news story exposed his corruption. Tweed fled the U.S., but was eventually captured by Spanish police. Died of heart failure in 1878. See: Thomas Nast.

Political machines

An authoritarian or oligarchical political organization that commands political influence, voting blocs, and corporate influence in such a way that they can decide (or strongly influence) the outcome of elections. Often corrupt and prone to political patronage. Usually active at the city level, but sometimes extends statewide. A target of reform during the Gilded Age. See: direct primaries, Pendleton Civil Service Act, spoils system, Tammany Hall.

Social Gospel

An influential Protestant social justice movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It stated that Christians had an obligation to improve the lives of those less fortunate, especially the poor. Its leaders encouraged many middle-class Protestants to join reform efforts, such as those calling for laws banning child labor and making school compulsory for children. Essentially, it was the religious wing of the Progressive movement.

Settlement house movement

A social reform movement led by young female activists, as they could not become involved in the political process. It aimed to achieve social reform through mixed-incoming housing, with people of different classes living in one house. These houses often offered education and daycare. The most famous of the settlement houses was Hull House in Chicago (1889). See: Jane Addams.

Jane Addams

A pioneer in the field of social work and winner of the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize, Addams is a major figure of the Progressive Era. She innovated on the concept of the settlement house by having immigrants live with college-educated people in order to ease their transition into American society. Settlement house guests were taught courses in English, hygiene, and cooking. Addams and others also pioneered some of the first instruction in child care. Later, the pacifist Addams strongly opposed World War I and U.S. entry into it.

Temperance movement

A long-running social justice movement that sought to reduce the consumption of alcohol. The Victorian ideal of strict moral decorum and the concern over Catholic immigration led to its revival after the Civil War. The movement eventually hardened into a prohibition movement. Served as a stand-in for social issues that could not be discussed openly, such as domestic violence, and also as a soft form of nativism against German and Irish Americans. See: Anti-Saloon League, Eighteenth Amendment, Mother Jones, Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

Anti-Saloon League

Founded in 1893, the ASL quickly became the nation's leading prohibition advocacy group. It pushed aside earlier groups, like the WCTU, by incorporating modern business management practice to better foster its organization and goals.

Social Darwinists

The application of ____ theory of evolution to society, specifically the concept of "survival of the fittest." It attempted to explain economic and social differences by arguing that wealth belonged in the hands of those who were most fit to manage it. Many _____ believed that giving assistance to the poor went against the natural order. See: Gospel of Wealth, Horatio Alger, laissez-faire.

Trickle down economics

An economic theory that argues the economy is best stimulated by low taxes for both businesses and the wealthy, thus allowing them to accumulate capital to spend. Thus, society as a whole benefits. See: Andrew Carnegie, Reagan Revolution.

Horatio Alger

An American novelist famous in the latter-half of the nineteenth century for his "rags-to-riches" stories, such as Ragged Dick, that were intended to inspire the poor to become wealthy industrialists. This character arc trope became known as the "Horatio Alger myth." See: Andrew Carnegie, laissez-faire, rugged individualism, Social Darwinism.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

American suffragist and abolitionist who co-founded the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1890 with Susan B. Anthony. Attended the Seneca Falls conference and was the principal author of the Declaration of Sentiments.

Susan B. Anthony

A noted abolitionist and women's suffragist. She co-founded the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1890. Died in 1906.

Gilded Age

A period from the 1870s to 1900. While marked by massive economic growth due to industrialization, it also led to equally massive economic inequality. Backlash to this period manifested in the reforms of the Progressive Era. See: robber barons.

William Randolph Hearst

A pioneer of yellow journalism in the 1880s and rival to Joseph Pulitzer. Owned a media empire. He was associated with the progressive movement. Today, he is best remembered for helping kick off the Spanish-American War with his news coverage, as well as for the thinly veiled portrayal of his biography in the 1941 classic Citizen Kane.