Settlement of the West, Segregation, and Agricultural Movements

Flashcards covering vocabulary terms from lecture notes on Westward Expansion, Gilded Age segregation, Native American resistance, and farmer political movements.

Transcontinental Railroad

A railway system connecting the eastern and western United States, formed by the Union Pacific and Central Pacific lines which joined at Promontory Point, UT.

Union Pacific

The line of the Transcontinental Railroad constructed primarily by Irish immigrants moving westward.

Central Pacific

The line of the Transcontinental Railroad constructed primarily by Chinese immigrants moving eastward.

Promontory Point, UT

The location in Utah where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroad lines officially connected.

Redeemers

Southern Democrats supported by White supremacists and wealthy individuals who retook political office following the end of Reconstruction.

Civil Rights Cases of 1883

Supreme Court rulings that declared Congress could not ban racial discrimination by private citizens and businesses, effectively ending Reconstruction protections.

Plessy v. Ferguson

Supreme Court decision that upheld the doctrine of 'separate but equal', legalizing racial segregation through Jim Crow laws.

Disenfranchisement Measures

Voting restrictions including literacy tests, poll taxes, and grandfather clauses used in the South to prevent African Americans from voting.

Ida B. Wells

An African American writer who exposed lynching and Jim Crow laws, and was forced to move North after receiving threats.

Bishop Henry Turner

Leader who established the Internal Migration Society to assist Black Americans with emigrating to Africa.

Booker T. Washington

African American leader who established the Tuskegee Institute, championed industrial skills and earning power, and proposed the Atlanta Compromise.

Tuskegee Institute

An educational institution established in Alabama by Booker T. Washington to teach trades and industrial skills to African Americans.

Atlanta Compromise

A philosophy presented by Booker T. Washington stating that Black and White Southerners had to work together for regional prosperity, with African Americans focusing on hard work while Whites provided education and rights in return.

W.E.B. Du Bois

African American leader who demanded an immediate end to segregation and criticized Booker T. Washington for being too willing to accept discrimination.

Frederick Jackson Turner

Historian who published 'The Significance of the Frontier in American History' outlining the Turner Thesis.

The Turner Thesis

An argument stating that settling the frontier was an evolutionary process progressing from wilderness, to hunters, to miners/farmers, and finally to cities.

Boosters

Promoters who attempted to build up western cities overnight, serving as counter-evidence to the Turner Thesis idea that cities were the last stage of frontier settlement.

Ghost Dance Movement

A Native American spiritual resistance movement that the US government attempted to suppress.

Wounded Knee Massacre

An 1890 event where 200 Native Americans were gunned down by the US army, marking the end of the Native American Wars on the Plains.

Comstock Lode

A major silver discovery in Nevada that generated the population growth necessary for Nevada to achieve statehood.

Homestead Act

Federal law that encouraged western settlement, taken advantage of by approximately 500,000 families.

Sodbusters

Farmers on the Great Plains who adapted to dry, woodless land by using barbed wire and dry farming techniques.

Barbed Wire

Fencing material used by homesteaders to enclose land, which blocked open cattle drives and brought an end to free-roaming cattle.

Bonanza Farms

Large commercial farms covering over 15,000 acres that utilized heavy machinery like mechanical reapers and drove out small farmers.

National Grange Movement

An organization created by farmers to defend members against middlemen, trusts, and railroads by establishing cooperatives.

Munn v. Illinois

Supreme Court decision that upheld the right of state governments to regulate public businesses, such as railroads.

Ocala Platform

The official political platform of the Farmers' Alliances calling for the direct election of senators, lower tariffs, a graduated income tax, and government-regulated banking.