era 8

Booker T. Washington

Based out of the Tuskegee Institute ( a black college in Alabama). Instead of working to end segregation he wanted to focus on building the black communities economics strength through education and self help

W.E.B. Du Bois

A Harvard trained professional who called for equal rights immediately for African Americans. He founded the NAACP that aimed to help African Americans improve. Opposed Booker T. Washington's compromise stance.

The Compromise of 1877

Settled the disputed presidential election of 1876 and ended reconstruction. Republicans got President Hayes in office and the Democrats got the removal of Federal troops from the South. Sometimes called the "Great Betrayal" because now the federal government no longer is going to force the South to respect the rights of African Americans.

Sharecropping

A farm worker who pays rent with a portion (1/2) of the crop he raises. The landlord usually furnishing tools, housing, and seed. Other supplies were sold on credit at inflated prices. When the crop came in, it went towards paying off debt. Many former slaves stayed on the same land they farmed as slave.

Black Codes

Discriminatory laws passed in many Southern states when the Civil War ended. Restricted freed slaves from: voting, serving on juries, bearing arms etc…

Plessy vs. Ferguson

Supreme Court decision that created the "separate but equal" doctrine. As a result many states across the South had "Jim Crow Laws." Separate water fountains, restrooms, entrances, segregated seating at movie theaters, etc. Most importantly, segregated schools.

-Will be overturned with Brown vs Board of the Education of Topeaka

The Bessemer Process

Henry Bessemer invented it - made steel cheaper and stronger. Super important for building RR and skyscrapers

Andrew Carnegie

U.S. Steel

Vertical integration - Cutting out the middle man by owning and controlling all the means of production, processing, and transportation.

Was a philanthropist. #carnegie hall #carnegie libraries

J.P. Morgan

An influential banker and businessman who bought and reorganized companies. Would buy Carnegie's US Steel and make it into the largest business in the world.

John D. Rockefeller

Standard Oil

Horizontal Integration - an act of joining or consolidating with ones competitors to create a monopoly.

Trusts - Firms or corporations that combine for the purpose of reducing competition and controlling prices (establishing a monopoly).

Social Darwinism

Applied Charles Darwin's idea of the "survival of the fittest" to society. Justifies the competition of laissez-faire capitalism and imperialist policies.

Gospel of Wealth

Essay written by Carnegie. The idea that wealth is God-given and that those who have wealth are obligated to carry out projects of civic philanthropy for the benefit of society.

Dumbbell Tenements

Apartment building shaped like a dumbbell where many immigrant families ended up. They were usually 7 or 8 stories high with shallow, sunless, and poor smelling air shafts that had minimal ventilation. Several families were crammed together in these barrack like structures and they had to share a bathroom.

Department Stores

For example: Macy's in New York or Marshall Field's in Chicago. Became a new symbol of the consumer culture that was developing during the Gilded Age.

New Immigrants

Immigrants who came to the United States after the Civil War; most were from southern and eastern Europe. (Italy, Poland, Russia etc…) Had more difficulty assimilated than the Old Immigrants had.

American Protective Association

Nativist organization that attacked "New Immigrants" and Roman Catholicism in general.

(The Know Nothing Party was its counterpart for the Old Immigrants.)

Hull House

The most famous settlement house created by Jane Adams in Chicago. It provided social and educational opportunities for immigrants.

Knights of Labor

1st National Labor Union led by Terence V. Powderly - It wanted to create one big union: skilled, unskilled, women, African-Americans, immigrants etc..

Haymarket Square Riot -Leads to the downfall of the Knights of Labor. In Chicago factory workers were gathered at a rally - someone threw a bomb into the crowd killing a dozen people - unfairly connected with the Knights of Labor

American Federation of Labor

Founded by Samuel Gompers - sought better wages, hrs, working conditions - skilled laborers only, arose out of dissatisfaction with the Knights of Labor

Industrial Workers of the World

Radical union, also known as the Wobblies aimed to unite the American working class into one union to promote labor's interests and overthrow capitalism. It worked to organize unskilled and foreign-born laborers, advocated social revolution, and led several major strikes.

Pullman Strike

In Chicago, Pullman cut wages but refused to lower rents in the "company town", Eugene Debs started it and was thrown in jail - Prez. Cleveland shut it down because it was interfering with mail delivery

Homestead Strike

Strike at Andrew Carnegie's steel plant near Pittsburgh in which "Pinkerton detectives" clashed with steel workers. Ten workers were killed in a riot when "scab" labor was brought in to force an end to the strike.

Yellow Dog Contracts

A written contract between employers and employees in which the employees sign an agreement that they will not join a union while working for the company.

Pacific RR Act

Funded the Union Pacific and Central Pacific - they met at Promontory Point, Utah to establish the first transcontinental RR.

Morrill Act

Distributed millions of acres of western lands to state governments in order to fund state agricultural colleges. These "Land Grant Colleges" included Iowa State.

Homestead Act

Gave 160 acres of public land to any settler who would farm the land for five years. The settler would only have to pay a registration fee of $25. Many immigrants came to take advantage.

Sierra Club

Oldest environmental organization in the United States. It was founded in San Francisco by the well-known conservationist and preservationist John Muir, who became its first president. The Sierra Club has hundreds of thousands of members in chapters located throughout the US.

Department of the Interior

Comprised of more than 20 agencies, including the Bureau of Indian Affairs, responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land and natural resources.

National Parks

A series of public reserves, established for conservationist purposes. Yosemite (CA) 1890 / Yellowstone (WY) 1872

Cowboys

Cattle handlers who drove large herds across the southern Great Plains to rail-heads. The era of the cowboy lasted from 1870 to the late 1880s. The invention of Barbed wire, but an end to it.

Sand Creek Massacre

In Colorado territory, U.S army colonel John M. Chivington led a surprise attack on a peaceful Cheyenne settlement along Sand Creek River. The natives tried to surrender , but Chivington ignored the gestures.

Fetterman Massacre

The Sioux provoked by the building of the Bozeman Trail through their hunting ground in southern Montana, massacred a U.S. army unit commanded by Captain W. J. Fetterman.

Battle of Wounded Knee

Last armed conflict between Gov and Natives. Troops intimidated by the "ghost dance" movement were in the process of disarming the Lakota when a shot was fired. The US Army opened fire killed 300 unarmed women, children, and elders in Wounded Knee, South Dakota.

Battle of Little Bighorn

Indian leaders Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse defeated Custer's troops who tried to force them back on to the reservation, Custer and all his men died

A Century of Dishonor

Written by Helen Hunt Jackson in 1881 to expose the atrocities the United States committed against Native Americans in the 19th century

Dawes Severalty Act

The act passed with the intent to assimilate Native Americans into mainstream of American life by dissolving tribes as legal entities and getting rid of reservation. Each family would get 160 acres of land and if they assimilated - in 25 years they could keep the land & gain citizenship.

Will be reversed with FDR's New Deal with included the Indian Reorganization Act which restored tribal ownership of lands, recognized tribal constitutions and government, and provided loans for economic development. More or less supported preservation of Native American culture.

Carlisle Indian School

Pennsylvania school for Indians funded by the government; children were separated from their tribe and were taught English and white values/customs. Motto of founder: "Kill the Indian and save the man."

Boss Tweed

Head of Tammany Hall, NYC's powerful democratic political machine. Led the Tweed Ring, a group of corrupt politicians in defrauding the city. Example: Responsible for the construction of the NY court house; actual construction cost $3 million. Project cost tax payers $13 million.

Credit Mobilier Scandal

This railroad construction company used funds that were supposed to be used to build the Union Pacific Railroad for their own personal use. To avoid being convicted, stockholders even used stock to bribe congressional members and the vice president.

Whiskey Ring

A group of officials were importing whiskey and using their offices to avoid paying the taxes on it, cheating the treasury out of millions of dollars. Grant's personal secretary was involved.

Laissez - Faire

Belief that government should interfere as little as possible in the nations economy. Allow business to do its own thing with very little regulation.

Pendleton Act

Passed after President Garfield's assassination, created the Civil Service Commission so that hiring would be based on merit rather than patronage. Politicians, however, still needed money to run campaigns, so they started to turn to big business instead of the spoils system for the needed funds.

Populist Party

A third party - which was a precursor to the Progressive Era.

Grew out of the Farmers Alliance.

They wanted reform like the free coinage of silver, a national income tax, direct election of senators, regulation of railroads, and other government reforms to help farmers.

Cross of Gold Speech

An impassioned address by William Jennings Bryan the Democratic presidential nominee during the national convention of the Democratic party, it criticized the gold standard and supported the coinage of silver. His beliefs were popular with debt-ridden farmers.