Unit 1 US History 1302

Depression of 1870s-1890s

A period of economic downturn that caused many people to move off farms and into cities.

New York elevated trains

Mass transit developed in the 1870s that was noisy, dirty, and ran on coal pollution.

1897 Boston subway

The location and date of the first underground subway in the United States.

Privies

The norm for waste disposal in urban slums where garbage was also dumped in the streets.

Comstock Law (1873)

Legislation championed by Anthony Comstock that banned certain items, such as pornography and gambling items, from being sent through the mail.

Laced Corsets

Clothing items described as an "instrument of torture" used to achieve the small waist image of the perfect "Lady" during the Victorian Age.

Sharecroppers

Landless farmers in the South who did not own the land they worked on.

Tenant farmers

Farmers who rented land and furnished their own tools and seed.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

A Supreme Court case involving Homer Plessy that ruled the "Separate but Equal" law was constitutional.

Booker T. Washington

An ex-slave and founder of the Tuskegee Institute who urged Blacks to accept "Accommodation" and prioritize economic self-improvement over immediate equality.

Atlanta Compromise

The name given to Booker T. Washington's philosophy of accepting separate but equal facilities while encouraging progress in fields and factories.

W.E.B. DuBois

A Harvard-educated historian and co-founder of the NAACP in 1909 who argued for equality through resistance and political power.

Knights of Labor

A union founded in 1869 open to skilled and unskilled workers (except bankers, lawyers, saloon keepers, and gamblers) that rejected strikes and believed in the political system.

A.F.L. (1886)

The American Federation of Labor, led by Samuel Gompers, which represented skilled workers and utilized strikes.

Industrial survive wage

The estimated annual amount of $600$ required for an average family to survive around 1900.

"Old" Immigrants

A wave of immigrants (1860-1890) primarily from Northern and Western Europe who were mostly Protestant, literate, and skilled.

"New" Immigrants

A wave of immigrants (1890-1920) from Southern and Eastern Europe who were often poor, Catholic/Jewish/Orthodox, and less literate.

Ellis Island

The first landing point for most "New" Immigrants arriving in the United States.

Political Bosses

Urban figures who helped immigrants assimilate and provided services in exchange for votes, often involving corruption and kickbacks.

Origin of the Species (1859)

The work by Charles Darwin that introduced the concept of natural selection and survival of the fittest.

Social Darwinism

The application of Darwin's theories to society, arguing that it was natural for the strong to thrive at the expense of the weak; often used to justify laissez-faire government.

Reform Darwinism

The belief that the government should take an active role in society through social programs and labor laws.

Social Gospel Darwinism

A movement led by Walter Rauschenbusch stating the church should meet the political and social needs of the working poor.

Hull House

The model settlement house founded by Jane Addams to administer to the needs of the urban poor.

Mark Twain

The "father of modern American literature" who coined the term "Gilded Age" and wrote Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884).

Naturalists

A 1890s generation of writers, including Jack London and Upton Sinclair, who viewed humans as part of the animal world subject to natural forces.

Early Industrial Period (1830-1860)

A period where the American economy was based on agriculture and depended on Europe for manufactured goods, characterized by small industries with limited production.

Civil War Industrial Impact

The conflict stimulated industries such as iron mills, railroads, textiles, and leather; it also led to the development of standard sizes and a new monied-class.

Post-War Tariffs

Government support for business included high tariffs reaching $47\%$ after the Civil War to encourage industrial growth.

14th Amendment (Business Application)

A legal protection used to safeguard business property, stating that "No State shall…deprive any person…" of property without due process.

Elias Howe

The inventor who created the sewing machine in $1846$, a key piece of technology in the industrial era.

Gustavas Swift

Inventor in the $1870s$ who developed the ice-cooled railway car and refrigerated warehouse, revolutionizing the meatpacking industry.

James Duke

Industrialist who used a cigarette rolling machine in $1881$ to produce cheap cigarettes and formed the American Tobacco Company trust.

George Westinghouse

Inventor with over $145$ patents who developed electrical generators, the electric chair, and airbrakes for railroads.

Thomas Edison

The founder of GE and inventor of the light bulb, phonograph, and "wireless" radio (phonograph) technology.

Standardized Time (1883)

A system established by railroads in $1883$ to create uniform schedules and time zones across the country.

J.P. Morgan

A leading financier who specialized in buying and merging corporations, eventually forming U.S. Steel.

Immigration Act 1864

Legislation that encouraged labor from China and Europe to provide the workforce necessary for massive industrialization.

Homestead Act

A government act that gave away millions of acres of land in the West to encourage agricultural production to feed industrial workers.

Samuel Morse

The inventor of the telegraph in $1844$, which became vital for industrial communication.

Alexander Bell

The inventor of the telephone in $1876$, significantly advancing communication for major businesses.

Horizontal Integration

The practice of purchasing rival businesses in the same industry, such as Andrew Carnegie buying rival steel mills.

Vertical Integration

A business model where a company owns every part of the production and distribution process, from raw materials like ore and coal mines to shipping and warehouses.

Bessemer process

A method used by Andrew Carnegie to produce steel that was $15$-$20$ times stronger and $15$ times cheaper than iron.

Standard Oil Co.

Founded by J.D. Rockefeller in $1870$, it eventually controlled $90\%$ of the nation's oil refineries and world oil by $1890$.

Trusts

A means of corporate control used to create monopolies and destroy competition, heavily utilized by leaders like J.D. Rockefeller.

U.S. Steel

Formed when J.P. Morgan bought out Carnegie for $\frac{1}{2}\,\text{Billion}$, it became the first $\$1\,\text{Billion}$ company in the United States.

Singer Sewing Machine

The best-selling of all American products worldwide, which utilized horizontal integration and employed $60,000$ salesmen.

Great American Desert

A term used by early explorers and settlers to describe the Great Plains because of its lack of water, few trees, and flat or rolling hills.

Homestead Act (1862)

A government policy that offered 160 acres of free land to settlers who lived on the land for 5 years and made improvements.

Morrill Land Grant (1862)

A government policy giving land to each state to establish public land grant colleges such as Texas A&M, Ohio St., and Alcorn St.

Timber Culture Act (1873)

A policy that gave 160 additional acres to settlers who were required to plant 40 acres of trees; it was not very effective.

Edward McCabe

The Afro-American founder of Langston, Oklahoma, who was a typical settler of the Great Plains.

Bison Subsistence Economy

The lifestyle of Plains Indians who used all parts of the bison for food, shelter, clothing, and tools.

Battle of Little Big Horn (June 1876)

A conflict where Custer and the 7th Cavalry were destroyed by the Sioux leaders Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull.

Dawes Severalty Act (1887)

A government policy that broke up reservations and divided Indian lands into small 160-acre plots, reducing total Indian lands from 138 million to 48 million acres.

Ghost Dancing

A form of non-violent resistance based on the idea that White settlers would disappear and bison would return.

Wounded Knee massacre (Dec. 1889)

An event where over 200 Lakota Sioux were killed by the U.S. Army.

Carlisle Indian School

A school in Pennsylvania established as part of the government's assimilation policy for Indian children.

Placer mining

A method of mining involving a shovel, washing pan, and a claim that the miner would leave once it wore out.

Comstock Lode (1859)

A discovery of almost pure silver and gold that led to the founding of Virginia City and overloaded the world silver market.

Hydraulic mining

A form of big-business mining that used technology and capital but destroyed the landscape.

Joseph McCoy

The man who built stockyards, a hotel, and other infrastructure in Abilene, Kansas to support the cattle market.

Chisholm Trail

The most heavily traveled cattle trail, which handled half of all cows moved from Texas during the Western drives.

Vaqueros

Mexican-Americans who originated the cattle industry's techniques of branding, roundups, and roping.

Joseph Glidden

The inventor of mass-produced barbed wire in 1874, which led to the end of the open range.

Great Die-up

The winter of 1886-87 where a summer drought followed by blizzards resulted in the death of 90% of cattle and bankrupt many ranchers.

Turkey Red Wheat

A new variety of crop from Russia used by farmers using dry land farming techniques on the Plains.

Deadwood Dick

Also known as Nate Love, the most famous Black cowboy and ex-slave who won rodeo and shooting contests in Deadwood, Dakota Territory.

Bonanza farms

Large-scale farms, some over 100,000 acres, that often went bankrupt during droughts.

Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan

A very lenient plan that aimed not to punish the South and included a $10\%$ "soft" oath of loyalty.

General amnesty

A pardon offered under Lincoln's Reconstruction plan for Southerners.

13th Amendment

An 1865 amendment that freed the slaves; recognized by Lincoln’s and Johnson’s plans in state constitutions.

Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction Plan

A plan similar to Lincoln’s but requiring a $50\%$ "soft" oath and excluding persons with over $20,000$ in property.

Black Codes

Discriminatory laws passed against freedmen that restricted rights such as voting, serving on juries, or testifying against whites.

Vagrancy laws

Provisions in Black Codes used to arrest freedmen with no lawful employment, who could then be fined or sentenced to forced labor.

Opelousas and St. Landry

Specific locations cited in the notes for requiring freedmen to be in the service of a white person or to have written permission for trade.

1866 Mississippi Vagrancy Code

A law that defined vagrants as unemployed freedmen or whites associating with them on terms of equality, with fines up to $150$ for blacks and $200$ for whites.

Military Reconstruction Act

An act that divided the South into $5$ military districts, each governed by a Union General.

Congressional or ‘Radical’ Reconstruction

A period from $1867-1877$ led by figures like Thaddeus Stevens that focused on protecting the rights of freedmen.

14th Amendment

An 1866 amendment providing the first national definition of citizenship as "birthright citizenship" for anyone born in the U.S.

‘Iron’ clad oaths

Strict loyalty oaths implemented under Congressional Reconstruction for Southerners.

15th Amendment

An 1869 federal law stating that states could not prohibit male citizens the right to vote.

Ku Klux Klan Act

A federal law passed in $1870-1871$ to prosecute Klansmen.

Depression of 1873-1878

An economic downturn that made the expensive costs of Reconstruction less popular.

Compromise of 1877

An agreement resulting from the $1876$ election that pulled all troops out of the South and effectively ended Reconstruction.

Samuel Tilden

The Democratic candidate who won the popular vote in $1876$ but lost the presidency due to disputed votes.

Rutherford B. Hayes

The Republican president ($1876-1880$) who took office following the electoral vote count of $185-184$.

Jim Crow laws

Southern laws that created formal segregation and separate facilities for the next $80-90$ years.

Grandfather Clause

A legal mechanism used to prevent freedmen from voting following the end of Reconstruction.

Triple Entente

The WWI-era alliance on the map consisting of the United Kingdom, France, and Russia.

Central Powers

The WWI-era alliance on the map consisting of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey.