Unit 6 history test

The West, The Gilded Age, and the Progressive Era (c.1877-1913)

What drives people west

• homestead act

• transcontinental railroad

• opportunities

  • mining

homestead act

• 160 acres of lang in exchange for living and developing on it

  • encouraged farming and settlement

  • develop= dig wells, build roads, etc.

farm technology

made farming easier:

• the steel plow

• McCormick reaper

cheaper and easier to use/maintain:

• barbed wire

mining

• gold and precious metals discovered across the west

• growing populations→increasing crime/danger→need for statehood/laws and order

• created boom towns with fast growing populations

  • bust towns→when the resources were depleted and people left

railroads and timezones

• railroads became more popular during and after the civil war

• helped bring populations to the west

  • dynamite created in 1867 helped make railroads even more efficient because the dynamite allowed tracks to be efficiently build under mountains

• need to standardize arrivals and departures for trains

  • standard time zones created

transcontinental railroad

• 1863-1869

• 2 companies (union Pacific and central Pacific) completed the transcontinental railroad

  • Pacific railroad act of 1862, congress authorized the 2 companies

  • congress gave loans and land grants to the companies

exodusters

• blacks who fled the south after the end of the reconstruction and moved west

• led by Benjamin singleton from Tennessee

• inspired by Moses leading the exodus of jews to a promised land

policies towards natives

2 phases:

1. 1800s: removal/war

2. 1900s: assimilation and boarding schools

dawes general allotment act

• 1867

• ended the tribal landholding system

• each Indian family was given 160 acres to own as a farm

• wanted to make the natives act like homesteaders/americans

The carlisle school

• 1879 by Henry Pratt and funded by the government

• boarding school for native children to become Americanized

• students had military style discipline

Battle of little bighorn

• Jan 31st 1876

• president grant, Lakota Sioux tribe involved

• Grant gave the tribe possession of Wyoming, south Dakota and montanna

• The whites found fold on the land and general Custer started a gold rush that started a battle between the whites and natives

  • Custer led more than 200 men to attack and the natives retaliated

• Custer and all of his men die at the hand of the natives

• Significance is that the battle raised government tensions with the natives

Ghost dance

• wovoka, a shaman of the northern paiute tribe prophesied the reuniting of the native tribes of the west and banishing evil. The ghost dance would reunite the dead with the living and battle the white settlers bringing back the buffalo and prosperity of natives

• it was the last native resistance against white settlers. Chief sitting bull embraced the ghost a dance and police feared he would run away from the reservation so they shot him→bureau of Indian affairs banned the dance

Massacre at wounded knee

• december 29 1890

• the US cavalry regiment surrounded an encampment of the Sioux Indians, near wounded knee. while the regiment tried to disarm the natives, a shot was fired→led to a fight, ending in a native massacre

• remaining Sioux fled and the regiment was awarded medals of honor

• The significance was it caused the end of the Indian wars, the natives were either forcefully or peacefully put into white society→the population of natives went from 2-8 million to 237,000

Gilded age

Period in U.S. History marked by rapid industrialization, wealth inequality, and economic growth

Gilded: Covered by gold paint

Laissez fair policies

• Business had little government regulation→workplace conditions became challenging

• Protective tariffs=taxes that made imported goods cost more than those made in the US to get people to buy american goods

• Government gave innovative railroad builders millions of acres of land so they could quickly bring together the east and west coast

Patents

• Grants given by the federal government for the exclusive right to develop, use, and sell an invention for a set period of time

Major inventions/inventors

• 1880 Edison invented the light bulb, then ventral power plants to light up entire parts of a city→electricity got even more updated→quality of life improved

• Electricity lift streets and powered homes/factories→longer hours for work and play

• 1844 telegraph, 1876 the phone→both attracted investors

• By 1900 there was more than 1 million telephones in the US

• Wireless telegraph helped create the radio→improved communication

Bessemer process

• Bessemer created a way to make iron into steel→industries used the bessemer process and in 1890 the US produced more steel than England

• Steel→skyscrapers, elevators, and suspension bridges (first suspension bridge is the brooklyn bridge, finished in 1833)

horizontal integration

• Horizontal integration=consolidating many firms in the same business

Vertical integration

• Business leaders strengthened their company by controlling the different businesses involved in all stages of making their products (ex carnegie owned coal mines and iron-ore fields that gave materials for his steel & ships/railroads that brought them over)

  • Called vertical integration→allowed reduced costs of production

JP morgan

JP morgan and other head of corporations supported research labs where inventors could experiment with new processes to lower production costs/new inventions

Vanderbilt

• railroads

• Vanderbilt got competitors to pay him to relocate because his low fares were driving them out of business

Rockerfeller and trusts

• Rockerfeller (oil tycoon) had agreements with railroads that made it hard for his competitors to ship their products

• Ohio prevented one company from owning stock in another→Rockerfeller couldn’t buy out his competition→created a business organization called a trust

• trust=companies assigned their stock to a board of trustees, who combined them into a new organization ran by the trustees→by the 1880s rockefeller controlled most oil in the US

Robber barons or captains of industry

• Small businesses were bought up or squeezed out of competition, high prices alarmed consumers→government/consumers believed trust/cartels/monopolies gave business leaders unfair advantages

• People who thought the government had given too much freedom called the business leaders “robber barons”

  • used corrupt methods to get wealth

• People who thought the expansion of efficient business provided jobs, supported developing technology, called the philanthropic leaders “captains of industry”

  • helped spur business and donate money to the arts/institutions

Social darwinism

• Social darwinism said wealth was a measure of value and those who had it were fit→ people who wanted no government interference said it would disrupt natural selection

• Social darwinists thought that the nation would allow its vigorous members to rise to the top and that using public funds to help the poor was wrong

Attempts to regulate business 

• 1887 interstate commerce commission made by congress to monitor railroad shipping rates (only those that crossed state lines), couldn’t make laws 

• 1890 Sherman antitrust act

Sherman antritrust act

• 1890 sherman antitrust act outlawed any trust that operated in restraint of trade among the several states→seldom enforced because court rulings favored business owners

  • The act was used in businesses’ favor because they argued in court that labor unions restrained trade

Climate for big business

1. natural resources

2. lots of labor (immigrants)

3. growing transportation and communication

4. strong and abundant capital (money)

5. patent system

6. lots of entrepreneurs

7. pro business government policies

Inventions that spurred big business

• Alexander bell- telephone

• Ford- assembly line

• Edison- light bulb

• Orville brothers- the plane

Conditions of urban life

• tenements: early apartments that housed the urban poor

  • lacked lighting, ventilation, plumbing, proper exits

• overcrowding and dangerous construction

• pollution and lack of sanitation systems in the city

Tycoons of industry

• rockerfeller-oil

• carnegie-steel

• vanderbilt-railroad conglomerate (and also a university I don’t wanna apply to)

• JP morgan-banking and financing, helped with corporate mergers

political machines

• party organization that gains followers through incentives (jobs, money, etc)

  • like the spoils system

• high leadership control, follows a boss

• found in large cities in the US during the gilded age

• preyed on the poor/immigrants who would exchange votes for rewards

Tammany hall

• democratic party machine

• controlled NYC and NY policies

• helped immigrants while funding their own pockets

• led by William “boss” tweed

Byrd organization

• virginia’s democratic machine

• run by Harry Byrd

• focused on undoing the reconstruction reforms like education or black reforms

Old immigration

• 1800-1871

• Predominantly from Northern and Western Europe

• Typically seeking economic opportunities or freedom from religious/political persecution

• Most were protestant

• Came more for farms than cities and to settle down with a family

• Generally welcomed because they were culturally similar to Americans 

New immigration

• 1871-1921

• Predominantly people from Eastern/Southern Europe  and Asia 

• Came seeking economic opportunities, relief from political and/or religious persecution

• “New” immigrants were catholic or jewish and settled in cities instead of farms→came alone, to make money in the US and return home

• They came from italy, greece, poland, hungary, and russia

Causes of immigration

• Push factors=things that push people to leave their home (famine, war)->1880s mexico, poland, and china had land reform and low prices for crops→farmers forced off their land

• 1880s russian and eastern european jews fled religious persecution and came to be safe

• Pull factor=things that draw people to a new place (economic opportunity, religious freedom)→US also had lots of land and employment

Ellis island

• First stop was immigration stations→to enter immigrants had to be healthy and show they had money, a skill, or a sponsor 

• 1892 immigrants were processed in the new york harbor immigration station ellis island

• 1st and 2nd class were inspected on the ship and released, 3rd class and steerage were sent to ellis island→legal and medical inspections

Angel island

• Chinese immigrants came in the 1850s to work on mines, railroads, farms, and fisheries

• After 1882 chinese immigrants were turned away unless they were american citizens or had relatives living in america

• 1910 angel island, processing center for chinese immigrants in san francisco bay→ designed to filter out chinese immigrants, held them for weeks/months in poor conditions

How immigration influenced American growth

• chinese workers helped build the transcontinental railroad

• immigrants worked in textile and steel mills in the northeast and clothing industry in new york

• Slavs, Italians, and poles worked in the coal mines in the east

Difficulties of immigration: journey

• long tough journey from their former home

• expensive trip left them penniless and jobless in america

• some immigrants were turned away at the border

Americanization and assimilation

• schools and volunteer program attempted to Americanize immigrants

  • taught English, gave financial assistance, jobs etc to make them loyal citizens

• culture emained

  • churches established

  • ethnic neighborhoods established

• culture removed

  • Many were discouraged from speaking native tongues 

  • Memories of home/families left behind 

Hostility towards immigrants

• immigrants (especially Chinese working on the railroad) gain a reputation as reliable/hard workers

• often willing to work for low wages in dangerous conditions

  • seen as opposition to labor reform/competition for jobs

Nativism

• the policy of protecting the interests of native born or established immigrants against those of immigrants

Chinese exclusion act

• 1882

• suspended immigration of all Chinese laborers for 10 years

• required papers for every Chinese person entering or leaving the country

• citizenship was not allowed for Chinese americans

• first laws in the US to restrict immigration

Working conditions in the gilded age

• 12 hours+ work days

• 6 days a week

• no safety regulations

  • poor ventilation

  • fire hazards

  • small, hot, dark, dirty workhouses

• fined for taking breaks

• children sent to work

company towns

• communities owned by businesses and rented out to their employees

• employers owned stores→workers had to buy their goods at high prices→loans given to employees with HIGH interest→HAD to keep working to pay off debts (but with low wages they would never pay it off)

prices vs wages

• industrialization→lowered prices of goods

• average income increased in america

• BUT wages were not good enough to buy goods (prices set too high)

Labor union tactics

• collective bargaining: Group negotiations with employer to discuss working conditions, wages, etc.

• Striking: refusing to work until demands are met

Strikebreaker

person who fills the position of those on strike

socialism

• system where the means of production are publicly controlled and regulated instead of being owned by individuals

• wealth distributed equally

• spreading through europe

• fear that it would overthrow US capitalistic society

knights of labor

• head was Terence powderly

• Everyone was allowed to join: skilled, unskilled, immigrants, women, African americans

• Advocated for 8 hour work days

Amercian federation of labor

• head was samuel gompers

• skilled craft workers could join but the knights of labor was excluded because it included unskilled workers

• Advocated for higher wages, shorter hours, and better working conditions. Also wanted agreements with employees that employers on hire union members

Haymarket riot/affair

• 1886

• Workers struck the mccormick harvesting machine company. Federation organized a mass strike, first strike was at the McCormick place because someone died, second they protested police brutality, the anarchists threw a bomb at the police

• the riots were blamed on the labor movement (mostly knights of labor)→this set back the labor movement by many years

Homestead strikes

• 1892

• conflict between Carnegie company and the workers because they wanted higher wages after carnegie abolish Ed the sliding scale (which had actually paid decent wages)→workers took over the plant after a battle, ended by the state militia being called in to break up the strike andreopen the plant

• the significance was that it was a big protest leading to many deaths, the strike leaders were blacklisted, and Carnegie steel remained non-union for the next 40 years

pullman stirke

• 1984

• pullman cut wages without reducing rent or costs of goods→the strike became nationwide, because of the American railway union. The railway owners put US mail on the trains and said workers were obstructing the delivery of mail→president cleveland sent troops to protect the mail and strike leaders were arrested when they wouldn’t call off the strike

• the impact on the labor movement in the US was that more people became aware that the federal government would always side against the strikers

continuations of slavery

sharecropping: wealthy farmers allowed poor farmers to toil the land in exchange for some of the crops

Convict leasing: african Americans convicted of crimes had to work for companies for free in terrible conditionsr8

Plessy vs Ferguson

• plessy thrown into jail for not moving from a white area in a train

• plessy was 7/8 white and argued the separate but equal law was unconstitutional

• SCOTUS said the law was constitutional

  • thought political equality wasn’t violated by separation

  • said the case had nothing to do with abolishing slavery

• Justice harlan said the constitution was color blind and said the lousiana law was unconstitutional

• the decision justified segregation

• overturned 1984

• SCOTUS also said the races wanted to be separated

KKK

• first organization of terror

• First formed in 1865 TN by former Confederates

• lynching=public killing of someone without due process

  • often carried out by lawless mobs

  • as lynching increased black voting decreased

• white people used to terrorize and control black people in the south

Black codes→jim crow

Black codes: Reconstruction

Jim Crow laws: After Plessy vs. Ferguson 

jim Crow: racist caricature of a Southern Black Man portrayed by a Northern White Man

Jim Crow Laws: Federal, State, and Local laws that enforced racial segregation 

Jim Crow Era: The period in U.S. History between Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Act of 1964

the great migration

• movement of black southerners to the north and Midwest cities

• motivated by

  • escape racial violence

  • pursue educational and economic opportunities

  • freedom from oppression of Jim crow laws

• in the north black people still faced discrimination

  • had difficulty finding homes/jobs

Progressive beliefs and influences

• Progressivism emerged in the 1980s- progressives believed in honest/efficient government that brought social justice (came from all political parties, classes, races etc)

• Progressives all believed that industrialization and urbanization had created social and political problems→wanted reforms to correct problems and injustices

• Progressivism was led by middle class people that thought highly educated leaders should use modern idea dna scientific techniques to improve society

progressive goals

• democracy-put more people in power (not just elite)

• regulation of trusts and monopolies

• social justice-help women, poor, minority groups

• environmental protection

Muckrakers

• Theodore roosevelt called writers muckrakers because he thought they were too fascinated with the ugliest side of things

• Muckrakers showed millions in america the atrocious conditions and prompted them to push for reforms to fix said conditions

upton sinclair

The jungle by upton sinclair showed the despair of immigrants working in chicago stockyards and the unsanitary conditions in the industry→ food safety regulations

Jacob riis

• Muckraker Jacob Riis used his camera to show the crowded, unsafe, rat-infested tenement building where the urban poor lived 

Triangle shirtwaist factory fire

• March 1911 a fire at the triangle shirtwaist factory in NYC focused attention on the need to protect workers→workers had little chance to escape because of locked exits

• Progressive intensified calls for reform after the fire→NY passed laws to make workplaces safer, other cities/states followed suit, many got worker compensation laws

WTCU, NAWSA, NWP, NAACP

• WTCU= the Women’s Christian Temperance Union→along with the Anti-Saloon league promoted the practice of never drinking alcohol

• NAWSA= 1869 anthony and stanton make the national woman suffrage association (NAWSA) to fight for a constitutional amendment that would give women voting rights

• NWP= 1917 Alice paul had formed the national woman’s party (NWP) which used public protests marches, some used hunger strikes (force fed in jail to end the hunger strike)→NWP’s actions drew attention to their cause and made the NAWSA look tame

• NAACP=National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 1896 Ida wells→goal was to help families strive for success and to assist those who were less fortunate→set up daycare centers to protect and educate black children while their parents worked

opposition to progressive groups:

• National association opposed to women's suffrage (NAOWS) believed the effort to win the vote would taken women’s attention away from family→eventually faded away (yeah they better have)

16th, 17th, 18th, 19th amendments

• 16th Amendment (1913) gave Congress the power to impose an income tax

• 17th Amendment (1913) required the direct election of senators

• 18th Amendment (1919) banned the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages

• 19th amendment (1920) gave women the right to vote.

Booker washington

• economic freedom for black people (get jobs)

• improve status and gain rights after financial freedom

• didn’t believe in conflict/protests

• born into slavery

• lived through lynching→protest deemed unsafe

Dubois

• thought investing in the education of the top 10 percent of black men could uplift the rarace wanted afressiv eprotests

• not born into slavery, lived in the north

progressive presidents

roosevelt, Taft, wilson

Roosevelt: progressvism

• square deal: roosevelt’s domestic program

• 3c’s

  • control of corporations made the FLC, which regulated shipping rates from railroad companies

  • consumer protection (pure food and drug act and meat inspection act)

    • passed after reading the jungle

  • conservation of natural resources

    • lays foundation for national park service

Taft

• trust busting

  • 90 suits brought against companies for violating Sherman antitrust act

    • including US steel

• moved away from conservation

Wilson

• clayton antitrust act

  • new freedom book outlined his goals for economic return→ clayton prohibits anti-competition acts

• graduated income tax

  • 16th amendment

• federal trade commisison

  • makes sure businesses use fair practices (honest labeling, disclaimers)

• Underwood Act of 1913 was legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson that changed the way the federal government was funded. This law lowered tariffs, meaning international trade would be cheaper.

• the New Freedom was a collection of speeches Woodrow Wilson made during his presidential campaign of 1912.

• The establishment of the Federal Reserve would effectively regulate the supply of money in the economy, prevent banking panics, and work to secure financial stability

Uses of social darwinism

• supported limited government action in the economy

• supported racist/ableist ideas that suggest non-white and disabled people were unfit

Buck v. bell

• may 1927

• the U.S. Supreme Court accepted that Buck, her mother and her daughter were "feeble-minded" and "promiscuous," and that it was in the state's interest to have her sterilized.

• Carrie Buck was the first person sterilized under Virginia's Sterilization law

thomas nast

Thomas Nast was a German-born American caricaturist and editorial cartoonist often considered to be the "Father of the American Cartoon". He was a sharp critic of "Boss" Tweed and the Tammany Hall Democratic Party political machine.

crazy horse

a Lakota war leader of the Oglala band in the 19th century. He took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by White American settlers on Native American territory and to preserve the traditional way of life of the Lakota people. His participation in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, in which he led a war party to victory, earned him great respect from both his enemies and his own people.

chief joseph

Chief Joseph led his band of Nez Perce during the most tumultuous period in their history, when they were forcibly removed by the United States federal government from their ancestral lands in the Wallowa Valley of northeastern Oregon onto a significantly reduced reservation in the Idaho Territory.

spring of 1877 culminated in those Nez Perce who resisted removal, including Joseph's band and an allied band of the Palouse tribe, fleeing the United States in an attempt to reach political asylum alongside the Lakota people, who had sought refuge in Canada under the leadership of Sitting Bull.