6B

Salvation Army

A Christian organization founded in England in 1865 and expanded to the United States in 1880. It helped poor and homeless people by providing food, shelter, religious services, and other forms of assistance.

Women's Christian Temperance Union

A reform organization founded in 1874 that worked to end alcohol abuse and promote temperance. It later supported women's suffrage and other social reforms because members believed alcohol contributed to poverty and domestic violence.

Tuskegee Institute

A school founded in Alabama in 1881 by Booker T. Washington to provide African Americans with education and job training. It emphasized vocational skills, such as farming and trades, to help Black Americans gain economic independence despite segregation and discrimination.

Land-Grant Colleges

Colleges established with federal support through the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890. These schools focused on practical subjects such as agriculture, engineering, and military science, making higher education more accessible and helping develop American industry and farming.

Carrie Chapman Catt

A leading women's suffrage activist who became president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. She developed the Winning Plan, which coordinated state and national campaigns to win voting rights for women and helped secure the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.

National American Woman Suffrage Association

An organization formed in 1890 by combining two major women's suffrage groups. Led by activists including Susan B. Anthony and Carrie Chapman Catt, it worked to win women the right to vote through state campaigns and a constitutional amendment.

Helen Hunt Jackson

An author and reformer who exposed the unfair treatment of Native Americans in her 1881 book A Century of Dishonor. She criticized the federal government's broken treaties and mistreatment of Native peoples and pushed for reforms.

Frederick Jackson Turner

An American historian who introduced the Frontier Thesis in 1893. He argued that the frontier shaped American democracy, independence, and national identity. He believed the closing of the frontier marked an important turning point in American history.

Safety-Valve Theory

The belief that the American West provided an opportunity for people to escape poverty, overcrowded cities, and low-paying jobs by moving west and acquiring land. Historians have questioned how realistic this opportunity was for many Americans.

Comstock Lode

A major silver deposit discovered in Nevada in 1859. It attracted miners, investors, and settlers, helped Nevada's economy grow, and contributed to the expansion of western mining and settlement.

Interstate Commerce Act

An 1887 law that attempted to regulate railroads and stop unfair practices, such as unreasonable rates and price discrimination. It created the Interstate Commerce Commission, the first federal agency designed to regulate a major industry, although its early enforcement powers were limited.

Joseph Pulitzer

A newspaper publisher who helped develop sensational journalism by using dramatic headlines, illustrations, and attention-grabbing stories to increase newspaper sales. He also supported investigative reporting and helped establish journalism as an important public service.

William Randolph Hearst

A powerful newspaper publisher known for sensational journalism, often called yellow journalism. His newspapers used dramatic headlines and emotional stories to attract readers, especially during the Cuban struggle for independence from Spain and the Spanish-American War.

Realism (in Art and Literature)

A cultural movement that attempted to show everyday life and ordinary people realistically rather than idealizing them. Realist writers and artists focused on actual social conditions, working-class experiences, and the problems created by industrialization and urban growth.

Winslow Homer

An American artist known for realistic paintings of everyday life, the sea, and nature. His work often showed ordinary people and the challenges of life, reflecting the growing interest in realism during the late nineteenth century.

Henry George

An American economist and reformer who wrote Progress and Poverty in 1879. He argued that economic inequality increased as land values rose and proposed a single tax on the value of land to reduce poverty and discourage land speculation.

Progress and Poverty

An 1879 book by Henry George that examined why poverty continued to exist even as society became wealthier. George argued that rising land values allowed landowners to profit from economic growth and proposed a single tax on land values as a solution.

Mark Twain

The pen name of Samuel Clemens, an American author known for his humor, regional language, and realistic descriptions of American life. Works such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn explored social problems, racism, and life along the Mississippi River.

Cardinal James Gibbons

A prominent American Catholic leader who served as archbishop of Baltimore and supported workers' rights. He defended labor unions and argued that workers should be allowed to organize to improve wages and working conditions.

Frederick Law Olmsted

An influential landscape architect known for designing public parks and green spaces. He helped design Central Park in New York City and believed parks improved city life by providing recreation, fresh air, and relief from crowded urban environments.

Sitting Bull

A Hunkpapa Lakota leader who resisted U.S. government efforts to take Native American land and force Native peoples onto reservations. He played an important role in Native resistance during the Great Sioux War and was associated with the Lakota victory at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.

George A. Custer

A U.S. Army officer and former Civil War general who led troops against Native American forces in the Great Sioux War. He and his troops were defeated and killed at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 while fighting Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors.

Little Bighorn

The 1876 battle in Montana in which Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors, including forces associated with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, defeated Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer and his troops. The victory became a major symbol of Native American resistance, but the U.S. government responded with increased military pressure.

Chief Joseph

A leader of the Nez Perce who resisted the forced removal of his people from their traditional lands in the Pacific Northwest. In 1877, he led his people toward Canada while attempting to escape the U.S. Army. After surrendering, he became known for his efforts to protect his people and preserve their way of life.

Geronimo

An Apache leader who resisted U.S. and Mexican efforts to control Apache lands and force his people onto reservations. He led several periods of resistance before surrendering to U.S. forces in 1886, becoming one of the most famous symbols of Native American resistance.

Sioux Wars

A series of conflicts between the Sioux and the United States during the nineteenth century over land, treaty violations, and westward expansion. Major events included Red Cloud's War and the Great Sioux War of 1876, which included the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Nez Perce

A Native American people who lived in the Pacific Northwest. In 1877, some Nez Perce bands resisted being forced onto a smaller reservation and attempted to escape to Canada. After a long retreat, they surrendered to the U.S. Army, and many were forced away from their homeland.

Apache

A group of Native American peoples from the Southwest who resisted Mexican and U.S. expansion into their traditional lands. Leaders such as Geronimo fought against forced reservation settlement, but U.S. military campaigns eventually restricted Apache independence.

Ghost Dance

A religious movement that spread among Native American peoples in the late nineteenth century. Some followers believed the practice would restore Native lands, renew traditional ways of life, and bring back deceased relatives. U.S. officials viewed the movement as a threat, contributing to increased tensions before the massacre at Wounded Knee.

Battle of Wounded Knee

More accurately known as the Wounded Knee Massacre, this event occurred in South Dakota in 1890 when U.S. soldiers killed hundreds of Lakota Sioux, including women and children. It followed rising tensions surrounding the Ghost Dance movement and is often considered a major symbol of the violent suppression of Native American resistance.

Dawes Severalty Act

An 1887 law that divided communally held Native American reservation land into individual allotments. Supporters claimed it would encourage farming and assimilation into white American society, but the policy weakened tribal governments and caused Native Americans to lose millions of acres of land.

Reservation System

A federal policy that forced many Native American peoples to live on designated areas of land, often far from their traditional homelands. The system restricted movement, reduced access to traditional hunting and farming areas, and made Native communities dependent on government supplies and decisions.

Waving the Bloody Shirt

A political tactic used by Republicans after the Civil War to remind voters of the Union's sacrifices and blame Democrats for the war. Republicans used memories of the conflict to gain support, especially by portraying Democrats as responsible for the suffering caused by the Civil War.

Tweed Ring

A corrupt political organization led by William "Boss" Tweed that controlled New York City's Democratic political machine, Tammany Hall, during the late 1860s and early 1870s. Its members stole public money through bribery, inflated contracts, and other schemes before journalists and reformers helped expose the corruption.

Credit Mobilier Scandal

A major political scandal exposed in 1872 involving the Union Pacific Railroad and a construction company called Credit Mobilier. Railroad insiders used the company to overcharge for construction and distributed discounted stock to politicians to gain protection. The scandal damaged public trust in the federal government.

Whiskey Ring Fraud

A corruption scandal exposed in 1875 in which whiskey distillers and government officials worked together to avoid paying federal taxes on alcohol. The scheme deprived the government of tax revenue and involved people connected to President Ulysses S. Grant's administration.

Jay Gould

A wealthy railroad investor and financier known for aggressive business practices and attempts to manipulate financial markets. He became associated with railroad speculation and the 1869 Black Friday gold-market scandal, in which he and other investors attempted to drive up gold prices.

Panic of 1873

A major economic depression that began after financial speculation and the failure of the investment firm Jay Cooke & Company. It caused bank failures, business closures, unemployment, and falling wages. The depression lasted for several years and increased conflict between workers, businesses, and the government.

Rutherford B. Hayes

The Republican president from 1877 to 1881 who won the disputed election of 1876 through the Compromise of 1877. He withdrew the remaining federal troops from the South, effectively ending Reconstruction, and supported civil service reform to reduce political corruption.

Samuel Tilden

The Democratic presidential candidate in the disputed election of 1876. He won the popular vote and appeared to have enough electoral votes, but disputed returns in several states led to a political crisis. The controversy was resolved through the Compromise of 1877, which gave the presidency to Rutherford B. Hayes.

Compromise of 1877

An informal political agreement that resolved the disputed presidential election of 1876 by allowing Republican Rutherford B. Hayes to become president. In return, federal troops were withdrawn from the remaining Reconstruction governments in the South. This effectively ended Reconstruction and allowed white Southern Democrats to regain control, leading to increased restrictions on Black Americans' rights.

Pendleton Act

An 1883 law that created a merit-based system for certain federal government jobs. It required competitive examinations for covered positions and prohibited some political practices, helping reduce the spoils system, in which government jobs were awarded to political supporters.

James A. Garfield

The Republican president elected in 1880 who took office in 1881. He supported civil service reform but was shot by Charles Guiteau, a man angry over not receiving a government position. Garfield died later that year, and his assassination increased public support for reforming the federal hiring system.

Chester A. Arthur

The vice president who became president after James A. Garfield was assassinated in 1881. Although he had previously been connected to the political patronage system, Arthur signed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act in 1883, establishing merit-based hiring for certain federal jobs.

Grover Cleveland

The Democratic president who served from 1885 to 1889 and again from 1893 to 1897. He supported limited government, opposed excessive government spending, and challenged corruption. During his second term, the Panic of 1893 caused a severe depression that hurt his popularity.

Thomas B. Reed

A Republican politician who served as Speaker of the House of Representatives during the late nineteenth century. He strengthened the speaker's authority and changed House procedures to make it harder for the minority party to block legislation by refusing to participate in votes.

William McKinley

The Republican president from 1897 to 1901 who supported protective tariffs to help American businesses. During his presidency, the United States fought the Spanish-American War in 1898 and gained control of territories including Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.

Marcus Alonzo Hanna

A wealthy businessman and influential Republican political organizer who helped McKinley win the presidency in 1896. He used business connections and fundraising to build a strong national campaign, demonstrating the growing importance of organized campaign financing in American politics.

William Jennings Bryan

A Democratic politician and powerful public speaker who became famous for supporting free silver, which would expand the money supply and help farmers and debtors. His 1896 "Cross of Gold" speech attacked the gold standard, and he ran unsuccessfully for president in 1896, 1900, and 1908.