AMSCO 6.2 - 6.4 Vocabulary Terms APUSH

Great American Dessert

Name given by pioneers to the lands between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Coast. These pioneers would often pass through this area on the way to the green valleys of Oregon and the goldfields of California.

100th meridan

The plains west of the _______________ had few trees and usually received less than 15 inches of rainfall a year, which is not considered enough moisture to support farming.

Buffalo Herds

Herd of animals almost wiped out after 1865. Native Americans depended on them for their food and culture.

Vaqueros

The term for Mexican cowboys.

Longhorn cattle

Tradition of the cattle business in the late 1800s borrowed from the Mexicans.

Cattle drives

Drives in which cattle were collected from the frontier and placed on trains to ship to major cities like Chicago. The frontier this pertained to ended after overgrazing destroyed the grass, and 90 percent of the cattle fell to death.

Barbed wire

Homesteaders used these fencings in order to cut off access to the formerly open range. It was a contributing factor the decline of the Cattle Frontier.

Homesteaders Act

1862 act that encouraged farming on the Great Plains by offering 160 acres of public land free to any family that settled on it for a period of five years.

Joseph Glidden

Invented the barbed wire, which helped farmers to fence in their lands on the lumber-scarce plains.

Dry farming

Deep-plowing techniques to make the most of the moisture available. Few crops withstood the extreme weather of the Great Plains, so farmers had to adapt.

Cash crops

Northern and western farmers of the late 19th century concentrated on raising singular crops known as ________ crops for both national and international markets.

Deflation

The downward driving of prices resulting from increased production. In this period, increased production of crops such as wheat and corn drove prices down for farms around the world. The money supply was not growing as fast as the economy, so each dollar became worth more.

Middlemen

Wholesalers and retailers, known as ________ men, were taking a cut of the earnings before selling to farmers. Industrial corporations were able to keep prices high on manufactured goods by forming monopolistic trusts.

National Grange Movement

Organized as a social and educational organization for farmers and their families. This movement became active in politics, and wanted to defend members against middlemen, trusts, and railroads.

Cooperatives

Businesses owned and run by the farmers to save the costs charged by middlemen.

Granger Laws

Laws created by the National Grange Movement that made it illegal for railroads to fix prices by means of pools.

Munn v. Illinois

1877 Supreme Court decision that upheld the right of a state to regulate businesses of a public nature, such as railroads. It was a decision that sided with farmers.

Ocala Platform

National organization of farmers that attacked wall street bankers and big business. This platform was created by these farmers, and called for reforms. Some of these reforms included lower tariffs, graduated income tax, new banking system, direct election of U.S. senators, etc.

Frederick Jackson Turner

Published a provocative, influential essay. Presented the settling of the frontier as an evolutionary process of building civilization.

"The Significance of the Frontier in American History"

Essay published by Jackson Turner which highlighted that the frontier made America. Turner argued that 300 years of frontier experience had shaped American culture, promoting independence, individualism, inventiveness, etc.

Little Big Horn

Battle where the Sioux ambushed and destroyed Colonel George Custer's command at Little Big Horn in 1876.

Ghost Dance Movement

The religiously inspired last effort of American Indians to resist U.S. government controls. Leaders believed it could return prosperity to American Indians.

Assimilation

Movement where whites wanted Native Americans to integrate into American society, and do away with their own culture. Reformers advocated formal education, job training, and conversion to Christianity. Boarding schools were set up in order to segregate American Indian children from their people and teach them White culture.

Helen Hunt Jackson

The injustices done to American Indians were chronicled in a best-selling book by this person. The book was called A Century of Dishonor, and it generated support for ending Indian culture through assimilation.

Dawes Act

An act that was designed to break up tribal organizations. Tribal lands were divided into plots of up to 160 acres, depending on family size. U.S. citizenship was granted to those who stayed on the land for 25 years and "adopted the habits of civilized life." The federal government distributed 47 million acres of land to American Indians. However, 90 million acres of former reservation land was sold over the years to White settlers.

Indian Reorganization Act

Act which prompted the reestablishment of tribal organization and culture. Since the establishment of this act, the number of people identifying as American Indians has increased.

Santa Fe Trail

1,000-mile overland route between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and western Missouri that linked the regions. This trail opened up the Spanish-speaking southwest to economic development and settlement. It was a vital link until a railroad was completed in 1880.

Yosemite

Western icon that Congress wanted to preserve as a California state park.

Yellowstone

The first area dedicated as a national park in 1872.

Forest Reserve Act of 1891

Along with the Forest Management Act of 1897, this act withdrew federal timberlands from development and regulated their use. The objective was to preserve land and the natural treasures they contained.

Conservationists

Believed in scientific management and regulated use of natural resources.

Preservationists

Aimed to preserve natural areas from human interference.

John Muir

Preservationist who founded the Sierra Club of 1892, in order to preserve natural areas from human interference.

Sierra Club

Club founded by John Muir in order to preserve natural areas from human interference. This club reflected a growing environmental awareness in Americans.

New South

A vision promoted by Southerners which advocated for a self-sufficient economy, built on modern capitalist values, industrial growth, modernized transportation, and improved race relations.

Henry Grady

The editor of the Atlanta Constitution. He spread the gospel of the "New South" with editorials that argued for economic diversity and laissez-faire capitalism.

Birmingham, Alabama

Southern capital and state that developed into one of the nation's leading steel producers.

Memphis, Tennessee

Southern capital and state that prospered as a center for the South's growing lumber industry.

Richmond, Virginia

Former capital of the Confederacy that became the capital of the nation's tobacco industry.

National Rail Network

The South was integrated into this network because Southern railroad companies rapidly converted to the standard gauge rails used in the North and West.

Tenant Farmers

Half of the South's White farmers, and 3/4ths of the South's Black farmers worked as this kind of farmer, relying on rented land.

Sharecroppers

Paid for the use of land with a share of the crop. Most poor White Southerner's, and African Americans worked this type of farming.

George Washington Carver

African American scientist at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama who prompted the growing of such crops as peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans. His worked played an important role in shifting southern agriculture toward a more diversified base.

Tuskegee Institute

School built by Booker T. Washington as an industrial and agricultural school for African Americans.

White supremacists

This group favored separating (segregating) public facilities, as a means of treating African American as social inferiors.

Civil Rights Cases of 1883

Period in time after Reconstruction where the Supreme Court ruled that Congress could not ban racial discrimination practiced by private citizens and business, including railroads and hotels, used by the public.

Plessy v. Ferguson

Supreme Court ruling that upheld a Louisiana law requiring "separate but equal accommodations" for White and Black railroad passengers. The Court ruled that the Louisiana law did not violate the 14th Amendment's guarantee of "equal protection of the laws."

Jim Crow Laws

Series of laws designed to segregate washrooms, drinking fountains, park benches, and other facilities in virtually all public places.

Grandfather Clauses

Allowed a man to vote if his grandfather had voted in elections before Reconstructions. This law, and others such as literacy tests and poll taxes, were made in order to take away Black voting power.

Lynch Mobs

Killed more than 1,400 Black men during the 1890s. African Americans accused of crimes did not receive the formality of a court-ordered sentence.

Economic Discrimination

Kept southern African Americans out of skilled trades and even factory jobs. Poor whites and immigrants learned the industrial skills that would help them rise into the middle class, but African Americans remaind engaged in farming and low-paying domestic work.

Ida B. Wells

Editor of the Memphis Free Speech who campaigned against lynching and Jim Crow Laws.

International Migration Society

Society formed in 1894 in order to help blacks emigrate to Africa. Many African Americans moved to Kansas and Oklahoma.

Booker T. Washington

African American leader who responded to oppression by accommodating it. He thought African Americans should focus on working hard at their jobs and not challenge segregation and discrimination. In return, Whites should support education and even some legal rights for African Americans.

W.E.B. Du Bois

African American leader who disagreed with Booker T. Washington's philosophy to challenge oppression. Instead, he demanded an end to segregation and the granting of equal civil rights to all Americans.

Atlanta Compromise

A belief that Black and White Southerners shared a responsibility for making their region prosper.