HUSH Unit 6 (1877 – 1898) VOCABULARY

American Federation of Labor

A loose alliance of national craft unions calling for higher wages, shorter hours, and better working conditions; established by Samuel Gompers.

Americanization

The act of becoming knowledgeable about American culture; this was the key to success of immigrated children.

Booker T Washington

Encouraged blacks to keep to themselves and focus on the daily tasks of survival, rather than leading a grand uprising. Believed that building a strong economic base was more critical at that time than planning an uprising or fighting for equal rights.

Chinese Exclusion Act

It was one of the most significant restrictions on free immigration in US history, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers.

Frederick Jackson Turner

An American historian said that humanity would continue to progress as long as there was new land to move into. The frontier provided a place for the homeless and solved social problems.

Gilded Age

A period of rapid economic growth but also much social conflict that spanned the final three decades of the nineteenth century, was one of the most dynamic, contentious, and volatile periods in American history.

Gospel of Wealth

An article written by Andrew Carnegie in June of 1889 that describes the responsibility of philanthropy by the new upper class of self-made rich is to devote themselves to distributing their wealth responsibly to benefit society while they are still alive.

Haymarket Square Riot

Workers campaigning for the 8-hour work day in Chicago called for a protest and police intervention led to a bomb being thrown. Americans feared the labor movement and anarchism.

Horizontal Integration

The combining of many firms engaged in the same type of business into one large corporation.

Jane Addams

Founder of Hull-House, which became the center of an experiment in philanthropy, political action, and social science research, was a model for settlement work among the poor.

Knights of Labor

Established by Uriah S. Stephens, the platform included an 8 hour work day and abolition of child labor; taken over by Terrence Powderly.

Laissez-Faire Policies

An economic system in which transactions between private parties are free from government interference such as regulations, privileges, tariffs, and subsidies.

Large Trusts

Corporations like Standard Oil, Swift, and Armour justified the economic domination of their industries by claiming that only large-scale methods of production and distribution could provide superior products at low prices.

Middle Class

this was formed from white-collar workers—managers, engineers, and sales representatives that had more leisure time and greater income and consequently, new forms of entertainment emerged

Mining

the discovery of rich mineral resources (much needed by emerging industries) creating mining towns all over the United States

Morrill Act

allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges in U.S. states using the proceeds of federal land sales.

New South

a slogan in the history of the American South, after 1877. Reformers use it to call for a modernization of society and attitudes, to integrate more fully with the United States, and reject the economy and traditions of the Old South and the slavery-based plantation system of the antebellum period

People's (Populist) Party

US political party that sought to represent the interests of farmers and laborers in the 1890s, advocating increased currency issue, free coinage of gold and silver, public ownership of railroads, and a graduated federal income tax

Plessy v. Ferguson

was a landmark constitutional law case of the US Supreme Court. It upheld state racial segregation laws for public facilities under the doctrine of 'separate but equal'.

Railroads

held together the growing nation, creating by their very existence opportunities for entrepreneurs in other fields and shaping a huge domestic market, which led to an economic boom that stimulated agriculture and mining in the West

Social Darwinism

the theory that individuals, groups, and peoples are subject to the laws of natural selection as plants and animals. It was advocated by Herbert Spencer and others in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was used to justify political conservatism, imperialism, and racism and to discourage intervention and reform.

Social Gospel

A religious movement that arose in the United States in the late nineteenth century with the goal of making Christian churches more responsive to social problems, such as poverty and prostitution.

Transcontinental Railroads

a contiguous network of railroad tracks that crosses a continental land mass with terminals at different oceans or continental borders. The first one was constructed between 1863 and 1869 and connected the existing eastern U.S. rail network at Omaha, Nebraska/Council Bluffs, Iowa with the Pacific coast at the Oakland Long Wharf on San Francisco Bay

Vertical Integration

A single company owns and controls the entire process from raw materials to the manufacture and sale of the finished product

W.E.B. Du Bois

He felt that immediate 'ceaseless agitation' was the only way to truly attain equal rights. As editor of the black publication 'The Crisis,' he publicized his disdain for Washington and was instrumental in the creation of the 'Niagara Movement,' which later became the NAACP

William Seward

He was secretary of state under Johnson and Lincoln. He helped purchase Alaska as well as create a secret police force.

Wounded Knee Massacre

transpiring in 1890 that started when Sioux left the reservation in protest because of the death of Sitting Bull. The US army killed 150 Sioux it was the last major incident in the Great Plains