Old West New South

Redeemers

Staged a major counterrevolution to "redeem" the south by taking back southern state governments. Their foundation rested on the idea of racism and white supremacy. Redeemer governments waged and agressive assault on African Americans.

Jim Crow laws

Laws designed to enforce segregation of blacks from whites

The lost cause

The phrase many white southerners applied to their Civil War defeat. They viewed the war as a noble cause but only a temporary setback in the South's ultimate vindication

Plessy v. Ferguson

a 1896 Supreme Court decision which legalized state ordered segregation so long as the facilities for blacks and whites were equal

Reservation system

The system that allotted land with designated boundaries to Native American tribes in the west, the U.S. government encouraged and sometimes violently coerced Native Americans to stay on the reservations at all times.

Buffalo soldiers

Nickname for African-American soldiers who fought in the wars against Native Americans living on the Great Plains during the 1870s

Battle of Little Bighorn

In 1876, Indian leaders Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse defeated Custer's troops who tried to force them back on to the reservation, Custer and all his men died

Chief Joseph

Leader of Nez Perce. Fled with his tribe to Canada instead of reservations. However, US troops came and fought and brought them back down to reservations

Helen hunt Jackson

A writer. Author of the 1881 book A Century of Dishonor. The book exposed the U.S. governments many broken promises to the Native Americans.

Geronimo

Apache chieftain who raided the white settlers in the Southwest as resistance to being confined to a reservation (1829-1909)

Importance of buffalo

Native Americans used them for food, clothing, shelter, and fuel

Reconstruction act

an 1867 law that threw out the southern state governments that had refused to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment

Battle of wounded knee

US soldiers massacred 300 unarmed Native American in 1890. This ended the Indian Wars.

Ghost dance

a religious dance of native Americans looking for communication with the dead

Dawes Severalty Act

Bill that promised Indians tracts of land to farm in order to assimilate them into white culture. The bill was resisted, uneffective, and disastrous to Indian tribes

Boom towns

a town undergoing rapid growth due to sudden prosperity.

Transcontinental Railroad

Railroad connecting the west and east coasts of the continental US

Cattle drives

This refers to the forced migration of massive numbers of cattle to the railroads where they could be shipped to the East.

Sooners

In 1889, people who illegally claimed land by sneaking past government officials before the land races began

Frederick Jackson Turner

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

Homestead act

1862 - Provided free land in the West to anyone willing to settle there and develop it. Encouraged westward migration.

The grange

an association formed by farmers in the last 1800s to make life better for farmers by sharing information about crops, prices, and supplies

Populist party

U.S. political party formed in 1892 representing mainly farmers, favoring free coinage of silver and government control of railroads and other monopolies

Jacob Coxey

Populist who led Coxey's Army in a march on Washington DC in 1894 to seek government jobs for the unemployed.

Pullman strike

in Chicago, Pullman cut wages but refused to lower rents in the "company town", Eugene Debs had American Railway Union refuse to use Pullman cars, Debs thrown in jail after being sued, strike achieved nothing

Election of 1896

Republican William McKinley defeated Democratic-Populist "Popocrat" William Jennings Bryan. 1st election in 24 years than Republicans won a majority of the popular vote. McKinley won promoting the gold standard, pluralism, and industrial growth.