APUSH Period 6

Great American Desert

dry, unusable land in the west

Comstock Lode

solver deposit in Nevada

Transcontinental Railroad

Railroad that crossed across the U.S.→ connected markets and cities= easier to transport goods across the country

• 5 connecting every place→ east and west were easily accessible to each other

  • CREATED A NATIONAL MARKET FOR GOODS

    • NATURAL RESOURCES

Pacific Railroad Act

signed into law by Lincoln: provided federal subsidies (funding) and land grants to railroad companies→ expanded with the 1863, 64’, 65’, and 66’ pacific railroad acts

• led to decimation of small farming

Homestead Act

law aiding those migrating west:
- granted potential migrants 160 acres on free land out west on the condition that they would farm and sell it

• not enough land for farmers to make a living

• small farms dying

Exodusters

black southerners who migrated to escape jim crow south

• vast majority of black homesteaders were still in destitution in the south

Chinese Immigrants

moved over for gold and silver mining but mainly worked on the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad

Cattle Ranching

cattle trades growing b/c westward expanders brought them with them

- leads to cowboy ideology

• leads to death of bisons

Long-Drives

cattle drivers drove heards north to northern markets→ stopped by homesteaders who put up barbed fencing to block off parts of land and also by overgrazing, blizzards, and droughts that killed the grass the cattle ate

Sodbusters

first to settle: made fencing and pushed cattle ranching

• bought land from railroad companies→ folded to bigger businesses eventually

Barbed Wire

used by the new farmers of the west to fence off their claims at a relatively low cost

• regular materials for fencing were not available in west so used barbed wire

Railroad Companies

gov’t provided them with grants and land to build more

Farmers Alliances

small farmers were being pushed out of business by railroad companies who were taking over the land and pushing production across the country→ mass production shift which led to the decimation of small farmers: advocated for themselves after Granger Laws were not focused on anymore (purpose was to protect farmers from railroad companies)

• farmer’s alliances provided community and political fight for isolated farmers

Decimation of Bison

westward expanders killed hordes of buffalo for sport and some for food but also the animals they introduced to the environment ate the food of the bison→ native tribes followed bison hoards for food→ forced to conform to the “americanizing” way

Ghost Dance Movement

if indians participants participated→ ghosts of ancestors would come back and help drive white men off their land→ created fear in the white man’s populations

Wounded Knee Massacres

U.S. army attempted to disarm ghost dance, gun went off and army shot and killed more than 200 men women and children→ MARKS END OF NATIVE AMERICAN RESISTANCE

Dawes Act

officially abandoned reservation systems

• allowed indians to become american citizens if they agreed to abandon their culture and farm on the land given

Carlisle Indian School

school with the purpose to “americanize” native americans who they wanted to make conform to the white traditions and abandon their own practices so the white people could take over the land easily

• forced assimilation to christian culture→ “rescuing” native american children and

Frederick Jackson Turner

developed the frontier thesis

Frontier Thesis

that the end of the frontier marked a new america→ changed society with new access across east to west

New South

vision of the south moving towards a modern society made of small farms, thriving industries, and bustling cities, with the death of plantation systems (northernizing to keep up with their production)

Disenfranchisement (poll tax, literacy test, grandfather clause)

purpose was to humiliate and prevent black people from climbing the ranks of society and having the same basic rights as white people in the south

Plessy v. Ferguson

rail-car fight

• Ferguson rode in a whites only car→ refused to leave and was arrested

• taken to federal court: segregation was allowed as long as public facilities were equal in kind and quality

  • “separate but equal”

  • LED TO TOTAL SEGREGATION

Jim Crow Laws

public segregation of all society

• lost many of the gains made in reconstruction

• humiliate and take away rights

• lynch mobs and vigilantes decided to take matters into their own hands since black people did not get trials

Minstrel Shows

popularized in both North and South: performances that made fun of black culture and dramatized it based on racist stereotypes and ideas

Birth of a Nation

film heavily influenced by racism: depicted KKK as a heroic force eliminating the sexually aggressive and unintelligent racist portrayal of black people in a post-civil war era

Ida B. Wells

editor of a black newpaper in the south

• fiercely editorialized and fought back against lynching

  • stuff was destroyed by an angry mob

  • fled to north and kept persisting efforts

Booker T. Washington

view: black people should become self sufficient economically → leads to power in voting booths

• he had done this himself coming from being previously enslaved

• economic dice was loaded against black people in the south→ vision was demeaned impractical by many

W.E.B. DuBois

criticized Washington as a accommodationist

• demanded for an immediate end for disenfranchisement and legalized segregation

• believed education should create strong and bold leaders willing to challenge the racism in the south

Andrew Carnegie

owner of carnegie steel

John D. Rockefeller

owner of standard oil

• created horizontal integration

Standard Oil

owner: John D. Rockefeller

• forced competitors to sell companies to him: eliminates competition and he controls most of the oil industry and producers

Horizontal Integration

one company buys out all of its competetors until there is no competition left

U.S. Steel

owned by carnegie

Vertical Integration

company aquires all the complementary industries that handle their business

• complete domination of industry with no competition

Trusts

A legal entity in which a group of companies or assets are placed under the control of a small group of individuals or a holding company. The purpose of a trust is to reduce competition and increase market control within an industry

Sears and Roebuck Catalog

giant catalog that led to the destruction of small businesses→ made everything available to everyone: ruined market system→ but small general stores out of business

Child Labor

influx of child laborers→ no governmental regulation on wages

• could pay less than men

• 18% of work force: children were every bit of subject to injury and death

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

railroad companies cut wages to save money during recession→ unionized workers went on strike in protest= spread to 11 states→ violence broke out and pres. sent in federal troops to restore order (100 dead)

• able to behold power of unionization→ made companies listen to grievances of workers= conditions and hours (wages)

Knights of Labor

national union→ open to anyone who wanted to join

• goals: destruction of trusts and monopolies and abolition of child labor

  • worked to abolish practices

Haymarket Square Riot

led to end of Knights of Labor

• gathered to protest→ bomb exploded (anarchist unafiliated with Knights)

• bombing was associated with KoL and sentiment against labor unions shifted→ forced to disband (membership lessened)

American Federation of Labor

association of craft workers

• goals the same as KoL= higher wages and safer working conditions

• led by samuel gompers

• 1 mil members by 1981

Samuel Gompers

led the american federation of labor