AMSCO AP US History Chapter 17

Great American Desert

Arid land west of the 100th meridian with little rainfall or trees; early settlers thought it was unfit for farming.

Comstock Lode

Massive silver and gold discovery in Nevada (1859); helped Nevada gain statehood.

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

First U.S. law to ban immigration by race; stopped Chinese labor immigration.

Joseph Glidden

Invented barbed wire in 1874, allowing farmers to fence land on the Great Plains.

Sitting Bull

Lakota Sioux chief who led warriors at Little Bighorn; later killed during Ghost Dance conflict.

Battle of Little Bighorn (1876)

Native victory where Custer and his men were defeated in Montana.

Chief Joseph

Nez Perce leader who tried to flee to Canada but was forced to surrender in 1877.

Dawes Act (1887)

Law dividing tribal lands into private plots to assimilate Natives; mostly failed.

Ghost Dance

Native religious revival movement hoping to restore lost lands and traditions.

Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)

U.S. Army killed over 200 Sioux, ending Native resistance in the West.

Helen Hunt Jackson

Author of A Century of Dishonor; exposed government mistreatment of Native Americans.

Turner’s Frontier Thesis (1893)

Argued the frontier shaped American democracy, independence, and character.

John Muir

Founder of the Sierra Club; led the movement to preserve nature from development.

New South

Post–Civil War plan to industrialize and modernize the southern economy.

Jim Crow Laws

State laws enforcing racial segregation in public facilities.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Supreme Court case legalizing “separate but equal” segregation.

Booker T. Washington

Founded Tuskegee Institute; urged self-help and job skills over immediate equality.

W.E.B. Du Bois

Civil rights activist who demanded immediate equality and opposed Booker T. Washington.

Ida B. Wells

Journalist who led the anti-lynching movement and opposed segregation.