Key Concepts of the Gilded Age and Labor Movements

Social Darwinism

This application of the theory of biological evolution to society, holding that the fittest and wealthiest survive, the weak and the poor perish, and government action is unable to alter this 'natural' process.

Laissez-faire

This principle espouses that the less government does the better, particularly in reference to the economy.

Second Industrial Revolution

The era of a burst of major inventions and economic expansion based on the use of machine technology that transformed certain industries, such as oil, railroads, and steel.

Gilded Age

A term invented to describe the late nineteenth century as a period of ostentatious displays of wealth, growing poverty, and government inaction in the face of income inequality.

Tammany Hall

A key organization of the new mass politics in New York City; the group offered jobs and housing to immigrants in exchange for votes.

Gospel of Wealth

Written by Andrew Carnegie outlining this philosophy, 'the millionaire will be but a trustee for the poor; entrusted for a season with a great part of the increased wealth of the community, but administering it for the community far better than it could or would have done for itself...'

Robber barons

View of wealthy and powerful business leaders in that they used ruthless tactics to eliminate competition and enhance their own wealth.

Political machine

Most cities were controlled by this which offered services and government jobs in exchange for votes; controlled by a political boss.

Sherman Antitrust Act

Law passed in 1890 which made it illegal to restrain trade.

Pendleton Act

This law passed in 1883 provided that federal government jobs be awarded on the basis of merit and that government employees be selected through competitive exams.

Civil service reform

In the late 1800s this aimed to eliminate corruption and patronage in government jobs by implementing merit-based hiring and promotion.

Gold Standard Act

This law passed in 1900 effectively linked the U.S. dollar's value to this metal.

Populist Party

This formed in the late 19th century, advocated for the interests of farmers and laborers, promoting policies like the free coinage of silver, government control of railroads, and direct election of Senators to combat economic inequality and political corruption.

Socialist movement

This sought to address economic inequality and workers' rights through advocating for public ownership of industries, improved labor conditions, and social reforms.

American Federation of Labor

Union formed in 1886 that organized skilled workers along skills and/or industry and emphasized a few workplace issues.

Knights of Labor

Labor union from 1869-1886 that included skilled and unskilled workers irrespective of race or gender.

Melting pot

This is a metaphor for a society where many different types of people blend together as one.

Tenements

Four-to-six-story residential dwellings, once common in New York, built on tiny lots without regard to providing ventilation or light.

Haymarket Square Riot

Violence during a protest in Chicago on May 4, 1886.

Homestead Strike

This violent event at the Carnegie Steel Company near Pittsburgh in 1892 between striking steel workers and the Pinkerton Detective Agency.

Pullman Strike

Starting in May 1894, this walkout of employees at this railroad car company near Chicago over wage cuts, high rents, and layoffs; crushed by court injunctions and federal troops.

Great Railroad Strike

In 1877, this walkout of almost 100,000 was ended by force and demonstrated that the government supported industry and not the workers.

Push and pull factors

Reasons for why individuals might decide to emigrate from their homeland and why individuals are drawn to an area to settle.

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

This U.S. federal law that prohibited laborers from a certain East Asian country from immigrating and becoming citizens, setting a precedent for future immigration restrictions based on race and nationality.

New immigrants

Between 1870 and 1920, these were primarily from Southern and Eastern Europe, including Italians, Jews, Poles, and Russians, seeking economic opportunities and escaping political or religious persecution.

Settlement house

These were community centers established in urban areas to provide social services, education, and support to immigrants and the poor.

de facto

Type of discrimination of Black Americans that was outside state and local laws, but instead depended upon physical intimidation and violence.

de jure

Type of legal discrimination of Black Americans that was written into law.

Jim Crow

The system of racial segregation in the South that lasted a century from after Reconstruction until the 1960s.

poll tax

A required payment for the privilege of casting a ballot in an election. This was often used in the South beginning during Reconstruction to disenfranchise freed blacks.

lynching

Execution, usually by a mob, without trial. Victims were often usually tortured, mutilated, caught on fire, and/or hung to death.

Lost Cause

A kind of civic religion that was a form of revisionist history that glorified the Confederacy and romanticized the Antebellum South including slavery.

New South

New York newspaperman and former presidential candidate Henry Grady promoted the economic and political restructuring of the former Confederacy into this ideological concept; however the entrenched racism and psychological resentment prevented these changes.

literacy test

Used to keep people of color—and, sometimes, poor whites—from voting, and they were administered at the discretion of the officials in charge of voter registration by requiring the voter to prove the ability to read.

segregation

By the late 1800s, this was the enforced separation of racial groups in public spaces and institutions, predominantly affecting Black Americans in the United States, leading to widespread discrimination and inequality.

Plessy v. Ferguson

This was a landmark Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the 'separate but equal' doctrine, legitimizing many discriminatory laws.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

A shrewd and wealthy businessman who acquired assets in the shipping business and used his profits and investments to buy and create monopolies of New York Railroads companies.

Andrew Carnegie

As a 'Captain of Industry' he espoused the idea that because he accumulated a great deal of profits from his US Steel Corporation the wealth could be used to improve American Society.

John D. Rockefeller

Founder of Standard Oil who used horizontal and vertical integration to monopolize the oil industry and become one of the wealthiest men in the world.

J.P. Morgan

A banking magnate; at one point, this man's financial firm controlled directly or indirectly 40% of all financial and industrial capital in the United States.

Thomas Edison

An American inventor and businessman who developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures.

George Armstrong Custer

U.S. Cavalry commander; his vastly outnumbered soldiers were killed by combined Sioux and Cheyenne warriors.

Crazy Horse

Lakota war leader who took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by white American settlers on Native American territory.

William McKinley

He ran against William Jennings Bryan in the Election of 1896 winning on a pro-business stance.