Studied by 124 peopleTranscontinental Railroads
series of railroads that strung together different regions and economies of America; made transportation easier and more efficient
Vaqueros
Mexican cowboys that rounded up pe cattle in Texas on a small scale
Cattle drive (+ barbed wire)
the movement of cattle that are raised in one area to another area where they can be bought and sold; could be dangerous; when this process ended, barbed wire was used to cut off open access to different areas of land to fence in cattle and keep others out
Homestead act
an act that encouraged farming on the great plains by offering 160 acres of public land free to any that settled on it for a period of five years; accelerated the immigration to western land for greater opportunities and had some pitfalls after the fact
Deflation
the reduction in the market price for an item (usually because of its overproduction/lack of necessity for the item)
National Grange Movement
the uniting of farmers across the nation; became politically active to defend farmers against middlemen, trusts, and railroads
Cooperatives
businesses owned and run by farmers to save the cost charged by middlemen; a component of the National Grange Movement
Granger laws
laws created by a farmer association to promote and protect the business of farmers; protected them from high tariffs and costs made by monopolized businesses (like RRs)
*Munn v. Illinois
the case in which the SC upheld the right of a state to regulate the business of a public nature; yay farmers can sell w/o the big bully railroads
Ghost Dance Movement
a religiously inspired last effort of American Indians to resist US gov. controls; leaders believed that it could return prosperity to the AI, yet ultimately failed
Assimilationists
Americans motivated to help Native Americans adapt to American society by giving them formal education and training and conversion to Christianity; basically wanted to erase their culture and beliefs and plug in their own “civilized” way of life
Dawes Act of 1887
designed to break up tribal organizations that “kept AI from becoming civilized”; divided tribal land into plots and granted US citizenship to those who stayed on the land for 25+ years and adopted the “civilized way of life”
Indian Reorganization Act (1934)
part of FDR’s new deal; promoted the re-establishment of tribal organization and culture
Conservationists (/Preservationists)
people concerned with the overuse and exploitation of natural resources in the US; formed groups to protect either the appropriate use of land or to preserve the land in its natural state (no human influence); this movement and the groups concerned with it provoked the national gov to establish national parks, in which land is not destructed and is for viewing and use of all visitors
New South
the economic shift from the almost strictly agrarian lifestyle to the embracement of industrial work/development
Sharecroppers
farmers who paid for the use of land with a share of the crop
Tuskegee Institute
a place of education that focused on training young black men in agricultural and trade studies so that they could achieve economic independence
Plessy V. Ferguson
the SC upheld a Louisiana Law that required “separate but equal accommodations” for White and Black RR passengers; opening up the door to other ways to segregate colored people and white people
Jim Crow laws
a wave of segregation laws that were inspired by segregational supreme court rulings; separated different amenities for white/colored people
Lynching
killing of blacks by white mobs because they were accused of committing crimes or because they had angered the whites; these mobs killed more than 1400 Black men
Atlantic Compromise
A speech made by Washington (not George) in Atlanta that outlined the philosophy that blacks should focus on economic gains, go to school, learn skills, and work their way up the ladder and that Southern whites should help out to create an unresentful people; black and white people had a responsibility to make the southern region prosper
Transatlantic Cable
the invention that made it possible to send messages across the seas within minutes; tremendously improved communication between the continents of the world and eventually internationalized markets
Menlo Park
a research laboratory established by Thomas Edison; the world’s first modern research lab; “invention factory”; enabled mechanics and engineers to work as a team rather than separately
Electric power
a revolutionized mode of power that didn’t need to be confined/built-in a specific location to work; very flexible and changed the way people worked and functioned in their life
Sears Roebuck and Co.
a shipping company that used the improved rail system to ship to rural customers what they needed; Sears catalog = the “wish book”
Consumer Economy
an economic system that is dependent on consumer spending for its gross domestic profit
Time zones
American RR owners separated the US into 4 different time zones to standardize the operation of the different rail systems; Railroad time became standard time for all Americans
Watering Stock
inflating the value of a corporation's assets and profits before selling its stock to the public
United States Steel
a new corporation formed after the sale of Andrew Carnegie’s $400 mil business; the first billion-dollar company; also the largest enterprise in the world, employing 168,000 people
Monopoly
a company that dominates a market so much that it faces little/no competition from other companies
Standard Oil
a company founded by John D. Rockefeller that quickly eliminated the competition and took control of most of the nation’s oil refineries; controlled 90% of the oil refinery business
Trust
an organization/board that manages the assets of other companies; MULTI COMPANIES ex. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Trust
Horizontal integration
a process in which one company takes control of all its former competitors in a specific industry, such as oil refining or coal mining
Vertical integration
a process in which one company takes control of all stages of making a product; ex. Carnegie controlled the mines, the ships, the mills, and the distribution to reduce costs and improve efficiency and costs
Laissez-Faire
the prevailing economic, scientific, and religious beliefs of the late 19th century led people to reject gov regulation of business
Social Darwinism
the belief that Darwin’s idea of natural selection and survival of the fittest should be applied to the marketplace
Frederick Jackson Turner
the publisher of “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”; presented the settling of the frontier as an evolutionary process of building civilization; argued that 300 years of the “frontier experience” has shaped American culture, promoting independence, individualism, inventiveness, practical-mindedness, and democracy
John Muir
a preservationist that was a leading founder of the Sierra Club; went a step further and aimed to preserve natural areas from human interference
George Washington Carver
an African American scientist from the Tuskegee institute that promoted the growing of nutrient crops, such as peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans; played an important role in shifting southern agriculture toward a more diversified base
Ida B. Wells
editor of the Memphis Free Speech (a black newspaper); confronted and campaigned against lynching and the Jim Crow Laws; had to move to the North because of threats made to her
Booker T. Washington
he accommodate the oppression; graduated and established the Tuskegee Institute (a school for African-Americans to learn trades and work in agriculture; believed that Blacks should focus and work hard at their jobs (and not challenge segregation) and that the whites should support education and legal rights for AA
W.E.B. Du Bois
a younger AA leader that demanded the end of segregation and granting of equal civil rights to all Americans
Henry Bessemer
discovered how to manufacture steel in England
*Thomas Edison
“the greatest inventor of the 19th century”; established the first modern research labs (Menlo park)
*George Westinghouse
an inventor that was responsible for developing air brakes for RRs and a transformer for producing high-voltage alternating current (made lighting of cities possible)
Gustavus Swift
A MEAT PACKER; packet mass-produced meats into refrigerated train cars and changed the eating habits of Americans
Cornelius Vanderbilt
used the millions he earned to invest in combining several smaller rail systems into one central railroad (NY Central RR) from NY to Chicago
Jay Gould
a speculator that entered the RR business for quick profits and made millions by selling off assets and watering stock (inflating the value)
*JP Morgan
one of the bankers, during the panic that forced a quarter of RRs into bankruptcy, that quickly moved in and took control of the bankrupt RRs and consolidated them
Henry George
a San Francisco journalist that published a provocative book in 1879 that jolted readers to look more critically at the effects of laissez-faire economics; “Progress and Poverty”
Edward Bellamy
wrote a book (“Looking Backward”) that envisioned life in the year 2000 when a cooperative society had eliminated poverty, greed, and crime; an eye-opening book focused on social criticisms of how the econ worked in the past
Cardinal James Gibbons
A catholic leader that inspired the devoted support of old and new immigrants by defending the Knights of Labor and the cause of organized labor
Dwight Moody
a protestant who founded the ___ bible institute in Chicago that would help generations of urban evangelists to adapt traditional Christianity to city life
Walter Rauschenbusch
a baptist minister that lead the Social Gospel movement; worked in a poverty-stricken neighborhood of NYC called Hell’s Kitchen and wrote several books urging organized religions to take up the causes of social justice
Susan B. Anthony
a suffragist that helped found the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) to secure the vote for women
Frances Willard
the leader of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Movement; advocated total abstinence from alcohol
Carry Nation
an impatient temperance supporter that created a sensation by raiding salons and smashing barrels of beer with a hatchet
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