Hist Midterm

Reconstruction

* the project of rebuilding the nation after the civil war
* Set the stage for race relations and citizenship claims in the late 19th century through the present

thirteenth amendment

abolished slavery

fourteenth amendment

birthright citizenship and forbade states to restrict the rights of citizens based on race

fifteenth amendment

prohibited the federal and state government from denying any citizen the rights to vote because of race The

The Freedmen’s Bureau

An agency of the War Department set up in 1865 to assist formerly enslaved people, freed from slavery by emancipation, in obtaining relief, land, jobs, fair treatment, and education. To attempt to establish a working free labor system.

Black Codes

* Laws passed by the southern governments that attempted to regulate the lives of the former slaves
* Laws granted blacks certain rights, such as legalized marriage, ownership of property, and limited access to courts 
* Denied them the rights to testify against whites, to serve on juries or in state militias, or to vote.

Radical Republicans

Mostly from new england and called for is dissolution of johnson approved southern governments, institutionalization of equal rights for all men, and supported increased power of federal government

Redeemers

* Victorious democrats called themselves redeemers, sense they claimed to have “redeemed” the white South from corruption, misgovernment and northern and black control 
* Came to power post reconstruction and sought to rollback gains and policies achieved during republican led radical reconstruction 
* Used convict leasing as free manual labor and increased harsh punishments for petty offenses targeted at unemployed people

Bargain of 1877

* an unwritten deal, informally arranged among members of the United States Congress, to settle the intensely disputed 1876 presidential election between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tildenc
* Hayes was awarded the presidency as long as he removed troops from south carolina, florida and louisiana

The Gilded Age

* The era from 1870-1890 is the only period of American history commonly known by a derogatory name. “Gilded” meaning covered with a layer of gold, but it also suggests that the glittering surface masks a core of little real value and is therefore deceptive. Twain and Warner were referring not only to the remarkable expansion of the economy in this period but also to the corruption caused by corporate dominance of politics and to the oppressive treatment of those left behind in the scramble for wealth. 
* Growing wealth gap and class stratification

The Knights of Labor

* The knights were the first group to try to organize unskilled workers as well as skilled ones, women alongside men, and Blacks as well as Whites. The groups reached a peak membership in 1886 (making it the largest labor organization of the nineteenth century) and involved millions of workers in strikes, boycotts, political action, and educational and social activities. 
* Founded in 1869 and their goals went beyond higher wages to include an 8 hour workday and the end of child labor 
* Successful railroad striked in the mid-1880’s but the setbacks of failed railroad strike and haymarket affair led to less traction

The Haymarket Affair

* Employers painted the labor movement as a dangerous and un-American force, prone to violence and controlled by foreign born radicals because someone threw a bomb during a rally in Haymarket Square to protest the killings by police. 
* May 1st- nationwide strike for 8 hour workday- May Day 
* May3rd- chicago mcCormick Reaper works strike met with police violence
* May 4th- chicago’s haymarket square bombing 
* Impacts were xenophobia and painted the labor movement as dangerous and “un-american”

Eugene Debs

* American socialist, trade unionist, and on of the founding members of the industrial workers of the world

Socialism

The US brought together populists and followers of Edward Bellamy with a portion of the labor movement. Called for immediate reforms such as free college education, legislation to improve the condition of laborers, and democratic control over the economy through public ownership of railroads and factories. Take power away from the capitalist millionaires. 

Plessy v. Ferguson

The court gave its approval to state laws requiring separate facilities for Blacks and white. Came about from a light skinned African American, Homer Plessy, refused to move to the “colored only” railroad cart and was arrested. “Separate but equal” 

Ida B. Wells

* Born enslaved and began her career as an educator she was an anti-lynching activist, NAACP co-founder, suffragist, and protested against streetcar segregation 

WEB Dubois

* born in 1868, was the founder of the NAACP

Booker T. Washington

* born enslaved in virginia in 1856
* proponent of industrial education and known for “accommodationist” stance

The New South

During the 1880’s an era of prosperity based on industrial expansion and agricultural diversification. While planters, merchants, and industrialists procured, the region as a whole sank deeper and deeper into poverty.

Progressivism

* Forward looking business men who realized workers must be accorded a voice in economic decision making and labor activists bent on empowering industrialist workers. Also included members of female reform organizations who hoped to protect women and children from explosion. 
* Targets of the progressive era reform was political corruption, corporations, labor, families and children, and the suffrage movement

Social Darwinsim

* “Survival of the fittest” adapted to explain social conditions and justify class stratification 
* Poverty was the result of personal failure- this impact policy and social reform efforts

The Great Migration

* The first great migration began in 1910 and was black southerners moving to the north the push factors included racial and sexual violence, lack of economic opportunities, and disenfranchisement 
* Pull factors included economic and educational opportunities, family, and greater citizenship rights

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory

* Occurred on March 25th, 1911
* Firefighters’ ladders and hoses couldn’t reach the high floors and the doors were locked and 146 deaths occurred 
* This mobilized nad politicized workers and granted assistance from reform organization

Chinese Exclusion Act

In 1882 temporarily excluded all immigrants from China from entering the country in 2012 congressed passed a resolution of regret apologizing for the exclusion laws. The Chinese that were in the US faced mass discrimination and periodic mob violence.

The Roosevelt Corollary

Add on to the Monroe Doctrine which gave the US the right to exercise “international police power” in the western hemisphere- a significant expansion of Monroe’s pledge to defend the hemisphere against European Intervention

Big Stick Diplomacy

Theodore Roosevelt believed in the strategy that coupled carefully brokered negotiation with the understood threat of military intervention

Dollar Diplomacy

* Taft emphasized economic investment and loans from American banks rather than direct military intervention as the best way to spread American Influence 
* Difficult to enforce and less successful

Moral Imperialism

* Produced more military intervention in Latin America than any foreign policy before
* Wilson believed that the export of American manufactured goods and investments went hand in hand with the spread of democratic ideals. 
* “Foreign policy should be guided morality and should reach other peoples about democracy”

Lusitania

* A German submarine sank the British liner causing the death of 124 americans.
* The sinking outraged american public opinion and strengthened the argument to go to war in WW1

The Zimmerman Telegram

In march 1917 british spies intercepted this document, a message by german foreign secretary calling on mexico to join in a coming war against the US and promising to recover lost territory in the Mexican-American war

Espionage and Sedition Acts

* In 1917 the espionage act prohibited not only the spying and interfering with the draft but also the “false statements” that might impede military success. 
* Sent eugene debs to prison 
* In 1918 the sedition act made it a crime to make spoken or printed statements that intended to cast “contempt, scorn, or disrepute” on the “form of government” or that advocated interference with the war effort.

The Committee on Public Information

* Formed in April 1917, shortly after the declaration of war 
* George Creel was CPI’s first chairman 
* Government run war propaganda, was an effort to shape positive public opinion of the war 
* Appealed to the interest of the wage workers and immigrants by saying the war will allow for the advancement of wage workers rights and address economic exploitation

The Red Scare

* 1919-1920
* Labor uprising and fears about the spread of communism 
* Mass deportations 
* Palmer Raids 
* Going to labor movements to arrest suspected socialists

Red Summer

occurred in 1919, an event that affected at least 26 cities across the United States. Racial tensions across the U.S. were exacerbated by the discharge of millions of military personnel back to their homes and domestic lives following the end of the war.

Nineteenth Amendment

* “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the US or by any state on account of sex” 
* Mostly benefited white women and highlights fissures in feminist movement along racial lines

The Equal Rights Amendment

* This amendment proposed to eliminate all legal distinctions on the account of success
* In paul's opinion it followed logistically after winning the right to vote 
* To supporters of mothers pensions and laws limiting women’s hours of labor, which apart from the national women’s party every female organization opposed the equal rights amendment 
* In the 1920’s the ERA failed

Flapper

* Women with bobbed hair, short skirts, drinking, and public smoking epitomized the change in standards of sexual behavior and became a popular symbol of cultural rebellion against the prohibition laws 
* Representation of changing social and personal values

The New Negro

Associated in politics with pan-africanism and the militancy of the garvey movements, in art meant the rejection of established stereotypes and a search for black values to put in their place

The Harlem Renaissance

* Flourishing of black art and culture rooted in Harlem in the 1920’s
* Self-definition, self determination, and self realization

KKK

* First KKK (1866-1872) Served as a military arm of the democratic party in the south. The Klan was a terrorist organization. Led by planters, marchants, and democratic politicians, men who liked to style themselves as the South’s “respectable citizens”
* Re-emergence of the KKK (1915-1925) William Joseph Simmons, revived the organization in Georgia in 1915 as more social change happened the KKK re emerged because white people saw it as a threat to the social hierarchy in the south  demonstration on stone mountain of cross burning

The Birth of a nation (1915)

* Adapted from The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan (1905) 
* Played into the “lost clause” presenting the KKK as gallant saviors saving the south from black supremacy 
* Black people portrayed as buffoons and savage rapists

Civil Liberties

freedom of action and speech

Thind v. United States

United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, 261 U.S. 204, was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States decided that Bhagat Singh Thind, an Indian Sikh man who identified himself as an Aryan, was ineligible for naturalized citizenship in the United States.

Universal Negro Improvement Association

Marcus Garvey created it and the purpose was the creation of a separate black nation and wanted racial pride, entrepreneurialism, and pan-africanism.

What are the major differences between presidential Reconstruction and radical Reconstruction?

Lincoln felt the South should not suffer for their actions and should work for peace between the north and south and radical reconstruction felt the south should be punished for their wrongdoings and black people should have equal citizenship with everything white people had while the presidency wanted to keep peace.

In what specific ways did the federal government facilitate the creation of “a nationwide order of white supremacy” (King and Tuck 214) after Reconstruction?

The federal government introduced segregation and allowed for lynchings to occur and the KKK to form.

What were the societal impacts of industrialization during the Gilded Age?

* A national market was created, the rise of factory work, and urbanization occurred. 

What were the outcomes of the Spanish-American War for the United States?

The US acquired the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam in a treaty with Spain and the US had the ability to interfere in Cuban affairs.

What were the targets of Progressive Era-reform?

The targets of Progressive Era reform were political corruption, corporations, labor, families and children, and suffrage.

In what specific ways were immigration patterns in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries different from immigration patterns before the Civil War?

Prior to the civil war the majority of immigrants were coming from northern and western european nations and after eastern and southern europeans nations immigrants were coming.

How did race shape immigration policy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries?

Race shaped immigration policy through eugenic beliefs of white women dying off because of interracial marriage. Immigration had restrictions because of white people believing they were superior.

What factors motivated African Americans to leave the South and migrate to urban centers of the North, Midwest, and West during the Great Migration?

Factors pushing them to leave included racial and sexual violence, lack of economic opportunities, and disenfranchisement. Factors pushing African Americans away from the south were economic and educational opportunities, family, and greater citizenship rights.

Why did the U.S. decide to abandon its policy of neutrality and enter WWI?

The US abandoned the policy of neutrality because of the Zimmerman telegram and the sinking of the Lusitania.

What was the link that Americans made between consumerism and citizenship in the early twentieth century?

Americans now had the ability to spend their money on leisure items and this was identifying what it was to be an american.

How would you describe the women’s movement of the early twentieth century? What were the goals and strategies of the movement? 

The women’s movement was more radical and women were looking to gain independence from familial control while they were looking to gain the right to vote. The goals were to gain the right to vote and have independence. The strategies were radical with different protests.

How would you characterize the labor movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries? What were the goals and strategies of the movement? What were the movement’s successes and failures?

I would characterize the labor movement as necessary because there was a plentiful amount of jobs but there were awful working conditions. The goals were to have an 8 hour workday and better working conditions the strategies included protesting, strikes and boycotts.  Unions were a great success and the 8 hour work day along with better working conditions. But the failures include the haymarket affair and other things that set the labor movement back.

Why did the Ku Klux Klan re-emerge in the 1910s/1920s?

The Birth of a Nation gave a new light to the KKK. But also because the US was changing through industrialization, urbanization and immigration and people were scared of social changes.

How would you describe Harding and Hoover’s visions for America after World War I? What do their visions reveal to us about American politics in the 1920s?

Harding and Hoover wanted a return to normalcy but they were corrupt and used their power for personal gain. Their visions revealed that there were a lot of people who were turning away from progressive ideals.