American Studies Midterm Review

Declaration of Independence

the document recording the proclamation of the second Continental Congress (4 July 1776) asserting the independence of the colonies from Great Britain

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

the 3 Unalienable Rights that were listed in the Declaration that all humans receive from birth

Inalienable Rights

rights that cannot be taken away

U.S. Constitution

The document written in 1787 and ratified in 1788 that sets forth the institutional structure of the U.S. government and the tasks these institutions perform.

Articles of Confederation

A weak constitution that governed America during and immediately following the the Revolutionary War; plagued by weak central government

Bill of Rights

First 10 amendments to the Constitution

Amendment

A change to the Constitution

13th Amendment (1865)

abolished slavery

Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

Declared all slaves in rebelling states to be free but did not affect slavery in non-rebelling Border States. The Proclamation closed the door on possible compromise with the South and encouraged thousands of Southern slaves to flee to Union lines.

Abraham Lincoln

16th President of the United States saved the Union during the Civil War and emancipated the slaves

Andrew Johnson

became President when Lincoln was assassinated; opposed Northern Radical plans for Reconstruction

Reconstruction

the period after the Civil War in the United States when the southern states were reorganized and reintegrated into the Union

Confederacy

the southern states that seceded from the United States in 1861

Secede

withdraw formally from membership in a federal union, an alliance, or a political organization.

14th Amendment

Declares that all persons born in the U.S. are citizens and are guaranteed equal protection of the laws

15th Amendment

U.S. cannot prevent a person from voting because of race, color, or creed

Jim Crow Laws

Laws designed to enforce segregation of blacks from whites

Black Codes

Laws denying most legal rights to newly freed slaves; passed by southern states following the Civil War

Sharecropping

A system used on southern farms after the Civil War in which farmers worked land owned by someone else in return for a small portion of the crops.

Checks and Balances

A system that allows each branch of government to limit the powers of the other branches in order to prevent abuse of power

Separation of Powers

Constitutional division of powers among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches

Legislative Branch

the branch of government that makes the laws

Judicial Branch

the branch of government that interprets laws

Executive Branch

the branch of government that carries out laws

Ku Klux Klan

A secret society created by white southerners in 1866 that used terror and violence to keep African Americans from obtaining their civil rights.

Grandfather Clause

allowed people to vote if their father or grandfather had voted before Reconstruction

literacy test

A test given to persons to prove they can read and write before being allowed to register to vote

poll tax

A requirement that citizens pay a tax in order to register to vote

convict leasing

Notorious system, begun during Reconstruction, whereby southern state officials allowed private companies to hire out prisoners to labor under brutal conditions in mines and other industries.

Compromise of 1877

Event in which Rutherford Hayes became president in exchange for ending Reconstruction

Disenfranchisement

Condition of being deprived of the right to vote

W.E.B. DuBois

1st black to earn Ph.D. from Harvard, encouraged blacks to resist systems of segregation and discrimination, helped create NAACP in 1910

Booker T. Washington

African American progressive who supported segregation and demanded that African American better themselves individually to achieve equality.

Great Migration

movement of over 300,000 African American from the rural south into Northern cities between 1914 and 1920

Tulsa Race Massacre

The Tulsa race massacre took place on May 31 and June 1, 1921, when mobs of white residents, many of them deputized and given weapons by city officials, attacked black residents and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma

Wilmington Coup

result of southern democrats leading a mob of 2000 white men to overthrow this biracial gov 300 people killed; seen as an affirmation of what was happening in the south: triumph of white supremacy

Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce

Led a group of Indians on a trek trying to escape to Canada, eventually surrendered "I will fight no more forever" and were forced to move to a reservation in OK.

Long Drive

General term for the herding of cattle from the grassy plains to the railroad terminals in the midwestern part of the country

Homestead Act

1862 - Provided free land in the West to anyone willing to settle there and develop it. Encouraged westward migration.

Dawes Act

1887 law that distributed reservation land to individual Native American owners

Assimilation

the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another

Laissez-faire

a policy or attitude of letting things take their own course, without interfering.

free market economy

an economic system in which decisions on the three key economic questions are based on voluntary exchange in markets

stock

A share of ownership in a company

Union

A worker association that bargains with employers over wages, benefits, and working conditions

John D. Rockefeller

American industrialist; made a fortune in oil business, mostly by buying out competitors

Robber Barons

Refers to the industrialists or big business owners who gained huge profits by paying their employees extremely low wages. They also drove their competitors out of business by selling their products cheaper than it cost to produce it. Then when they controlled the market, they hiked prices high above original price.

Blacklist

A list of people or products viewed with suspicion or disapproval.

Lockout

a company tool to fight union demands by refusing to allow employees to enter its facilities to work

Nativism

A policy of favoring native-born individuals over foreign-born ones

Homestead Strike (1892)

It was one of the most violent strikes in U.S. history. It was against the Homestead Steel Works, which was part of the Carnegie Steel Company, in Pennsylvania in retaliation against wage cuts. The riot was ultimately put down by Pinkerton Police and the state militia, and the violence further damaged the image of unions.

Bread and Roses Strike

A spontaneous strike of immigrant workers in the mills of Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Strikebreakers (Scabs)

Non-union workers hired as replacements for striking employees in order to break a union.

Anthracite Coal Strike

United Mine Workers of America strike in eastern Pennsylvania which threatened to cause an energy crisis requiring the federal government to intervene on the side of labor (first time)

Vertical Integration

Practice where a single entity controls the entire process of a product, from the raw materials to distribution

Horizontal Integration

Absorption into a single firm of several firms involved in the same level of production and sharing resources at that level

Ellis Island

Immigration processing center that opened in New York harbor

ethnic enclaves (neighborhoods)

clusters of people of the same culture, but surrounded by people of a culture that is dominant in the region

Chinese Exclusion Act

(1882) Denied any additional Chinese laborers to enter the country

Urbanization

the growth of cities

Tammany Hall

a political organization within the Democratic Party in New York city (late 1800's and early 1900's) seeking political control by corruption and bossism

Boss Tweed

William Tweed, head of Tammany Hall, NYC's powerful democratic political machine

Tenement

multistory building divided into crowded apartments

Populist Party

U.S. political party formed in 1892 representing mainly farmers, favoring free coinage of silver and government control of railroads and other monopolies

Deflation

a decrease in the general level of prices; currency becomes more valuable

Inflation

An increase in prices; currency becomes less valuable

William Jennings Bryan

Democratic candidate for president in 1896 under the banner of "free silver coinage" which won him support of the Populist Party.

Settlement Houses

institutions that provided educational and social services to poor people, especially immigrants

Immigration act of 1917

restricted immigration by imposing literacy tests on immigrants, creating new categories of inadmissible persons, and barring immigration from Asia

Palmer Raids, 1920

An operation coordinated by Attorney General Mitchel Palmer in which federal marshals raided the homes of suspected radicals and the headquarters of radical organization

Sacco and Vanzetti

Italian radicals who became symbols of the Red Scare of the 1920s; arrested (1920), tried and executed (1927) for a robbery/murder, they were believed by many to have been innocent but convicted because of their immigrant status and radical political beliefs.

Prohibition

the period from 1920 to 1933 when the sale of alcoholic beverages was prohibited in the United States by a constitutional amendment

National Origins Act of 1924

A law that severely restricted immigration by establishing a system of national quotas that blatantly discriminated against immigrants from southern and eastern Europe and virtually excluded Asians. The policy stayed in effect until the 1960s.

Muckrakers

Journalists who attempted to find corruption or wrongdoing in industries and expose it to the public

recall

procedure whereby voters can remove an elected official from office

Initiative

A procedure by which voters can propose a law or a constitutional amendment.

Referendum

A state-level method of direct legislation that gives voters a chance to approve or disapprove proposed legislation or a proposed constitutional amendment.

direct primary

A primary where voters directly select the candidates who will run for office

17th Amendment

Direct election of senators

Suffrage

the legal right to vote

19th Amendment (1920)

Gave women the right to vote

Alice Paul

Head of the National Woman's party that campaigned for an equal rights amendment to the Constitution. She opposed legislation protecting women workers because such laws implied women's inferiority.

Trust Busting

Government activities aimed at breaking up monopolies and trusts.

Sherman Antitrust Act

an 1890 law that banned the formation of trusts and monopolies in the United States

Meat Inspection Act

A law passed by Congress to subject meat shipped over state lines to federal inspection.

Pure Food and Drug Act

the act that prohibited the manufacture, sale, or shipment of impure of falsely labeled food and drugs

conservation

Protecting and preserving natural resources and the environment

Federal Reserve Act

This act established the Federal System, which established 12 distinct reserve to be controlled by the banks in each district; in addition, a Federal Reserve board was established to regulate the entire structure; improved public confidence in the banking system.

16th Amendment

Allows the federal government to collect income tax

Clayton Antitrust Act

1914 act designed to strengthen the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890; certain activities previously committed by big businesses, such as not allowing unions in factories and not allowing strikes, were declared illegal.

Progressive Era

followed the Gilded Age; era marked by reforms in economics, politics and society

Imperialism

A policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force.

Anglo-Saxonism

Belief that english-speaking nations had superior characters, ideas, and systems of govt. and were destined to dominate the world; used as justification for American imperialism

Spanish-American War

1898 war that began when the United States demanded Cuba's independence from Spain

USS Maine

Ship that explodes off the coast of Cuba in Havana harbor and helps contribute to the start of the Spanish-American War

Yellow Journalism

Journalism that exploits, distorts, or exaggerates the news to create sensations and attract readers

jingoism

extreme patriotism

Phillipine Revolt

armed resistance by people of the Phillipines against U.S. troops that Filipinos believed were controlling their country following the Spanish-American War

Platt Amendment

Legislation that severely restricted Cuba's sovereignty and gave the US the right to intervene if Cuba got into trouble

Open Door Policy

A policy proposed by the US in 1899, under which ALL nations would have equal opportunities to trade in China.