APUSH Period 6 Flashcards: The Gilded Age

Alexander Graham Bell

Inventor of the telephone

Thomas Edison

Invented the light bulb

Transcontinental Railroad

Railroad connecting the west and east coasts of the continental US

Andrew Carnegie

A Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist who founded the Carnegie Steel Company in 1892.

John D. Rockefeller

Established the Standard Oil Company, the greatest, wisest, and meanest monopoly known in history

Laissez-faire policies

allowed businesses to operate under minimal government regulation

Overthrow of Hawaiian Government

U.S. citizens living in Hawaii overthrew the Queen of Hawaii with the help of U.S. Marines in 1893

Knights of Labor

1st effort to create a National Union

Sears Mail Order Catalog

Enabled rural residents to order goods through the mail

White Collar Workers

Workers employed in offices, sales, or professional positions

The Gilded Age by Mark Twain

Described an area of glittering wealth and innovation hiding a foundation of poverty and inequality

Conscious Consumption

Buying and using products because of the "statement" they make about social position

American Federation of Labor

The first federation of labor unions in the United States

Homestead Strike of 1892

One of the most violent strikes in U.S. history against the Homestead Steel Works

Causes of Industrialization in the late 1800s

1. Raw materials

2. Huge labor pool

3. Advanced transportation systems

4. New technologies

5. Government friendly to businesses

6. Large amounts of money for investing

Causes of labor discontent

long hours, bad pay, bad conditions

Sharecropping

Farmers worked land owned by someone else in return for a small portion of the crops.

The New South

Idea that the South should industrialize after the Civil War

Causes of immigration in the late 1800s

Fleeing crop failure, land and job shortages, rising taxes, and famine, many came to the U. S. because it was perceived as the land of economic opportunity.

Ellis Island

An immigrant receiving station where immigrants were given a medical examination and only allowed in if they were healthy

Chinese Exclusion Act

Denied any additional Chinese laborers to enter the country while allowing students and merchants to immigrate.

Old vs. New Immigrants

Old: In the early to mid 1800s, came from Northern and Western Europe.

New: In the late 1900s, they came from Southern and Eastern Europe.

The Gospel of Wealth

Called on those who accumulated wealth to share their riches for the betterment of society

Social Darwinism

The belief that only the fittest survive in human political and economic struggle

Social Gospel

Emphasized charity and social responsibility as a means of salvation.

Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall

Leader of the Tammany Hall, New York political machine

Jane Addams

Founder of Hull House, which provided English lessons for immigrants, daycares, and child care classes

Horatio Alger

Popular novelist during the Industrial Revolution who wrote "rags to riches" books praising the values of hard work

William Jennings Bryan

United States lawyer and politician who advocated free silver and prosecuted John Scopes (1925) for teaching evolution in a Tennessee high school (1860-1925)

Omaha Platform

Political agenda adopted by the populist party in 1892 at their Omaha, Nebraska convention

Munn v. Illinois

1876; The Supreme Court upheld the Granger laws. Allowed states to regulate certain businesses within their borders, including railroads.

National Grange Movement

Organized by Oliver H. Kelley primarily as a social and educational organization for farmers and their families.

FJT: Frontier Thesis

Argued that American democracy was shaped by the frontier

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

Colored Farmers' Alliance

An organization of southern black farmers formed in Texas in 1886 in response to the Southern Farmers' alliance, which did not accept black people as members

Surrender of Chief Joseph

Resisted being forced onto a reservation away from their traditional lands

California/Alaska Gold Rush

Discovery of large deposits of gold and silver spurred migration to the West

Las Gorras Blancas

Group of Mexican Americans living in New Mexico who attempted to protect their land and way of life from encroachment by white landowners

The Oregon Trail

Pioneer trail that began in missouri and crossed the great plains into the oregon country

Homestead Act of 1862

Encouraged westward settlement by allowing heads of families to buy 160 acres of land for a small fee.

Dawes Act

An act that removed Indian land from tribal possesion, redivided it, and distributed it among individual Indian families.

Reservation Policy

A new federal policy developed during the Gilded Age to deal with the Indians living in the West.

Carlisle Indian School

Pennsylvania school for Indians funded by the government; children were separated from their tribe and were taught English and white values/customs.

Massacre at Wounded Knee

A massacre in 1890 that started when Sioux left the reservation in protest because of the death of Sitting Bull

Indian Reorganization Act

Government legislation that allowed the Indians a form of self-government and thus willingly shrank the authority of the U.S. government.

Ghost Dance Movement

The last effort of Native Americans to resist US domination

Pendleton Act

Legislation that began the federal merit system

Battle of Little Bighorn

Sioux forces led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull surrounded and defeated Custer and his troops

Debates over the money supply

A great debate between bankers/big businesses and the working class over the money supply

Sherman Anti-Trust Act

First United States law to limit trusts and big business

Credit Mobilier

Name of company involved in stealing of railroad money

Plessy v. Ferguson

A 1896 Supreme Court decision which legalized state ordered segregation ("separate but equal")

Jim Crow Laws

State laws in the South that legalized segregation

Booker T. Washington

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

W.E.B. DuBois

Wanted social and political integration as well as higher education for 10% of African Americans-what he called a "Talented Tenth"

literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather clauses

Loopholes in amendments 13-15 that kept blacks from voting in southern states

Ida B. Wells

African-American journalist who led the fight against lynching