Unit 6 The Gilded Age The Last West and New South

The Gilded Age

A period in U.S. history from 1865 to 1898 noted for rapid economic growth and vast social changes.

Homestead Act of 1862

Legislation that granted 160 acres of free land to settlers willing to improve it.

Cowboys

Cattle herders in the American West, who borrowed techniques from Mexican Vaqueros.

Gold Rush of 1849

Mass migration of miners to California following the discovery of gold.

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

A federal law that prohibited further immigration of Chinese laborers to the U.S.

Dawes Severalty Act of 1887

Legislation that divided tribal land into individual plots to promote assimilation of Native Americans.

Turner's Frontier Thesis

An argument that the American frontier experience shaped a unique American character.

Jim Crow Laws

State and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States.

Poll Tax

A fee required to vote, often used to disenfranchise African American voters.

Munn v. Illinois (1877)

Supreme Court case that upheld the right of states to regulate businesses within their borders.

Interstate Commerce Act of 1886

Legislation that regulated railroad rates and practices, establishing the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Ocala Platform of 1890

A set of agrarian demands from a national organization of farmers, including direct election of senators.

Assimilation

The process through which individuals or groups adopt the culture of another group, often losing their original identity.

Sharecropping

A system where farmers worked land owned by someone else in exchange for a share of the crops.

Barbed Wire

Invented by Joseph Glidden, used to construct fences on the Great Plains where wood was scarce.

Ghost Dance Movement

A religious movement among Native Americans aimed at restoring their ancestral ways.

National Grange Movement

An organization founded to advocate for the interests of farmers, focusing on education and cooperative farming.

Frederick Jackson Turner

A historian who wrote about the significance of the American frontier in shaping national identity.

Crop Lien System

A credit system used by sharecroppers to obtain supplies and pay back through crop yields.