U.S. History II

Transcontinental Railroad

Railroad linking the East and West coasts, completed in 1869, revolutionizing transportation and

sharecropping

Farming system where freedmen rented land for a share of crops, often trapping them in debt

Pacific Railway Act

Law granting land and loans to companies to build the transcontinental railroad

Homestead Act

Law giving settlers 160 acres of western land if they improved it for five years

Exodusters

African Americans who migrated west, especially to Kansas, to escape Southern racism

Plessy v. Ferguson

Supreme Court case upholding racial segregation under “separate but equal.”

Oklahoma Land Rush

Event where settlers raced to claim free land in Oklahoma Territory in 1889

Central Pacific Railroad

Company that built the western portion of the transcontinental railroad

Union Pacific Railroad

Company that built the eastern portion of the transcontinental railroad

Dawes Act

Law dividing Native land into individual plots to force assimilation

Wovoka

Paiute prophet who inspired the Ghost Dance movement

Ghost Dance

Native religious movement promising renewal and driving out whites

ethnocentrism

Belief one’s culture is superior to others, used to justify U.S. Indian policy

assimilation

Process of forcing minorities to adopt dominant American culture

Wounded Knee Massacre

U.S. soldiers killed hundreds of Sioux, ending Native resistance

textile industry

Key Southern industry producing cloth, heavily dependent on cheap labor

Promontory Point

Site in Utah where the transcontinental railroad was completed

Mexican-American losses

Land, rights, and property lost by Mexicans after the U.S.-Mexican War

buffalo

Plains animal nearly exterminated by whites, devastating Native livelihoods

Sooners

Settlers who entered Oklahoma land early, before official land rush openings

crop-lien system

Credit system trapping farmers in debt by pledging future crops as collateral

Westward expansion

Movement of settlers west, encouraged by federal laws and railroads

Indian policy

U.S. government strategies, shifting from removal to assimilation of Native peoples

"separate but equal"

Legal doctrine justifying racial segregation after Plessy v. Ferguson

Jim Crow

Laws enforcing racial segregation in the South

disfranchisement

Denial of voting rights, especially to African Americans, through laws and violence

lynching

Mob killings, often by hanging, used to terrorize African Americans

convict lease system

Renting prisoners to private companies, creating forced Black labor

tenement houses

Crowded, unsafe urban apartments for immigrants and poor workers

vagrancy

Laws criminalizing jobless people, often targeting freedmen after the Civil War

Redemption

Southern Democrats regaining power, ending Reconstruction reforms

pig law

Harsh Southern law criminalizing petty theft, funneling Blacks into convict leasing

Ku Klux Klan

White supremacist group using violence to maintain white dominance

poll tax

Fee required to vote, disenfranchising the poor and African Americans

grandfather clause

Voting law exempting whites from restrictions if ancestors had voted

literacy tests

Reading exams used to block African American voting

understanding clause

Vague law requiring “understanding” of the constitution, barring Black voters

Great Migration

Movement of African Americans from the rural South to Northern cities

working conditions

Harsh factory labor, long hours, low pay, unsafe environments

living conditions

Overcrowded, unsanitary housing for urban workers and immigrants

new immigrants

Southern and Eastern Europeans arriving in large numbers after 1880

tenements

Overcrowded, poor-quality urban housing for immigrant families

Naturalization Act of 1870

Law allowing naturalization of whites and Blacks, excluding Asians

Chinese Exclusion Act

Law barring Chinese laborers from immigrating to the U.S.

Nativism

Anti-immigrant sentiment favoring native-born Americans

Ellis Island

Main immigrant processing center in New York Harbor

Tammany Hall

Powerful Democratic political machine in New York City

political machines

Organizations controlling politics through patronage and corruption

party boss

Leader of a political machine controlling jobs and votes

spoils system

Practice of giving government jobs to loyal supporters

Boss Tweed

Corrupt leader of Tammany Hall, exposed for massive fraud

Social Darwinism

Belief that competition and “survival of the fittest” justified inequality

Herbert Spencer 

British thinker who applied Darwin’s ideas to human society

White Man's Burden

Idea that whites had a duty to civilize “inferior” peoples

Philippine-American War

Conflict where Filipinos resisted U.S. annexation after 1898

Alfred Thayer Mahan

Naval officer who argued for sea power to build U.S. strength

U.S.S. Maine

U.S. battleship that exploded in Cuba, sparking war with Spain

imperialism

Policy of extending power over foreign lands for resources and influence

Theodore Roosevelt

Progressive president who expanded U.S. power and built the Panama Canal

Mahanism

Theory that naval strength was key to national greatness

William H. Seward

Secretary of State who purchased Alaska and supported expansion

Spanish-American War

War where U.S. defeated Spain, gaining overseas territories

annexation of Hawai’i

U.S. takeover of Hawaii for economic and strategic reasons

yellow journalism

Sensationalist news stories that stirred public support for war

Immigration Restriction League

Group pushing for literacy tests to limit immigration

Teller Amendment

U.S. pledge not to annex Cuba after Spanish-American War

Treaty of Paris (1898)

Treaty ending Spanish-American War, giving U.S. new territories

Platt Amendment

Gave U.S. control over Cuba’s foreign policy and military bases

Panama Canal

U.S.-built waterway connecting Atlantic and Pacific, boosting trade and military power