AP US History Period 6 Terms & Significance

Cattle Drives

moving cattle from Texas to railroads (s: fueled western economy; short-lived due to railroads and fencing)

Grange Movement

organization of farmers (s: pushed for government regulation of railroads and grain prices)

Cooperatives

farmers pooling money/resources (s: lowered costs; response to exploitation by railroads/banks)

Munn v. Illinois

Supreme Court allowed states to regulate businesses affecting public interest (s: legal victory for farmers)

Frederick Jackson Turner

American historian (s: argued frontier shaped American democracy)

Frontier Thesis

Frederick Jackson Turner’s idea that frontier experience defined U.S. character (s: justified westward expansion)

Ghost Dance

Native American religious movement (s: seen as a threat; led to Wounded Knee Massacre)

Assimilation

forcing Natives to adopt white culture (s: destroyed Native traditions)

Helen Hunt Jackson

author of “A Century of Dishonor” (s: exposed the mistreatment of Native Americans)

Dawes Act

divided tribal land into individual plots (s: weakened tribes; massive Native land loss)

Conservationist

advocated for protecting natural resources (s: early environmental movement)

New South

vision of industrialized, modern South (s: mostly failed; South remained poor and agricultural)

Tenant Farmers

they rented land for cash or crops (s: kept farmers in debt)

Sharecroppers

worked land for a share of crops (s: cycle of poverty; replaced slavery economically)

Tuskegee Institute

black vocational school founded by Booker T. Washington (s: emphasized job skills over civil rights)

Plessy v. Ferguson

Supreme Court upheld segregation (s: established “separate but equal”)

Jim Crow Laws

laws enforcing racial segregation (s: institutionalized racism in the South)

Ida B. Wells

journalist and activist (s: led anti-lynching movement)

W.E.B. Du Bois

civil rights leader, scholar (s: demanded immediate equality)

Booker T. Washington

black educator and leader (s: advocated for vocational education and equality)