ACC US History 1302

Gold Rush to california

The discovery of gold brought thousands of fortune seekers to California. Overnight, San Francisco became a city, and in 1850 California became a state. Native Americans of California succumbed to the contagious diseases the miners carried, and their villages were destroyed. By 1880, fewer than 20,000 Indigenous people lived in California.

Homestead Act encourages western settlement

This act gave 160 acres of land to anyone who would pay a $10 registration fee and pledge to live on the land and cultivate it for five years. The offer set off a mass migration of land-hungry Europeans, dazzled by a country that would give away its land. Americans also seized on the act’s provisions; between 1862 and 1900, nearly 600,000 families claimed free homesteads.

Policy of “small reservations” for Native Americans adopted

The debate between advocates for peace with the Native Americans and those who wanted war was won by the peace advocates. Halting construction of the Bozeman Trail, Congress created a peace commission to end the Sioux War and eliminate the potential causes of new Indian wars. The commissioners specified a permanent solution: “small reservations” to isolate the Native Americans on distant lands, teach them to farm, and “civilize” them.

National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry (the Grange) founded to enrich farmers’ lives

The new farms in the West were often more isolated than farms in the East had been. To ease the isolation and generally improve the lives of farmers and their families, the Grange was established.

Horace Greeley urges easterners to “Go West, young man”

Responding to a request for career advice, the famous editor of the New York Tribune urged his questioner to head for the part of the country that had always been America’s land of opportunity. It still was, Greeley said.

Sioux defeat and kill Custer at Battle of the Little Bighorn (June)

Feeling constricted on reservations, many Native Americans began to drift back into the open countryside, leading to renewed violence. When the Sioux gathered in the Black Hills to rid prospectors from their hunting grounds, the army sent troops to suppress them. Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, hungry for glory, plunged recklessly ahead of the main army, eager to claim the victory. His force of 265 men was surrounded and killed to the last man by a Sioux army of 2,500 warriors.

Dawes Severalty Act makes Native Americans individual landowners

Deciding to allot land parcels to Native Americans and to end tribal life, Congress passed this act, the most consequential legal development in Indian–white relations in more than three centuries. The Dawes Severalty Act divided tribal lands into small plots for distribution among members of the tribe. Each family head received 160 acres; single adults, 80 acres; and children, 40 acres.

Oklahoma Territory opened to settlement

In March, Congress forced the Creek and Seminole tribes, which had been moved into Oklahoma in the 1820s, to surrender their rights to the land. President Benjamin Harrison announced the opening of the Oklahoma District as of noon on April 22, 1889. On the morning of April 22, nearly 100,000 people lined up on the Oklahoma borders, ready to claim their stake

Teton Sioux massacred at Battle of Wounded Knee, South Dakota (December)

In order to stop Ghost Dances—rites to restore Native American lands and drive out white settlers—the army intervened, touching off violence that killed the Sioux warrior Sitting Bull, among others. Some historical accounts suggest that a Native American fired the first shot; the army responded with their new machine guns, killing 200 men, women, and children.

Historian Frederick Jackson Turner analyzes closing of the frontier

Turner’s ideas, summarized in what was known as the Turner Thesis, posited that the frontier and the advance of American settlement westward explained American development. It shaped customs and character; gave rise to independence, self-confidence, and individualism; and fostered invention and adaptation.

National Reclamation Act (the Newlands Act)

Irrigators received a major boost in 1902 when this act (also known as the Newlands Act) set aside most of the proceeds from the sale of public lands in 16 western states to finance irrigation projects in the arid states. Dams, canals, and irrigation systems channeled water into dry areas, creating a hydraulic society that was rich in crops and cities (such as Los Angeles and Phoenix), but ever thirsty and in danger of outrunning the precious water on which it all depended.

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

Legislation passed in 1882 that exluded new immigrants from china for 10 years and denied US citizenship to chinese nationals. it was the first exlusionary law aimed at a specific racial group to be passed in the united states

comstock lode

discovered in 1859 near virginia city, nevada, this ore deposit was the richest discovery in the hisotry of mining. named after henry comstock , the deposit produced silver and gold worth more than 306 million

dawes severalty act

legislation passed by congress in 1887 that aimed to break up traditional indian life by promoting individual land ownership. it divived tribal lands into small plots that were distributed among members of each tribe. provision were made for education adn eventrual citizenship. the law lead to corruption adn exploitation and weakened tribal culture.

exoduster

a group of about 6,000 black americans who left louisiana, mississippi, and texas in 1879, for freer lives as farmers or laborers in kansas

overland trail

the route fromt eh mississippi valley to the pacific coast in the last half of the 19th century

placer mining

mining that included using a shovel and washing pan to separate gold from the ore in streams and riverbeds. placer miners worked as individuals or in small groups

First oil well drilled near Titusville, Pennsylvania

In 1859, Edwin L. Drake drilled the first oil well near Titusville in northwest Pennsylvania, and “black gold” fever struck. Chemists soon discovered ways to transform petroleum into lubricating oil, grease, paint, wax, varnish, naphtha, and paraffin. A world market in oil arose.

Knights of Labor organize

Uriah S. Stephens and Philadelphia garment workers founded the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor, known simply as the Knights of Labor. A secret fraternal order, it grew slowly, until Terence V. Powderly, the new Grand Master Workman elected in 1879, ended the secrecy and began to recruit aggressively. The Knights welcomed everyone who “toiled,” regardless of skill, creed, sex, or color. Unlike most unions, it organized women workers; at its peak, it had 60,000 Black members.

Transcontinental railroad completed at Promontory, Utah

The Union Pacific Railroad, relying on Civil War veterans and Irish immigrant labor, laid track from the east to the west. The Central Pacific, relying largely on Chinese immigrant labor, began in California and worked eastward. The two lines met in Promontory, Utah, to complete the transcontinental railroad.

Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone

Bell showed off his invention at the Centennial Exposition, but it took several decades to grow in popularity. By 1895, there were about 310,000 phones; a decade later, there were 10 million—about one for every ten people. American Telephone and Telegraph Company, formed by the Bell interests in 1885, became a vast holding company, consolidating more than 100 local systems.

Centennial Exposition held in Philadelphia

The exposition celebrated the first 100 years of American independence but focused more on the present than on the past. New inventions, such as the telephone and root beer, were on display, along with machines and other products of the new industrial era. Nine million people attended the fair—about one-fifth of the nation’s population.

Railroads cut workers’ wages, leading to bloody and violent strikes

The end of the nineteenth century was marked by enormous, and violent, labor unrest. More than 23,000 strikes occurred between 1880 and 1900, involving more than 6.6 million workers. The great railroad strike of 1877 paralyzed railroads from West Virginia to California, resulted in the deaths of more than 100 workers, and required federal troops to suppress it.

Thomas A. Edison invents the incandescent lamp

A trial-and-error inventor, Thomas Edison tested 1,600 materials before producing the carbon filament he needed to make the lamp work. Then he devised a complex system of conductors, meters, and generators to distribute electricity to homes and businesses. By 1900, there were 2 million electric lights around the country.

Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company becomes nation’s first trust

Rockefeller built Standard Oil by marketing high-quality products at the lowest unit cost. He also employed other less savory methods such as threatening rivals, bribing politicians, and extorting railroad rebates that lowered his transportation costs and undercut competitors. By 1879, he controlled 90 percent of the country’s oil-refining capacity. In 1882, Rockefeller reorganized his giant corporation into the nation’s first trust.

Railroads introduce standard time zones

In November, the powerful railroads even changed time. Ending the country’s crazy-quilt jumble of local times that caused scheduling nightmares, the American Railway Association divided the country into four time zones and adopted the modern system of standard time. It took Congress 35 more years to adopt standard time: it finally did in 1918.

Samuel Gompers founds American Federation of Labor (AFL)

Gompers organized the AFL as a loose affiliation of trade unions for skilled workers, concentrating on such practical issues as higher wages, shorter hours, and better working conditions. If treated fairly, the AFL promised to provide a stable labor force and would not oppose monopolies and trusts. By the 1890s, the AFL was the most important labor group in the country.

Violent labor protest erupts in Haymarket Square Riot in Chicago

On May 4, at a meeting held in Haymarket Square to protest a police shooting of striking workers, an unidentified person threw a bomb. One policeman was killed and six others were fatally wounded. Police fired into the crowd, killing four more people. Authorities never discovered who threw the bomb, but the event sparked a backlash against labor “radicalism.” Although there was no evidence of their guilt, eight Chicago anarchists were convicted of murder and four were hanged. The labor movement was now linked to anarchism in the public mind.

Railroads adopt standard gauge

Early railroads used different gauges—the distance between the tracks—to discourage competition, but the Civil War showed the value of fast long-distance transportation. In a burst of consolidation, the large companies swallowed the small, and integrated rail networks became a reality. Railroads also adopted standard schedules, signals, equipment, and, finally, a standard gauge of 6 feet.

Workers strike at Homestead steel plant in Pennsylvania

When Homestead’s Henry Clay Frick cut workers’ wages, the union went on strike. When Frick called in an army of Pinkerton guards to put them down, workers responded with gunfire and forced the guards to surrender. On July 23, Alexander Berkman—an anarchist who was not one of the strikers—shot and stabbed Frick; incredibly, Frick survived. The governor of Pennsylvania ordered the state militia to impose peace. In late July, the Homestead works reopened under military guard, and in November the strikers gave up their fight.

Trunk lines

4 major railroads networks that emerged after the civil war to connect the eastern seaports to the great lakes and western river. they reflected the growing integration of transportation accross the country that helped spur large-scale industrialization

trust

a device to centralize and make more efficient the management of diverse and far-flung business operations. it allowed stockholders to exchange their stock certificates for trust certificates, on which dividends were paid. john d rockefeller organized the first major trust, the standard oil trust, in 1882

Morrill Land Grant gives land to states to establish colleges

This act of 1862 gave the states land to establish colleges to teach “agriculture and the mechanic arts.” The act fostered sixty-nine “land-grant” institutions, including the great state universities of Wisconsin, California, Minnesota, and Illinois

Nation’s first kindergarten opens in St. Louis

Educators began to pay more attention to early elementary education, a trend that placed young children in school and helped the growing number of mothers who worked outside the home. The kindergarten movement, which started in St. Louis, spread across the country and made use of more modern teaching techniques.

Women’s Christian Temperance Union formed to crusade against evils of liquor

Once slavery was abolished, people had more time to devote to other moral and political societal issues. Women who advocated total abstinence from alcoholic beverages formed the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Frances E. Willard was president of the group from 1879 until her death in 1898. By then, the WCTU had 500,000 members.

Henry George analyzes urban problems in Progress and Poverty

In his popular book, Henry George proposed a tax on land as the means to address the growing inequality in wealth. “Single-tax” clubs sprang up around the country, but George’s simplistic and unappealing solution had much less impact than his analysis of the problem itself. He raised questions that a generation of readers set out to answer.

Booker T. Washington opens Tuskegee Institute in Alabama

Washington, an ex-enslaved person, put his educational ideas into practice at Tuskegee, which opened in 1881. Washington stressed patience, manual training, and hard work. He believed Black people should focus on economic gains; they should go to school, learn skills, and work their way up the ladder.

Jane Addams opens Hull House in Chicago

Occupying an old, rundown house, Hull House stressed education—offering classes in elementary English and Shakespeare, lectures on ethics and the history of art, and courses in cooking, sewing, and manual skills. Addams also established an infant-welfare clinic and a free medical dispensary. The tenements lacked bathtubs, so she installed showers in the basement of Hull House and built a bathhouse. Seeing the value of a local library, Addams also opened a reading room.

National American Woman Suffrage Association formed

Susan B. Anthony, a veteran of many reform campaigns, tried to vote in the 1872 presidential election and was fined $100, which she refused to pay. In 1890, she helped form the National American Woman Suffrage Association to work for the enfranchisement of women.

Immigration Restriction League formed to limit immigration from southern and eastern Europe

The Immigration Restriction League, founded in 1894, demanded a literacy test for immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. Congress passed such a law in 1896, but President Grover Cleveland vetoed it as a violation of the country’s traditions.

Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson establishes constitutionality of “separate but equal” facilities

Homer Plessy was arrested after refusing to leave a “whites only” railroad car in Louisiana. He appealed his conviction all the way to the Supreme Court. The Court upheld Plessy’s conviction, ruling that segregated seating did not violate his rights because equal accommodations were provided.

civil rights cases

a group of cases in 1883 in which the supreme court ruled that the 14th amendment barred state governments from discriminating on the basis of race but did no prevent private individuals or organizations for doing so. The ruling dealt a major blow to efforts to protect african americans

mugwumps

edcucated and upperclass reformers who crusaded for lower tariffs, limited federal government, and civil service reform. they were best known for helping elect grover cleaveland president in 1884

new immigrants

starting in the 1880, immigration into the united states began to shift from northern and western europe to southern and eastern europe. these new immigrants were mostly poor, non-protestant, and unskilled;they tended to stay in close-knit communities and retain thier language, customs, and religions. between 188- and 1910, approx 8.4 million of these so called new immigrants came to the united states.

settlement houses

located in poor districts, these community centers tried to soften the impact of urban life for immigrants and other families. often run by young, educated woemn, they provided social services and a political voice for thier nieghtborhoods.

social darwinism

adapted by english social philosopher herbert specer from charles darwin’s theory of evelution , this theory held that the laws of evolution applied to human life, that chagne or reform therefore took centureis, and that the fittest would succeed in business and social relationships. it promoted competition and indivdualism, saw governmetn intervention into human affairs as futile, and was used by the economic and social elite to oppose reform.

social gospel

preached by urban protestant ministers, the social gospel focused as much on improving the conditions of life on eatrh as on saving souls for the hereafter. its adherents worked for child-labor laws and meaures to alleviate poverty

Disputed election of 1876 awards presidency to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes

Although the Democrat, Samuel Tilden, won more popular votes in the election, a commission was appointed to resolve disputes in three states that held the balance in the Electoral College. In a deal, the Republican candidate, Hayes, was awarded the presidency in return for a promise to withdraw federal troops from the South and end Reconstruction

Republican James A. Garfield elected president

James A. Garfield, a Union army hero and long-time member of Congress from Ohio, succeeded Hayes in 1881. Winning by a handful of votes, he was determined to unite the Republican Party (which was split by personality differences and disagreements), lower the tariff to cut taxes, and assert American interests in Latin America.

Garfield assassinated; Vice President Chester A. Arthur becomes president

Garfield was hounded by people seeking appointment to federal office. Charles J. Guiteau, a deranged lawyer and disappointed office seeker, shot Garfield in the back. Two and a half months later, the president died from his wounds. Vice President Chester A. Arthur—an ally of Senator Roscoe Conkling from New York—became president.

Democrat Grover Cleveland elected president

In the election of 1884, Grover Cleveland, the Democratic governor of New York, won a narrow victory. The first Democratic president since 1861, Cleveland reflected his party’s desire to curtail federal activities. He vetoed more than two-thirds of the bills presented to him, more than all his predecessors combined.

Republican Benjamin Harrison elected president

In 1887, Cleveland committed himself and the Democratic Party to lowering the tariff; Republicans accused him of undermining American industries. In 1888, they nominated for the presidency Benjamin Harrison of Indiana, a defender of the tariff. Cleveland garnered 90,000 more popular votes than Harrison, but Harrison won the electoral vote.

National Farmers’ Alliance and Industrial Union formed

The Alliance mainly sponsored social and economic programs, but it turned early to politics. In the West, its leaders rejected both the Republicans and Democrats and organized their own party; in June 1890, Kansas Alliance members formed the first major People’s Party. The Southern Alliance followed leaders such as Benjamin F. “Pitchfork” Tillman of South Carolina, who wanted to capture control of the dominant Democratic Party.

Republican “Billion-Dollar” Congress enacts McKinley Tariff Act, Sherman Antitrust Act, and Sherman Silver Purchase Act

The McKinley Tariff Act raised tariff duties about 4 percent, the highest ever. The Sherman Antitrust Act declared illegal “every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce.” The Sherman Silver Purchase Act directed the Treasury to purchase 4.5 million ounces of silver a month and issue legal tender in the form of Treasury notes in payment for it. The Republican Congress of 1890 passed a record number of laws that helped shape later policy and asserted the authority of the federal government to a degree the country would not then accept. In the 1890 elections, voters rejected the “Billion-Dollar” Congress and Republicans lost 788 seats.

Grover Cleveland regains presidency

Building on the Democratic Party’s triumph in the midterm elections of 1890, Grover Cleveland decisively defeated James B. Weaver, and the incumbent president, Benjamin Harrison. The Democrats increased their strength in the cities and among working-class voters. For the first time since the 1850s, they controlled the White House and both branches of Congress.

People’s Party formed

In July 1892, a convention of the Northern Alliance in Omaha, Nebraska, formed the new People’s (or Populist) Party to promote reform. Despite election victories in Kansas and North Dakota, Southern Democrats used any means possible to prevent the Populist candidate for president, James B. Weaver of Iowa, from winning the election. By 1892 the party was broken.

Financial panic touches off depression lasting until 1897

In mid-February 1893, panic suddenly hit the New York stock market. In one day, investors dumped one million shares of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, and it went bankrupt. Investment dropped sharply in the railroad and construction industries, beginning the worst economic downturn to that point in the country’s history. By 1894, the crisis had deepened; 3 million workers, one out of every five, were unemployed.

Sherman Silver Purchase Act repealed

Blamed by Harrison for damaging business confidence and draining the Treasury’s gold reserve, causing the panic of 1893, the act was repealed.

Republican William McKinley defeats William Jennings Bryan, Democratic and Populist candidate, in “battle of the standards”

The election of 1896 was known as the “battle of the standards” because it focused primarily on the gold versus silver standard of money. Bryan, the Democratic candidate with Populist backing, supported silver and inflating the currency, while McKinley, the Republican, favored gold. McKinley won the election by crushing Bryan in the big cities, where urban workers threw their support to the Republicans.

McKinley reelected

The presidential campaign of 1900 replayed the McKinley–Bryan fight of 1896. McKinley’s running mate was Theodore Roosevelt, hero of the Spanish–American War and governor of New York, who was nominated to capitalize on his popularity and in addition, his enemies hoped, to sidetrack his political career. Bryan stressed imperialism and the trusts; McKinley stressed his record at home and abroad. McKinley won in a landslide.

Congress passed the Gold Standard Act

In March 1900, the Republican-dominated Congress passed the Gold Standard Act, which declared gold the standard of currency and ended the silver controversy that had dominated the 1890s.

bland-allison silver purchase act

This 1878 act called for the partial coinage of silver. those favoring silver coinage argued that it would increase the money supply and help farmers and workers repay their debts. opponents advocated a restricted money supply based solely on gold and pointed out that few other major countries accepted silver coinage. congress passed the bill over president rutherford B.hayes veto

ocala demands

adopted by the farmers alliance in 1890 in ocala, florida, these demands became the organization main platform. they called for a sub-treasury system to allow farmers to store thier crops until they could get the best price, the free coinage of silver , an end to protective tariffs and national banks, a federal income tax, the direct election of senators by voters, and tighter regulation of railroads

pendleton act

1883 law created the bipartisan civil service commission to administer competitve exams for civil service jobs and appoint officeholders based on merit. it also outlawed compulsory political contributions from appointed officials.

pullman strike

may 1894, this strike at the pullman palace car company near chicago was one of the largest strikes in american history. workers struck to protest wage cuts, high rents for company housing , and layoffs. the american railway union, led by eugene v debs, joined the strike in june. extending into 27 states and territories, it paralyzed the western helf of the nation. president grover cleveland secured an injuenction to break the strike on the ground that it obstructed the mail, and he sent federal troops to enforce it