Studied by 41 people
Mark Twain
Famous writer who coined this period as the Gilded Age, where something gilded is a trashy metal covered in gold, serves as a symbol for the time period because we appear to be flourishing but this covers terrible problems
Focus of North and South Post-Reconstruction
The North is bent on production and invention as industrialization takes off, while the South is still stuck in the old ways of life and is slower to industrialize
New South Creed
Proposed by Henry Grady, believed that the South needed to modernize and industrialize, starts to pick up a small amount of momentum
“Lost Cause”
False narrative about the fighting of the Civil War, says that it was fought to preserve the Southern way of life in order to paint them as noble and rationalize their defeat
Plessy v. Ferguson
A 1896 Supreme Court case about Homer Plessy, a black man who gets on the whites only car and sues when kicked off because it violates the 14th amendments, they decide that it is constitutional and that separate but equal is fine
Redeemers
Elite democrats who wish to re-exert power over freedmen and any reconstruction progress, pushed for a laissez-faire government, leads to continued voter disenfranchisement
Fredrick Jackson Turner
An American Writer responsible for writing the Frontier thesis, coining the Frontier part of America documenting the movement of expansion throughout American history
Federal Assistance to Railroad Companies
Even though railroad companies are private enterprises, the government supported these corporations with land grants, loans, and direct subsidies
Transcontinental Railroad Benefits
They make people and cargo movement the most efficient, so naturally cities boom up around conglomerates of railroad networks
Gold Standard and Benefits
Backing all paper dollars by a minimal reserve of gold, which limits the amount of money in circulation and makes it advantageous for European speculators to invest in American railroads, mining, and agriculture
Immigrants in the West
European immigrants brought wheat to the US, making it a staple crop, and several immigrants took up their own farming, like German and Scandinavian immigrants in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota
Homesteaders
Those who took advantage of the Homestead Act and farmed for 5 years in order to earn 160 acres of free land
Longhorn Cattle
A breed of cattle that replaced the bison and grazed on the short grasses of the land
Cowboy Diversity and Life
Cowboys were usually poor ranch hands that were hired to herd cattle across vast distances from ranches to market towns
Long Drive
The practice of herding cattle from ranches to towns along major railroad lines
Barbed Wire
Spiked wire that allowed ranchers to contain their cattle more easily and started making the Long Drive obsolete by the 19th century
Slaughterhouses
Institutions that were solely focused on the killing of cattle and then their conversion to meat
Winter of 1886
A winter that ended with blizzards and record cold temperatures, which put the dreams of many homesteaders on hold
Report of the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States and Results
A study created by army veteran John Wesley Powell that prompted the federal government to invest in dams and canals that would help Midwestern agriculture from erratic rainfall
General Mining Act of 1872
An act that granted any person who discovered minerals on a government-owned land to stake a claim to that land and keep the profits from it, giving incentive for miners to take the risk
Boomtowns
Towns that would near spontaneously appear when minerals were found, and would become a ghost town just as quickly once it ran dry
Mining Corporations
Corporations that had resources necessary to fund explorations, employ hydraulic machinery, and stake land claims, making most small-scale miners obsolete
Alaska Gold Rush
Once Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1868, prospectors looked north for more opportunities, fueling a gold rush and the growth of Alaskan cities such as Seattle and Portland
Consequences of mining to other industries
Mining corporations in the Rockies and Pacific Northwest spurred large demands for lumber and produce
Safety Valve Theory
As access to western settlements was promoted, gradually this would ease social and economic pressures in the Eastern US by providing avenues for new opportunities.
Bureau of Indian Affairs
An Indian affairs department created in 1824 that was initially created as part of the war department but later was folded into the department of the interior
Decimation of Buffalo
The government planned to destroy Indian culture for the Plains tribes by hunting buffalo to near extinction, also opened up land for white settlement
Reservations
Government-controlled camps where forcibly relocated Indians were held
Indian Appropriations Act
Ends the recognition of tribes as sovereign nations, nullifies all earlier negotiated treaties with Indians, creates the reservation system, and assumed that all U.S. laws apply to the Indians
Battle of Little Bighorn
In Montana, 1876, the Sioux tribe, led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, fought against the U.S. military led by Gen. George Custer, the Sioux fight well despite their numbers and kill every U.S. troops, backlash and fear by whites
Battle of Wounded Knee
In South Dakota, 1890, the Sioux practice the Ghost Dance, soldiers hear this dance and show up demanding the removal of their weapons, one of the Sioux refuses, a weapon goes off and troops open fire, killing about 250 and ending the Indian “wars”
Ghost Dance
A loud, boisterous dance that the Sioux tribe believes will bring back the buffalo and stop the removal of their land, starts the Battle of Wounded Knee
Assimilation
Forcible changing of an individual’s culture
A Century of Dishonor
A book wrote by Hellen Hunt Jackson in 1881 that chronicles Native-American mistreatment
Dawes Severalty Act
Changes and divides communally held land, then forces Natives to own the land independently like whites, assimilates them and breaks their communal spirit
New View of Farming
Farming was now seen as instrumental in the West, but was also seen as incredibly difficult
“Crop Lien” system
A system that puts a lien on the next years harvest in order for people to pay debt, ends up harming farmers and was killed by the Farmers Alliance
Price Fixing
Setting the price of something as fixed as determined by an agreement between competing sellers
Problems for Farmers in the West
160 acres does not salvage a living, farming is physically demanding, experienced dry climate and brutal hailstorms, insect infestations commonly appeared, and farmers led mostly isolated lives
Crop Specialization
Farmers start growing only one thing, a riskier but also cheaper process
Women on the Frontier
Because of their ability to independently work on the Frontier, they gain a bigger role outside the home and begin to experience suffrage in Western states
National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry
A farmers group created in the 1860s with a peak of 1.5 million farmers, where farmers join for education sharing of farming tips and socialization
Farmers Alliance
A farmers group that takes political action for farmers and tackles problems like the crop lien system, includes 3 million whites and 1 million blacks
Cattle Drives
Connected networks of railroads and cowboys bringing Texan cattle to Chicago for slaughter and then to eastern cities once packaged
Vaqueros
Mexican cowboy practices, gear, and terms such as rodeo, bronco, and lasso that assimilated into cowboy culture and later became what we idolized them to be
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West
A touring show that made entertainment out of the characters of the lives of the west, employing those real people into an entertainment act
The Virginian
A novel created by Owen Wister, who established the character of the cowboy as a gritty stoic with thick skin but the courage and heroism needed to rescue people
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