APUSH Unit 6 Flashcards

The New South (1877-1898)

• The "New South" refers to the vision of Southern culture, politics, and economics following the Civil War, aiming for economic diversity, growth, and embracing laissez-faire capitalism.
• Henry Grady, editor of the Atlantic Constitution, coined the phrase and advocated for the South to "northify" by adopting industrial practices.
• Southern cities and industrial centers experienced growth, with Southern states surpassing New England in textile manufacturing. Population growth and railroad construction matched or exceeded other regions.
• Despite progress, the "New South" vision only took hold in isolated cities; the South remained largely agricultural.
• Sharecropping: A labor system where individuals without capital work fields in exchange for a portion of the harvest. Although intended to aid emancipated blacks and poor whites, it often resulted in debt and a new form of economic slavery.
• Ended Reconstruction in the South, including the removal of federal Troops; racial segregation became widespread.
• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): Supreme Court case that upheld racial segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine, allowing segregation as long as facilities were equal in quality (though they rarely were).
• Jim Crow Laws: Laws enacted to segregate nearly every aspect of society, including bathrooms, water fountains, and public transportation.
• Black people were often barred from serving on juries or running for public office and were subject to lynch mob violence without legal recourse; over 1,000 were lynched in the 1890s.
• Ida B. Wells: Editor of a black newspaper who spoke against lynching and Jim Crow laws, later fleeing to the North due to threats and destruction of her presses.
• Henry Turner: Founder of the International Migration Society in 1894, which facilitated the migration of black Americans to Liberia, though the venture was unsustainable.
• Booker T. Washington: Advocated for black people to focus on economic self-sufficiency rather than political equality, believing economic power would lead to voting rights. His views were seen as impractical due to systemic political and economic barriers.

Industrialization of America

• Transition from local/regional production to mass production for a global market.
• Railroads: Key technological innovation, enabling a national market for goods through easy transport.
• Railroad mileage increased fivefold after the Civil War.
• Federal government supported railroad construction through land grants and loan subsidies, granting approximately 170,000,000 acres of land.
• Four new transcontinental railroads connected various regions, facilitating a national market.
• Bessemer Process: Patented in the 1850s by Henry Bessemer.
  • Blasting air through molten iron to make high-quality steel which enabled the production of more and better steel, and further enabled railroad construction.
• Greater access to natural resources (coal, oil) fueled industrialization. Coal was the initial energy source, followed by oil.
• Telegraph: Invented by Samuel Morse in 1844.
  • Expanded significantly in this period, enabling long-distance communication at the speed of electricity. A transatlantic cable connected America to Europe, creating an international market.
• Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, leading to the founding of the Bell Telephone Company.
  • By 1880, there were approximately 50,000 telephones in America.

The Rise of Industrial Capitalism

• The Gilded Age: A period characterized by the rise of large corporations and trusts that dominated industries like railroads, steel, and oil.
• John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil:
  • Used horizontal integration to eliminate competitors and control almost 90% of the oil industry.
• Andrew Carnegie and the steel industry:
  • Used vertical integration to acquire all supporting industries, dominating the steel industry.
• Industry leaders sought control of foreign markets and resources in places like the Pacific Rim and Latin America.
• Laissez-faire government policies: Politicians generally avoided government intervention or regulation of business practices.
• Reliance on underpaid laborers:
  • Immigrants, women, and children were employed for low wages due to lack of regulations.
  • Women were paid significantly less than men for the same work.
• Social Darwinism: Applied "survival of the fittest" to economics, justifying the concentration of wealth in the hands of the "most fit".
• Gospel of Wealth: Carnegie's belief that wealthy individuals had a duty to invest their wealth back into society through philanthropy.
  • He donated approximately 350,000,000 to build libraries and concert halls.
• Captains of Industry vs. Robber Barons: Two labels used to describe industry leaders.
  • The former indicates a favorable view, while the latter has a negative connotation.

Labor in the Gilded Age

• Significant division between the rich and the poor, with wealth concentrated among business owners.
• Conspicuous Consumption: Wealthy business owners displayed their wealth through elaborate displays like the Biltmore House. Vablen coined this phrase to describe this era.
• Working-class wages were low, and they suffered during economic downturns such as the Panics of 1873 and 1893.
• The prices on goods common to workers decreased, wages rose overall, and they had greater access to products than they did before
• Dangerous Working Conditions: Thousands of injuries and deaths occurred due to factory, railroad, and mining work.
• Labor Unions: Workers formed unions to fight for fair treatment, higher wages, and safety standards.
  • Tactics included political action, slowdowns, and strikes.
• Great Railroad Strike of 1877:
  • Railroad companies cut wages during a recession.
  • Unionized workers went on strike, shutting down over 60% of the nation's railroads.
  • President Hayes sent in federal troops to restore order after violence broke out.
• Pullman Strike:
  • The Pullman company cut wages during the Panic of 1893; workers went on strike.
  • Eugene V. Debs directed union members not to work on trains with Pullman cars.
  • Railroad owners connected Pullman cars to trains carrying federal mail, leading to the jailing of Debs.
• Knights of Labor:
  • National union that opened membership to all, including black laborers and women.
  • Aimed to destroy trusts and monopolies and abolish child labor.
  • Membership declined after the Haymarket Square riot in 1886, in which a bomb exploded during what was supposed to be a celebration and peaceful protest for an 8 hour workday. The public largely misattributed the incident to the Knights of Labor, leading to their reputation declining.
• American Federation of Labor (AFL):
  • Association of craft workers led by Samuel Gompers.
  • Focused on higher wages and safer working conditions.

Immigration and Migration

• Immigration: Moving from one country to another.
• Migration: Moving within the same country from region to region.
• The U.S. population tripled during the late nineteenth century, largely due to immigration.
• European immigrants: Mainly from the British Isles, Scandinavia, Russia, Italy, and the Balkans.
  • Reasons for immigration included poverty, overcrowding, joblessness, and religious persecution.
  • Settled in industrial cities like Chicago, Pittsburgh, and New York.
• Asian immigrants: Largely Chinese, flooded into the West, with many immigrating as a result of the California Gold Rush
• Urban Changes:
  • The middle class and wealthy moved away from urban centers which were largely comprised of the urban and working class in addition to many immigrants.
  • Tenements were poorly constructed, ventilated and outbreaks of diseases became more and more frequent.
• Ethnic Enclaves: Immigrants established ethnic enclaves to find solidarity and revive cultural institutions, and find a better understanding of American institutions.
• Exoduster Movement: Mass migration of Southern black people into the West (Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado). As many were being excluded from the government system due to prejudice at the time, they would go west to be away from it all.
  • They were assisted in this movement by the Colored Relief and the Kansas Freedmen's Aid Society, and migrated as a result of lack of fed protection of their rights.

American Responses to International Migrants

• Millions of European and Asian immigrants arrived in America during the Gilded Age, settling in urban industrial centers and facing dangerous working conditions.
• Debates over immigration sprang up due to concerns over American identity.
• Nativism: A policy of protecting the interests of native-born people over immigrants.
  • Protestant ministers and groups like the American Protective Association opposed immigrants and Catholics.
• Labor unions: Feared immigrants would work for low wages and undermine negotiations with manufacturers.
• Social Darwinism: Immigrants were deemed racially inferior and a threat to the American gene pool.
• Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882: Banned any further Chinese immigration to The United States.
  • Represents the only law targeting a specific nationality for exclusion.
• Jane Addams: Established settlement houses like the Hull House to help immigrants assimilate to American society, teaching English and providing educational and recreational opportunities.

The Burgeoning Middle Class

• Corporations divided into three layers: executives, laborers, and middle managers (white-collar workers).
• Growth of supporting workers: Accountants, legal services, healthcare, clerical workers.
  • Women's roles grew with women being hired in droves to teach children as well as the advent of the typewriter (typing jobs).
• Rise of the middle class due to these roles.
• People bought stuff and played:

Increasing in leisure time resulted in things like:

• Coney Island

• PT Barnum's circuses became popular

• New spectator sports such as baseball and American football popped up.

• Philanthropy

• Andrew Carnegie saw it as his duty to reinvest his money into society in order to provide more opportunity for those less fortunate than he was

  • The Gospel of Wealth was Carnegie's idea to not hold onto riches to pass on to his kids, but that extraordinary fortune ought to be given to the more just and equitable future for the many to reduce the societal distance between the rich and the poor.
    • Carnegie reinvested the money into cultural institutions such as free public libraries, unis, concert halls, and more. These were ways in which folks could have the opportunity to work their way to the middle class.

• Phoebe Apperson Hearst: A philanthropist herself, she understood the opportunity that education yielded and wanted to give the poor the opportunity to an education the exact level of the upper class people and their offspring.

Reform Movements During the Gilded Age

• Industrial capitalism: Factories mass-produced goods and laissez-faire capitalism allowed businesses to flourish with minimal government intervention.
• Unequal Prosperity: The wealthy elite class generated the most wealth, but factory wages were low with dangerous working conditions and long hours. This lead to a whole sector of society that had a very harsh existence.
• Artists, critics, agrarians, utopians, socialists, and advocates of the social gospel demanded for reform.
• Henry George: A politician and economist, he demanded that those with large land be taxed more to even the playing field between them and the working class.
• Utopians: Bellamy wrote a novel called Looking Backward about a man who finds America has been transformed into a socialist utopia:
• Socialism (the ancient nemesis of capitalism) - This ideology gained traction during the time!
  According to this, all the means of production should be owned and regulated by the community benefiting everyone more or less equally.
• Eugene V. Debs: Joined with a few others and started the Socialist party of America in 1901, but was basically a non-starter.