Period 6 (1865-1898)
🏙 The Gilded Age (1870s–1900)
A period of rapid industrialization, economic growth, and widespread political corruption. Named sarcastically by Mark Twain—it looked "gold" on the outside but was corrupt underneath.
Key Terms & Explanations:
Industrialization: Growth of factories, mass production, and mechanized labor.
Robber Barons: Wealthy industrialists like Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Vanderbilt, criticized for exploitative practices.
Vertical Integration (Carnegie): Controlling every step in production—from raw materials to sale.
Horizontal Integration (Rockefeller): Buying out competitors to monopolize an industry.
Trusts: Legal arrangements that allowed companies to control entire industries.
Social Darwinism: The belief that economic success was a result of "survival of the fittest"—used to justify inequality.
Gospel of Wealth: Carnegie's idea that the rich had a duty to use their wealth for social good.
🏛 Gilded Age Politics
Characterized by laissez-faire government, corporate influence, and machine politics.
Key Terms & Explanations:
Laissez-faire: Government hands-off approach to the economy—favored by big business.
Political Machines: Organizations that traded favors (like jobs or housing) for votes.
Boss Tweed: Leader of Tammany Hall in NYC—used graft and patronage to stay in power.
Thomas Nast: Political cartoonist who exposed Tweed’s corruption.
Spoils System: Giving government jobs to political supporters—reformed by the Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883) after President Garfield’s assassination.
Sherman Antitrust Act (1890): First federal law attempting to limit monopolies, though weakly enforced at first.
👷 Labor Movements & Strikes
Workers responded to poor conditions with unionization and protests, though often with limited success.
Key Terms & Explanations:
Knights of Labor: Inclusive union led by Terence Powderly; declined after the Haymarket Riot (1886) turned public opinion against labor.
American Federation of Labor (AFL): Led by Samuel Gompers, focused on practical issues like wages and hours for skilled workers.
Great Railroad Strike (1877), Homestead Strike (1892), Pullman Strike (1894): Major strikes crushed by federal troops—demonstrated government support for business.
Bread and butter issues: Basic demands—higher pay, better hours, safer conditions.
🛠 Urbanization & Reform Movements
Cities grew rapidly—often overcrowded and unsanitary. Reformers tried to address urban issues.
Key Terms & Explanations:
Social Gospel Movement: Christian-based push to improve social conditions (poverty, slums).
Jane Addams: Opened Hull House in Chicago to help immigrants and the poor.
Settlement Houses: Community centers providing education, health care, and childcare.
Jacob Riis: His book How the Other Half Lives exposed tenement living conditions.
New Technologies: Electricity, elevators, and communication tools like the telephone created new jobs and middle-class growth.
Streetcar Suburbs: Enabled wealthier urban dwellers to move outside city centers.
🌎 Immigration & Internal Migration
Massive movement of people into and within the U.S. during this period.
Key Terms & Explanations:
Old Immigrants: Mostly from Northern/Western Europe (e.g., Ireland, Germany).
New Immigrants: From Southern/Eastern Europe (e.g., Italy, Poland, Russia)—often Catholic or Jewish, faced more discrimination.
Ellis Island: Main entry point for European immigrants in NYC.
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882): First major U.S. law to ban immigration by race/nationality.
Great Migration (early phase): African Americans moved from the rural South to Northern cities to escape Jim Crow and seek opportunity.
🌾 The New South
Effort to modernize the Southern economy after the Civil War, though racial oppression deepened.
Key Terms & Explanations:
Henry Grady: Promoted the idea of a “New South” with industrial growth.
Jim Crow Laws: State and local laws enforcing racial segregation.
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): Supreme Court upheld “separate but equal” facilities.
Booker T. Washington: Urged African Americans to gain economic self-sufficiency; founded Tuskegee Institute.
Ida B. Wells: Journalist who led an anti-lynching campaign.
🚂 Westward Expansion & Native American Policy
The federal government promoted settlement, often at the expense of Native peoples.
Key Terms & Explanations:
Homestead Act (1862): Offered free land to settlers willing to farm it for 5 years.
Transcontinental Railroad (completed 1869): Linked East and West, fueled migration and commerce.
Sand Creek Massacre (1864) and Wounded Knee (1890): Examples of U.S. military violence against Native Americans.
A Century of Dishonor (1881): Book by Helen Hunt Jackson exposing U.S. mistreatment of Native Americans.
Dawes Act (1887): Divided tribal lands into private plots to encourage assimilation; undermined tribal sovereignty.
Carlisle Indian School: Boarding school to "civilize" Native children—taught English and Christianity.
🌽 Populism
A political movement by farmers who were struggling economically and demanded reform.
Key Terms & Explanations:
The Grange / Farmers’ Alliances: Organized to fight high railroad rates and falling crop prices.
Populist Party: Called for bimetallism (using silver and gold to back currency), direct election of senators, income tax, and railroad regulation.
Omaha Platform (1892): The Populist Party's key policy list.
William Jennings Bryan: Populist-supported Democratic candidate in 1896; gave “Cross of Gold” speech favoring silver.
Election of 1896: Bryan lost to William McKinley, marking the decline of Populism but the rise of progressive ideas.