Transcontinental Railroads

Railroads that connected the Atlantic and Pacific coasts that Congress incentivized being built through large land grants and loans.

Large area of relatively flat land between the Mississippi River and Rocky mountains that was largely settled after the Homestead Act of 1862 for farming, which led to conflict with Native Americans.

Great American Desert

Term applied to the land west of the Missouri River and east of the Rocky Mountains because the landscape had almost no trees, little rainfall and tough prairie sod.

Vertical line that marked the spot in the Great Plains where west of the line it was difficult to grow crops since there were 15 inches or less of rainfall per year, harsh blizzards and hot dry summers.

Large groups of animals of the Great Plains that Native Americans relied on for survival that almost went extinct because of American western settlement and overhunting.

Discovery of gold in California in 1848 caused the first flood of newcomers to the West and was followed by more mineral strikes that kept a steady flow of young prospectors pushing into the West.

Discovery of sources of a precious metal encouraged people to flock to the Far West in hopes of striking it rich, the most famous example occurring in California in 1848.

Discovery of sources of a precious metal encouraged people to flock to the Far West in hopes of striking it rich, the most famous example occurring in Nevada.

Towns that grew quickly in the mining frontier because of rich mineral strikes that became infamous for saloons, dance-hall girls and vigilante justice.

Former boomtowns that quickly were abandoned after the rich minerals were taken from the ground.

Western grassland areas were settled by ranchers who were willing to face the hardships of the West in order to raise large and lucrative herds of cattle.

Mexican cowboys of the Great Plains who introduced the hardy “Texas” longhorn cattle to American ranchers.

Farm animals that many American ranchers raised in the Great Plains after being introduced to them by Mexican ranchers and vaqueros.

Long and dangerous trips overseen by cowboys to move cattle from ranches to stockyards in order to get the meat to market that stopped happening after the invention of barbed wire.

Invention that allowed Americans to fence in vast amounts of western lands without the availability of lumber, which changed the American West from open plains to fenced areas suitable for cattle.

Western land was settled and developed by pioneers who were willing to face the hardships of the West in order to gain land, grow crops or raise cattle and create a living for themselves.

Law that promoted settlement of the Great Plains by offering parcels of 160 acres of public land for free to any person who moved onto the land and farmed it for at least five years.

Inventor of barbed wire, which allowed Americans to fence in vast amounts of western lands without the availability of lumber and ended the era of cattle drives.

Agricultural technique successfully adopted in the Great Plains in which seeds are planted deep in ground where there is some moisture.

Agricultural products grown and sold for profit such as cotton in the South and wheat in the North and West.

National or international exchanges of goods and services between producers and consumers.

Reduction of the general prices of goods and services in an economy, which can greatly harm producers such as farmers when the price of crops go down.

Wholesalers and retailers who help connect producers to their market consumers and typically take a cut of the sale as profit, which drives up the price for the consumer.

National Grange Movement

Farming social organization started by Oliver H. Kelley, that turned political as farmers sought to redress grievances with railroad companies, middlemen and trusts.

Businesses owned and organized by the farmers of the National Grange Movement in order to work together to save costs charged by middlemen.

Pro farmer acts passed by a variety of Midwestern states that were designed to address various abuses by the railroad companies and were initially upheld by the Supreme Court in Munn v. Illinois.

Landmark SCOTUS case that upheld the right of a state to regulate businesses of a public nature (such as railroads), however, the decision was overturned by the Wabash Case.

Agricultural state and regional groups founded with the goal of economic and political action on behalf of farmers.

Proposed political ideas by delegates to the National Alliance (farmer organization) such as the direct election of senators that eventually led to the creation of a pro farmer political party, the Populists.

Turner’s Frontier Thesis

Idea by an American historian that the ability of Americans to move into new land allowed the United States to prosper and support democratic values, but new land was no longer available.

Frederick Jackson Turner

American historian who developed the Frontier Thesis and foresaw the challenges of Americans no longer being able to move to new land where they had complete freedom.

“The Significance of the Frontier in American History”

Influential essay written by American historian Frederick Jackson Turner on his Frontier Thesis and the importance of new land for the United States.

Series of conflicts between the U.S. Army and Native American tribes in the late 1800s over American settlement of the Great Plains that resulted in Native Americans being forced onto reservations.

Battle during the Indian Wars between American troops led by General Custer and the Sioux led by Chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse that resulted in the destruction of Custer and his troops.

Native American religious ritual that promised a rebirth of Native American prosperity, which frightened Americans into outlawing its practice and led to the Massacre of Wounded Knee.

Massacre at Wounded Knee

Tragedy that marked the end of the Indian Wars, in which the U.S. Army opened fire on a Native American camp and killed more than 200 Native American men, women and children.

Author and future muckraker, her books exposed the unjust manner in which the U.S. government had treated Native Americans as well as protested the Dawes Severalty Act.

Idea of “Americanizing” people through formal education, job training and religious conversion that was often forced on Native Americans and resulted in boarding schools such as the Carlisle School.

Law that broke up tribal reservations into individual parcels and intended to help Native Americans integrate into American society, but in practice caused widespread poverty and homelessness.

Indian Reorganization Act (1934)

Law that promoted the reestablishment of tribal organization and culture by returning reservation land control and some political power to Native American tribes

Nearly 1,000 mile overland route that connected the American Southwest to Missouri and farther east, which helped open the American Southwest to American settlement and economic development.

Ecological problem caused by cutting down too many trees for lumber or clearing land for agricultural use.

Iconic state park in California that became one of the earliest national parks in the United States as part of the conservation movement.

First national park in the United States and it was created as part of the conservation movement.

Forest Reserve Act of 1891

Law that authorized the president to withdraw federal timberlands from development and regulated their use as federally managed forest reserves.

Forest Management Act of 1897

Law that built on the Forest Reserve Act and helped withdraw federal timberlands from development and regulated their use.

Environmental activists who believed in scientific management and regulated use of natural resources.

Environmental activists such as John Muir who believed in protecting natural areas from human interference.

Environmental activist and preservationist who was a leading founder of the Sierra Club and pushed for the creation of more national parks.

Environmental activist group founded by John Muir to promote preservationism and other environmental priorities.

Vision of Henry Grady for the Southern economy to become self-sufficient and built on modern capitalist values, industrial growth, modernized transportation and improved race relations.

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Unit 6

All Vocabulary

Term	Definition
Transcontinental Railroads	Railroads that connected the Atlantic and Pacific coasts that Congress incentivized being built through large land grants and loans.
Great Plains	Large area of relatively flat land between the Mississippi River and Rocky mountains that was largely settled after the Homestead Act of 1862 for farming, which led to conflict with Native Americans.
Great American Desert	Term applied to the land west of the Missouri River and east of the Rocky Mountains because the landscape had almost no trees, little rainfall and tough prairie sod.
100th Meridian	Vertical line that marked the spot in the Great Plains where west of the line it was difficult to grow crops since there were 15 inches or less of rainfall per year, harsh blizzards and hot dry summers.
Buffalo Herds	Large groups of animals of the Great Plains that Native Americans relied on for survival that almost went extinct because of American western settlement and overhunting.
Mining Frontier	Discovery of gold in California in 1848 caused the first flood of newcomers to the West and was followed by more mineral strikes that kept a steady flow of young prospectors pushing into the West.
Gold Rush	Discovery of sources of a precious metal encouraged people to flock to the Far West in hopes of striking it rich, the most famous example occurring in California in 1848.
Silver Rush	Discovery of sources of a precious metal encouraged people to flock to the Far West in hopes of striking it rich, the most famous example occurring in Nevada.
Boomtowns	Towns that grew quickly in the mining frontier because of rich mineral strikes that became infamous for saloons, dance-hall girls and vigilante justice.
Ghost Towns	Former boomtowns that quickly were abandoned after the rich minerals were taken from the ground.
Cattle Frontier	Western grassland areas were settled by ranchers who were willing to face the hardships of the West in order to raise large and lucrative herds of cattle.
Vaqueros	Mexican cowboys of the Great Plains who introduced the hardy “Texas” longhorn cattle to American ranchers.
Longhorn Cattle	Farm animals that many American ranchers raised in the Great Plains after being introduced to them by Mexican ranchers and vaqueros.
Cattle Drives	Long and dangerous trips overseen by cowboys to move cattle from ranches to stockyards in order to get the meat to market that stopped happening after the invention of barbed wire.
Barbed Wire	Invention that allowed Americans to fence in vast amounts of western lands without the availability of lumber, which changed the American West from open plains to fenced areas suitable for cattle.
Farming Frontier	Western land was settled and developed by pioneers who were willing to face the hardships of the West in order to gain land, grow crops or raise cattle and create a living for themselves.
Homestead Act	Law that promoted settlement of the Great Plains by offering parcels of 160 acres of public land for free to any person who moved onto the land and farmed it for at least five years.
Joseph Glidden	Inventor of barbed wire, which allowed Americans to fence in vast amounts of western lands without the availability of lumber and ended the era of cattle drives.
Dry Farming	Agricultural technique successfully adopted in the Great Plains in which seeds are planted deep in ground where there is some moisture.
Cash Crops	Agricultural products grown and sold for profit such as cotton in the South and wheat in the North and West.
Markets	National or international exchanges of goods and services between producers and consumers.
Deflation	Reduction of the general prices of goods and services in an economy, which can greatly harm producers such as farmers when the price of crops go down.
Middlemen	Wholesalers and retailers who help connect producers to their market consumers and typically take a cut of the sale as profit, which drives up the price for the consumer.
National Grange Movement	Farming social organization started by Oliver H. Kelley, that turned political as farmers sought to redress grievances with railroad companies, middlemen and trusts.
Cooperatives	Businesses owned and organized by the farmers of the National Grange Movement in order to work together to save costs charged by middlemen.
Granger Laws	Pro farmer acts passed by a variety of Midwestern states that were designed to address various abuses by the railroad companies and were initially upheld by the Supreme Court in Munn v. Illinois.
Munn v. Illinois	Landmark SCOTUS case that upheld the right of a state to regulate businesses of a public nature (such as railroads), however, the decision was overturned by the Wabash Case.
Farmers’ Alliance	Agricultural state and regional groups founded with the goal of economic and political action on behalf of farmers.
Ocala Platform	Proposed political ideas by delegates to the National Alliance (farmer organization) such as the direct election of senators that eventually led to the creation of a pro farmer political party, the Populists.
Turner’s Frontier Thesis	Idea by an American historian that the ability of Americans to move into new land allowed the United States to prosper and support democratic values, but new land was no longer available.
Frederick Jackson Turner	American historian who developed the Frontier Thesis and foresaw the challenges of Americans no longer being able to move to new land where they had complete freedom.
“The Significance of the Frontier in American History”	Influential essay written by American historian Frederick Jackson Turner on his Frontier Thesis and the importance of new land for the United States.
Indian Wars	Series of conflicts between the U.S. Army and Native American tribes in the late 1800s over American settlement of the Great Plains that resulted in Native Americans being forced onto reservations.
Little Bighorn	Battle during the Indian Wars between American troops led by General Custer and the Sioux led by Chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse that resulted in the destruction of Custer and his troops.
Ghost Dance Movement	Native American religious ritual that promised a rebirth of Native American prosperity, which frightened Americans into outlawing its practice and led to the Massacre of Wounded Knee.
Massacre at Wounded Knee	Tragedy that marked the end of the Indian Wars, in which the U.S. Army opened fire on a Native American camp and killed more than 200 Native American men, women and children.
Helen Hunt Jackson	Author and future muckraker, her books exposed the unjust manner in which the U.S. government had treated Native Americans as well as protested the Dawes Severalty Act.
Assimilation	Idea of “Americanizing” people through formal education, job training and religious conversion that was often forced on Native Americans and resulted in boarding schools such as the Carlisle School.
Dawes Act (1887)	Law that broke up tribal reservations into individual parcels and intended to help Native Americans integrate into American society, but in practice caused widespread poverty and homelessness.
Indian Reorganization Act (1934)	Law that promoted the reestablishment of tribal organization and culture by returning reservation land control and some political power to Native American tribes
Santa Fe Trail	Nearly 1,000 mile overland route that connected the American Southwest to Missouri and farther east, which helped open the American Southwest to American settlement and economic development.
Deforestation	Ecological problem caused by cutting down too many trees for lumber or clearing land for agricultural use.
Yosemite	Iconic state park in California that became one of the earliest national parks in the United States as part of the conservation movement.
Yellowstone	First national park in the United States and it was created as part of the conservation movement.
Forest Reserve Act of 1891	Law that authorized the president to withdraw federal timberlands from development and regulated their use as federally managed forest reserves.
Forest Management Act of 1897	Law that built on the Forest Reserve Act and helped withdraw federal timberlands from development and regulated their use.
Conservationists	Environmental activists who believed in scientific management and regulated use of natural resources.
Preservationists	Environmental activists such as John Muir who believed in protecting natural areas from human interference.
John Muir	Environmental activist and preservationist who was a leading founder of the Sierra Club and pushed for the creation of more national parks.
Sierra Club	Environmental activist group founded by John Muir to promote preservationism and other environmental priorities.
New South	Vision of Henry Grady for the Southern economy to become self-sufficient and built on modern capitalist values, industrial growth, modernized transportation and improved race relations.
Henry Grady	Southern newspaper editor who promoted the “New South,” which achieved some success, but ultimately proved difficult to implement because of the South’s agricultural past and racial divisions.
Birmingham	City in Alabama that developed into one of the nation’s leading steel producers as part of the “New South.”
Memphis	City in Tennessee that developed into one of the nation’s main lumber centers as part of the “New South.”
Richmond	Former Confederate capital and city in Virginia that became the capital of the nation’s tobacco industry as part of the “New South.”
National Rail Network	System of railroads that connected the various regions of the United States that rapidly grew in the South after the Civil War as part of the “New South.”
Tenant Farmers	Agricultural workers who rented land from large landowners in order to grow crops, which forced many former slaves to continue to depend on their landowners for survival.
Sharecroppers	Agriculture workers who paid for the use of land with a share of the crop, which forced many former slaves to continue to depend on their landowners for survival.
George Washington Carver	African American scientist at Tuskegee Institute who promoted the diversification of farm crops in the South through growing peanuts, sweet potatoes and soybeans.
Tuskegee Institute	Educational institution founded specifically for African Americans by Booker T. Washington that focused on agricultural and technical training.
White Supremacists	Racist individuals who favored treating African Americans as social inferiors through tactics such as separating or segregating public facilities and potentially violence.
Civil Rights Cases of 1883	Landmark SCOTUS cases that ruled Congress could not ban racial discrimination practiced by private citizens and businesses used by the public.
Plessy v. Ferguson	Landmark SCOTUS case that created the “separate, but equal” doctrine and legalized racial segregation, which contributed to the rise of Jim Crow laws.
Jim Crow Laws	State laws that institutionalized racial segregation in the South by segregating schools, buses and other public accommodations, which made it near impossible for Southern blacks to vote.
Literacy Tests	Examination of a person’s ability to read and write in order to vote, which effectively barred many African Americans from participating in elections.
Poll Taxes	Fees charged for the right to vote that many African Americans could not afford since many African Americans were poor sharecroppers, which effectively barred them from participating in elections.
Grandfather Clauses	Laws that required voters to have a grandfather who had voted in elections before Reconstruction, which effectively barred many African Americans from participating in elections.
Lynch Mobs	Groups of racist individuals who would torture and kill African Americans in order to maintain the racial status quo and intimidate African Americans.
Economic Discrimination	Prevention of African Americans from getting higher paying skilled trade and factory jobs, which prevented most African Americans from rising into the middle class.
Ida B. Wells	Newspaper editor, women’s rights activist and future muckraker who campaigned against Jim Crow laws and lynchings by advocating for national anti-lynching laws.
International Migration Society	Organization formed by Bishop Henry Turner to help African Americans emigrate to Africa.
Booker T. Washington	Founder of the Tuskegee Institute who urged African Americans to address racism by using economic cooperation to gain gradual improvements in their social, political, and economic status.
Atlanta Compromise	Belief held by Booker T. Washington that African Americans should focus on the economic improvement of the South in exchange for better education and some legal rights.
Economic Cooperation	Idea supported by Booker T. Washington that African Americans should focus on vocational training and that economic gains would lead to gradual social and political gains as well.
W. E. B. Du Bois	Opposed to Booker T. Washington’s “gradualist” approach to equality, he argued for immediate and full equality socially, politically, and economically and he co-founded the NAACP.
Transatlantic Cable	Cyrus W. Field’s improvement of an electronic communication method made it possible to send messages across oceans in minutes and created nearly instantaneous global communication.
Telephone	Invention by Alexander Graham Bell that allowed for electronic verbal communication, which eventually surpassed the telegraph in popularity.
Alexander Graham Bell	Inventor of the telephone who also was an innovator in optical telecommunications, hydrofoils and aeronautics and later became a founding member of the National Geographic Society.
Eastman’s Kodak Camera	Invention which allowed people to take pictures and freeze a moment in time forever in a photograph.
Henry Bessemer	Inventor of a new process for making steel that was cheaper and more efficient, which allowed for the industrial mass production of steel.
Thomas Edison	American inventor whose inventions include the phonograph and incandescent light bulb, which demonstrated budding innovation and improved standards of living in the United States.
Menlo Park	Thomas Edison’s research laboratory in New Jersey, which was the world’s first modern research laboratory and contributed to the concept of mechanics and engineers working collaboratively.
Electric Power	Energy source that was utilized by inventors such as Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse to revolutionize machinery and lighting.
Electric Light	Invention that revolutionized life, especially in the cities, by allowing humans to take more advantage of time when it is dark outside.
George Westinghouse	Inventor of a transformer for producing high-voltage alternating current that allowed for the lighting of cities and the operation of electric streetcars, subways and electrically powered machinery.
Subways	Underground railroads that could transport large numbers of people in urban centers, which were made possible by new inventions such as Westinghouse’s electric transformer.
Brooklyn Bridge	Massive steel suspension bridge in New York City that allowed for workers to live farther away from the urban center and also showed the importance of steel in construction.
Skyscraper	Tall buildings predominantly built in urban centers that were made possible through the use of steel skeletons, the invention of the elevator and central steam-heating systems with radiators in every room.
Otis Elevator	Invention that allowed groups of people to be moved quickly between different floors of a building, which allowed for the building of skyscrapers.
R. H. Macy	Creator of a large department store in New York City that expanded with new locations all across the United States.
Large Department Store	Businesses such as Macy’s, which had large locations that sold many different consumer products and became popular in urban centers.
Mail-Order Companies	Businesses such as Sears, Roebuck & Co. that used the improved rail system to ship a wide variety of products to customers who ordered from their thick catalogs.
Sears, Roebuck & Co.	Mail-order company that used the improved rail system to ship a wide variety of products to customers who ordered from their thick catalog, which became known as the “wish book.”
Packaged Foods	Manufactured food that was sold ready to make by companies such as Kellogg and Post
Canning	Food storage process that allowed meat and vegetable products to be mass produced, stored, transported and sold.
Gustavus Swift	Founded a meat-packing empire by developing the first practical ice-cooled railroad car, which allowed his company to ship dressed meats to all parts of the country and even abroad.
Advertising	New marketing technique which became its own big business that promoted a consumer economy by encouraging people to buy more products.
Consumer Economy	Economic system focused on the consumption of manufactured goods that was encouraged by new mass production inventions and advertising.
Nation’s First Big Business	Railroad companies became the first companies to grow so large that they could dictate national economics and politics.
American Railroad Association	Organization that divided the country into four time zones for the simplification of transportation, which resulted in railroad time becoming standard time for all Americans.
Time Zones	Geographical areas that observe a uniform standard time for legal, commercial and social purposes, which was started by the American Railroad Association in the United States.
Consolidation	Absorption of competing companies into one larger company, such as competing railroads being integrated into one trunk line between major cities.
Cornelius Vanderbilt	Businessman who amassed a fortune modernizing railroad lines by converting them to common gauge steel rails and creating linkages of major cities in the East and Midwest.
Jay Gould	Railroad speculator who made millions by selling off assets and watering stock and later attempted to control the gold market through a scheme involving President Ulysses S. Grant.
Watering Stock	Inflating the value of a corporation’s assets and profits before selling its stock to the public, which is one of the tactics utilized by Jay Gould to amass his fortune.
Rebates	Discounts and kickbacks railroads offered to favored shippers in an attempt to survive, which resulted in much higher costs for smaller customers such as farmers.
Pools	Competing companies agreed to secretly fix rates and share traffic, which was a tactic utilized by railroad companies to increase profits.
Bankruptcy	Legal process of being declared unable to meet legitimate financial obligations or debts, therefore requiring special supervision by the courts.
J. Pierpont Morgan	Wall Street banker and financier who consolidated many bankrupt railroads, bought Carnegie Steel and turned it into the world’s first billion-dollar corporation, U.S. Steel Corporation.
Interlocking Directorates	Same directors running competing companies, which allowed wealthy business leaders to create regional railroad monopolies.
Andrew Carnegie	Poor Scottish immigrant who eventually became an investor, entrepreneur and industrialist who founded Carnegie Steel and donated more than $300 million to charity during his lifetime.
United States Steel	Company created by J. P. Morgan after he bought Carnegie Steel for more than $400 million, which he turned into the first billion-dollar company in the world.
John D. Rockefeller	Founder and Chairman of the Standard Oil Trust, which grew to control nearly all American oil production and distribution and formulated the horizontal integration business tactic.
Standard Oil	Oil company and trust founded by John D. Rockefeller, which grew to control nearly all American oil production and distribution and formulated the horizontal integration business tactic.
Monopoly	Company that dominates a market so much that it faces little to no competition from other companies and can artificially increase and/or lower prices, such as Standard Oil.
Trust	Organization or board that manages the assets of other companies, which can be used to form a monopoly, such as Standard Oil.
Horizontal Integration	Process through which one company builds a monopoly by taking control of all its former competitors in a specific industry, such as Standard Oil and the oil refining industry.
Vertical Integration	Process through which one company builds a monopoly by taking control of all stages of making a product, such as Carnegie Steel and the steel industry.
Holding Company	Business created to own and control diverse companies, such as J. P. Morgan and his business interests in banking, railroads and steel.
Laissez-Faire	Economic theory that business should be regulated by the "invisible hand" of the law of supply and demand and not by government.
Adam Smith	Economist credited with the creation of the theory of capitalism and who argued in favor of laissez-faire economics in his book The Wealth of Nations.
Social Darwinism	Belief that Charles Darwin’s ideas of natural selection and survival of the fittest should be applied to humanity and the marketplace, which justified the widening gap between the rich and the poor.
Survival of the Fittest	Charles Darwin’s theory that in nature, living things best suited to their environment thrive, which William Graham Sumner applied to society to justify the wealth gap between classes.
William Graham Sumner	Social Darwinist at Yale who argued that help for the poor was misguided because it interfered with the laws of nature and weakened the evolution of humans by preserving the unfit.
Protestant Work Ethic	Idea that material success was a sign of God’s favor and a just reward for hard work, which John D. Rockefeller used to justify his massive wealth compared to the average worker.
Self-Made Men	People who came from humble beginnings, but built great wealth through massive business empires such as Andrew Carnegie, which gave people hope for upward social mobility.
Horatio Alger	Author who promoted the idea of “self-made men” in his novels and real life examples did exist, but the rags-to-riches career was unusual and extremely rare.
Iron Law of Wages	Economic theory proposed by David Ricardo that raising wages would increase the working population, which would in turn cause wages to fall, thus creating a cycle of misery and starvation.
Wage Earners	Laborers who work for an income to support themselves and their families and most families required multiple income earning laborers, including children, to survive.
Lockout	Act of closing a factory to break a labor movement before it could get organized.
Blacklist	Roster of pro-union workers that employers circulated so that these people could not find work.
Yellow-Dog Contract	Job offers that included a condition of employment that workers could not join unions.
Court Injunction	Judicial action used by an employer to prevent or end a strike.
Collective Bargaining	Ability of workers to negotiate as a group (union) with an employer over wages and working conditions.
Great Railroad Strike of 1877	Major national strike in response to cut wages during an economic depression that turned violent until President Rutherford B. Hayes used federal troops to end the violence.
Craft Unions	Labor organizations that typically focused on one type of skilled labor.
National Labor Union	First attempt to organize all workers in all states and its chief victory was winning the eight-hour day for federal government workers, but it lost support after failed strikes and economic downturns.
Knights of Labor	National labor union that under Terence V. Powderly’s leadership accepted women and African-Americans and campaigned for abolishing child labor and forming worker cooperatives.
Haymarket Bombing	Strike in Chicago organized by the Knights of Labor that turned violent when an anarchist threw a bomb and killed seven police officers, which turned public opinion against unions.
American Federation of Labor	National labor union for skilled workers led by Samuel Gompers, who focused on better wages and working conditions through the tactic of collective bargaining.
Samuel Gompers	Leader of the American Federation of Labor who focused on better wages and working conditions through the tactic of collective bargaining.
Homestead Strike	Pittsburgh steel workers’ strike against the Carnegie Steel Company that turned violent as workers and Pinkerton “scabs” clashed until state troops were called in to suppress the violence.
Pullman Strike	Strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company that was joined by the American Railroad Union and crippled national railroad traffic, which resulted in federal courts issuing injunction to end the strike.
Eugene V. Debs	Leader of the American Railroad Union who was arrested for refusing to end the Pullman strike after the injunction and helped found the American Socialist Party after his six-month jail sentence.
Push Factors	Negative factors from which immigrants are fleeing such as economic downturns, famines, political unrest and religious persecution.
Pull Factors	Positive factors that attract immigrants to a country such as political and religious freedom and economic opportunity.
Old Immigrants	Mostly Northern and Western Europeans who arrived in the United States before the 1890s and were mostly welcomed because of their high level of literacy and occupational skills.
New Immigrants	Mostly Southern and Eastern Europeans who arrived in the United States after the 1880s and were not welcomed because of their different religions, low literacy rates and poor economic conditions.
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)	Law that specifically banned Chinese immigration to the United States after large numbers of Chinese workers settled in the American West as part of the California Gold Rush.
Streetcar Suburbs	Communities of the upper and middle class who moved to new areas along transit routes that led to the urban center in order to escape the pollution, poverty and crime of the city.
Poverty	State of having little material possessions or income that was often felt hardest by those living in the industrial urban centers such as new immigrants in ethnic neighborhoods.
Tenement Apartments	Poorly constructed and unsanitary inner-city housing that could cram over 4,000 people into one city block and served as housing for poor factory workers.
Dumbbell Tenements	Poorly constructed and unsanitary inner-city housing that was split into small rooms with ventilation shafts in the center to provide windows for each room.
Ethnic Neighborhoods	Areas of cities where immigrants could maintain their culture and language by cohabitation, but the areas were often characterized by slums and tenement apartments.
Statue of Liberty	Gift from France to the United States that was placed in New York City harbor near Ellis Island and was the first glimpse of the United States for many immigrants.
American Protective Association	Largest anti-Catholic organization of the 1890s that pushed for nativist laws and policies.
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)	Law that specifically banned Chinese immigration to the United States after large numbers of Chinese workers settled in the American West as part of the California Gold Rush.
Contract Labor Law of 1885	Act that restricted the immigration of temporary workers to the United States in an effort to protect American workers from competition.
Ellis Island	Immigration center in New York City harbor where immigrants needed to pass more rigorous medical examinations and pay a tax before entering the United States.
Angel Island	Immigration center in San Francisco harbor where immigrants needed to pass more rigorous medical examinations and pay a tax before entering the United States.
Political Machines	Highly organized groups of politicians that were led by a “boss” and held power by exchanging government jobs and assistance for immigrants for votes.
Political Machine Boss	Top politician in a political machine who gave orders to the rank and file members and doled out government jobs to loyal supporters.
Tammany Hall	Political machine of the Democratic Party in New York City that appealed to immigrants in order to secure votes and was well known for corruption and graft.
Settlement Houses	Centers for immigrants and the urban poor such as Hull House in Chicago, which provided social services including education, job training and housing assistance.
Jane Addams	Urban reformer who inspired the settlement house movement and founded Hull House in Chicago, which provided social services including education, job training and housing assistance.
Melting Pot Theory	Popular academic idea of the 19th and 20th century that immigrant groups quickly shed old-world characteristics in order to assimilate to American ideals and customs.
Salad Bowl Theory	Academic idea that challenges the Melting Pot Theory in that people came to the United States and retained their ethnic heritage while choosing to adopt some American ideals and customs.
Cultural Diversity	View that cultures, races, and ethnicities, particularly those of minority groups, deserve special acknowledgment of their differences within a dominant political culture.
Expanding Middle Class	Growing socio-economic group of Americans as a result of new jobs created by industrialization such as managers, accountants, clerical workers and salespersons.
White-Collar Workers	Salaried employees whose jobs generally do not involve manual labor. which large corporations increasingly needed to fill their highly organized administrative structures.
Middle Management	Lower level administrators who coordinate the operations between company executives and operational level employees such as factory workers.
Gospel of Wealth	Andrew Carnegie’s idea that the wealthy had a moral obligation to carry out projects of civic philanthropy to help other members of society to better themselves and in turn improve society.
Philanthropy	Supporting a cause or charity through financial donations or volunteer work, such as Andrew Carnegie donating millions to build libraries, schools and hospitals across the United States.
Working Women	Females employed for a wage outside of the home, which became more common as a result of industrialization and the increased demand for clerical workers, nurses and teachers.
Professions	Jobs which typically require higher education, training and certification such as doctors, lawyers, teachers and college professors.
Growth of Suburbs	Middle class families started to move out of large cities and into easily accessible nearby communities that typically had cheaper land and more personal space.
“City Beautiful” Movement	Attempts in the 1890s to remake American cities with tree-lined boulevards, public parks and public cultural attractions that met resistance by urban politics and private owners.
Kindergarten	Level of early-childhood education that was adopted from Germany and quickly became popular, which reflected the growing interest in education for young children.
Public High Schools	Tax supported places of learning for older students that followed the college preparatory curriculum of private academies, but also expanded into vocational and citizenship education.
Electives	Courses not required for students to take, but rather chosen by students as part of their curriculum, which started in American colleges and later spread to high schools.
Johns Hopkins University	First American education institution to specialize in advanced graduate studies by following the model of German universities and emphasizing research and free inquiry.
Social Sciences	New fields of academic study and research such as psychology, sociology, anthropology and political science, which focused on using data to address social issues.
Richard T. Ely	Researcher at Johns Hopkins who studied labor unions, trusts and other existing economic institutions not only to understand them, but also to suggest remedies for economic problems of the day.
W.E.B. Du Bois	Leading Black intellectual of the era and co-founder of the NAACP who advocated for racial equality, integrated schools and equal access to higher education.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.	Prominent legal scholar who argued that the law should evolve with the times in response to changing needs and not remain restricted by legal precedents and judicial decisions of the past.
Clarence Darrow	Famous lawyer who argued that contrary to traditional belief, criminal behavior could be caused by a person’s environment of poverty, neglect and abuse.
Growth of Leisure Time	Increase in the amount of time people had and were willing to spend on activities that were not work or survival related, but for entertainment purposes only .
Mass-Circulation Newspapers	Newspapers that were widely distributed and read by a significant number of Americans.
Joseph Pulitzer	Newspaper publisher of the New York World, which became the first newspaper to exceed a million in circulation, who attracted readers with sensational stories and competed fiercely with Hearst.
William Randolph Hearst	Newspaper publisher of the New York Journal, who attracted readers with sensational stories and competed fiercely with Pulitzer.
Ladies’ Home Journal	Mass-circulation magazine aimed at women that was made possible through advertising revenue and new printing technologies that reduced the price of printing.
Circuses	Traveling companies of acrobats, clowns, and other entertainers which give performances and were a popular form of entertainment in the late 1800s.
Barnum and Bailey (The Greatest Show on Earth)	Famous traveling company of acrobats, clowns, and other entertainers which give performances and was a popular form of entertainment in the late 1800s.
Wild West Show (Buffalo Bill)	Popular Western themed entertainment show brought to urban audiences by Buffalo Bill (William F. Cody) that headlined personalities such as Sitting Bull and Annie Oakley.
John Philip Sousa	American composer and conductor who wrote many popular marches played by orchestras that people attended as part of their growing leisure time.
Jelly Roll Morton	Jazz composer and performer who expanded the audience of jazz and helped start its growing popularity in American culture.
Jazz	Music genre that combined African rhythms with European instruments and mixed improvisation with a structured format that gained popularity as New Orleans performers headed north into large cities.
Scott Joplin	Ragtime composer and performer who became known as the “King of Ragtime” and contributed greatly to its growing popularity in American culture.
Blues	Music genre that originated in the Deep South and expressed the pain of the Black experience, which as a musical format gained popularity as Southern performers headed north into large cities.
Ragtime	Music genre with African American origins that became known for its syncopated rhythm and gained popularity as Southern performers headed north into large cities.
Spectator Sports	Professional and collegiate athletic competitions that became popular for people to watch in their leisure time such as baseball, football and basketball.
Amateur Sports	Athletic opportunities that became popular for people to do in their leisure time for fun and physical fitness such as croquet, bicycling, golf and tennis.
Athletic Clubs	Private and exclusive sports and social organizations for the wealthy that typically revolved around golf, tennis and for the extremely wealthy polo and yachting.
Henry George	Author of Progress and Poverty, in which he criticized the effects of laissez-faire economics and encouraged economic reforms and increased government regulation.
Edward Bellamy	Author of Looking Backward, 2000-1887, in which he envisioned life in the year 2000 as a society that had eliminated poverty, greed and crime, which helped inspire calls for economic reform.
Cardinal James Gibbons	Catholic leader in Baltimore who inspired the devoted support of old and new immigrants by defending the Knights of Labor and the cause of organized labor.
Dwight Moody	Urban evangelist who helped adapt traditional Christianity to city life and founded the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.
Salvation Army	Welfare organization brought to the United States from England in 1879 that assisted the urban poor while preaching temperance and morality in an attempt to solve the problems of urban poverty.
Social Gospel	Influential reform movement led by Walter Rauschenbusch that focused on the philosophy that Christians had an obligation to improve the lives of those less fortunate, such as the urban poor.
Walter Rauschenbusch	Leader of the social gospel movement and Baptist minister from New York who convinced many middle-class Protestants to attack urban problems through Progressive reforms.
Jane Addams	Urban reformer who inspired the settlement house movement and founded Hull House in Chicago, which provided social services including education, job training and housing assistance.
Divorce	Legal separation of a married couple, which happened at a greater rate as a result of the stress of industrialization and because state legislatures added cruelty and desertion as legal grounds for separation.
Family Size	Number of children people had, which started to go down as a result of industrialization and urbanization because children became a greater economic liability.
Susan B. Anthony	Women’s rights advocate and abolitionist who campaigned heavily for women’s suffrage and founded the National Woman Suffrage Association.
National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)	Organization established by activists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony in 1890 to fight for women’s suffrage.
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)	Influential organization founded by women that played a major role in the temperance and prohibition movements of the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Frances E. Willard	Women’s suffragist and leader of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) who expanded its leadership to over 500,000 members by 1898.
Anti-Saloon League	Temperance organization founded in 1893 that quickly became a political force and by 1916 had persuaded 21 states to close down all saloons and bars.
Carry A. Nation	Temperance supporter who became famous for raiding saloons and smashing barrels of beer with a hatchet.
Realism	19th century art and cultural movement in which writers and painters sought to show life as it was, rather than life as it should be.
Mark Twain	First great realist author and humorist and was known for writing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which revealed the greed, violence and racism in American society.
Naturalism	Art and cultural movement that focused on how emotions and experience shaped human experience.
Stephen Crane	Naturalist author who wrote Maggie
Jack London	Naturalist writer and adventurer who portrayed the conflict between nature and civilization in novels such as The Call of the Wild.
Theodore Dreiser	Naturalist author who wrote Sister Carrie, a book about a poor working girl in Chicago that shocked the moral sensibilities of the time.
Winslow Homer	Naturalist and realist painter known for painting scenes of nature such as seascapes in a matter-of-fact way.
Thomas Eakins	Realist painter who focused on painting the everyday lives of working-class people and surgical scenes, using the new technology of serial-action photographs to study human anatomy.
James McNeil Whistler	Painter who focused on the study of color rather than subject matter, which influenced the development of modern art.
Mary Cassatt	Distinguished portrait painter who used the techniques of impressionism, such as a focus on using pastel colors
Impressionism	Art movement that originated in in Europe and focused on capturing a feeling or experience rather than achieving an accurate depiction
Ashcan School	Art movement of rugged realism that focused on the downtrodden and other elements of urban life that was popular in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Armory Show	Large exhibit of abstract, nonrepresentational art in New York City in 1913, which shocked the art community.
Henry Hobson Richardson	Architect who focused on the medieval Romanesque style of massive stone walls and rounded arches instead of classical Greek and Roman styles.
Romanesque Style	Medieval architectural style favored by Henry Hobson Richardson, which focused on using massive stone walls and rounded arches
Louis Sullivan	Architect from Chicago who developed the typical skyscraper style that made them more popular, in which the form of a building flowed from its function.
Frank Llyod Wright	Architect who developed an “organic” style of architecture that was in harmony with its natural surroundings, which helped him become the most famous architect of the 20th century.
Frederick Law Olmsted	Urbanist and landscape architect who specialized in the planning of city parks and scenic boulevards, such as Central Park in New York City and the grounds of the U.S. Capitol.
Landscape Architecture	Art and practice of designing the outdoor environment such as parks, which through architects such as Frederick law Olmsted, became an essential part of urban planning.
Federal Land Grants	Large parcels of land gifted by the national government to states or businesses either as payment or in order to promote certain activities such as funding higher education.
Corruption	Dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power (often related to finances) that can greatly hurt the trust people have in their government.
Crédit Mobilier	Congressional controversy that involved a railroad company giving stocks to influential members of Congress to avoid investigation into illegal profits from government subsidies.
Interstate Commerce Act (1887)	Law that forbade price discrimination, prohibited other monopolistic practices and established the Interstate Commerce Commission to continually regulate railroad companies.
Railroad Rates	Fees charged by freight companies to move products by rail, which became regulated by the Interstate Commerce Commission after the monopolistic practices of the freight companies.
Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)	Law that outlawed monopolies, which was not actively enforced until the Progressive Era.
Antitrust Movement	Middle-class citizens feared the unchecked power and wealth of monopolies and campaigned for reform and government regulation.
United States v. E. C. Knight Co.	Landmark SCOTUS case that reduced the ability of the national government to regulate monopolies by ruling the Sherman Antitrust Act did not apply to manufacturing.
Assassination of President Garfield	Murder of President Garfield by a deranged office seeker, which pushed Congress to remove certain government jobs from the control of party patronage.
Pendleton Act of 1881	Law that set up the Civil Service Commission and created a system by which applicants for classified federal jobs would be selected based on their performance on competitive exams.
Civil Service Commission	Government organization created by the Pendleton Act of 1881 and charged with administering competitive exams for classified government jobs.
Debtors	People who needed to borrow money and supported soft money because it would allow them to take out loans with lower interest rates and pay off their loans more easily with inflated dollars.
Soft Money	Currency that was not backed by gold, such as paper money (greenbacks) and was typically supported by debtors.
Panic of 1873	Economic downturn caused by the overexpansion of railroads and overspeculation from financial institutions, which resulted in controversy over hard money versus soft money.
Creditors	People who lended money and supported hard money because dollars backed by gold would hold their value against inflation (make the money they already had worth more).
Hard Money	Currency backed by gold and typically supported by creditors.
Greenback Party	Political organization formed to support soft money, specifically greenbacks, and it achieved some success at the state and national level, but it fell apart by 1884.
Crime of 1873	Congress siding with creditors during the Panic of 1873 by passing laws to remove greenbacks from circulation and stopping the coining of silver.
Bland-Allison Act (1878)	Compromise law over the money supply that allowed a limited amount of silver to be coined, but failed to appease debtors who continued to campaign for the unlimited coinage of silver.
Protective Tariffs	Taxes on imported goods levied in order to shield domestic manufacturers from foreign competition and promote domestic consumption of goods.
Consumers	Individuals who purchase goods and services and who are typically hurt economically by protective tariffs because of resulting higher prices of goods.
Popular Politics	Election campaigns directly appealing to the interests of the voters through tactics such as campaign buttons, free food and crowd-pleasing oratory in order to build party identification and loyalty.
Party Patronage	Political organizations building support by providing government jobs to the party faithful, which was a rampant issue during the Gilded Age.
Republican Party	Political organization based on the Hamiltonian and Whig traditions that tried to keep power during the Gilded Age by figuratively waving the “bloody shirt.”
Bloody Shirt	Political tactic of criticizing political opponents by suggesting they were involved in the physical harm of the other, such as Republicans criticizing Democrats during the Gilded Age for the Civil War.
Veterans of the Union Army	Millions of Northerners who fought to keep the Union together and were heavily courted by the Republican party for their votes.
Reformers	Individuals who wanted to make changes to society and government in order to help others and typically voted Republican during the Gilded Age because of the party’s antislavery past.
African Americans	Individuals who faced widespread discrimination, especially in the Democrat controlled South, and typically voted Republican during the Gilded Age because of the party’s antislavery past.
Anglo-Saxon Protestants	White Christians who dominated American culture during the Gilded Age and typically voted Republican during the Gilded Age because of the party’s support of Temperance.
Temperance	Reform movement to limit or eliminate the consumption of alcohol because of the high rate of alcohol consumption and connections to various societal ills such as crime, poverty and abuse of women.
Hamiltonian Tradition	Political ideology adopted from the Federalists that focused on supporting a pro-business economic program that included high protective tariffs to support industry.
Whig Past	Political ideology adopted from National Republicans that focused on supporting a pro-business economic program that included high protective tariffs to support industry.
Pro-Business	Economic program supported by traditionally conservative politicians that focused on promoting and protecting industry through various means, such as protective tariffs and a national bank.
Democratic Party	Political organization based on the Jeffersonian and Jacksonian traditions that could rely on votes from the solid South, big city political machines and immigrants during the Gilded Age.
Solid South	Former states of the Confederacy that strongly voted for the Democratic Party throughout the Gilded Age.
Big-City Political Machines	Highly organized groups of politicians in major urban areas that were led by a “boss” and held power by exchanging government jobs and assistance for immigrants for votes.
Immigrant Voters	Individuals originally from other countries who were often Catholics, Lutherans and Jews who objected to temperance and typically voted Democrat during the Gilded Age.
Jeffersonian Tradition	Political ideology adopted from Democratic-Republicans that focused on states’ rights and limited federal power.
States’ Rights (Limited Federal Power)	Political ideal of protecting and preferring the power and protections of states over the power and protection of the national government.
Rise of the Populists	New political organization formed in 1892 through farmers’ alliances and in response to economic and political hardships faced by farmers such as abuse by railroads and the gold standard.
Farmers’ Alliances	Agricultural state and regional groups founded with the goal of economic and political action on behalf of farmers.
Omaha Platform	Populist political program adopted in 1892 that called for political and economic reform such as the direct election of senators, unlimited coinage of silver and government ownership of railroads.
Government Ownership	Action by the government to take control of a business or industry in order to better regulate that business or industry.
Thomas Watson	Populist leader from Georgia who appealed to poor farmers of both races who shared economic grievances to join the People's Party.
Election of 1892	Presidential election won by Democrat Grover Cleveland, however, Populist candidate James Weaver showed the influence of the Populists by earning 22 electoral college votes.
Grover Cleveland	22nd and 24th President of the United States who was a Democrat known for focusing on civil service reform and government integrity, but also struggled economically when facing the Panic of 1893.
Panic of 1893	Major economic crash and depression that was caused by overspeculation in railroads and led to banks failing, farm foreclosures reaching record highs and the unemployment rate reaching 20 percent.
Coxey’s Army	Populist leaders led a large group of unemployed and homeless Americans to the capital to demand federally funded public works to employ those who needed work in response to the Panic of 1839.
Coin’s Financial School	Book by William H. Harvey that convinced many Americans their economic woes were caused by a conspiracy of rich bankers and the unlimited coinage of silver would solve their problems.
Election of 1896	Presidential election that marked the end of the Populists after they supported Democratic candidate William Jennigs Bryan, who lost to Republican William McKinley and his mass media campaign.
William Jennings Bryan	Democratic candidate for president in 1896 and 1900 and gifted orator whose support of the unlimited coinage of silver won him the support of the Populist Party, but not the presidency.
Cross of Gold Speech	William Jennings Bryan’s famous speech given at the national Democratic convention in 1896 in favor of the unlimited coinage of silver, which won him the support of the Populists.
Unlimited Coinage of Silver	Idea of moving away from the gold standard and removing limits on how much silver was allowed to be coined in order to help farmers and other debtors.
Gold Bug Democrats	Economically conservative faction of the Democratic Party who supported the gold standard and refused to support William Jennings Bryan and the unlimited coinage of silver.
William McKinley	Republican candidate for president in the election of 1896, who won because of a highly successful mass media campaign and his support of the gold standard and protective tariffs.
Protective Tariffs	Taxes on imported goods levied in order to shield domestic manufacturers from foreign competition and promote domestic consumption of goods.
Marcus Hanna	Wealthy businessman and the financial power behind William McKinley’s nomination and presidential campaign, who spent heavily on building a highly successful mass media presence for McKinley.
Gold Standard	Monetary system of backing currency by gold.
Mass Media	Widely circulated and consumed forms of media such as newspapers and magazines, which Marcus Hanna used to great effect in getting William McKinley elected president.
Racism	Prejudice and discrimination directed against a person or people based on their race, which was a major barrier to uniting the political power of poor white and black farmers and laborers.
Era of Republican Dominance	Time period from 1896 to 1832 that saw Republicans dominate American politics by electing six of the next seven presidents and controlling Congress for 17 of the next 20 sessions.
First Modern President	Term applied by historians to William McKinley (or Theodore Roosevelt) for taking the United States from being relatively isolated to becoming a major player in international affairs.

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