Urban and culture
What are Tenements?
The specific name for the overcrowded, poorly sanitized apartments where the urban poor lived.
What is Laissez-faire Capitalism?
The "hands-off" economic system that allowed for massive wealth but often led to corruption.
What is the Incandescent Light Bulb?
This invention by Thomas Edison was considered the most important innovation of the Industrial Age.
What is Sharecropping?
The labor system that replaced slavery but kept African Americans in a cycle of poverty and debt.
What is the Homestead Act?
The 1862 act that gave 160-acre plots of land to settlers, including women and freed slaves.
Who was Jacob Riis?
This photographer used his camera to expose the brutal living conditions in the slums of New York City.
What are Labor Unions?
Workers formed these organizations, like the AFL, to fight for better wages and safer conditions.
What is the Bessemer Process?
This specific manufacturing process allowed for the mass production of cheap, strong steel for skyscrapers.
What is Plessy v. Ferguson?
This 1896 Supreme Court case established the "separate but equal" doctrine, legalizing segregation.
Who were the Exodusters?
The specific name for the African American migrants who left the South to settle in Kansas.