Industrialization
Known as the "Great Upheaval," this series of events in the summer of 1877 caused the deaths of about 100 people and $40 million in property damage. It was put down by state militias and federal troops, but it led to the development of working class consciousness and the growth of Unions.
What is the 1877 Railroad Strike?
This act, passed in 1862, provided 160-acre tracts of land free of charge to any American that agreed to settle, improve, and live on the property for five years. This had a dual benefit in that it helped the property-less, but it also developed new markets in the west.
What is the Homestead Act?
Promoted by industrialists like Andrew Carnegie as well as many late nineteenth century intellectuals, this concept suggested that government intervention in the economy was dangerous and would upset the natural social order. It became a way to justify inequality by making class differences seem natural and expected.
What is Social Darwinism?
This argument holds that the U.S. is a unique place that owes it to the world to share its culture and commitment to democracy. It is a rationale for spreading our economic, cultural, and political values, but it also highlights the contradiction between liberty and imperialism.
What is American Exceptionalism?
This system introduced throughout the South after the Civil War, allowed African Americans to be arrested on vague charges such as vagrancy and essentially re-enslaved.
What is convict labor (or convict leasing)?
This inventor at one time held the American record for most patents. His innovations included the light bulb, moving pictures, and the phonograph. He is an example of American ingenuity that helped make the nation into a world industrial power.
Who is Thomas Alva Edison?
Established by the US government in the 1870s as an outcome of shifting Native American policy that encouraged cultural eradication, this boarding school taught Native American children traditional gender roles, Christianity, and capitalist values. It became a model for some 150 schools like it across the country.
What are Carlisle Schools?
Starting in the 1870s, it formed chapters across the country to fight “demon rum.” Led by Frances Willard, the organization adopted the motto “do everything” and empowered women not only to speak out against alcohol consumption but a range of other issues that threatened their homes.
What is the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)?
A term that describes how society arranged gender roles in the nineteenth century, it differentiated between public and private places and seriously limited men and women’s options. Even when women started taking jobs outside the home or began to participate in reform, they sought roles that lined up with these expectations.
What is separate spheres?
The name given to all-white communities known for being hostile to African Americans. In some cases, people were rounded up at gunpoint and shipped out in an effort to achieve white supremacy.
What are sundown towns?
An early example of working class consciousness, this inclusive Union first developed in the 1860s. It experienced fast growth in the 1880s, until the Haymarket Riot discredited it as dangerous and un American.
What is the Knights of Labor?
The first peacetime, all-black regiment in the US Army, these soldiers distinguished themselves first in the American west and later in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.
What are Buffalo Soldiers?
This photo journalist showed Americans How the Other Half Lives. His work drew attention to the growing inequality of the era.
Who is Jacob Riis?
Passed in 1882 and renewed routinely through the early 20th century, this was the nation’s first significant piece of immigration regulation.
What is the Chinese Exclusion Act?
This New South Advocate and editor of the Atlanta Constitution argued that the South just needed to “out-Yankee the Yankees.” He urged the South to industrialize and to look forward instead of clinging to the past, but in many ways, this New South boosterism, which emphasized resource extraction and cheap labor, caused the South to continue to lag economically.
Who is Henry Grady?
This system of management, introduced in the late nineteenth century, relied on time and motion studies to subdivide tasks and streamline production. These techniques improved efficiency, but the system also de-emphasized skill and undermined workers’ sense of pride and independence.
What is Taylorism?
Filled with stock characters and a lot of action, these traveling exhibits, which were incredibly popular in the 1890s, helped fashion the romanticized image we have of the west today. They not only created many well-known stars but also reassured a nation that worried it was becoming too “soft.”
What is Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Shows?
A Nebraska Democrat who unsuccessfully ran for president three times, he advocated bi-metallism. His ideas and his charisma, which attracted farmers and workers, led the Populist party to fuse with the Democrats in 1896, taking much of the steam out of that movement and changing the course of U.S. history.
Who is William Jennings Bryan?
Described as a “civic religion,” it became a rallying point for the South after the Civil War and a way for the nation to heal past wounds. Its adherents, particularly women, attempted to control how history was remembered and taught.
What is the “Lost Cause”?
This journalist fought to end racial violence in the 1890s after three of her friends were lynched. Her book, Southern Horrors challenged the common claim that lynching was needed to protect white women’s purity.
Who is Ida B. Wells?
A medical term coined by George Beard in the late 19th century, this condition left men feeling nervous and depressed. Americans at the time viewed it as a sign that the country was becoming “soft,” and it seemed to underscore their fear that urbanization and industrialization were weakening the nation.
What is neurasthenia?
This act of Congress, passed in 1887, encouraged Native American assimilation. It splintered vast Native American reservations into family homesteads. The act was touted as a benevolent measure, but it also opened western lands for white settlement.
What is the Dawes Act?
The daughter of a powerful railroad executive, this socialite was forced into an unhappy marriage in 1895 in the quest to exchange wealth for European titles. She illustrates the Gilded Age’s interest in “conspicuous consumption” and showing off wealth. Her story also illustrates how marriage was viewed as the highest (and usually only) goal for women in the period.
Who is Consuelo Vanderbilt?
This economist, author of Progress and Poverty (1879), revealed the costs of rapid economic growth, helped propose solutions like the Single Tax, and helped draw attention to Gilded Age excesses.
Who is Henry George?
This 1896 Supreme Court case mandated segregation, formalizing the policy of “separate but equal” that would remain in place until the 1950s.
What is Plessy v. Ferguson?