City Slickers
Founded in 1886, this was a federation of 20 craft unions (unions of skilled workers, each representing a particular trade). They concentrated on what they considered to be basic economic issues, such as the eight-hour workday and higher wages, rather than social change. Because they were made up of skilled rather than unskilled laborers, their workers could not be as easily replaced by scabs if a strike were called.
American Federation of Labor (AFL)
A major strike in 1892 at the Carnegie Steel Company’s Pennsylvania factory. After the workers went on strike, and the factory’s manager hired 300 private Pinkerton detectives to protect the plant and enable strikebreakers to enter and restart the steel operations. After an exchange of gunfire between the Pinkerton men and the workers, nine strikers and seven Pinkerton men were dead and many more people were wounded. Pennsylvania’s governor sent in 8,000 state militia to assist scabs to enter the mill. It was a major setback in unionizing the steel industry.
Homestead Strike
Linked the U.S. from Atlantic to Pacific and accelerated the development and eventual closure of the frontier
Transcontinental RR
A Scottish immigrant who became a titan of industry. He cornered the railroad business in the 1860s, focusing on innovation, investment in technology, operating at full capacity, and keeping costs (including wages) low. Authored “The Gospel of Wealth,” which asserted that wealth was a result of God’s will and that, in turn, the wealthy had an obligation to give money away to better society.
Andrew Carnegie
The process of controlling every aspect of the production process for a product, from the acquisition of raw materials to the distribution of the final product. A favored practice by Andrew Carnegie.
Vertical Integration
An oil refining company owned by John D. Rockefeller. At its height, it controlled 95 percent of U.S. refineries through consolidation. This business strategy is called horizontal integration. In 1911, the Supreme Court ruled it an illegal monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and split it into 34 companies.
Standard Oil Company
Their 1892 policy platform advocated for a silver standard, a graduated income tax, direct election of U.S. senators, and ownership of railroads, telegraph, and telephone lines.
Populist Party
An idea articulated by historian Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893. He argued that the frontier’s existence shaped the American character: a propensity for democracy, egalitarianism, individualism, and violence, as well as a disinterest in high culture. However, by 1890 the U.S. had no unsettled lands left. This document partly reflects a then-budding romanticization of the American West, leading to the preservation of wilderness by conservationist and such things as the name for Kennedy’s “New Frontier” agenda.
Turner's "Frontier Thesis"
American suffragist and abolitionist who co-founded the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1890 with Susan B. Anthony. Attended the Seneca Falls conference and was the principal author of the Declaration of Sentiments.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
The application of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to society, specifically the concept of “survival of the fittest.” It attempted to explain economic and social differences by arguing that wealth belonged in the hands of those who were most fit to manage it. Many believed that giving assistance to the poor went against the natural order.
Social Darwinists
The total or near-total domination of an industry by one business.
Monopoly
Founded in 1873, the group believed that prohibition would diminish threats to women and families that they saw as the direct result of alcohol over-consumption: domestic violence, misspent wages, and adultery. Later advocated for women’s suffrage under the leadership of Frances Willard. Conducted missionary work.
Women's Christian Temperance Union
A nationwide strike that took place from July 14 to September 4, 1877. More than 100,000 workers were ultimately involved, and the strike affected such cities as Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Chicago. The state National Guardsmen were often called in, but most militia members (and local residents) were sympathetic to the strikers. Ultimately, President Rutherford B. Hayes authorized the use of federal troops to break the strike. More than 100 workers were killed in the crackdown, and the strikers gained nothing. However, it led to more organized unionizing efforts.
Great Railroad Strike of 1877
A self-educated former slave, he advocated for the education of African Americans to allow them access to the growing economy. His Tuskegee Institute in Alabama was founded to instruct African Americans in the industrial arts and the ability to work within the system.
Booker T. Washington
Anti-immigrant activists in the nineteenth century.
Nativists
A period from the 1870s to 1900. While marked by massive economic growth due to industrialization, it also led to equally massive economic inequality. Backlash to this period manifested in the reforms of the Progressive Era.
Gilded Age
Landmark Supreme Court case (1896) that upheld segregation, codifying the doctrine of “separate but equal.” Partially overturned by Brown v. Board of Education. Functionally overturned by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Plessy v. Ferguson
A law that provided a settler with 160 acres of land if he promised to live on it and work it for at least five years. About 500,000 families took advantage, while many more bought land from private purveyors. Unfortunately, the parcels of land on the Great Plains were difficult to farm, owing to lack of rain and hard-packed soil.
Homestead Act of 1862
A pioneer in the field of social work and winner of the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize, __ is a major figure of the Progressive Era. She innovated on the concept of the settlement house by having immigrants live with college-educated people in order to ease their transition into American society. Settlement house guests were taught courses in English, hygiene, and cooking.
Jane Addams
An economic depression caused by the failure of the Reading Railroad company and by over-speculation artificially inflating the price of stocks. The market did not recover for almost four years. Investors began trading in their silver for more valuable gold, depleting the already dangerously low supply of gold.
Panic of 1893
A pejorative name for investors who artificially inflated the value of their company’s stock, sold the stock to the public, and pocketed the profits. The company would then go bankrupt, leaving stockholders with nothing. Additionally, the fierce competition of the Gilded Age coupled with lack of federal regulation often led to dishonest business practices.
Robber Barons
Prompted by racist attitudes toward Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles and San Francisco, this 1882 law restricted Chinese immigration to the United States.
Chinese Exclusion Act
An 1887 act which stripped tribes of their official federal recognition and land rights and would only grant individual families land and citizenship in 25 years if they properly assimilated.
Dawes Severalty Act
A political cartoonist for Harper’s Weekly, became Boss Tweed’s archenemy as he drew scathing commentaries regarding the machine’s corruption and greed. His cartoons were so famous that they led to the fugitive Tweed’s 1876 capture in Spain.
Thomas Nast
First articulated by the economist Adam Smith in his treatise The Wealth of Nations, _______ economics states that natural market forces, not government regulations or subsidies, should control the marketplace. However, the growth of monopolies during the Gilded Age prevented any natural competition from occurring, leading to antitrust laws.
laissez-faire