Westward Expansion
What was discovered in California in 1848 that led to a large influx of people?
Gold
What region of the United States was associated with slavery prior to and during the Civil War?
The South
What were the two opposing sides in the Civil War?
The North/Union vs The South/Confederacy
What does 'segregation' refer to?
The separation and unequal treatment of whites and blacks
What is a 'labor union'?
An organized group of workers who join together to protect their rights and advance their interests (e.g., better pay and working conditions) through collective bargaining
What does "Manifest Destiny" refer to?
The idea that God wanted America to expand westward and that it was America's destiny to do so
What were the main economies in the North and South prior to the Civil War?
North = Industrial
South = Agrarian (Farming)
What was the main cause of the Civil War?
Slavery (and the issue of whether it would be abolished vs preserved and expanded)
What does 'Reconstruction' refer to?
The period following the American Civil War when the federal government attempted to rebuild the Southern states and integrate four million newly freed African Americans into American life. The Union army occupied the South during this period to protect the freed slaves and ensure their rights.
What is a 'strike'?
When a group of workers/employees refuses to work in order to pressure their employer into meeting their demands, such as better wages, benefits, or working conditions
What happened to Native/Indigenous Americans as the United States expanded?
They were killed or forced onto reservations
What does 'abolitionism' refer to?
A social and political movement dedicated to ending slavery and all forms of human bondage
When was the Civil War fought?
1861-1865
What were Jim Crow laws?
State and local laws in the Southern United States that were racist and enforced racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans from the late 1800s to the mid-1960s
What were the labor conditions like in the United States at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries?
They were bad: no labor laws; very little money; 16-18 hour days; children worked
What was the Louisiana Purchase?
The acquisition of 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River from France by the United States in 1803 for $15 million
What invention made slavery more profitable?
The cotton gin (which quickly separated cotton fibers from their seeds)
What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?
What happened after the Union army pulled out of (left) the South?
The withdrawal effectively ended federal oversight and protection of African American rights, leading to the rise of Jim Crow laws and the disenfranchisement of Black voters, as well as terrorism and violence targeting Black people.
The lecture mentions two islands that served as immigration centers: one on the East Coast that mainly processed European immigrants; one on the West Coast that mainly processed immigrants from China, Japan, and Russia. What are the names of those two islands?
Ellis Island (NYC) & Angel Island (SF)
What does the Trail of Tears refer to?
The forced displacement of around 60,000 Native American people from their ancestral lands in the southeastern United States to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma)
The lecture mentions several prominent abolitionists. Name three of them.
John Brown, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Nat Turner
The lecture mentions two prominent generals, one for the South and one for the North. What were their names?
South = Robert E. Less
North = Ulysses S. Grant (later became president)
When did the Reconstruction era begin and end?
1865-1877
The lecture mentions three prominent industrialists (often called 'robber barons') who amassed massive fortunes during the era of industrialization that followed the Civil War. Name two of them.
JP Morgan (banker), John D. Rockefeller (Oil), and Andrew Carnegie (Steel)