Business
This was an economic philosophy begun by Adam Smith in his book, Wealth of Nations, that stated that business and the economy would run best with no interference from the government. This economic thought dominated most of the time period of the Industrial Revolution.
laissez-faire
law that prohibited rebates and pools and required the railroads to publish their rates openly. It also forbade unfair discrimination against shippers and outlawed charging more for a short haul than for a long one over the same line. It also set up a Commission to administer and enforce the new legislation.
Interstate Commerce Act
party formed in 1892 made up of discontented farmers whose platform demanded inflation through coinage of silver and gold (16:1), graduated income tax, gvmt ownership of railroads/telegraph/telephone, direct election of senators, one-term limit of presidency, adoption of referendum, shorter workday, and immigration restriction. Nominated James Weaver for president.
Populism or Populist Party
systematic state-level legal codes of segregation.
Jim Crow
creator of the American Federation of Labor. He provided a stable and unified union for skilled workers.
Samuel Gompers
The systematic program by the US government to force Native Americans to adopt European American ideas about culture, private ownership land and school.
assimilation
The late 19th century, from the 1870s to about 1900. Satirized an era of serious social problems masked by a thin gold gilding of economic progress. The term was coined by Mark Twain.
Gilded Age
a multi-dwelling building, often poor or overcrowded
Tenement
"Oil Baron", Standard Oil.
John D. Rockefeller
(1890) a law that tried to regulate trusts. It favored businesses rather than workers and was originally used to break up labor unions.
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
(1862) law that provided free land in the West to anyone willing to settle there and develop it. Encouraged westward migration.
Homestead Act
1896 court case that validated the South's segreationalist social order, ruling "separate but equal" facilities were constitutional under the "equal protection" clause of the 14th Amendment.
Plessy v. Ferguson
(1894) strike in Chicago led by Eugene Debs for railroad workers that spread nationwide. President Grover Cleveland called in federal troops to put down the strike.
Pullman Strike
1876 Battle at which Colonel George Custer's forces clashed with nearly 4000 well armed Sioux warriors led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull; Custer and more than 250 of his men were killed; U.S. reinforcements chased Sitting Bull to Canada where he received political asylum until hunger forced him to return.
Battle of Little Bighorn
Included bankers, entrenched capitalists, creditors, and investors who thought this would:
Allow currency to hold its value, since gold-backed money is less susceptible to inflation.
Increase the value of gold as the population expanded.
Supporters of Hard Money
the policy, generally around immigration but also dealing with social and economic aspects of daily life, that favors native-born or long-term resident individuals in the United States at the expense of immigrants.
Nativism
technique used by Carnegie where he combined into one organization all phases of manufacturing from mining to marketing.
Vertical Integration
(1883) law that reformed the patronage system; created civil service and banned requirement of government workers to support political campaigns.
Pendleton Act
an impassioned address by William Jennings Bryan at the 1896 Deomcratic Convention, in which he attacked the "gold bugs" who insisted that U.S. currency be backed only with gold. Using religious language, he described the noble suffering of farmers on the Great Plains.
Cross of Gold Speech
Who said the following:
“There was a South of slavery and secession — that South is dead. There is a South of union and freedom — that South, thank God, is living, breathing, growing every hour.”
Henry Grady
American union leader, one of the founding members of the International Labor Union and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and several times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States.
Eugene V. Debs
where Native American children were forced to go to learn English, cut their hair, learn farming skills, and physically punished for practicing cultural customs.
Indian Boarding Schools
The application of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution to the business world; used by industrialists and social conservatives to discourage any government regulation in society and explain why they were getting so rich.
Social Darwinism
The first major legal restriction on immigration to the U.S. in 1882; prohibited further unskilled Chinese immigration in order to reduce competition for jobs.
Chinese Exclusion Act
a railroad that would cross the continent and connect the East to the West in 1869; opened new markets and helped spur the Industrial Revolution
transcontinental railroad
scandal in 1872 where Union Pacific Railroaders formed a construction company and hired themselves at inflated prices to build a railroad line. They then paid off congressmen with shares of the company's stock to keep the lid on it. Newpaper exposé revealed the scandal went as far as the Vice President of the US.
Credit Mobilier Scandal
author of the "Frontier Thesis" that claimed that the Western Frontier was the defining feature of the US, in terms of developing an American character of self-reliance and commitment to making democratic institutions.
Frederick Jackson Turner
the political agreement between the Republicans and the Democrats that ended Reconstruction in the southern states by removing the federal troops from the South in exchange for Republican Rutherford B. Hayes winning the presidency in 1876. This deal ended protections for African Americans civil rights in the South.
Hayes-Tilden Compromise or The Compromise 1877
Violent labor conflict in Carnegie's mills
Henry Frick (manager) announced pay cut
Strike had to be put down by state militia in 1892
Homestead Strike
A ritual dance performed by some members of the Sioux tribe in an effort bring back the buffalo and return the Native American tribes to their land.
US military troops attacked tribe performing the danced murdered them at the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890.
Ghost Dance
An essay written by Andrew Carnegie in June of 1889 that describes the responsibility of philanthropy by the new upper class of self-made rich.
Gospel of Wealth
A population shift from rural areas to cities and the ways in which each society adapts to the change
urbanization
Strategy to maximize profits by attempting to purchase competing companies in the same industry; monopoly-building (ex. Rockefeller's Standard Oil)
horizontal integration
Political machine of New York City that was well-known for its corruption. Lead by William Boss Tweed. The machine was exposed by cartoonists like Thomas Nast.
Tammany Hall
political agenda adopted by the populist party in 1892 at their Omaha, Nebraska convention. Called for unlimited coinage of silver (bimetallism) to create inflation, government regulation of railroads and industry, graduated income tax, and a number of election reforms.
Free Silver Movement
"The large-scale black migration from the South to Kansas came to be known as the "Great Exodus"
Who are the people who made up this "great exodus"?
Exodusters
Supreme Court ruling from 1886 that declared state-passed Granger laws that regulated interstate commerce unconstitutional.
Wabash v. Illinois
1887 Legislation that allotted each head of household 160 acres of reservation land; land deemed to be "surplus" beyond what was needed for allotment was opened to white settlers with the proceeds invested in education programs; designed to encourage the breakup of the tribes and promote the assimilation of Native Americans into American society. The historical significances that Native Americans lost about 90 million acres of treaty land.
Dawes Severalty Act
Refers to the industrialists or big business owners who gained huge profits by paying their employees extremely low wages. They also drove their competitors out of business by selling their products cheaper than it cost to produce it. Then when they controlled the market, they hiked prices high above original price.
Robber Barons
Immigrants who came to the United States during and after the 1880s; most were from southern and eastern Europe like Italy, Poland, Russia, Greece
"new immigrants"
A set of companies managed by a small group known as trustees, who can prevent companies in the trust from competing with each other.
trust
Unofficial political organization that works to win elections in order to exercise power
Sometimes referred to as a shadow government
Rose to power in the late 1800s because of ill-equipped local governments that failed to meet the needs of growing urban populations
Political Machine
high interest rates; high freight rates; high storage costs; large middlemen profits were all complaints of
western farmers
One of the Reconstruction Amendments
Provisions:
Citizenship Clause - Granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S.
Due Process Clause - Prohibited state and local governments from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without certain steps being taken to ensure fairness.
Equal Protection Clause - Required each state to provide equal protection under the law to all people within its jurisdiction.
14th Amendment
the refusal by an employer to allow employees to work unless they agree to his or her terms
lockout
1864 event at which Colonel John Chivington and his troops attacked and destroyed a village of friendly Cheyenne and Arapaho encamped in southeastern Colorado Territory; killed over 150 inhabitants, about two-thirds of whom were women and children.
Sand Creek Massacre
the drive to be economically efficient in the workplace through the specialization of labor is called what? (example: Ford's assembly line)
Taylorism
a positive response to immigration where houses were set up in order to help immigrants adapt to their new environment in the cities
Settlement House