Industry
The term used for powerful businessmen accused of exploiting workers or eliminating competition.
Robber Barrons
1862 law that offered 160 acres of land to settlers who were willing to farm.
Homestead Act
The belief that government should not interfere in business.
Laissez-faire
The NYC political machine that provided jobs and aid to immigrants in exchange for votes.
Tammany Hall
This term defines the rapid migration leading to overcrowded neighborhoods, poor sanitation, and overdevelopment.
Urbanization
Invention by Thomas Edison that changed daily life and factory work.
Light bulb
People who migrated westward after Reconstruction to escape the Black Codes of the South.
Exodusters
When one company completely controls an industry.
Monopoly
Infamous leader of Tammany Hall.
Boss Tweed
This organization, founded in 1869, was one of the first major labor unions in the United States, aiming to unite all workers to improve working conditions.
Knights of Labor
Big three industries of the Gilded Age.
Oil, Steel, Railroad
This encouraged movement, settlement, and trade between the Eastern and Western coasts of the US.
Transcontinental Railroad
This 1890 law was designed to limit monopolies and trusts.
Sherman Antitrust Act
A system where government jobs were given to political supporters and friends rather than people based on merit.
Spoils System
Many immigrants in rapidly growing cities lived in these crowded, poorly ventilated apartment buildings, often lacking running water or proper sanitation, highlighting the need for housing reform.
Tenements
What is the term for when a company controls all steps of production from raw materials to finished product?
Vertical Integration Monopoly
Large, industrialized farms in the Great Plains that used machines and hired labor to produce crops on a massive scale.
Bonanza Farming
This act attempted to regulate railroad rates and prevent unfair practices.
Interstate Commerce Act
This movement led to restrictive laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), which banned most Chinese immigration to the United States.
Nativism
A Christian ethics movement that sought to solve social problems like poverty and improve health among the working class.
Social Gospel
Who became famous for using horizontal integration to control the oil industry?
John D. Rockefeller
This act assimilated Native Americans by dividing tribal lands and reservations into private plots.
Dawes Act
The belief that the rich were “fittest” to survive in society.
Social Darwinism
The 1883 law ended the spoils system and introduced merit-based hiring in government.
Pendleton Civil Service Act
The 1886 event that hurt the reputation of the Knights of Labor after a bombing.
Haymarket Square Riot