Reconstruction
The American West
Captains of Industry
Immigration
Innovation
Potpourri
200

This man, a War Democrat, succeeded Lincoln as President after his assassination in April 1865.

Who is Andrew Johnson?

200

This Nez Perce leader surrendered to U.S. forces on October 5, 1877, declaring, "I will fight no more forever!"

Who is Chief Joseph?

200

This man promoted the business practices of horizontal and vertical integration to control over 90% of the American oil refining industry.

Who is John D. Rockefeller? 

200

This poem, written by Emma Lazarus about the Statue of Liberty, is famous for its line:

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

What is "The New Colossus"?

200

This industrial method, developed in England during the mid-19th century, made the production of steel faster, more efficient, and more affordable.

What is the Bessemer Process?

200

African-American civil rights leader, W.E.B. DuBois, wrote this essay to promote classical education in the black community rather than industrial education, as espoused by other activists.

What is "The Talented Tenth"?

400

This political faction dominated Congress during the decade after the Civil War, successfully maneuvering around the other branches of government to enact their civil rights agenda.

Who are the Radical Republicans?

400

This historian published "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" in 1893 to coincide with the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the New World.

Who is Frederick Jackson Turner?

400

This Scottish immigrant began his career as a bobbin boy earning $1.20 a week, but eventually became the wealthiest man on earth with a net worth of over $300 billion.

Who is Andrew Carnegie?

400

Approximately 40% of modern-day Americans are descended from the 12 million immigrants who passed through this inspection and processing facility from 1892 to 1954.

What is Ellis Island?

400

This American engineer invented the railway air brake, enabling trains to travel at higher speeds and stop over shorter distances.

Who is George Westinghouse?

400

This famous actor mortally wounded Abraham Lincoln on the night of April 14, 1865, while the President and First Lady were enjoying a production of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre.

Who is John Wilkes Booth?

600

These three amendments were passed during the Reconstruction era, ending slavery, granting citizenship to freemen, and giving black men the right to vote.

What are the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments?

600

For most of the 18th century, this topographic feature served as the boundary of European settlement in the American colonies.

What are the Appalachian Mountains?

600

This man, nicknamed "The Commodore" due to his early success as a steamboat entrepreneur, eventually transitioned to railroads and became the wealthiest man in America before his death in 1877.

Who is Cornelius Vanderbilt?

600
Most immigrants who entered the United States during the Gilded Age belonged to these three religious groups, a stark contrast to the traditional Protestantism of Antebellum America.

What are Catholics, Orthodox, and Jews?

600

This system, which now spans the globe, was developed by railroads in the late 19th-century to make rail travel and shipping safer and more efficient over long distances. 

What are time zones? 

600

These two petroleum byproducts revolutionized the energy industry during the late-19th century, providing Americans with new forms of heat, light, and engine power.

What are kerosene and gasoline?

800

This African-American civil rights leader used the phrase, "Cast down your bucket where you are," to encourage blacks and whites to work together with the resources already available in the South.

Who is Booker T. Washington?

800

This act, passed by Congress in 1862, accelerated the settlement of the American frontier by granting citizens the opportunity to claim 160 acres of public land in return for five years of continuous residence.

What is the Homestead Act?


**The final homestead grant was issued in 1988 for an 80-acre parcel of land along the Stony River in Alaska**

800

This form of business organization, where many investors pool their capital together to fund large-scale enterprises, replaced individual proprietorships and partnerships to a large degree after the Civil War

What is a corporation?

800

By 1890, Chicago had the second largest Polish population in the world, behind only this city (then located in the Russian Empire).

What is Warsaw?

800

These two companies pioneered mail-order catalog retail during the Gilded Age, delivering countless items to Americans all over the country.

What are Montgomery Ward and the Sears, Roebuck & Company?

800

These organizations gained membership during the Gilded Age as a way for workers to bargain as a group for higher wages and better working conditions.

What are labor unions?

1000

Reconstruction effectively ended after the electoral victory of this man as determined by the controversial Compromise of 1877.

Who is Rutherford B. Hayes?

1000

Frederick Jackson Turner argues that American civilization was largely developed by the constant "return to primitive conditions" along the "continually advancing" western frontier, employing this phrase to describe a cycle of "beginning over again."

What is "perennial rebirth"?

1000

This industrialist, known as "The Empire Builder," reformed the Great Northern Railway from St. Paul, MN to Seattle, WA and encouraged Scandinavian immigration to the Upper Midwest.

Who is James J. Hill?

1000

These three social and economic trends, i.e. -ations, converged to shape the lives of most foreign-born Americans during the late-19th century.

What are urbanization, industrialization, and immigration?

1000

This novel form of transportation, now emblematic of cities like San Francisco and New Orleans, enabled people of sufficient means to live outside the city and commute in to work on a daily basis, transforming urban life during the Gilded Age and beyond.

What is the streetcar?

1000

This diverse group of nomadic peoples, some 250,000 strong at the end of the 19th century, faced constant encroachments on their lands, resulting in countless battles with U.S. forces.

What are the Plains Indians?