InQuizitive Chapter 16: America's Gilded Age, 1870-1890

Wounded Knee Massacre

U.S. soldiers opened fire on unarmed Ghost Dancers, killing 150 to 200 of them out of fear of an uprising.

Sherman Antitrust Act

banned all combinations and practices that restrained free trade

Identify the statements that describe Social Darwinism.

Evolution was a natural process of survival of the fittest; as such, the government must not intervene to aid the less fortunate. Social Darwinists believed that the poor were essentially responsible for their own fate.

According to Social Darwinism, the evolutionary process in humans was based on the survival of communities working together. Democratic Social Darwinists wanted the state to be the means of alleviating poverty to ensure the survival of the community. T or F?

False

Between the end of the Civil War and the early twentieth century, the United States experienced stagnant economic growth and the loss of international markets. T or F?

False

Most of the farms on the Great Plains were bonanza farms that covered thousands of acres and employed large numbers of agricultural wage workers. T or F?

False

In this video, Eric Foner discusses court decisions held against labor on the grounds of individual freedom, specifically liberty of contract. What were the most important decisions made by the Court?

The Supreme Court overturned laws that made it illegal for companies to pay their employees in scrip that could only be used at certain stores on the grounds it violated the right of property of these corporations. The Supreme Court ruled that state laws regulating corporate behavior, limiting the number of hours a person could work, were unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Identify the statements that describe the Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee massacre.

U.S. troops opened fire on Ghost Dancers, killing 150 to 200 of them. Fearful of a general uprising on the reservations, the U.S. government sent troops in response to the Ghost Dance.

Interstate Commerce Commission

established to ensure that railroads charged farmers and merchants reasonable rates and did not offer better treatment to some shippers

Identify the statements that describe the relationship between Native Americans and white America.

In 1871, Congress eliminated the treaty system that dated back to the revolutionary era, by which the federal government negotiated agreements with Indians as if they were foreign nations. The Bureau of Indian Affairs established boarding schools where Indian children were sent to become "more American."

identify the statements that describe the Knights of Labor.

The Knights of Labor included women in its membership.

Identify the statements that describe the economic changes that occurred between 1870 and 1920.

Between 1870 and 1920, the percentage of people employed in industry grew significantly. The GNP per capita between 1870 and 1920 more than doubled. Between 1870 and 1920, the percentage of people employed in agriculture decreased significantly.

Identify the statements that describe the Haymarket Affair.

Eight men were convicted of murder and condemned to death for the Haymarket bombing. Four strikers were killed by police on May 3, 1886, when they clashed with strikebreakers.

The conquest of the American West was a unique phenomenon in global history, whereby settlers moved boldly into the interior of regions of a great continent with a temperate climate, bringing their families, crops, and livestock, and establishing mining and other industries. T or F

False

Every Republican candidate for president from 1868 to 1900 except for James G. Blaine had fought in the Confederate army in the Civil War. T or F?

False

In 1879, the United States went off the gold standard to help debt-ridden farmers. T or F?

False

What are Chief Joseph's complaints about the treatment of his people?

Despite his view that all men are brothers, the white men do not treat Indians as equals. The white men do not keep their word to his men.

According to Social Darwinism, the evolutionary process in humans was based on the survival of communities working together. Democratic Social Darwinists wanted the state to be the means of alleviating poverty to ensure the survival of the community.. T or F ?

False

Despite valiant attempts, the Iroquois Nation was unable to stand up to American forces and never won a battle against the army. T or F?

False

The Knights of Labor were the first group to try to organize unskilled and skilled labor, both men and women, and black and white, though they gave into West Coast racism and excluded the despised immigrants from Asia on the West Coast. T or F?

False

Andrew Carnegie was an industrial giant of the Gilded Age. Identify the statements that describe Carnegie.

He leveraged vertical integration to create the largest and most technologically advanced steel factories in the world. Carnegie distributed much of his wealth to various philanthropies.

What does this cartoon reveal about popular attitudes toward companies like Standard Oil in the 1900s?

Industries functioned outside the law and were viewed as more powerful than the government. Industries had become too big to control, and they threatened to take over the world. Industries disregarded the rights of individual employees.

During this period of time, how did the workers' ideas of freedom differ from those held by the owners and managers of the industry, and how did the courts construe freedom?

Laborers looked to the government to protect their rights and ensure fair working conditions. Owners did not want the government to regulate business or interfere in the economy. The courts overturned numerous laws that controlled aspects of economic activity.

In Gilded Age America, dissatisfaction with the new social order extended beyond the working class and into the middle class. Some of the most popular works of literature in the era concerned the crumbling social order or the means of fixing it. Match the authors to their literary contributions.

Looking Backward Correct label: Edward Bellamy The Cooperative Commonwealth Correct label: Laurence Gronlund Progress and Poverty Correct label: Henry George

Identify the statements that describe examples of Christian moral reform and its successful attempts to stamp out sin.

Mann Act of 1910 Gambling, prostitution, polygamy, and birth control were all targets of the legislation attempts to control or eliminate by Evangelical Christians in the Gilded Age. Christian Temperance Union

Battle of Little Big Horn

Native American victory over the U.S. army in June of 1876

Identify the statements that describe the political scene in the United States during the Gilded Age.

Powerful new corporations raised disturbing questions about the American understanding of political freedom and self-government. Americans during the Gilded Age saw the country as an island of democracy in a world dominated by undemocratic governments.

Despite promises in promotional pamphlets, farming on the Great Plains was not an easy task. Identify the statements that describe farming on the Great Plains

The Homestead Act led to thousands of families moving westward to farm. Wheat and corn were primary crops grown on the Great Plains for the national and international markets.

What does it reveal about the political stalemate between 1876 and 1892? Match the region with its political alignment.

The north - republican The south - Democrat The west - irregularity

The Gilded Age marketplace proved to be chaotic as businesses in all industries engaged in ruthless competition. In response to this chaos, many businesses created trusts—legal devices whereby the affairs of several companies were managed by a single director. T or F?

True

The Social Gospel movement originated as an effort to reform Protestant churches by expanding their appeal in poor urban neighborhoods and making them more attentive to the era's social ills. T or F

True

The era from 1870 to 1890 was called the Gilded Age because it suggested that outward appearances were misleading, and one needed to look under the surface to understand what was happening. T or F?

True

Identify the statements that describe American westward expansion

Western states used land donated by the federal government to establish public universities. In the twentieth century, the American West became the focus of many federally funded public works projects.

Dawes Act

broke up the land of nearly all the western tribes

robber barons

business leaders who wielded power without any accountability in an unregulated marketplace

Civil Service Act of 1883

created a merit-based system for federal employees, with appointment via competitive testing rather than political appointment

Match the states in the industrial West to their primary industries.

gold, silver, and copper Correct label: Colorado timber Correct label: Washington oil and cattle Correct label: Texas

What does it reveal about the political stalemate between 1876 and 1892? Match the region with its political alignment

most likely to vote Republican Correct label: the North most likely to vote Democratic Correct label: the South most likely to vote irregularly Correct label: the West

horizontal expansions

practice of buying out competing firms in an industry to monopolize an industry

The "overwhelming labor question" replaced slavery as the hot-button topic in the late nineteenth century. Identify the events and actions that illustrate the "overwhelming labor question."

the Great Railroad Strike Troops fired on striking workers in Pittsburgh, killing twenty people. The federal government built National Guard armories in major cities to ensure troops would be on hand if strikes got out of control

vertical integration

the process of controlling all aspects of business from procuring raw materials, to manufacturing, transporting, and distributing the final product