William Jennings Bryan
W. E. B. DuBois
He believed that African Americans should strive for full rights immediately. He helped found the Niagara Movement in 1905 to fight for equal rights. He also helped found the NAACP.
Eugene Debs
Head of the American Railway Union and director of the Pullman strike; he was imprisoned along with his associates for ignoring a federal court injunction to stop striking. While in prison, he read Socialist literature and emerged as a Socialist leader in America.
Vertical integration
Practice where a single entity controls the entire process of a product, from the raw materials to distribution
Election of 1912
Presidential campaign involving Taft, T. Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson. Taft and Roosevelt split the Republican vote, enabling Wilson to win
Depression of 1893
Profits dwindled, businesses went bankrupt and slid into debt. Caused loss of business confidence. 20% of the workforce unemployed. Let to the Pullman strike.
Chinese Exclusion Act
(1882) Denied any additional Chinese laborers to enter the country while allowing students and merchants to immigrate.
Dawes Act
1887 law which gave all Native American males 160 acres to farm and also set up schools to make Native American children more like other Americans
Haymarket Riot
100,000 workers rioted in Chicago. After the police fired into the crowd, the workers met and rallied in Haymarket Square to protest police brutality. A bomb exploded, killing or injuring many of the police. The Chicago workers and the man who set the bomb were immigrants, so the incident promoted anti-immigrant feelings. 1886
Reconstruction Amendments
13th: abolished and continues to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude, 14th: secured the rights of former slaves after reconstruction, 15th: prohibits each government in the United States to prevent a citizen from voting based on their race
Jane Addams
1860-1935. Founder of Settlement House Movement. First American Woman to earn Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 as president of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
Homestead Act
1862 - Provided free land in the West to anyone willing to settle there and develop it. Encouraged westward migration.
First Transcontinental Railroad
1869 *Completed with Golden Spike at Promontory Point, Utah *Marked the meeting of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads *During construction, the Union Pacific used Irish labor, while the Central Pacific used Chinese labor *The connection of the railroads opened national markets and met growing economic needs
Pure Food and Drug Act
1906 - Forbade the manufacture or sale of mislabeled or adulterated food or drugs, it gave the government broad powers to ensure the safety and efficacy of drugs in order to abolish the "patent" drug trade. Still in existence as the FDA.
Horatio Alger
19th-century American author, best known for his many formulaic juvenile novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of middle-class security and comfort through hard work, determination, courage, and honesty.
Black Codes (1865-66)
3 Main Goals: Limit rights for A.A's in the South- no voting- enforces slavery Help to replace workers- arrested and assigned to plantations Keep Freedmen at bottom- enforce segregation
Andrew Carnegie
A Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist who founded the Carnegie Steel Company in 1892. By 1901, his company dominated the American steel industry.
Ghost Dance
A cult that tried to call the spirits of past warriors to inspire the young braves to fight. It was crushed at the Battle of Wounded Knee after spreading to the Dakota Sioux. The Ghost Dance led to the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887. This act tried to reform Indian tribes and turn them into "white" citizens. It did little good.
Roosevelt System
A direct result of Roosevelt's preservationist attitudes. Activity in Pelican Island, Florida put the local birds in the region in danger. Since there was no law at the time protecting wildlife, Roosevelt felt at liberty to be the one to do it → "I so declare it!" By executive order in March 1903, established the first of 51 national bird sanctuaries and set aside 250 million acres of land for preservation. These and the national parks and monuments he created are a part of his great legacy and influenced every president after him to do the same. This would be continued on by Taft and Wilson as "the progressive presidents," in their efforts to further create a government that is For the people, by the people.
Muckrakers
A group of investigative reporters who pointed out the abuses of big business and the corruption of urban politics; included Frank Norris (The Octopus) Ida Tarbell (A history of the standard oil company) Lincoln Steffens (the shame of the cities) and Upton Sinclair (The Jungle)
Purity Crusade
A movement to elevate morality and improve the sexual treatment of women, largely through the abolition of prostitution and the double standard. Advocated hoped to reform all segments of society by secularizing and converting religious values into standards of social behavior.
Bull Moose Party
A name given to the Progressive Party, formed to support Theodore Roosevelt's candidacy for the presidency in 1912.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
A self-made multimillionaire and one of the wealthiest Americans in the 19th century. Built his wealth in railroads and shipping. Vanderbilt is deemed one of America's leading businessmen
Helen Hunt Jackson/ A Century of Dishonor
A widow of an army captain, Jackson became angered at what she considered the unfair treatment of Native Americans at the hands of US government agents. She became an activist and muckraker who started investigating and publicizing the agents' wrongdoing, circulating petitions, raising money, and writing letters to the New York Times on behalf of Indians. She also started writing a book condemning the government's Indian policy and the history of broken treaties. Her book, A Century of Dishonor, called for change from the contemptible, selfish policy to treatment characterized by humanity and justice, was published in 1881. Jackson then sent a copy to every member of Congress, but, to her disappointment, the book had little impact. She later led protests against the 1890 Dawes Severalty Act.
Ida B Wells
African American journalist. published statistics about lynching, urged African Americans to protest by refusing to ride streetcars or shop in white owned stores. One of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Booker T. Washington
African American progressive who supported segregation and demanded that African American better themselves individually to achieve equality.
AFL
American Federation of Labor. A union of skilled workers from one or more trades which focused on collective bargaining (negotiation between labor and management) to reach written agreements on wages hours and working conditions. The AFL used strikes as a major tactic to win higher wages and shorter work weeks.
Cross of Gold Speech
An address given by Bryan, the Democratic presidential nominee during the national convention of the Democratic party, it criticized the gold standard and supported the coinage of silver. His beliefs were popular with debt-ridden farmers.
Accommodationism
B.T. Washington theory that African Americans should accept discrimination for the time being and focus on rising socially through hard work.
William Jennings Bryan
Democratic candidate in 1896 that advocated in free silver movement, farming interests and improved conditions for the urban working class. He gained immense support of the populist party after his famous "Cross of gold speech".
Compromise 1877
Ended Reconstruction. Republicans promise 1) Remove military from South, 2) Appoint Democrat to cabinet (David Key postmaster general), 3) Federal money for railroad construction and levees on Mississippi river
Comstock Law
Federal law promoted by a self-appointed morality crusader and used to prosecute moral and sexual dissidents. Anthony Comstock
Wounded Knee
In 1890, after killing Sitting Bull, the 7th Cavalry rounded up Sioux at this place in South Dakota and 300 Natives were murdered and only a baby survived.
Sand Creek Massacre
In Colorado territory in 1864, U.S army colonel John M. Chivington led a surprise attack on a peaceful Cheyenne settlement along Sand Creek River. The Cheyenne under Chief Black kettle tried to surrender. First he waved the America Flag and the White flag of surrender. Chivington ignored the gestures. The U.S army killed about 200 Cheyenne during the conflict
Knights of Labor
Led by Terence V. Powderly; open-membership policy extending to unskilled, semiskilled, women, African-Americans, immigrants; goal was to create a cooperative society between in which labors owned the industries in which they worked
Jim Crow laws
Limited rights of blacks. Literacy tests, grandfather clauses and poll taxes limited black voting rights
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
March 1911 fire in New York factory that trapped young women workers inside locked exit doors; nearly 50 ended up jumping to their death; while 100 died inside the factory; led to the establishment of many factory reforms, including increasing safety precautions for workers
Laissez-Faire
Policy that government should interfere as little as possible in the nation's economy.
Omaha Platform
Political agenda adopted by the populist party in 1892 at their Omaha, Nebraska convention. Called for unlimited coinage of silver (bimetallism), government regulation of railroads and industry, graduated income tax, and a number of election reforms.
Robber Barons
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. Demonstrates the lack of regulation in the market. Ex. Cornelius Vanderbilt and Andrew Carnegie
Northern Securities Case
Roosevelt's legal attack on the Northern Securities Company, which was a railroad holding company owned by James Hill and J.P. Morgan. In the end, the company was "trust-busted" and paved the way for future trust-busts of bad trusts.
Settlement House Movement
Social movement designed to get the rich and poor in society to live more closely together. Settlement houses were located in poorer neighborhoods and staffed by middle class workers who hoped to share their knowledge and alleviate poverty
Social Darwinism
The belief that only the fittest survive in human political and economic struggle. This was believed to be the cause of why people became rich
Credit Mobilier Scandal
This scandal occurred in the 1870s when a railroad construction company's stockholders used funds that were supposed to be used to build the Union Pacific Railroad for railroad construction for their own personal use. To avoid being convicted, stockholders even used stock to bribe congressional members and the vice president.
Gospel of Wealth
This was a book written by Carnegie that described the responsibility of the rich to be philanthropists. This softened the harshness of Social Darwinism as well as promoted the idea of philanthropy.
Positive state
a government that helps provide the goods, services, and conditions for a prosperous, equitable society
Code of the West
an unwritten, socially agreed set of informal laws that shaped the cowboy culture.
Upton Sinclair
muckraker who shocked the nation when he published The Jungle, a novel that revealed gruesome details about the meat packing industry in Chicago. The book was fiction but based on the things Sinclair had seen. Developed more regulation and safety in the food processing industry.
Taylorism
the methods of labor management introduced by Frederick Winslow Taylor to streamline the processes of mass production in which each worker repeatedly performs one specific task
Eugenics
the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics
conspicous consumption
the use of a good or service to impress others
Pullman Strike
violent 1894 railway workers' strike which began outside of Chicago and spread nationwide
