APUSH16: The Gilded Age

Standard Oil

American oil-producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company started by Rockefeller that became one of the first and largest multinational corporations and was eventually ruled as an illegal monopoly by the Supreme Court

Crazy Horse

Cheyenne leader who defended tribal land in the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory

Looking Backward

Edward Bellamy's 1888 utopian novel which advocated for socialism without actually using the word

Progress and Poverty

Henry George's 1879 book that advocated the introduction of a "single tax"

Ghost Dance

Indian cultural revitalization campaign that involed singing, dancing, and religious observances

Comanche

Indian empire centered in modern-day New Mexico and Colorado that dominated the Great Plains and Southwest, acting as an equal to the Spanish, French and American government until the 1870s

Terence V. Powderly

Irish-American leader of the Knights of Labor

Gospel of Wealth

Protestant preachers' way of supporting a "liberty of contract" outlook

Sitting Bull

Sioux leader who defended tribal land in the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory; strong opponent of reservation system; eventually imprisoned and became part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show

General Custer

US General who died in Little Bighorn

International Harvester

a United States agricultural machinery, construction equipment, vehicle, commercial truck, and household and commercial products manufacture that became a large multinational corporation

Carlisle School

a boarding school that aimed to "civilize" Indians

Credit Mobilier

a corporation formed by an inner ring of Union Pacific Railroad stockholders to oversee the line's government-assisted construction, enabling participants to sign own contracts, charging exorbitant prices

Tweed Ring

a corrupt Democratic political machine which plundered tens of millions of dollars from New York, creating private welfare programs for the city's immigrant poor in exchange for votes

A and P Stores

a famous line of grocery stores

Gilded Age

a name for the era of American history from 1870-1890, characterized by remarkable expansion, corruption, corporate dominance, and oppressive treatment of those left behind economically

Whiskey Ring

a scandal, exposed in 1875, involving diversion of tax revenues in a conspiracy among government agents, politicians, whiskey distillers, and distributors, that defrauded the federal government of millions of tax dollars

standard gauge

a standardized measurement for the distance separating two railroad tracks that made it possible for trains of one company to travel on another company's tracks

Homestead Act

allowed a settler to acquire as much as 160 acres of land by living on it for 5 years, improving it, and paying a nominal fee of about $30; encouraged western settlement

Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)

allowed for monopolies to be broken up because they restrained trade; vague language made it impossible to enforce; set precedent that Congress would regulate the economy to a certain extent

alternating current

an engineering feat that overcame many of the challenges of using electricity for commercial and industrial purposes, especially over long distances

Little Bighorn

battle in which Indians killed General Custer and 250 Americans

Kansas Pacific Railroad

became essential in transporting cattle from Texas

national brand

brands that were recognized across the United States as a result of mass production, mass distribution and mass marketing

Dawes Act (1876)

broke up land of nearly all tribes into small parcels to be distributed to Indian families, with the remaining land auctioned to whites; also granted American citizenship to those who "civilized"; benefited whites and destroyed Indian culture

US v. E. C. Knight Co. (1985)

case in which the Supreme Court ruled that the Sherman Antitrust Act could not be used to break up a sugar refining monopoly, since Congress could regulate commerce, but not manufacturing

Elk v. Wilkins (1884)

case that decided that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments did not apply to Indians

Lochner v. New York (1905)

case that voided state law that established ten-hour day/sixty-hour week for bakers; Court decided that it interfered with the right of contract between the employer and employee, therefor infringing upon individual freedom

"overwhelming labor question"

controversy surrounding the treatment of blue-collar workers after Reconstruction

bonanza farms

covered thousands of acres of farmland and employed large numbers of agricultural wage workers

standard time zones

created in 1883 to create a system of standardized times across the country

Civil Service Act (1883)

created merit system for federal employees, with appointment via competitive examinations rather than political influence; indirectly resulted in politicians' dependence on donations from business interests

"How the Other Half Lives"

critique of the upper class that offered a shocking account of living conditions among the urban poor, complete with photographs of apartments in dark, airless, overcrowded tenement houses, written by Jacob Riis in 1890

"Sunshine and Shadow"

critique of the upper-class that opened with an engraving that contrasted department store magnate Alexander Stewart's two-million-dollar mansion with housing in the city slums, written by Matthew Smith in 1868

Social Gospel

denominational religious leaders' insistence that freedom and spiritual self-development required an equalization of wealth and power and that competition mocked the Christian ideal of brotherhood; led to anti-poverty programs

"solid South"

describes the electoral support of the Southern United States for the Democratic Party candidates from 1877 to 1964

"The Theory of the Leisure Class"

devastating critique of an upper-class culture focused on conspicuous consumption, written by Thorstein Veblen in 1899

Social Darwinism

doctrine that claimed that evolution was natural in human society, and that government should not interfere; ridiculed welfare programs

Andrew Carnegie

emigrated from Scotland and worked up from a Pennsylvania textile factory worker to a steel industry magnate worth hundreds of millions of dollars, denying fair conditions for his workers; ultimately donated much of his money

ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission) (1887)

ensured that rates railroads charged farmers and merchants to transport goods were reasonable and did not offer selective favorable treatment; first federal agency that regulated economic activity, but had little impact

Sears, Roebuck and Co

famous seller of clothing, jewelry, farm equipment and numerous other goods to rural families throughout the country

J. P. Morgan

financier and founder of U.S. Steel who combined eight large steel companies into the first billion-dollar economic enterprise

Knights of Labor

first group to try to organize unskilled workers as well as skilled, women and men, and blacks and whites; involved millions of workers in strikes, boycotts, political action, and educational and social activities

"Boss" Tweed

forged close ties with railroad men and labor unions, winning support from city's immigrant poor by fashioning a kind of private welfare system that provided food, fuel and jobs; ousted in 1970s, but known as urban Robin Hood

BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs)

handled all matters involved Indians; established boarding schools where Indian children were Americanized

Frederick Jackson Turner

historian who gave celebrated lecture "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" in which he argued that on the western frontier the distinctive qualities of American culture were forged: individual freedom, political democracy, and economic mobility; also said that The West acts as an escape for Easterners, preventing social unrest

Nikola Tesla

inventor of the second industrial revolution who emigrated to the United States and developed the electric motor using the system of alternating current

Thomas Edison

inventor of the second industrial revolution who made advancements with the phonograph, lightbulb, electric grid and motion pictures; created first electric generating station in Manhattan

Chief Joseph

leader of Nez Percé tribe who delivered a speech in Washington condemning US policy towards Indians and fought for his people's right to return to their Oregon homeland

"trusts"

legal devices whereby the affairs of several rival companies were managed by a single director; failed as individual firms pursued profits

cowboys

low-paid wage workers that controlled the long drive

open range

method of ranching throughout the southern Middle Border states in which cattle roamed freely

gold standard

monetary system in which paper currency is exchangeable for gold at a fixed rate, keeping inflation low and benefiting the middle/upper classes

the Grange

moved to establish cooperatives for storing and marketing farm output in the hope of forcing the carriers to pay fair prices; succeeded in having commissions regulate railroad practices in some states

greenbacks

paper money issued by the Union during the Civil War; withdrawn from circulation by Republicans throughout the 1870s

Greenback-Labor Party

political party that proposed that the government stop taking greenback money out of circulation, arguing that greenbacks made more funds available for investment; also condemned use of militias against strikes

William Graham Sumner

prominent Social Darwinist and Yale professor that argued that freedom required frank acceptance of inequality and that government existed only to protect "the property of men and the honor of women"

transcontinental line

railroads that spanned the country, transporting products of western mines, farms, ranches and forests to eastern markets and carried manufactured goods to the West

Haymarket Square Riot

rally held in Chicago to protest the killing of four strikers; an undiscovered man threw a bomb, killing a policeman and prompting police to open fire on bystanders and make arrests; martyrs were convicted of carrying out the attack

John D. Rockefeller

rose to become dominant oil tycoon who drove out rival firms through cutthroat competition, price fixing and production quotas; denied his workers the right to unionize; gave away much of his fortune

Middle Border

site of new agricultural empire that produced wheat and corn; included Minnesota, the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas

settler societies

societies in which immigrants from oversea quickly outnumber and displace the original inhabitants; e.g. the United States

barbed wire

steel wire fencing with sharp points invented to keep cattle within certain barriers

horizontal integration

the buying out of similar companies to reduce competition

vertical integration

the controlling of every phase of business from raw materials to transportation, manufacturing and distribution

May Day

the day in which 350,000 workers in cities across the United States demonstrated for an eight-hour day; became an annual date of parades, picnics and protests, celebrated around the world by organized labor

"cooperative commonwealth"

the first book to popularize socialism for an American audience

Great Railroad Strike (1877)

the first national labor walkout; workers protested pay but paralyzing rail traffic, and troops fired on strikers in Pittsburgh killing 20, and prompting workers to burn the city's railroad yards

nation market

the integration of the entire country into a single economy, created as a result of railroads

Wounded Knee

the site of the killing of 150-200 Indians, mostly women and children, at the hands of US soldiers on December 29, 1890

long drive

train ride in which millions of cattle were transported

"single tax"

would replace other taxes with a levy on increases in the value of real estate; would be so high that it would prevent speculation in both urban and rural land