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184 Cards in this Set

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R. What years and time period is covered by Reconstruction?
The time period of rebuilding the South after the Civil War, before the South was readmitted to the Union (1865-1877).
R. What central issues of the Reconstruction period are still unresolved today?
The role of the federal government in protecting citizens' rights and assuring economic and racial justice.
R. Who enacted the 1867 Military Reconstruction Act over whose veto?
Republican Congress enacted the Military Reconstruction Act over Johnson's veto.
R. What were the 4 main components of the 1867 Military Reconstruction Act?
(1) Temporarily deprived many white leaders of the rights to vote and hold office. (2) Placed the South under temporary military rule, dividing the former Confederacy, except for Tennessee, into 5 military districts and placing a Union general in charge of each district to maintain peace and "protect the rights of persons and property." (3) Stipulated that all former Confederate states except Tennessee hold conventions to draft new constitutions that granted the right to vote all adult male citizens, regardless of race. (4) Required the state to ratify the 14th Amendment and black suffrage in order to be allowed to elect people to Congress.
R. Who proposed the 10% plan?
President Abraham Lincoln.
R. What did Lincoln's 10% plan state?
In 1863 President Lincoln announced a Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, aimed to reconcile the South and the North. He offered a pardon (an amnesty) to all Southerners who took an oath of loyalty to the United States and accepted the Union's proclamation ending slavery. When 10% of a state's voters in the 1860 presidential election had taken this oath, they could organize a new state government. Confederate leaders and officers were not eligible for the pardon.
R. Who were the Radical Republicans and what were their three main goals?
A group of Republicans in Congress who did not want to reconcile with the South and wanted to "revolutionize Southern institutions, habits, and manners" (Thaddeus Stevens). They wanted (1) to prevent the leaders of the Confederacy from returning to power after the war; (2) for the Republican Party to become powerful in the South; and for the federal government to help African Americans achieve political equality by guaranteeing their right to vote.
R. What were the Radical Republicans worried about?
The abolition of slavery would give more seats in the House of Representatives to the Southern states. Before the Civil War slaves counted as only 3/5 of a free person, but now each would count as a free person, giving more congressional seats to the South. This would endanger the Republican control of Congress, unless African Americans living in the South could vote.
R. To what laws did the efforts of the Radical Republicans ultimately lead to?
The passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments and of the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
R. Who led the Radical Republicans during Reconstruction?
Charles Sumner (1811-1874), the U.S. Senator from Massachusetts and Thaddeus Stevens (1792-1868), the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania
R. What were the two major components of the 1865 pardon given by President Andrew Johnson?
(1) Johnson gave a pardon to all white Southerners who took an oath of allegiance (but required Confederate leaders and wealthy planters to obtain special Presidential pardons), and authorized them to create new governments. Blacks were denied any role in the process. (2) Johnson also ordered nearly all the land in the hands of the government returned to its prewar owners -- dashing black hope for economic autonomy.
R. Who returned to power as a result of by President Andrew Johnson's 1965 pardon?
Members of the old Southern elite, including many who had served in the Confederate government and army, returned to power.
R. What was the full name of the Freedman's Bureau and what where its four main functions?
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands was a federal agency created to help with the refugee crisis resulting from thousands freedmen fleeing North, seeking food and shelter from the Union armies: (1) Supervised all relief and educational activities relating to refugees and freedmen, including issuing rations, clothing, and medicine; providing housing for schools and paying and training teachers; (2) Assumed custody of confiscated lands or property in the former Confederate States, border states, District of Columbia, and Indian Territory; (3) Created and maintained personnel records and a variety of standard reports concerning bureau programs and conditions in the states. (4) Bureau agents negotiated labor contracts (specifying pay and hours of work) and settled disputes between black and white Southerners.
R. How many rations did the Freedman's Bureau issue a day for a year, beginning in September 1865?
30,000 rations a day.
R. What is the value of the Freedman's Bureau today?
Today it provides invaluable records of slaves, freed persons, and their descendants, and original documents describing what life was like during the Civil War and Reconstruction Period.
R. Who were Exodusters?
Exodusters were African Americans who fled from the South, to Kansas in 1879 and 1880.
R. What were the Black Codes?
Laws passed during President Andrew Johnson's tenure by Southern states to define freedman's rights and responsibilities, severely limiting the former slaves' legal rights and economic options so as to force them to return to the plantations as dependent laborers. Some states limited the occupations open to blacks. None allowed any blacks to vote, or provided public funds for their education. Florida's Black Code stated that blacks who broke labor contracts could be whipped, pilloried, and sold for up to one year's labor.
R. What did the 13th Amendment do and in what year?
The 13th amendment freed all slaves. 1865
R. What did the 14th Amendment do and in what year?
The 14th amendment allowed everyone born or naturalized in the United States of America to be a citizen. Introduced in 1866 and ratified in 1868.
R. What did the 1866 Civil Rights Act stipulate?
In 1866, over Johnson's veto, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act over Johnson's veto, intended to override the black codes, and approved the 14th Amendment, granting citizenship to all persons born in the United States except for Native Americans, guarantying all citizens the right to own property and be treated equally in court, and giving the federal government the right to sue those who violate these rights.
R. What provided the first Constitutional guarantee of the principle of equal civil rights regardless of race?
The 1866 Civil Rights Act.
R. What change did the 1866 Civil Rights Act bring to the federal system?
It established the national government as the arbiter of citizens' rights, and empowering it to overturn discriminatory measures adopted by state governments.
R. What did the 15th Amendment do and in what year?
The 15th amendment gave African American men the right to vote. 1870.
R. Which President of the United States was nearly impeached during the Reconstruction era and why?
Andrew Johnson fired in 1868 the Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, challenging the recently passed by the Republican Congress Tenure of Office Act, which required Senate's approval of removing anyone placed in the office with Senate's consent. Three days after the firing, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Johnson, but came one vote short of the required 2/3 of senators finding the president guilty of the charges.
R. What is impeachment?
The process that enables a legislative body to remove a public official from office by (1) an accusation or indictment and then (2) a trial.
R. What is suffrage?
The civil right to vote, or the exercise of that right.
R. What were Carpetbags and what did the term Carpetbaggers stand for?
Widely used as travel bags in the mid 19th century, carpetbags, made out of tapestry, became associated with Northern white Republicans who moved South after the Civil War. They negatively called the Northerners "carpetbagger" reflecting their views that the Northern outsiders had questionable objectives meddling in local politics, buying up plantations at fire-sale prices, taking advantage of Southerners, and ready to take what belonged to the Southerners, now that they were defeated.
R. Who were the Scalawags?
Pro-slavery Southerners called the Southern whites who worked with the Republicans and supported the Reconstruction, scalawags. Many Scalawags were small farmers not wanting wealthy planters to regain power and businessman favoring Republican plans to develop South's economy.
R. What was Sharecropping?
A form of tenant farming, in which most former slaves found no choice but to take part. The landowner assigned each family a small tract of land to farm and provided food, shelter, clothing, and the necessary seeds and farm equipment. When the crop was harvested, the landowner took the crop to market and after deducting for the "furnish" (the cost of the items the tenant had been furnished during the year), gave a third to a two thirds of the proceeds to the tenant.
R. What were the two most dominant crops grown through Sharecropping?
cotton and tobacco
R. What was the dominant labor system in the rural South during Reconstruction?
Sharecropping
R. What were the three primary problems with Sharecropping?
Although the system afforded workers some degree of autonomy, it promoted child labor, kept most in poverty, and impeded the South's economic development.
R. What was Tenant farming?
Farm laborers renting and working part of someone's ground for percentage of the raised crops. For many freedmen, the end of Reconstruction meant a return to the "old South" and an end of their hopes to become landowners. Instead many returned to plantations owned by whites, where they, along with poor white farmers, either worked for wages or became tenant farmers, paying rent for the land they farmed. Many tenant farmers, unable to afford to buy their own land, became sharecroppers.
R. What is a cash crop and what was the main cash crop during Reconstruction?
A cash crop is a crop grown for profit, hence its name. The main cash crop during Reconstruction was cotton.
R. What was the origin of the secret societies in the South devoted to restoring white supremacy?
During reconstruction, many Confederate soldiers were against free blacks, so they decided to organize and become violent. As soon as blacks gained the right to vote, unable to strike openly due the laws in place, some white Southerners organized secret societies to undermine Republican rule and to restore white supremacy in politics and social life. Most notorious was the Ku Klux Klan, an organization of violent criminals that established a reign of terror in the South.
R. What was the KKK?
Founded in 1866 as a Tennessee social club, the Ku Klux Klan was soon transformed into an organization of terrorist criminals, which spread into nearly every Southern state. Led by planters, merchants, and Democratic politicians, the white-robed members of the Klan committed some of the most brutal acts of violence in American history. They assassinated local Republican leaders, including white and black teachers, but most victims were freed people.
R. What is white supremacy?
White supremacy is the belief, and promotion of the belief, that white people are superior to people of other racial backgrounds. The term is sometimes used specifically to describe a political ideology that advocates the social and political dominance by whites.
R. What were the Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871?
1870 and 1871, President Grant and Congress passed three Enforcement Acts: (1) to protect black votes, (2) providing federal supervision of southern elections, and (3) strengthening sanctions against those who attacked blacks or prevented them from voting, allowing the President to use troops to enforce the law (it was also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, outlawing KKK activities and leading to federal agents arresting over 3,000 KKK members).
R. What did the term "Solid South" represent?
Solid South refers to the electoral support of the Southern United States (from Texas through Virginia) for the Democratic Party candidates for nearly a century from 1877, the end of the Reconstruction, to 1964, during the middle of the Civil Rights era
R. What was the Compromise of 1876 and who benefitted from it?
The Compromise of 1877, also known as the Corrupt Bargain, refers to a purported informal, unwritten deal that settled the disputed 1876 U.S. Presidential election and ended Congressional ("Radical") Reconstruction. Through it, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was awarded the presidency over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden on the agreement that Hayes would take specific steps to increase the political and economic power of the South.
R. What were the main four elements of the Compromise of 1876?
The following elements are generally said to be the points of the compromise: (1) The removal of all Federal troops from the rest of the former Confederate States (Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida); (2) The appointment of at least one Southern Democrat to Hayes' cabinet; (3) The construction of another transcontinental railroad using the Texas and Pacific in the South; and (3) Legislation to help industrialize the South.
R. Who was Andrew Johnson and what was he trying to achieve?
Andrew Johnson was Lincoln's Vice-President so when Lincoln was assassinated, Johnson became the 17th President of the United States (1865-1869). Andrew Johnson, a Democrat from Tennessee, remained loyal to the Union, but like Lincoln believed in moderate policies for reconciling the South with the North.
R. What was Andrew Johnson's restoration plan and what was its result?
In 1865 he put into effect his restoration plan, which closely resembled Lincoln's plan, giving southern whites pardons and allowing them to establish new governments, requiring former Confederate officers and officials to seek individual pardons, and requiring Southern states to accept the 13th Amendment. The former Confederate states for the most part met his conditions, but elected many of the Confederate leaders to Congress. Modern and radical Republicans joined forces and voted to reject the new Southern members of Congress. Johnson attacked the 14th Amendment and tried to prevent elections of many Republicans to Congress in 1866, but Republicans won the majority of congressional seats, enough to override any presidential veto. In 1867, Congress overturned Johnson's program by passing the Military Reconstruction Act.
R. Who was Ulysses S. Grant and what did he accomplish?
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States (1869-1877) and military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. As president, he led Reconstruction by signing and enforcing civil rights laws and fighting Ku Klux Klan violence. He helped rebuild the Republican Party in the South, an effort that resulted in the election of African Americans to Congress and state governments for the first time. But he was considered a weak President and his presidency was also marred by economic turmoil and corruption scandals (including the Whiskey Ring where government officials and whiskey makers cheated the government of millions of dollars by filing false tax reports).
R. What did Ulysses S. Grant achieve as a military commander?
Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America. During Reconstruction, Grant remained in command of the Army and implemented the Congressional plans to reoccupy the South and hold new elections in 1867 with black voters that gave Republicans control of the Southern states.
R. Who was Rutherford B. Hayes and what did he accomplish?
Rutherford B. Hayes was the 19th President of the United States (1877-1881), who presided over the end of Reconstruction and the United States' entry into the Second Industrial Revolution. Hayes was a reformer who began the efforts that would lead to civil service reform (awarding federal jobs by merit not to supporters) and attempted, unsuccessfully, to reconcile the divisions that had led to the American Civil War fifteen years earlier. Hayes kept his promise not to run for re-election and became an advocate of educational and social reform, including federal education subsidies for all children.
R. Who was Samuel Tilden?
During the 1876 presidential election, Samuel Tilden won the popular vote over his Republican opponent, Rutherford B. Hayes, proving that the Democrats were back in the political picture following the Civil War. But the result in the Electoral College was in question because the states of Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina each sent two sets of Electoral Votes to Congress. The Compromise of 1876 followed, which gave the presidency to Rutherford B. Hayes.
R. What was the role of credit among rural Southerners during the Reconstruction era?
After the Civil War, country stores offered a variety of goods shipped from the North. Farmers and sharecroppers often could not afford to make a purchase except "on credit" at exorbitant interest rates. Widespread use of credit increased debt and poverty among rural Southerners during the Reconstruction era.
R. What was the situation of white small farmers during Reconstruction?
Many white small farmers turned to cotton production during Reconstruction as a way of obtaining needed cash. By the mid-1870s, nearly 40% of cotton was raised by white farmers. As cotton prices declined, many lost their land. By 1880, one third of the white farmers in the cotton states were tenants rather than landowners, and the South as a whole had become even more dependent on cotton than it had been before the war. Many fell further and further into debt.
R. What were the first public bodies in American history with substantial black representation?
The State Conventions organized as a result of the Reconstruction Act of 1867's stipulation that all former Confederate states except Tennessee hold conventions to draft new constitutions granting former slaves the rights of citizenship. 265 African Americans, or 25% of the total delegates, attended these conventions held in Southern states in 1868-69. In Richmond, VA, blacks made up 20% of the convention.
R. In what ways did the Reconstruction governments of the South believe they could best improve the economic opportunities in the south and what was the fate of that effort?
Reconstruction governments of the South believed that the development of a regional railroad system with links to Northern markets would create a more diversified economy with opportunities for blacks and whites alike. During Reconstruction, the new state governments embarked on ambitious and expensive programs of economic development, rebuilding its cities and hoping that railroad and factory development would produce a prosperity shared by both races. However, the goals were never fully realized, partly because Northern investors preferred new opportunities in the West.
R. How and why did racism spread North towards the end of the Reconstruction era?
Radical leaders were with time replaced by politicians less committed to the ideal of equal rights for freemen, and Northerners increasingly felt the South should be able to solve its own problems without constant interference from the North. Northerners were growing tired of Reconstruction, especially after a depression began in 1873, pushing economic issues to the forefront of politics. Racism, which had waned after the Civil War became more prevalent again. Influential Northern newspapers began to portray Southern blacks as incapable of taking part in government. When, in 1874 and 1875, anti-Reconstruction violence begun again in the South, few Northerners believed the federal government should intervene to suppress it. As white Americans grew weary of Reconstruction, derogatory images of African Americans became more prevalent and accepted in the North as well as in the South.
R. What is a pocket veto?
The President indirectly vetoing a bill by letting a session of Congress expire without signing the bill.
R. Which bill did Lincoln pocket veto and why?
The Wade-Davis Bill, because he worried that imposing too harsh peace rules on the South would compromise the reconciliation between the South and the North.
R. What was the Wade-Davis Bill?
A compromise bill proposed by moderate and radical Republicans as an alternative to Lincoln's plan that required (1) the majority of white men in a former Confederate state to take an oath of allegiance to the Union, which would allow the state to hold a constitutional convention to create a new state government; (2) the constitutional convention attendees to take an "ironclad" oath stating that they have never fought against the Union or supported the Confederacy in any way; (3) the constitutional convention to abolish slavery, reject all debts the state acquired as part of the Confederacy, and deprive all former Confederate government officials and military officers of the right to vote or hold office.
R. What were newly freed African Americans nicknamed?
Freedmen.
R. What were African Americans in the U.S. Cavalry stationed in the southwestern United States nicknamed?
Buffalo soldiers.
R. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 proposed to grant citizenship to all persons born in the United States except for which race?
Native Americans.
R. Was Andrew Johnson impeached or did the House of Representatives only try to impeach him?
They tried but did not succeed (were short of one vote).
R. What is graft?
Graft is gaining money illegally through politics, and was common during the Reconstruction in both the South and the North. It still happens today, although politicians proven to benefit illegally are prosecuted in and punished by courts.
R. Who was Hiram Revels?
Hiram Revels (1822-1901), a pastor, in 1870 became the first African American to be elected to the United States Senate.
R. What was the Panic of 1873?
In 1873, a series of bad railroad investments forced a powerful investment firm of Jay Cooke and Company to declare bankruptcy. Nation's financial community panicked, prompting many smaller banks to close and causing the stock market to plummet, leading to a full-fledged economic depression that lasted until almost the end of the decade.
R. Why did the Democrats regain power in the South in the 1870s and what effect did it have on the Reconstruction?
Partially by intimidation and fraud, and partially by defining the elections as a struggle between whites and freedmen. They also promised to cut the high taxes imposed by the Republicans and accused Republicans of corruption. The increased preoccupation of the North with the falling economy, and corresponding decrease in North's concern for freedmen, helped the Democrats' crusade to try to save the South from Republican rule, and with the Compromise of 1877, they regain power in Congress, Hayes pulled federal troops out of the South, the remaining Republican governments in the South collapsed, and Reconstruction came to an end.
R. What is a cotton gin and what effect its invention had on
A cotton gin is a machine that quickly and easily separates the cotton fibers from the seeds, a job previously done by hand. It uses a combination of a wire screen and small wire hooks to pull the cotton through the screen, while brushes continuously remove the loose cotton lint to prevent jams. The invention of the cotton gin caused massive growth of the production of cotton in the Southern United States. By 1850, the cotton production quadrupled from 750,000 bales in 1830, and the South became even more dependent on plantations and slavery, making plantation agriculture the largest sector of the Southern economy. To support the increase in cotton production, the number of slaves rose from around 700,000 before Eli Whitney's patent, to around 3.2 million in 1850. By 1860 the United States' South was providing 2/3 of the world's supply of cotton.
W.E. Explain why the transcontinental railroad was made.
To connect the East with the West.
W.E. What was the Transcontinental Railroad?
The Transcontinental Railroad was built between 1863 and 1869 to connect the West with the East. Because the population in the west was growing, the government sought faster transportation and chose a railroad. It was also used to ship supplies to the west along with cows and clothing. It consisted of two parts, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific. In the Central Pacific, the workers were Chinese immigrants who needed to pass through rugged Sierras in California. The Union Pacific was made up of Irish immigrants who had to protect themselves from the Indians in the Great Plains.
W.E. What was Comstock Lode?
Comstock Lode was the first major silver discovery in the United State's history. However, on 57% of the metal was silver and 42% gold. Therefore, many came for gold instead of silver. It was discovered in 1859 and soon there was the "Rush to Washoe." This was a very large part of Nevada history and without it, Nevada couldn't have gained its statehood.
W.E. What was the Chisholm Trail?
This trail was used to drive long horns from Texas ranches to Kansas railheads. The trail started from the Red River and ended on the railhead of the Kansas Pacific Railway in Abilene, Kansas, where the cattle were be sold and shipped to the East. This trail was named after Jesse Chisholm who built multiple trading posts in present day Oklahoma. An estimated 5 million Texas cattle reached Kansas by the Chisholm Trail.
W.E. What are the Great Plains?
The Great Plains are a combination of prairie, steppe, and grassland that stretch from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. It was the home of many Bison herds but they were hunted to nearly extinction. The Great Plains have very cold winters and very hot summers.
W.E. What is a treaty and what role did treaties play in Westward Expansion?
A treaty is an agreement between countries that make compromises. Indian Treaties 1778-1883 were one of the ways the United States Government used to remove the Indian population from their Native Soil. Many of the treaties were broken almost as soon as they were written and not always by the Indians. The removal of the Indians was necessary for the U.S. Government's expansion to the West. Two of the compromises that were signed at this time were the Treaty of New Echota (December 29, 1835) and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (February 2, 1848).
W.E. Who is a Vaquero and its relation to Westward Expansion?
A vaquero is a cowboy in Spanish. The word is mostly used in southwest and central Texas. In California, it was Anglicized to buckaroo. They were the first cowboys in North America, stemming from Spanish tradition and working longhorn cattle in northern Mexico. In 1500's they drove cattle from Mexico into Texas. In 1800's they tradition gave rise to U.S. cowboys.
W.E. What is the Promontory Point?
The United States first Transcontinental Railroad was officially completed on May 10, 1869, when the Union and Central Pacific Railroads joined their rails at Promontory Summit in Utah.
W.E. Who were the Homesteaders and what was their main challenge?
People who obtained land in the west by filing for deed of title in order to keep the land, per the Homestead Act. Before they could grow crops the land had to be ploughed. Until the arrival of the homesteaders in the 1860s however, the soil on the Plains had never been cut by a plough. The Prairie grass that covered the Plains had thick deep roots of up to 10cm (4 in). These roots grew in dense tangled clumps that were difficult to cut. The first homesteaders that arrived on the Plains brought their iron ploughs from the Eastern USA. These could cut through the previously ploughed soft soils there, but they broke when used on the Great Plains.
W.E. Who was Chief Joseph?
He was born Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, Nez Perce: "Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain" in northeastern Oregon, he succeeded his father as chief in 1871. The non-treaty Nez Perce suffered many injustices at the hands of settlers and prospectors, but out of fear of reprisal from the militarily, Joseph never allowed any violence against them, instead making many concessions to them in hopes of securing peace. His tribe was forced to move into a reservation, which Chief Joseph resisted, but failed. In his last years Chief Joseph spoke eloquently against the injustice of U.S. policy toward his people and held out the hope that America's promise of freedom and equality might one day be fulfilled for Native Americans as well. He died in 1904.
W.E. Who said: "From where the sun now stands I will fight no more"?
Chief Joseph.
W.E. What is an Indian Reservation and what Act established them?
An Indian Reservation is an area of land that was reserved or kept only for the Indians. In 1851, the United States Congress passed the Indian Appropriations Act which authorized the creation of Indian reservations in modern day Oklahoma. By late 1860s, President Ulysses S. Grant established "Peace Policy" of relocating Indian tribes into lands set aside for them by the U.s. government, usually lands of lower farming value.
W.E. What was the Chivington Massacre?
The Chivington Massacre (also called the Sand Creek Massacre) was an infamous incident in the Indian Wars out west that occurred on November 29-30, 1864, when Colorado Military troops in the Colorado Territory massacred an undefended village of friendly Cheyenne and Arapaho, mostly women and children, encamped on the territory's eastern plains.
W.E. What is another name for the Chivington Massacre?
Sand Creek massacre.
W.E. What is a Longhorn?
It is a type of cattle named for their 7 feet long horns. They evolved from cattle brought by the Spanish, including by Christopher Columbus, that ended up roaming feral on Cuba and nearby islands. The hardy coastal cattle were then brought to central and northern Mexico, and to the Texan territory. After the Civil War, confederate soldiers, who have lost homes and their cattle herds, round up free-roaming herds to sell them in the North.
W.E. What was the Battle of Little Big Horn?
It was when the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians left their reservations because whites kept intruding onto it. In 1876, George Armstrong Custer and his army tried to keep them in their reservations by beginning a battle. Custer than realized that the Indian army was three times the size of his and he was defeated by the Indians.
W.E. What battle did George Armstrong Custard lose?
Battle of Little Bighorn.
W.E. Who was George Armstrong Custard lose?
General George Custer (1839-1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. He is most known for leading the whites against the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians in the Battle of Little Big Horn he lost.
W.E. What is a corral?
An enclosure used to keep livestock in. Used in the west for cattle and other animals.
W.E. What is a sod-buster?
A sodbuster is a farmer who plows the land to grow crops. The originally derogatory term "sodbuster" was used by ranchers to describe the settlers who claimed land under the Homestead Act of 1862. The original settlers of the Great Plains had to "bust" the tightly matted soil covered with tough buffalo grass in order to plant their crops and build their homes. They had to endure multiple hardships: blazing heat on barren earth; torrential rains that washed away the soil, ruining crops and sod homes; and, perilous blizzards that killed people and livestock.
W.E. What is a sod?
Sod is a section of grass-covered surface soil held together by matted roots.
W.E. What was the Dawes Act?
Dawes Act, named after its sponsor - U.S. Senator Henry Dawes of Massachusetts, was signed in 1877 and provided for (1) the division of Indian lands into individually-owned parcels, (2) opening "surplus" lands to settlement by non-Indians, and (3) development by railroads. It also provided 160-acre allotments to reservation families plus all the "rights, privileges, and immunities" of other United States citizens.
W.E. What were the main effects of the Dawes Act?
It divided reservation lands into privately owned parcels, thereby destroying the communal living structure of original tribes and allowing for selling some of the Indian land to non-Indian owners. Native peoples once controlled the nearly three billion acres that is the United States. This was reduced to 150 million acres by 1887. Like so many American Indian Policy innovations, the Dawes Act that year benefited not so much Native land owners as those who sought their resources. By the New Deal period of the 1930s, when Congress revoked the allotment program, Indians had only 48 million acres left. Not only had "surplus" reservation land been sold following allotment, but Natives had also lost many of their individual family holdings. The Dawes Act, rather than integrating Indians into the mainstream, ultimately led to large-scale Indian homelessness and poverty.
W.E. What was the 1st of the 3 forms of Westward Migration (or Frontiers)?
The first, the mining frontier, opened with the great rush of migrants to the mountainous regions following the discovery of gold in California. From 1848 to 1853, more than 250,000 prospectors flooded California, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado. The mining frontier laid the foundation for major communities such as Denver and San Francisco.
W.E. What was the 2nd of the 3 forms of Westward Migration (or Frontiers)?
The second, ranching or cattle frontier, supplanted the miners after the Civil War. At first, cattle-ranchers settled in Texas to drive huge herds of cattle hundreds of miles over open grasslands to slaughter places, but as railroads and refrigeration opened more eastern markets to beef, ranchers settled in Texas, Wyoming, Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakota Territory. Some ranchers returned to the Midwest to work in meat processing and packaging in cities like Chicago.
W.E. What was the 3rd of the 3 forms of Westward Migration (or Frontiers)?
The third, farmer's frontier, consisted of hundreds of thousands of migrants moving West after the passage of the 1862 Homestead Act. By 1900 more than 80 million acres of homestead land had been handed out to nearly 600,000 applicants. A significant percentage of these migrants were new immigrants from other countries, or former slaves who sought refuge from the unfriendly to them South. Yet former slaves were often excluded from best agricultural lands, leading many to settle in the growing cities where they formed ethnic neighborhoods along with similarly marginalized Mexican or Chinese immigrants.
W.E. What is a policy?
A policy is a plan or course of action made by the government to determine their actions.
W.E. What were the U.S. government's two main gaols with regard to Native Americans in late 1870's?
During the late 1870's, federal policymakers set two goals for Indians: reduce land occupied by Indians and "civilize" the "savage" reservation residents so as to integrate them into mainstream society.
W.E. How did the U.S. government set out to achieve its main goals for Native Americans in late 1870's?
To attain the two goals the U.S. government promoted Indian farming and raising livestock; took children to schools, often away from their parents; divided Indian land; and gave U.S. citizenship to Indians who had abandoned traditional ways. Federal employees were charged with wiping out traditional cultures - their responsibilities included: administering agency as well as tribal moneys and property; controlling the chiefs; fostering farming by the men and instructing the women in household skills; safeguarding the health of their charges; aggressively restricting Indian dress, language, and other "vicious habits;" advancing Christianity; and educating children. They also enforced Indian Office rules that forbid the sun dance, scalp and war dances, polygamy, and various practices of medicine men.
W.E. What were the U.S. government policies with regard to Native Americans in late 1800's?
In late 1800's, the U.S. government stopped recognizing tribal self-government, such as chiefs. The House and Senate simply begin to legislate Indian policies and programs - with or without Indian consultation.
W.E. Who signed the Homestead Act?
President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act in 1862 to spur Westward migration, which took three forms, often called "frontiers."
W.E. What did the Homestead Act provide?
It provided free land in the west for anyone who had never taken up arms against the U.S. government, including freed slaves, by filing an application and evidence of improvements to a federal land office to obtain up to 160 acres of undeveloped federal land outside the original Thirteen Colonies. The applicant had to be 21 or older, had to live on the land for five years, had to file an application, improve the land, and file for deed of title to keep the land
W.E. Who was Sitting Bull?
Sitting Bull, born in 1836 in Dakota Territory, was the Chief of the Hunkpapa Sioux Indians. He was considered the last of the Sioux to surrender to the whites. He was very stubborn, hence his name, so he kept trying to rebel. Under Chief Red Cloud, Sitting Bull was one of the leaders who fought against American movement into Sioux territory in the 1860s. On June 25, 1876, the Sioux led by Sitting Bull defeated George Custer and the 7th U.S. Calvary in the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
W.E. What was the steel plow and what did it come to symbolize?
The steel plow, invented by John Deere in the 1830s, made it easier to cultivate the rich prairie soil. Crucial to a pioneer family's survival, the plow also came to symbolize national prosperity and the "civilizing" of the West. From early on, many Americans associated the family farm and frontier life with ideals of democracy and independence. These ideals, along with dreams of a prosperous new life and the availability of western lands, enticed settlers across the continent throughout the 1800s. As they pushed westward, pioneers fought to claim land from Mexicans, Indians, other settlers, and from the wilderness itself.
W.E. Who invented the steel plow?
John Deere.
W.E. Why was barbed wire invented and what land disputes did it help to settle?
Barbed wires kept cattle out of farmland. During the 1880s and 1890s, migrants-turned-farmers clashed with ranchers over land usage and water rights until a new invention-barbed wire-helped farmers drive out ranchers from the open range and claim rights to the land.
W.E. What is a windmill and what effect did windmills have on which two industries during Westward Expansion?
A machine that converts wind energy into rotational energy, often used to grind grains, run sawmills, run paper-mills, and to pump water. Pumping water allowed the farming and ranching of vast areas of North America, which were otherwise devoid of readily accessible water. Wind operated water pumps contributed to the expansion of rail transport systems, by pumping water from wells to supply the needs of the steam locomotives of those early times. In the Midwest, windpumps were used to pump water from farm wells for cattle.
W.E. What is dry farming and what was its impact on Westward Expansion?
Method of farming developed for areas with little rain fall. Used by frontier farmers in the Great Plains and other U.S. territories with little rainfall. New methods of dry farming developed in mid and late 1800's encouraged settler expansion into the West
W.E. What main challenges did Native Americans face as a result of government encouraged farming and living on reservations?
As most policies for Indians, The farming imposed on them by the government ran counter to their hunter-warrior traditions. Furthermore, reservation lands often were very dry or, in the north, had too short a growing season. When favorable agricultural conditions prevailed, the poverty-stricken Indians frequently lacked the equipment, livestock, and seeds to farm profitably. Constant white encroachment on Native lands also hurt economic self-sufficiency.
W.E. Who is John Sutter?
John Sutter (1803-1880) was a Swiss-American pioneer of California known for the discovery at his mill of gold by James W. Marshall and the mill making team, and for establishing Sutter's Fort in the area that would eventually become Sacramento, today California's capital. Although famous throughout California for his association with the Gold Rush, Sutter died almost poor, having seen his business ventures fail while those of his elder son, John Augustus Sutter Jr., prospered.
W.E. Who are 49ers?
People who rushed to California in 1849 for gold. The first people to rush to the gold fields, beginning in the spring of 1848, were the residents of California themselves-primarily agriculturally oriented Americans and Europeans living in Northern California, along with Native Americans and some Californios (Spanish-speaking Californians). These first miners tended to be families in which everyone helped in the effort. Women and children of all ethnicities were often found panning next to the men. Some enterprising families set up boarding houses to accommodate the influx of men; in such cases, the women often brought in steady income while their husbands searched for gold. It is estimated that approximately 90,000 people arrived in California in 1849-about half by land and half by sea. Of these, perhaps 50,000 to 60,000 were Americans, and the rest were from other countries.
W.E. Did women and children go on the California Gold Rush?
Mostly among the early arrivers, but many women held a variety of jobs in gold mining towns.
W.E. Did 49ers make much money?
The 48ers made a lot of money, but 49ers made an average of 6-10 dollars.
W.E. What did the California Gold Rush do to Native Americans?
Native Americans, dependent on traditional hunting and gathering, became the victims of starvation and disease, as gravel, silt and toxic chemicals from prospecting operations killed fish and destroyed habitats. The surge in the mining population also resulted in the disappearance of game and food gathering locales as gold camps and settlements were built amidst them. Later farming spread to supply the camps, taking more land from Native Americans, whose starvation often provoked them to steal or take by force food and livestock from the miners, leading to miners' retaliation against them. The Act for the Government and Protection of Indians, passed in 1850 by the California Legislature, allowed settlers to continue the Californio practice of capturing and using Native people as bonded workers, which was carried out as a legal business. Native American villages were regularly raided - young women and children were carried off to be sold, the men and remaining people often being killed.
W.E. What did the California Gold Rush do to immigrants?
After the initial boom was ending, explicitly anti-foreign and racist attacks, laws, and confiscatory taxes sought to drive out foreigners from the mines, but especially the Chinese and Latin American immigrants. The toll on the American immigrants was severe as well: one in twelve forty-niners perished, as the death and crime rates during the Gold Rush were extraordinarily high.
W.E. What economic and political developments resulted from the California Gold Rush in California?
The Gold Rush wealth and population increase led to significantly improved transportation between California and the East Coast, to California gaining statehood, and to increased urbanization, governance, and infrastructure formation.
W.E. Did only Americans go on the California Gold Rush?
No, about 40% came from other countries.
W.E. What made California a state?
The California gold rush.
W.E. Did John Sutter find the gold on his mill?
No, a man named James Wilson Marshall did.
I. What is the gross national product (GNP)?
The GNP is the total market value of all the goods and services produces by a nation during a specified period. It is calculated by: the value of all of the goods and services produced in an economy + the value of the goods and services imported - the goods and services exported.
I. What language does Laissez-faire originate from?
Laissez-faire is a French phrase meaning to let alone or pass.
I. What does Laissez-faire mean?
A type of economy, in which buyers and sellers are permitted to carry out transactions based on mutual agreement on price without government intervention
I. Who is an entrepreneur?
Someone who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a business venture. They discover or helps to market new products, services, or business models which are managed until they achieve proven profitability
I. What are time zones?
The 24 zones of different time into which the Earth is divided. For example, if it was 12 PM in California, it would be 3 PM in Rhode Island. The zones are irregular because of the boundaries of countries.
I. What is a corporation and how is it relevant to the Industrialization era?
A corporation is a business with many share holders, who receive dividends when the company makes a profit, and can only lose what they put in. It is relevant to this time period because at this time, corporations were beginning to form, such as the Standard Oil Company founded by John D. Rockefeller
I. What is Vertical Integration?
Andrew Carnegie introduced the idea of vertical integration - the combining of companies that supply equipment and services needed for particular industry. For example, when one person/company owns the whole process of the oil business from extracting it out of the earth to selling it to the public.
I. What is a monopoly?
A monopoly is when there is only one company making a certain product, so the company can charge anything for the product because there is no competition. During the industrialization time, AT&T was a monopoly because it was the only train and telegraph service company.
I. What is Horizontal Integration?
John D. Rockefeller introduced the idea of horizontal integration, where one person/company owns one step of oil business. For example, selling the oil to the public.
I. What is a trust?
Corporations in the same market or related markets would form a trust that put control of business under a single group of trustees. Shareholders still received dividends, but had no say in the business. Trusts were later outlawed.
I. What is a trade union?
A union formed by workers to allow them to bargain with employers for fewer working hours and higher earnings. Workers sometimes expressed their demands through striking. Joining or forming a trade union was illegal.
I. What was WTUL?
The Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) was a U.S. organization of both working class and more well-off women formed in 1903 to support the efforts of women to organize labor unions and to eliminate sweatshop conditions. The WTUL played an important role in supporting the massive strikes in the first two decades of the twentieth century that established the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, and in campaigning for women's suffrage among men and women workers.
I. What is a lockout?
This is where an employer refuses to let employees to work. Two of the three employers involved in the Caravan park grocery workers strike of 2003-2004 locked out their employees in response to a strike against the third member of the employer bargaining group. Lockouts are, with certain exceptions, lawful under United States labor law.
I. What is a Chain Store?
Chain stores are two or more retail stores run by the same company, bearing the same name, and selling the same kinds of merchandise. They originated in 1859 when businessmen George F. Gilman and George Huntington Hartford founded the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (better known as A & P) grocery stores in New York City. The idea caught on quickly. Eventually, all kinds of stores moved to the chain store model, selling groceries, apparel, shoes, prescription drugs, books, jewelry, furniture, hardware, and music. By the end of the twentieth century, chain stores were selling about one third of all merchandise in America.
I. What is Marxism?
Marxism is a "pure form" of communism. It was created in the 19th century by Karl Marks because he thought that the working class was doomed to forever work for low wages. Under Marxism, society would produce only what it needed, everyone would get the same amount of money and be treated equally, there would be no social classes or private ownership, and everything would be owned by the state or the government.
I. What is arbitration?
The process by which the parties to a dispute submit their differences to the judgment of an impartial person or group appointed by mutual consent or statutory provision.
I. Who is Karl Marx?
Karl Heinrich Marx's (1818-1883) ideas played a significant role in the development of modern communism and socialism. He felt that the Industrial Revolution allowed the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer, and believed that since there were more workers than owners, the workers would eventually get fed up, start a revolution, and take over, which he encouraged. Marx argued that just as capitalism replaced feudalism, socialism would replace capitalism and lead to a stateless, classless society called pure communism. This would emerge after a transitional period called the "dictatorship of the proletariat": a period sometimes referred to as the "workers state" or "workers' democracy". A number of countries followed Marx's doctrine, but none fully in its "pure" form.
I. What is closed shop free enterprise?
A protest for no child labor, safer conditions, shorter work hours, etc. The use of child labor was common; with working conditions unregulated, the health, welfare, and morale of working people suffered; and the working day often ranged from 10 to 16 hours for six days a week. Many people protested these realities. The eight-hour day movement or 40-hour week movement, also known as the short-time movement, had its origins in the Industrial Revolution among workers, where industrial production in large factories imposed long hours and poor working conditions.
I. Who is Edwin Drake?
The first person to drill for oil in the U.S.
I. Who was Andrew Carnegie?
Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) built Pittsburgh's Carnegie Steel Company, which was later merged with Elbert H. Gary's Federal Steel Company and several smaller companies to create U.S. Steel. With the fortune he made from business, he turned to philanthropy and interests in education, founding the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Carnegie Mellon University, the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, and many libraries.
I. Who is Alexander Graham Bell?
Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone. He also carried out groundbreaking work in optical telecommunications, hydrofoils, and aeronautics. In 1888, Alexander Graham Bell became one of the founding members of the National Geographic Society.
I. Who is Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) was an American inventor, scientist, and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, a stock ticker, a mechanical vote recorder, a battery for an electric car, electrical power, recorded music and motion pictures, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large teamwork to the process of invention, and therefore is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory.
I. Who is James Hill?
James J. Hill (1838-1916) was a Canadian-born visionary who built not only a railroad linking the upper Midwest of the United States with the Pacific Ocean, but he helped populate the region with farmers recruited from Scandinavia. His career encompassed the whole range of events that comprised the Industrial Revolution, a period marked by the widespread replacement of manual labor by machines. Because of the size of this region and the economic dominance exerted by the Hill lines, Hill became known during his lifetime as The Empire Builder.
I. Who is John Wanamaker?
John Wanamaker (1838-1922) was a United States merchant, religious leader, civic and political figure, considered by some to be the father of modern advertising. He created one of the first department stores in the United States, Wanamaker's.
I. Who is John D. Rockefeller?
J. D, Rockefeller was an American oil magnate. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy. In 1870, he founded the Standard Oil Company and aggressively ran it until he officially retired in 1897. He became the world's richest man and first American worth more than a billion dollars. Adjusting for inflation, he is still often regarded as the richest person in history. His philanthropic foundations pioneered the development of medical research, and were instrumental in the eradication of hookworm and yellow fever. He is also the founder of both the University of Chicago and Rockefeller University. Rockefeller adhered to total abstinence from alcohol and tobacco throughout his life.
I. What was Woolsworth?
Woolworth's was among the first American five-and-dime stores, which sold discounted general merchandise at fixed prices, usually five or ten cents, undercutting the prices of other local merchants. Woolworth, as the stores popularly became known, was one of the first American retailers to put merchandise out for the shopping public to handle and select without the assistance of a sales clerk. Earlier retailers had kept all merchandise behind a counter, and customers presented the clerk with a list of items they wished to buy. The first Woolworth store was founded in 1879by Frank Winfield Woolworth with a loan of $300. The chain went out of business in 1997.
I. What is Montgomery Ward?
The Montgomery Ward Company was the world's #1 mail order business founded in 1872 by Aaron Montgomery Ward, which went out of business in 2001. In 1883, the company's catalog, which became popularly known as the "Wish Book", had grown to 240 pages and 10,000 items. At its height, it was one of the largest retailers in the United States. In 2004, the Montgomery Ward brand was revived as an online and catalog-based retailer.
I. What was Sears, Roebuck, Co.?
Richard Warren Sears, a railroad station agent in North Redwood, Minnesota received an impressive shipment of watches from a Chicago jeweler which were unwanted by a local jeweler. He purchased them himself, sold the watches for a tidy profit to other station agents up and down the line, and then ordered more for resale. Soon he started a business selling watches through mail order catalogues. The next year, he moved to Chicago, Illinois where he met Alvah C. Roebuck, who joined him in the business. In 1893, the corporate business name became Sears, Roebuck and Co. Sears, Roebuck and Co. soon developed a reputation for both quality products and customer satisfaction. By 1895, the company was producing a 532-page catalog with the largest variety of items that anybody back then could have thought of. Sears stores are still very active today.
I. Who is Ida Tarbell?
Ida Minerva Tarbell (1857-1944) was an American teacher, author and an investigative journalist, who wrote many magazine series and biographies, and is best-known for her 1904 book "The History of the Standard Oil Company". It was the first corporate coverage of its kind, and it attacked the business operations of Rockefeller. Her father was an oil producer whose business had failed due to Rockefeller's business dealings. Tarbell's investigations fueled growing public attacks on Standard Oil and on monopolies in general. In 1911, the US Supreme Court declared the Standard Oil group to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and ordered Standard to break up into 34 independent companies. Standard's president, John Rockefeller, long since retired, owned a quarter of the shares of the resultant companies, and those share values mostly doubled, he emerged from the dissolution as the richest man in the world.
I. Who is Samuel Gompers?
Samuel Gompers (1850-1924) was an English-born American labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. He founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL). He promoted harmony among the different craft unions that comprised the AFL, trying to minimize jurisdictional battles. He promoted "thorough" organization and collective bargaining to secure shorter hours and higher wages, the first essential steps, he believed, to emancipating labor. During World War I, Gompers and the AFL worked with the government to avoid strikes and boost morale, while raising wage rates and expanding membership.
I. Who is Eugene V. Debs?
Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926) was an American union leader, one of the founding members of the International Labor Union and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and several times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States.
I.&U. What is social mobility?
The ability to move up on the social "ladder." Most commonly refers to material wealth and the ability of an agent to move up the class system.
I.&U. How did social mobility affect Urbanization?
Cities are typically associated with high concentration of jobs and with more jobs offering higher pay, than available in small towns or villages. People started moving into cities in search of better jobs and hopes of moving up on the social hierarchy (social ladder), which in turn made cities grow rapidly in size. Many people did succeed in finding better jobs and moved up the social ladder, but poorer cities attracted less wealthy people, such as immigrants and recently freed slaves, who moved in large numbers into cities with cheaper housing, causing a reversal in those cities (sometimes called white flight), so that the poor lived in the center of the city and the wealthier kept moving further out, to eventually live on the edges or just outside of the city (in the suburbs), as is still true in many cities today.
I.&U. To what did Jacob Riis compare an 1890 map of NYC color-coded by nationality?
The stripes of a zebra (because the nationalities were mostly sorted by ethnicity).
I.&U. What book did Jacob Riis write and about what?
How the Other Half Lives about his slum life. The book described the poverty, disease, and crime that afflicted many immigrant neighborhoods in New York City.
I.&U. What did Jacob Riis photograph?
He took pictures of cities. His pictures caught the attention of rich people because they were not aware of what was happeneing to poor people.
I.&U. Who was Jacob Riis?
Jacob August Riis (1849-1914) is well known for his photographic and journalistic talents and for using them to reveal the situation of and to help the New York City's poor.
I.&U. What was steerage and who used it?
It was the most basic and cheapest accommodations on a steamship. Many immigrants booked passage on steerage because it was very difficult to get to come to the United States. Edward Steiner wrote a book on immigration and described steerage as "Narrow, steep and slippery stairways lead to it. Crowds everywhere, ill smelling bunks, uninviting washrooms-this is steerage."
I.&U. Did Darwin create Social Darwinism? If not, who did?
No, Herbert Spencer did.
I.&U. What catch phrase did Social Darwinism create?
Survival of the fittest.
I.&U. What is Social Darwinism and what role did it play during Urbanization?
Herbert Spencer was a philosopher who applied Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and natural selection to human society. He argued that human society also evolved through competition and natural selection and that with time the society became better because only the fittest survived. He came up with Social Darwinism. Big businessmen of that time used Spencer's theories to justify their actions. John Rockefeller claimed that huge businesses, like his own oil business, succeeded because of laws of nature and the law of God.
I.&U. What is nativism?
Nativism is a preference for native-born people and a desire to limit immigration. This was caused by the presence of people of different cultures and religions. Many societies were formed because of this. For example, there was one that tried to prevent foreign born persons and Catholics from holding public office. 1854 delegates from some of these groups formed the American Party, which was later called the "Know Nothings."
I.&U. What was William "Boss" Tweed the boss of?
Tammany Hall.
I.&U. Who was William "Boss" Tweed the boss of?
He was a corrupt leader during the 1860s and 1870s, who bribed people to vote for him for the New York City Government. He was an American politician most notable for being the "boss" of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th century New York City and State. At the height of his influence, Tweed was the third-largest landowner in New York City, a director of the Erie Railway, the Tenth National Bank, and the New-York Printing Company, as well as proprietor of the Metropolitan Hotel. He eventually ended up in prison in 1874.
I.&U. Where is Ellis Island located?
Off of the coast of New York.
I.&U. What was the Ellis Island and its function?
Most immigrants from Europe came to America through Ellis Island. It was a very crowed island off of the shore of New York. Doctors would check people for initial inspection and if found suspicious, the immigrant would have a big letter on their shirt in chalk. If they failed the inspection, they would most likely be sent back to Europe.
I.&U. Which two women founded the settlement house movement?
Lillian Wald and Jane Addams.
I.&U. Who was Jane Addams and what did she do?
Jane Addams and Lillian Wald founded the settlement house movement. Addams worked tirelessly on behalf of the poor and oppressed and advocated for needed changes in laws and policies. Addams once wrote about Chicago, "the streets are inexpressibly dirty, the number of schools are inadequate, sanitary legislation unenforced, the street lighting bad, the paving miserable and altogether lacking in the alleys." She also established the Hull House and settlement houses in poor neighborhoods.
I.&U. Who immigrated to Angel Island?
Asians, but mainly Chinese and Japanese.
I.&U. What is the Angel Island?
Most Asians immigrants, especially Chinese and Japanese, entered the United States through Angel Island, off of the coast California. Most were young males in their teens or twenties, who nervously awaited, sometimes even for months, results of their immigration hearing in dormitories packed with double or triple tiers of bunks. Today, Angel Island is a museum.
I.&U. Who was Lillian Wald?
Lillian Wald was a nurse; social worker; public health official; teacher; author; editor; publisher; activist for peace, women's, children's and civil rights; the cofounder of the settlement house movement, and the founder of American community nursing. Her unselfish devotion to humanity is recognized around the world and her visionary programs have been widely copied. Her goal was to ensure that women and children, immigrants and the poor, and members of all ethnic and religious groups would realize America's promise of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
I.&U. What was the Chinese Exclusion Act?
A law barring Chinese immigration for 10 years and preventing the Chinese already in the country from becoming citizens. Chinese immigrants protested and wrote letters complaining about the law and that Americans did not oppose Europeans from coming. However, these efforts did not work. The government renewed the Act in 1892 and made it permanent in 1902.The act was repealed in 1943.
I.&U. What is segregation?
Segregation is when you separate people by race, gender, schools, housing, etc. to form discrimination. In the U.S. "colored persons" were segregated from whites. During immigration time, in New York City, the immigrants almost looked like they were sorted by ethnicity. However, this was not forced and was not meant to cause discrimination.
I.&U. What is a tenement?
A tenement is a dark and crowded multi-family apartment. In New York, 3 out of 4 residents lived in a tenement. In Chicago apartment buildings, tenements were 25 by 125 feet and typically held three families and their borders. Tenements were also conducive to people passing diseases to one another.
I.&U. Why were skyscrapers created?
Skyscrapers are very tall buildings created to make more space for housing. The first skyscraper was the Home Insurance Building in Chicago built in 1885. It was soon dwarfed by other buildings. Louis Sullivan contributed most to the design of skyscrapers.
I.&U. What was a political machine and how did it originate?
A political machine is an organized, informal political group that controls a political party in a city by offering services to voters and businesses in exchange for political and financial support. Designed to gain and keep power, came out partially because cities had grown much faster than their governments. New city dwellers needed jobs housing, food, heat, and police protection. Political machines developed to take advantage of the needs of immigrants and the urban poor. But city politicians used fraud and graft to maintain political power. Corruption in national politics resulted in the call for civil service jobs to be awarded on the basis of merit. Big business's growing influence on politics defeated tariff reform that would aid wage-earners.
I.&U. What was a party boss?
A party boss is someone who ran political machines. The boss controlled many important aspects of a city, such as the city government, the jobs in the police, fire, and sanitation departments, the city agencies that granted license to businesses, and the money used to fund large construction projects. Some party bosses used illegal methods to win elections, others such as Tweed Ring of New York, become corrupted and abused their powers.
I.&U. Who became famous for using graft during the Urbanization era?
William "Boss" Tweed unscrupulously and illegally used his position to secure votes to get elected.
I.&U. Why did Herbert Spencer think that human society kept improving?
He believed that human society evolved through competition and natural selection. He argued that society progressed and became better because only the fittest people survived and so the strongest genes were passed onto the next generation. This is where the catch phrase "survival of the fittest" was created.
I.&U. From what words does the word Philanthropy derive?
Philos means love and anthropos means human being, so philanthropy means the love of human beings.
I.&U. What do philanthropists do?
Philanthropy is the effort or inclination to increase the well-being of humankind, typically by giving or donating to the less fortunate to help them.
I.&U. What did the "Gospel of Wealth" mean and what were the two largest examples of philanthropy during the Gilded Age?
The wealth of the Gilded Age is highlighted by the rise of American philanthropy (referred to by Andrew Carnegie as the "Gospel of Wealth") that used private money to endow thousands of colleges, hospitals, museums, academies, schools, opera houses, public libraries, symphony orchestras, and charities. John D. Rockefeller donated over $500 million to charities, slightly over half his money.
I.&U. What does reform mean and how does it apply to Immigration?
To reform means to change something to make things better. People thought that immigration might be good because it would help people escape their countries. However, it turned out that increased immigration caused food shortage, while people could not go on strike because the proprietor could then hire an immigrant.
I.&U. What is a settlement house?
Settlement houses were established by Jane Addams and Lillian Wald in poor neighborhoods. They had middle-class residents who lived and helped poor residents, usually immigrants.
I.&U. How did the Gilded Age get its name?
Gilded means “to cover with or as if with a thin layer of gold” or “to give an often deceptively attractive or improved appearance to.” The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Warner in their 1873 book, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. During the 1870s and 1880s, the U.S. economy grew at the fastest rate in its history, with wages, wealth, and GDP all increasing rapidly; a national transportation and communication network was created, corporations and urban development flourished. By early 1900’s, per capita income and industrial production in the U.S. led the world. Towns and cities were created in the Northeast with new factories hiring freedmen and new immigrants from Europe. But the politics became increasingly divided between Democrats and Republicans and the super-rich industrialists and financiers were called "robber barons" by those who believed that they used questionable business practices to become wealthy and powerful.
I.&U. What is realism?
Artists and journalists tried to portray people realistically instead of idealizing them as romantic artists have done. They tried to make the people seem real and as if the event was actually occurring. Journalists wrote about people facing hardships, which made them seem more "alive."
I.&U. What is vaudeville?
Vaudeville was adapted from French theater to an American flavor in the early 1880s with its hodgepodge of animal acts, acrobats, gymnasts, and dancers. The fast-moving acts, like the tempo of big-city life, went on in continuous shows all day and night.
I.&U. What were two performing arts introduced during this time?
Vaudeville and Ragtime.
I.&U. What is the Gospel of Wealth?
It's an essay written by Andrew Carnegie in 1889 that described the responsibility of philanthropy by the new upper class of self-made rich. The central thesis of Carnegie's essay was the peril of allowing large sums of money to be passed into the hands of persons or organizations ill-equipped mentally or emotionally to cope with them. As a result, the wealthy entrepreneur must assume the responsibility of distributing his fortune in a way that it will be put to good use, and not wasted on frivolous expenditure.
I.&U. What is ragtime music?
Ragtime music has syncopated rhythms that grew out of the music of riverside honky-tonk, saloon pianists, and banjo players, using the patterns of African American music.
I.&U. Who was Scott Joplin?
He was one of the most important African American ragtime composers and became known as the "King of Ragtime." He published his signature piece, "The Maple Leaf Rag" in 1899.