American History from 1865-1895

By Daisy Lawing3rd period

1860s 1862 1860s-1900s

Great Plains: A vast desert that was occupied by savage tribes in the 1860s-1870s. The high developed and distinctive ways of the Native Americans existed there. Wars between the Native Americans and the US occurred there fighting for land.

Homestead Act: In 1862, Congress passed the Homestead Act, offering 160 acres of land free to any citizen or intended citizen who was head of the household. From 1862-1900, up to 600,000 families moved into the land.

Homesteaders: Along with the Homestead Act comes the Homesteaders. They were settlers that got free land from the Homestead Act. They had the lifestyle in the west and they were also moving into reservations that were occupied by the Native Americans. The homesteaders would live in a Soddy, which is a dugout home that was built by settlers. Trees were scarce, so they built their homes in the ground. The homes were small, and offered little light & air.

1864 1866 1867

Buffalo soldiers: members of the US 10th Cavalry regiment of the US army who formed on September 1866. There were African Americans in it that earned the medal of honor during the Indian wars.

Sand Creek Massacre: in 1864, John Chivington instructed his troops to attack Indian groups Cheyenne and Arapaho. It was a hard decision to make, but he decided to attack. At Sand Creek, they attacked at dawn on November 29th. They killed 150 inhabitants who were mostly women and children.

Oliver Kelley: He started the Patrons of Husbandry, an organization for farmers that become popularly known as the Grange. It’s original purpose was to produce a social outlet & educational reform for isolated farm families. By the 1870s, they spent their time fighting railroads.

1869

Transcontinental Railroad: A railroad that crosses a continental land mass with terminals at different oceans or continental borders. It linked the East coast and West coast together. It was officially completed on May 10th, 1869.

1868

Tammany Hall: NYC’s powerful democratic political machine. Boss Tweed became head of it. It played a major role in controlling NYC and NY state politics & helping immigrants rise up in American politics (Tammany Society).

Tweed Ring: A group of corrupt politicians led by Boss Tweed from 1869-1871 in defrauding the city. One scheme involved extreme graft. It cost taxpayers $13 million while it was supposed to be $3 million. The Ring was broken in 1871.

1870

John D. Rockefeller: He established the standard oil company. He used a trust to gain control of the oil Industry in America. Rockefeller earned a ton of money and paid his employees extremely wages. He gave away $500 million establishing Rockefeller Foundation & providing funds to found the University of Chicago.

Frederick Law Olmstead: A landscape. In the 1870s he planned landscaping for Washington DC and St. Louis. He also drew the initial designs for Boston’s parks system.

1873

George Westinghouse: An American entrepreneur and engineer who invented the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical system. He was one of Thomas Edison’s main rivals. He also invented the first hydro electronic power plant in Niagara.

1873 1874 1883

Joseph Pulitzer: A Hungarian immigrant who had bought the New York World in 1883. He pioneered in innovations, such as a large Sunday edition, comics, sports coverage, and women’s news.

Bimetallism: A monetary system in which the government would give citizens either gold or silver in exchange for paper currency or checks. This was intended to increase the supply of money, stabilize prices, and facilitate setting exchange rates.

Patronage: The giving of government jobs to people who had helped a candidate get elected. By Andrew Jackson, it was known as the Spoils system. Some government employees were not qualified for the positions they filled. Reformers began to press for the elimination of patronage.

Alexander Graham Bell: He invented the telephone along with Thomas Watson in 1876. He worked at a deaf school for awhile while attempting to invent the telephone.

18761875

1877 18771876

Battle of Little Big Horn: A battle between combined forces of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of US army in Montana. From June 25-26. A great victory for the Indians.

Nez Perce: A Native American tribe that lived in the Great Plains reservations. In 1877, they split into two groups under the pressure of Americans. They made a treaty to go to a reservation. Those who didn’t go with the treaty surrendered after the Battle of Bear Paw Mountains.

Chief Joseph: A Nez Perce chief who led his followers in a dramatic effort to escape to Canada. It was one of the greatest retreats in military history. The US army chased them and caught them before they reached Canada. They were forced to return to the reservations.

1877

Vanderbilt family: An American family that was prominent during the Gilded Age. They expanded into various other areas of industry and philanthropy.

1879

Jim Crow Laws: Racial segregation laws to separate the white from the black people in public. This was put into schools, hospitals, parks, and transportation systems throughout the South.

Vaudeville: A type of entertainment popular chiefly in the United States in the early 20th century, featuring a mixture of specialty acts such as burlesque, comedy, song, and dance.

18811879

National Farmer’s Alliance: An organized economic movement among American farmers that developed and flourished in the 1870s & 1880s. One of the goals of the organization was to end adverse effects of the crop-lien system on farmers.

Booker T. Washington: A prominent African American educator that believed that racism would end once blacks acquired useful labor skills and proved their economic value to society. By 1881 he headed the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. They aimed to equip African Americans with teaching diplomas, useful agricultural skills, &/or mechanical work.

1883

Eugene V. Debs: A labor leader who attempted to form such an industrial union – the American Railway Union. He felt that unions should include all laborers, skilled & unskilled. He eventually turned to socialism.

Exoduster: A name given to Africa Africans who migrated from states along the Mississippi River to Kansas as part of the Exoduster movement of 1879

Dawes Act: in 1887 passed by Congress to “Americanize” the Indians. The act broke up the reservations and gave some land to individual Native Americans. By 1932, the whites took up 2/3s of the territory set up for the Indians and they received no money.

Culture shock: A feeling of disorientation experienced by someone who is suddenly subjected to unfamiliar culture, way of life, and set of attitudes. This occurred to the millions of immigrants coming to the United States during this time (late 1800s, early 1900s).

Samuel Gompers: A Jewish immigrant that led the Cigar Makers’ International Union to join other craft unions in 1886. Gompers was the president of the American Federation of Labor, and was very successful in the labor activism.

1886 1887

Political machine: An organized group that controlled the activities of a political party in a city. It offered services to voters and businesses in exchange for political or financial support.

Thomas Edison: He established the world’s first research laboratory in Menlo Park, NJ. There he perfected the light bulb in 1880 and later the entire system for producing and distributing electrical power.

1876

Urbanization: The technological boom in the 19th century contributed to the growing industrial strength of the United States. The result was rapid urbanization (growth of cities) mostly in the regions of the Northeast and Midwest. Immigrants started living in cities, because it wasn’t that expensive.

1880

Sitting Bull: (Tatanka Iyotanka) leader of the Hunkpapa. He was determined that white should leave their territory. His most famous fight was the Battle of Little Big Horn in June 1881. He was killed in December 1890.

Colored Farmer’s Alliance 1886: Established by white Baptist missionary R.M. Humphrey in 1886. They promoted cooperative buying and selling. The group had to work mostly in secret to avoid violence. They had to make their own group because they weren’t aloud in others.

1889

Jane Addams: A pioneer settlement social worker, public philosopher, & leader in women’s suffrage and world peace. Along with Ellen Gates, they founded a settlement called Hull House. Hull House was a center for research, study & debate.

1881

Settlement houses: Founded by Charles Stove and Stanton Coit, they are community centers in slum neighborhoods that provided assistance to people in the area, especially immigrants. They were run by college educated women who provided classes of all different subjects. The first settlement house was the Neighborhood Guild, in New York City.

1886

1890

Wounded knee: On December 28th 1890, the 7th cavalry rounded up about 350 starving and freezing Sioux and took them to camp at Wounded Knee in South Dakota. The soldiers demanded the Sioux to give up their weapons, but they refused. The soldiers opened fire with a deadly cannon killing 300 of the Sioux. This battle brought the Indian Wars to an end.

1892

Ellis Island: Immigrants coming to the US would have to pass inspection at immigrant stations on Ellis Island (East coast). They would first get examined by a doctor. If they pass that, they then have to pass the medical exam. The immigrants also had to meet the legal requirements for entering the United States. Any who didn’t pass the tests, were sent home.

Angel Island: Asian immigrants arriving on the West Coast would have to go through inspection on Angel Island. Between 1910-1940, 50,000 Chinese immigrants entered the US through this system. They endured harsh questioning and long detentions in filthy buildings waiting to see if they got accepted or rejected.

Sweat shops: Workshops in tenements rather than in factories. Workers had little choice to put up with awful conditions. They paid the lowest wages, and kids also worked in the sweat shops. Most children had full time jobs. They were used from the 1850s to the early 1900s.

18951892

Ida B. Wells: She started out as a teacher. Later she became the editor of a local paper. Racial Justice was a persistent theme in Wells’ reporting. On March 9th 1892, 3 African American business men (friends of hers) were illegally executed without trial.

Populist: A member or adherent of a political party seeking to represent the interests of ordinary people. Populism was a major political party in the US in the late 19th century (1890s).

William Hearst: A wealthy business man that purchased the New York Morning Journal in 1895. Hearst filled the journal with exaggerated tales of personal scandals, cruelty, and hypnotism. Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer tried to outdo each other by doing these things.

Literacy test: Some Southern states limited the vote to people who could read, & required registration officials to administer a literacy test to test reading. Blacks were asked more difficult questions than whites, or could be given a test in a foreign language.

Grandfather Clause: The clause stated that even if a man failed the literacy test or couldn’t afford the poll tax, he was still entitled to vote if he, his father, or his grandfather had been eligible to vote before January 1st, 1867. Before that time, freed slaves did not have the right to vote.

Poll Tax: An annual tax that had to be paid before qualifying to vote. Black as well as white sharecroppers were often to poor to pay it. That is one of the ways that the South eliminated African Americans to vote.

1860s-1960s

1896

Plessy vs. Ferguson: In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled that the separation of races in public accommodations was legal & didn’t violate the 14th amendment. This decision was legalized for 60 years.

1887

Interstate Commerce Commission: A regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The original purpose was to regulate railroads to ensure fair rates, eliminate rate discrimination, and regulate other aspects of common carriers. Congress expanded it to regulate other modes of commerce beginning in 1906.

Segregation: In the 1870s-1880s, Southern states passed racial segregation laws to separate white & black people in public and private facilities. The laws became known as the Jim Crow Laws.

Debt peonage: A system that bound laborers into slavery in order to work off a debt to the employer. Mexicans and African Americans were forced into it. This occurred in the late 1800s.

Assimilation: A plan under which Native Americans would give up their beliefs and way of life and become apart of the white culture.

1870s to the early 1900s

William McKinley: He was a part of the 1896 campaign, nominated by the Republican party with the gold standard. He was very popular with the Republican party He was campaigning during the Panic of 1893, so he convinced a lot of people to vote for him at that time. McKinley won the election, burying the hopes of farmers, and populism collapsed.

“Cross of Gold”: William Jennings Bryan delivered an impassioned address to the assembled delegates. It became known as the “Cross of Gold” speech. With that speech, Bryan won the Democratic election. It was delivered on July 8th, 1896 at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The speech advocated bimetallism. It is considered one of the greatest speeches in American history.

William Jennings Bryan: A former Nebraska congressman, editor of the Omaha World-Herald. He delivered the ‘cross of gold’ speech & won the Democratic election with that. Bryan faced a difficult campaign. He lacked funds, and was loosing the support of his Democratic followers. He lost the election of 1896.

1896

Orville and Wilbur Wright: These bicycle manufacturers from Dayton, Ohio experimented with new engines powerful enough to fly. Their first successful flight was on December 17th, 1903 in Kitty Hawk, NC. In 1920, the United States government established the first airmail service.

W.E.B Dubois: The first African American to receive a doctorate from Harvard (1895). In 1905 he founded the Niagara Movement, which insisted that blacks should seek a liberal arts education so their community would have well-educated leaders.

Socialism: An economic and political system based on government control of business and property, & equal distribution of wealth. If socialism would carry on to the extreme form (communism), it would result in the overthrow of the capitalist system.

19051903

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