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The Civil War Ends
The war effectively ended in April 1865 when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. The final surrender of Confederate troops on the western periphery came in Galveston, Texas, on June 2. -
The 13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment forever abolished slavery as an institution in all U.S. states and territories. In addition to banning slavery, the amendment outlawed the practice of involuntary servitude and peonage. Involuntary servitude or peonage occurs when a person is coerced to work in order to pay off debts. -
Rockefeller Incorporates Standard Oil
Standard Oil was first formed as a partnership in 1868, signifying the start of a new era. This was an era of wealth, corruption, and trickery. Rockefeller was the staple of this era, making millions off of this oil, and starting the competition towards immense wealth and fortune. -
Alexander Graham Bell Invents Telephone
Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish-born scientist and inventor best known for founding the Bell Telephone Company in 1877. The telephone made an incredible impact on society. The impact could be seen through the quickness of communication, business, easier communication in wars, and some negative effects too. This made life generally easier for people. -
Reconstruction Ends
Reconstruction ended as part of a compromise to settle the 1876
presidential election. U.S. troops leave the South, ending the occupation of the former Confederacy and the protection afforded the freed slaves. -
The great railroad strike of 1877
After West Virginia railroad workers strike to protest wage reductions, sympathy strikes and violence spread across the
Midwest. Federal troops break the strikes. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil controls almost 90% of the U.S. oil refining industry. -
The Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law excluded merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplomats. -
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
The Sherman Anti-Trust Act authorized the federal government to institute proceedings against trusts in order to dissolve them. Any combination "in the form of trust or otherwise that was in restraint of trade or commerce among the several states, or with foreign nations" was declared illegal. -
The Pullman Strike
The Pullman Strike of 1894 was a large strike of railway workers against working conditions within the Pullman Palace Car Company. Workers protested decreased wages without simultaneous decreases in rent or other living expenses enforced by the company. -
Separate but Equal Laws Upheld
On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously ruled that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. The Court said, “separate is not equal,” and segregation violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This means that, according to which racial segregation did not necessarily violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which nominally guaranteed "equal protection" under the law to all people.
