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Labor Unions
The labor movement in the United States grew out of the need to protect the common interest of workers. For those in the industrial sector, organized labor unions fought for better wages, reasonable hours and safer working conditions. The labor movement led efforts to stop child labor, give health benefits and provide aid to workers who were injured or retired. -
Growth of Railroads
Starting in the early 1800s, the railroads with there construction and operation, they brought profound social, economic and political change to their country. -
The American Dream
The "American dream" has powered the hopes and aspirations of Americans for generations. It began as a plain but revolutionary notion: each person has the right to pursue happiness, and the freedom to strive for a better life through hard work and fair ambition. But over time, this dream has come to represent a set of expectations about owning things and making money. -
Boss Tweed
Democratic New York politician. He was the third largest land owner in New York City at the time, owning hotels, banks, a printing company, and railroads. He ensured that his constituents, who were mostly immigrants, were given jobs, orphanages, hospitals, and shelter. He died in 1878 -
Trail of Tears
Nearly 125,000 Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida--land their ancestors had occupied and cultivated for generations. By the end of the decade, very few natives remained anywhere in the southeastern United States. Working on behalf of white settlers who wanted to grow cotton on the Indians’ land, the federal government forced them to leave their homelands and walk thousands of miles. -
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century. He died in 1919 -
John D. Rockefeller
American industrialist and philanthropist. He was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy. -
Manifest Destiny
It expressed the belief that it was Anglo-Saxon Americans' providential mission to expand their civilization and institutions across the breadth of North America. This expansion would involve not merely territorial aggrandizement but the progress of liberty and individual economic opportunity as well. -
Social Darwinism
It stated that only the strongest and the fittest would survive and flourish in society, while the weak and unfit should be allowed to die. Social Darwinists believed that the government should not interfere with social ills such as poverty. -
Eugene V. Debs
Debs was instrumental in the founding of the American Railway Union (ARU), one of the nation's first industrial unions.He later Died in 1926 -
Teddy Roosevelt
A champion of the strenuous life, Teddy Roosevelt embodied the notion of an expanded presidency. Stamping the presidency with his own colorful personality, Roosevelt's enormous popularity gave him political clout that matched his celebrity status. "Get action, do things," sums up his attitude toward all endeavors, political and otherwise. He later died in 1919. -
The Homestead Act
The Homestead Act, enacted during the Civil War in 1862, provided that any adult citizen, or intended citizen, who had never borne arms against the U.S. government could claim 160 acres of surveyed government land. -
The Settlment of the West
It occured in 1865-1900.White settlers from the East poured across the Mississippi to mine, farm, and ranch. African-American settlers also came West from the Deep South, convinced by promoters of all-black Western towns that prosperity could be found there. Chinese railroad workers further added to the diversity of the region's population.The loss of the bison and growth of white settlement drastically affected the lives of the Native Americans living in the West. -
Urbanization and Industrialization
America industrialized on a large scale during this time, which caused many Americans to opt for the urban lifestyle. Widespread urbanization followed, and with that came immigrants from all over who wanted to join in and discover the American dream. -
Upton Sinclair
was an American writer and reformer. Sinclair was an idealistic supporter of socialism and became famous as a "muckraker." The muckrakers were writers in the early 1900s whose principal goal was exposing social and political evils. He died in 1968 -
Assimilation for Native Americans
The goal of Indian education from the 1880s through the 1920s was to assimilate Indian people into the melting pot of America by placing them in institutions where traditional ways could be replaced by those sanctioned by the government. Federal Indian policy called for the removal of children from their families and in many cases enrollment in a government run boarding school. -
Political Corruption
The Presidency was at an all-time low in power and influence, and the Congress was rife with corruption. State and city leaders shared in the graft, and the public was kept largely unaware. -
Bessemeer Process
first inexpensive industrial process for the mass-production of steel from molten pig iron. Was invented by Henry Bessemer -
Inventions
Barbed wire was invented in 1873, and was used for farming mostly. The first automoble was created in 1886 by Karl Benz. -
The Dawes Act
Marked a departure from earlier policies that were dominated by removal, treaties, reservations, and even war. The new policy focused specifically on breaking up reservations by granting land allotments to individual Native Americans. Very sincere individuals , he would gradually drop his Indian-ness and be assimilated into the population. It would then no longer be necessary for the government to overreasoned that if a person adopted white clothing and ways, and was responsible for his own farm -
Battle of Wounded Knee
Wounded Knee, located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwestern South Dakota, was the site of two conflicts between North American Indians and representatives of the U.S. government. An 1890 massacre left some 150 Native Americans dead, in what was the final clash between federal troops and the Sioux. In 1973, members of the American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee for 71 days to protest conditions on the reservation. The battle ended in 1890. -
Americanization
It is theassimilation into American culture -
Nativism
Nineteenth-century nativism in the United States contained a strong anti-Catholic strain, since many of the newly arrived immigrants hailed from predominantly Roman Catholic countries. Although both religion and ethnicity helped identify targets of nativist bias, its motivations were often economic. The large waves of immigrants, many of whom were skilled tradesman, provided a large pool of inexpensive labor that threatened the well-being of native artisans and other workers. -
Pure Food and Drug Act
An Act for preventing the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated or misbranded or poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, and liquors, and for regulating traffic therein, and for other purposes. -
Assembly Line
The use of the assembly line was first used and constructed during the operation of the first model T cars. This method of production allowed for cars to be produced at a much faster rate. In modern times the assembly line is still a very common and productive method of production.
