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Robber Barons (Captains of Industry)
Term used for the businessmen and bankers who dominated the United States industries during the 19th century.
Refers to the industrialists or big business owners who gained huge profits by paying their employees extremely low wages. -
Populism & Progressivism
Populism-Farm-based movement of the late 1800s that arose mainly in the area from Texas to the Dakotas and grew into a joint effort between farmer and labor groups against big business and machine-based politics. The movement became a third party in the election of 1892.
Progressivism-The political orientation of those who favor progress toward better conditions in government and society -
Tenement
Poor standards and crowded buildings.
Large, old buildings divided into a number of individual flats.
Poorly built, overcrowded housing where many immigrants lived -
Nativism
Movement to ensure that native-born Americans received better treatment than immigrants -
Bessemer Steel Production
Make steel more lighter, flexible and rust resistant.
An industrial process for making steel using a Bessemer converter to blast air through through molten iron and thus burning the excess carbon and impurities. -
William Jennings Bryan
A former Nebraska congressman delieverd an impassioned address to the assembled delegates.It has become known as the"Cross of Gold"speech.He won the democratic nomination.The populaists liked him, but didn't like his vice president.They also did not like giving up their identity as a party during the presidential election because they didn't nominate a presidential canedate.They compromised with the Democratic party by nominating their own canediate for vice president under William. -
The Gilded Age
The late nineteenth century was a period of intense change that transformed the United States from a predominantly rural nation into a modern industrial society.
Period when corruption existed in society but was overshadowed by the wealth of the period.
1869-1896; name given by Mark Twain; known for corruption -
Social Gospel
Movement led by Washington Gladden - taught religion and human dignity would help the middle class over come problems of industrialization. -
Industrialization
the process of social and economic change whereby a human group is transformed from a pre-industrial society into an industrial one -
Susan B. Anthony
In 1872, Susan B. Anthony, a prominent, attempted to vote in Rochester, New York, on the grounds that she was citizen and had that right under the Fourteenth Amendment. A major proponent of women's suffrage -
Alexander Graham Bell
Scottish-born scientist, inventor, engineer, and innovator who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone in 1876. The following year, he founded the Bell Telephone Company. -
Labor Strikes (Great Railroad Strike 1877, Homestead Strikes 1892, Pullman Strikes 1894)
Great Railroad Strike of 1877
-RR workers strike to protest wage cut
-Pres Rutherford B. Hayes sent federal troops to put down strike
Homestead Strikes 1892
Workers strike against Carnegie steel plant
Pullman Strike 1894
Strike against the rising and living rates of railroad workers without compensation form the railroad companies. Great controversy over the US's response to the strike. -
Settlement House
A center in an underprivileged area that provides community services. -
Haymarket Riot
-workers protesting
-speakers are socialist and anarchist (no government)
-bomb is thrown at police
-public blames labor unions and views them as radical, violent, and mostly foreigners -
Samuel Gompers
He was the creator of the American Federation of Labor. He provided a stable and unified union for skilled workers.
Leader of the American Federation of Labor. -
Interstate Commerce Act 1887
Outlawed rebating and pooling by railroad companies. -
Jane Addams
Jane Addams and her volunteers actually lived at Hull House among the people they were trying to help. Addams once described the main purposes of a settlement house as being to "help the foreign- born conserve the value of their past life and to bring then into contact with a better class of Americans". The founder of Hull House, which provided English lessons for immigrants, daycares, and child care classes -
Ida B. Wells
Another leading voice in the social reform movement was Ida B. Wells. Lynching (murder by hanging) was one of the main tactic to terrorize African Americans, especially in the South. When three of Wells' male friends were lynched for crime they did not commit, Wells organized a national anti-lynching crusade. Her research revealed that 728 African American men and women had been lynched in previous decades. -
Jacob Riis
Shocked middle-class Americans in 1890 with How the Other Half Lives which described the dark and dirty slums of New York -
Sherman Antitrust Act
First federal action against monopolies, it was signed into law by Harrison and was extensively used by Theodore Roosevelt for trust-busting. However, it was initially misused against labor unions. -
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie worked his way from a penniless Scottish immigrant to one of America's riches and most powerful men. He created Carnegie Steel and gets bought out by banker JP Morgan and renamed U.S. Steel. Andrew Carnegie used vertical integration by buying all the steps needed for production. -
Klondike Gold Rush
a migration by an estimated 100,000 prospectors to the Klondike region of the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1896 and 1899. Gold was discovered there by local miners on August 16, 1896 and, when news reached Seattle and San Francisco the following year, it triggered a stampede of would-be prospectors. Some became wealthy, but the majority went in vain. The Klondike Gold Rush ended in 1899 after gold was discovered in Nome, Alaska prompting an exodus from the Klondike -
Theodore Roosevelt
At state level, Progressive governors like Robert in Wisconsin and Theodore Roosevelt. Progressive president who tried to curb big business practices through his Square Deal plan -
Eugene V. Debbs
He ran as the Socialist Party's candidate for the presidency in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920, the last time from a prison cell. Debs was noted for his oratory, and his speech denouncing American participation in World War I led to his second arrest in 1918. He was convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917 and sentenced to a term of 10 years. -
Labor Unions (Knights of Labor, American Federation of Labor, & Industrial Workers of the World)
Knights of Labor: included all workers including women and African Americans led by Terrence Powderly.
American Federation of Labor: included skilled workers
led by Samuel Gompers.
Industrial Workers of the World: the most radical national union; wanted to abolish the wage system; not strict about admissions; -
Upton Sinclair
Author who wrote a book about the horrors of food productions in 1906 - wrote The Jungle describe the unsanitary practices of the meat packing industry -
Muckraker
Journalist during the Progressive Era that exposed social injustices and big labor practices
- successful in exposing child labor issues -
Pure Food and Drug Act
the act that prohibited the manufacture, sale, or shipment of impure of falsely labeled food and drugs -
Dollar Diplomacy
Diplomatic strategy formulated under Prez. Taft that focused on expanding American investments abroad, especially in Latin America & East Asia -
Initiative, Referendum, Recall
Initiative: State government - bill that originates with the people rather than the politicians
Referendum: State level - people vote on the initiative
Recall:State level - process of calling for another election to potentially remove a politician from office. -
16th Amendements
The sixteenth Amendment, ratified in 1913, gave Congress the power to tax personal income. -
Federal Reserve Act
created 12 district banks that would lend $ at discount rates (could increase/decrease amt. of $ in circulation); loosen/tighten credit with nation's needs; first central banking system since 1836 -
17th Adendments
Direct election of senators.
1913, direct election of senators (instead of state legislatures) -
18th Amendment
By 1919, the work of Willard and other reforms had created efficient pressure to persuade enough states to ratify the eighteenth Amendment, banning the sale of alcoholic drinks -
19th Amendment
1920, voting rights to all American women -
Tea Pot Dome Scandal
Secretary of the Interior (Albert Fall) leased government land in California and at Teapot Dome, Wyoming to 2 oil executives- Fall became the first Cabinet official to be sent to prison. -
Clarence Darrow
A famed criminal defense lawyer for Scopes, who supported evolution. He caused William Jennings Bryan to appear foolish when Darrow questioned Bryan about the Bible.
