Vocab

VOCAB:
Black Codes - Laws that restricted freedmen's rights.

Fourteenth Amendment - Constitutional amendment, ratified in 1868, to guarantee citizens equal protection under the law.

civil rights - Citizen's personal liberties guaranteed by law, such as voting rights and equal treatment.

impeach - To charge a public official with wrongdoing in office.

Fifteenth Amendment - The Fifteenth Amendment is a constitutional amendment, ratified in 1870, and it states that governments in the United States may not prevent a citizen from voting based on that citizen's race, color, or previous condition of servitude (slavery).

carpetbagger - Negative nickname for a northern Republican who moved to the South after the Civil War.

scalawag - A scalawag was a negative nickname for a white southern Republican who supported Reconstruction, usually for private gain, after the Civil War.

sharecropping - Sharecropping is a system of farming in which a farmers tends some portion of a planter's land and receives a share of the crop at harvest time as payment.

tenant farming - Tenant farming was a system of farming in which a person rented land to farm from the person who owned the land.

infrastructure - The public property and services that a society uses.

Enforcement Act of 1870 - The Enforcement Act of 1870, passed by Congress, banned the use of terror, force or bribery to people from voting because of their race.

solid South - The solid South is the term used to describe the domination of post-civil War southern politics
by the Democratic Party, which voted together as a block.

Compromise of 1877 - Agreement in which Democrats agreed to give Rutherford B. Hayes the victory in the
presidential election of 1876 and Hayes, in return, agreed to remove the remaining federal troops from southern states.

removed federal troops from southern states
Compromise of 1877

designed to allow Americans of all races voting rights
Enforcement Act of 1870

push-pull factors - Events and conditions that either force (push) people to move elsewhere or strongly
attract (pull) them to do so.

Pacific Railway acts - The Pacific Railway Acts were laws passed in 1862 and 1864 giving large land grants to the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads.

Morrill Land-Grant Act - that was passed by Congress in 1862, distributed millions of acres of western lands to state governments in order to fund state agricultural colleges.

land speculator - A person who buys up large areas of land in the hope of selling them later for a profit.

Homestead Act - 1862 law that gave 160 acres of land to citizens who met certain conditions.

Exoduster - An African American who migrated to the West after the Civil War.

Great Plains - Vast grassland between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.

nomad - A person who moves from place to place in search of basic needs: food, clothing, and shelter.

reservation - Federal land set aside for Native Americans.

Battle of Little Bighorn - 1876 Sioux victory over army troops led by George Custer.

Ghost Dance - A Native American purification ritual.

Massacre at Wounded Knee - In 1890, during the Indian Wars, the Massacre at Wounded Knee was instigated by Colonial American Army troops who shot at a group unanmed Sioux.

assimilation - The process by which people of one culture merge into and become part of another culture.

Dawes Act - The Dawes act was instated in 1887, it established a law that divided reservation land into private family plots.

boomers - Settlers who ran in land races to claim land upon the 1889 opening of Indian Territory for settlement.

sooners - Sooners were people who in 1889 illegally claimed land by sneaking past government officials
before the Oklahoma Land Rush races began.

George Armstrong Custer - led the United States cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn

placer mining - Placer mining is a mining technique in which miners shovel loose dirt into boxes and then
run water over the dirt to separate it from gold or silver particles.

long drive - Moving of cattle from distant ranges to busy railroad centers that shipped cattle to market.

homesteader - One who farmed claims under the Homestead Act.

soddie - A soddie is a sod home with walls and roof made from blocks of sod-strips of grass with thick
roots and soil attached.

dry farming - Techniques used to raise crops in areas that receive little rain; water conservation techniques.

bonanza farm - Farm controlled by businesses, managed by professionals, and raising massive quantities of
single cash crops.

The Turner Thesis is an 1893 theory of Fredrick Jackson Turner that claimed that the frontier had played a
key role in forming the American character.

stereotype - A stereotype is an exaggerated or oversimplified description of reality held by a number of people.

money supply - The amount of money in the national economy.

deflation - A drop in the prices of goods.

monetary policy - The federal government's plan for the makeup and quantity of the nations' money supply.

bimetallic standard - Bimetallic standard was the currency of the United States prior to 1873, which consisted of gold or silver coins as well as US treasury notes that could be traded in for gold or silver.

free silver - The unlimited coining of silver dollars.

Bland-Allison Act - The 1878 law required the federal government to purchase and coin more silver, increasing the money supply and causing inflation.

Sherman Silver Purchase Act - The Sherman Silver Purchase Act was a law passed by congress in 1890 to
increase the amount of silver the government was required to purchase every month.

the Grange - The Grange was established in 1867, and also known as the Patrons of Husbandry, this organization helped farmers form cooperatives and pressured state legislators to regulate businesses on which farmers depended.

Interstate Commerce Act - The Interstate Commerce Act was an 1887 law passed to regulate railroad and other interstate businesses.

Populist - A populist was a follower of the People's Party formed in the 1890s to advocate a larger money
supply and other economic reforms.

ran as the Democratic and Populist Party nominee in the presidential election of 1896
William Jennings Bryan

patent - A patent is a license that gives an inventor the exclusive rights to make, use, or sell an invention
for a set period of time.

productivity - The amount of goods and services created in a given period of time.

transcontinental railroad - The Transcontinental railroad was a railway that connected the east coast of the
United States to the west coast in the late 1860s.

Bessemer process - Method developed in 1856 to produce stronger steel at a lower cost.

mass production - A process of making large quantities of a product quickly and inexpensively.

skyscraper - The word skyscraper was first applied to such buildings in the late 19th century, reflecting public amazement at the tall buildings being built in Chicago and New York City.

Louis Sullivan - Louis Sullivan contributed extensively to the design and structure of skyscrapers. He was quoted as saying, "What people are within, the buildings express without."

tenement - Tenements were multi-family apartments, usually dark, crowded, and barely meeting minimum living standards.

political machine - A political machine was an organization linked to a political party that often controlled local government.

party boss - The party boss is a person in control of a political machine.

George Plunkitt - An Irish immigrant who rose to be one of New York's most powerful party bosses.

graft - Acquisition of money or political power through illegal or dishonest methods.

William M. Boss Tweed - Tweed was an American politician and boss of Tammany Hall in New York City (Manhattan), who was convicted and imprisoned for stealing millions.

Gilded Age - The term historians adopted and applied to the era beginning about 1870 and ending around 1900. An age that appears to sparkle, but beneath the surface lay corruption, poverty, crime, and great disparities in wealth between the rich and the poor.

Social Darwinism - Social Darwinism is the idea that Charles Darwin's theory (of evolution and natural selection) can be extended and applied to the social realm.

Gospel of Wealth - The philosophy held that wealthy Americans bore the responsibility of engaging in philanthropy-using their great fortunes to further social progress.

philanthropy - Philanthropy is the providing of money to support humanitarian or social goals.

realism - An approach to literature, art, and theater that attempts to accurately portray things as they really are and holds that society will function best if left to itself.

vaudeville - Vaudeville was a form of stage entertainment that was made up of various acts, such as dancing, singing, comedy and magic shows.

ragtime - A type of music with a strong rhythm and a lively melody with accented notes which was popular in early 1900.

Scott Joplin - Scott Joplin was the best-known ragtime musician and composer, setting the standard for the many who followed.

Henry George - Henry George, a journalist that published Progress and Poverty in 1879. He raised questions about American society and led the way in challenging the ideas of Social Darwinism and laissez-faire economics.

Lester Frank Ward - Lester Frank Ward is most famous for his publication of Dynamic Sociology. He took the main ideas of Darwinism and argued that human beings were different from other animals in nature because they had the ability to think ahead and make plans to produce.

Edward Bellamy - Author of Looking Backward, 2000-1887. The book had strong socialism themes, and his ideas helped shape the thinking of American reformers in the late 1800s.

naturalism - A philosophical approach to art and literature based on two primary beliefs. The first is that nature can be understood through scientific observation and the second is that society functions best when regulated.

Jane Addams - Jane Addams was a founder of the U.S. Settlement House Movement, and, in 1889, she and Ellen Gates Starr co-founded Hull House in Chicago, Illinois, one of the first settlement houses in the United States.

settlement house - A settlement house was an institution located in a poor neighborhood that provided numerous community services such as medical care, child care, libraries, and classes in English.

Americanization - The process of preparing foreign-born residents for full U.S. Citizenship.

cooperatives - Groups that pool members' resources to sell products directly to markets and to buy goods at wholesale prices.

graduated income tax - System in which the rate of taxation varies according to income.

gold standard - The gold standard is a monetary system in which paper money and coins are equal in value to a certain amount of gold.

National Grange - Social and educational organization founded in 1867 to gain more political representation for farmers and improve their living standards.

Interstate Commerce Act - The Interstate Commerce Act was an 1887 law passed to regulate railroad and other interstate businesses.

Mary Elizabeth Lease - Mary Elizabeth Lease was an American lecturer, writer, and political activist, who dedicated most of her political work to supporting temperance and fighting for the basic needs of the working class.

Bland-Allison Act - 1878 law that required the federal government to purchase and coin more silver, increasing the money supply and causing inflation.

Sherman Silver Purchase Act - The Sherman Silver Purchase Act was a law passed by congress in 1890 to increase the amount of silver the government was required to purchase every month.

Populist Party - The Populist Party, also referred to as the People's party; national political party formed in 1892 that supported a graduated income tax, bank regulation, government ownership of some companies, restrictions on immigration, and shorter workdays.

James B. Weaver - James B. Weaver was a United States politician and member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Iowa as a member of the Greenback Party. He is most famous as the presidential nominee of the Populist Party in the 1892 election.

literacy - The ability to read and write.

assimilation - Process by which people of one culture merge into and become part of another culture.

philanthropist - A philanthropist is a person who gives donations to worth causes.

Niagara Movement - Founded in 1905, a group of African Americans that called for full civil liberties, an end to racial discrimination, and recognition of human brotherhood.

yellow journalism - Yellow journalism was a reference to journalism that features scandal-mongering, sensationalism, jingoism or other unethical or unprofessional practices by news media organizations or journalists.

poll tax - A poll tax is a special fee that must be paid before a person can vote.

grandfather clause - Passage in a law that exempts a group of people from obeying the law if they had met certain conditions before the law was passed.

segregation - Segregation is the separation (forced or unforced) or isolation of a race, class, or group.

Jim Crow - Jim Crow laws were state and local statutes, beginning in the 1870s, that required segregation of public services by race and that placed restrictions on civil rights for African-Americans.

Plessy v. Ferguson - Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), was a landmark United States Supreme Court upholding the constitutionality of racial segregation even in public places under the idea of "separate but equal".

lynching - An execution organized and performed by a mob/group without adequate reasons, nor process. Hangings have been the most common forms of lynching in American history.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) - Organization founded in 1909 to abolish segregation and discrimination, to oppose racism, and to gain civil rights for African Americans.

department store - Large retail establishment that carries a wide variety of goods and sells in large quantities.

rural free delivery - Program established in 1896, free delivery service offered by the U.S. Post Office to farm families in rural areas.

mail-order catalog - Printed material advertising a wide range of goods that can be purchased by mail.

freedom of contract - Freedom of workers to negotiate the terms of their employment.

closed shop - A workplace in which the employer by agreement hires only union members.

socialism - A socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to the control by the community for the purpose of achieving social and economic equality; usually associated with the means of production being controlled by the government.

open shop - An open shop is a place of employment in which a person does not have to join a union as a condition of hiring or continued employment.

Florence Kelley - A reformer from Philadelphia who worked for numerous political and social reforms.

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire - The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was a 1911 incident that resulted in the deaths of some 140 garment workers; led to increased safety regulations for businesses.

Rose Schneiderman - Prominent United States labor union leader and socialist of the first part of the twentieth century.

Muller v. Oregon - (1908) Supreme Court case that upheld protective legislation for female workers in Oregon.

Samuel Gompers - Samuel Gompers was an American labor leader and the founder of the American Federation of Labor.

International Ladies' Garment Workers Union - The International Ladies' Garment Workers Union(ILGWU) was an influential union established in New York City in 1900 to organized workers in sewing shops.

prohibition - Complete ban on the manufacture, sale and distribution of alcohol.

Lawrence Veiller - Lawrence Veiller is credited with inducing the passage of the Tenement House Law of 1901, which outlawed further construction of dumbbell tenements, provided bathroom facilities for each apartment, required greater open space, and implemented strict fire-codes.

Daniel Burnham - American architect and urban planner. He was the Director of Works for the World's Columbian Exposition and designed several famous buildings, including the Flatiron Building in New York City and Union Station in Washington D.C.

Woman's Christian Temperance Union - Also known as WCTU; reform organization that led the fight against alcohol in the late 1800s.

Billy Sunday - Noted first as a professional baseball player, and then more famously as an evangelist.

Frances Willard - American educator, temperance reformer, and women's suffragist.

Eighteenth Amendment - (1919) Constitutional amendment that barred the manufacture, sale, and distribution of alcoholic beverages in the United States; repealed in 1933)

W.E.B. Du Bois - W.E.B. DuBois was an African-American who was the most prominent intellectual leader and political activist on behalf of African Americans in the first half of the twentieth century.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) - Group founded by W.E.B. Du Bois and others in 1909 to end racial discrimination.

National Urban League - Group founded in 1991 to fight for racial equality.

Federal Reserve Act - (1913) Act that created a national banking system to help the government control the economy.

Clayton Antitrust Act - (1914) Law that clarified and strengthened the Sherman Antitrust Act by clearly defining what a monopoly or trust was.

Federal Trade Commission - (FTC) Commission established in 1914 to investigate corporations and to try to keep them from conducting unfair trade practices.

Adamson Act - Federal law reducing the workday for railroad workers from 10 to 8 hours with no cut in pay.

Keating-Owen Child Labor Act - (1916) Law that outlawed the interstate sale of products produced by child labor; declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1918.

National American Woman Suffrage Association - Group formed in 1890 to win the vote for women and promote women's equality in society.

Alice Paul - American suffragist leader. Along with Lucy Burns (a close friend) and others, she led a successful campaign for women's suffrage that resulted in granting the right to vote to women in the U.S. federal election in 1920.

Carrie Chapman Catt - American women's rights activist.

Nineteenth Amendment - Constitutional amendment that granted women the right to vote in 1920.

imperialism - Quest for colonial empires.

subsidy - A subsidy is a grant of money from the government to a person or a company for an action intended to benefit the public.

spheres of influence - A Sphere of influence is an area in which an imperial or foreign power has exclusive rights.

Henry Cabot Lodge - American statesman and Republican politician, and noted historian.

Alfred Thayer Mahan - Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan was a United States Navy officer, geotrategist, and educator, widely considered the world's foremost theorist of military sea power.

Kalakaua - Kalakaua was the last reigning king of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Liliuokalani - Liluokalani was the last monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii, before Hawaii became part of the United States in 1989.

John Hay - John Hay was an American statesman, author, journalist, and private secretary and assistant to an Abraham Lincoln; he also served as Secretary of State at the turn of the 20th century.

Open Door Policy - The Open Door Policy was an 1899 Declaration made by Secretary of State John Hay that stated that all nations should have equal access to trade and investment in China.

Boxer Rebellion - (1900) Revolt in which Chinese nationalists known as Boxers attacked foreigners in order to end forcing involvement in China's affairs; put down by an international force after two months.

Porfirio Diaz - Porfirio Diaz was a Mexican was hero and President (later considered a dictator), who ruled Mexico from 1876 until 1911.

Emiliano Zapata - Emiliano Zapata was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution against the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz that broke out in 1910. He is considered to be one of the outstanding national heroes of Mexico.

Francisco Madero - Francisco Madero was a revolutionary who served as President of Mexico from 1911 to 1913.

Mexican Revolution - The Mexican Revolution was a struggle to end dictatorship that led to years of instability in Mexico in the early 1900s.

Victoriano Huerta - Huerta was a Mexican military officer and President of Mexico in 1913.

Venustiano Carranza - Carranza was one of the leaders of the Mexican Revolution. He ultimately became President of Mexico and during his administration the current constitution of Mexico was drafted.

Francisco Pancho Villa - Francisco "Pancho" Villa was one of the foremost leaders and best known generals of the Mexican Revolution, between 1911 and 1920, and provisional governor of the Mexican state of Chihuahua in 1913 and 1914.

John J. Pershing - John J. Pershing led the American Expeditionary Force in World War I and was regarded as a mentor by the generation of American generals who led the United States army forces in Europe during World War II, including George C. Marshall, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, and George S. Patton

U-boat - A U-boat is a German submarine.

Sussex pledge - Germany promised to alter their naval and submarine policy of unrestricted submarine warfare and stop the indiscriminate sinking of non-military ships. Instead, merchant ships would be searched and sunk only if they contained contraband and only after passengers were safely off the ship.

Zimmermann note - The Zimmerman note was a telegram sent by Germany's foreign secretary in 1917 to Mexican officials proposing an alliance with Mexico and promising United States territory if Mexico declared war on the United States.

autocrat - Ruler with unlimited power.

Russian Revolution - Collapse of the czar's government in Russia in 1917, after which the Russian monarchy was replaced with a republican government.

Selective Service Act - A Selective Service Act is a law requiring all males in a designated age range to register for military service.

American Expedition Force - Also known as the AEF, this term refers to American troops in Europe that kept a separate force from the French and British troops.

convoy - Group of unarmed ships surrounded by a ring of armed naval vessels.

zeppelin - A zeppelin was a gas filled balloon, a German floating airship.

armistice - Agreement to end fighting in a war.

genocide - Organized killing of an entire people.

flapper - Flapper is a 1920's term used to describe a new type of young woman; rebellious energetic and bold.

demographics - The statistics that describe a population, such as data on race or income.

barrio - A Spanish-speaking neighborhood.

bootleggers - Term used to describe a supplier of illegal alcohol during Prohibition.

speakeasies - Speakeasies were bars (or nightclubs) that operated illegally during the time of Prohibition.

fundamentalism - Set of religious beliefs including traditional Christian ideas about Jesus Christ; the belief that the Bible was inspired by God and does not contain contradictions or errors and is literally true.

Scopes trial - The Scopes trial, also called, the "Monkey Trial", was a 1925 court case in which Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan debated the issue of teaching evolution in public schools.

communism - Economic system in which all wealth and property are owned by the state.

Red Scare - The suspicion of widespread infiltration by communists and fears of communist influence on U.S. society.

isolationism - Isolationism is a purposeful refusal to become generally involved in the affairs of the rest of the world.

disarmament - Reduction of this size of a country's military.

quota - A numerical limit.

Teapot Dome Scandal - Teapot Dome Scandal was a scandal during the Harding administration involving the granting of oil-drilling rights on government land in return for money.

Kellogg-Briand Pact - A pact signed in 1928 by the United States and 14 other nations that outlawed war, except for self defense.

consumer economy - An economy that depends on a large amount of spending by consumers.

installment plan - A payment plan that allows customers to make payments at set intervals over a period of time until the total debt is paid.

Gross National Product (GNP) - The sum of all goods and services produced in a nation in a year.

assembly line - Manufacturing process in which each worker does one specialized task in the construction of the final product.