begriffe 18-31 Flashcards
Manifest Destiny
The idea (in the 1830s) that it is the divine mission of the United
States to overspread the entire American continent because of its
“superior” democratic institutions. A form of exceptionalism,
beginning of American Imperialism.
Indian Removal
Policy of the United States against indigenous nations (e.g.
Choctaw, Cherokee, Seminole, Chickasaw, Creek), which were
evicted in the 1830s to the areas West of the Mississippi. This was
a policy of ethnic cleansing, which resulted in thousands of deaths
(Trail of Tears, 1830/31).
Self-reliance
The concept, made famous by Ralph Waldo Emerson, that the time
has come for individuals and America as a whole to leave behind
imitation (of European ideas) and to rely on one’s own, true self.
Part of the transcendentalist and romantic discourse of self-
improvement.
Conservation
With the industrialization and romanticism an interest in the
protection, preservation or restoration of natural environments and
ecological communities evolved. Theodore Roosevelt was called
the conservationist president (1901-09), saved Yellowstone and
created the US Forest Service; John Muir, ecologist, philosopher
helped establish Yosemite and Sequoia.
Middle Passage
The transportation of millions of people from Africa to the
Americas on slave ships. Many died during the passage. For the
others it remained a traumatic climax and symbol of their
deportation.
Fugitive Slave Law
A law according to which fugitive slaves from the South have to be
returned by the North. Part of the Compromise of 1850 between
North and South, it actually deepened the tensions between North
and South and led (among other things) to Stowe’s novel Uncle
Tom’s Cabin.
Minstrel Show
Popular entertainment show emerging in the 1830s with skits,
variety acts, dancing and music performed by white people in
blackface. It made fun of black people and affirmed several
stereotypes about African Americans.
Plessy vs. Ferguson
Racist Supreme Court decision (from 1896) in which segregation in
the South (i.e. Jim Crow laws) were upheld through the formula
“separate but equal”. The decision was valid until 1954.
Indian Appropriation Acts
Several acts (1851, 71 etc.) according to which members of
indigenous nations were moved to reservations in the West. From
1871 on no Indian tribes were recognized as independent nations
and indigenous people were treated as individuals and “wards” of
the federal government.
Turner Thesis
Frederick Jackson Turner suggested in 1893 that the American
character and American democratic sentiment were formed through
the frontier between civilization and wilderness. He succeeded to
establish the myth of the West and rugged individualist, but his
thesis is today largely rejected.
Realism
Western movement in the arts (starting in France in the 1850s) as a
reaction to Romanticism and Sentimentalism. Realists rejected the
demand for morality in the arts and turned with a vengeance to
mundane topics such as business, science, technology, the social
question and modern problems of life.
Gilded Age
Term coined by Mark Twain for the era of big business in
American in the post-bellum time. The Gilded Age was perceived
as characterized by materialism, corruption, exploitation and pro-
business ideology.
Horatio Alger
Writer of books for boys in the 1870s, 80s, and 90s, who invented
the rags-to-riches formula. In his books, hard-working and
energetic boys, who are also morally good, will rise in society and
become “somebody” – myth of the self-made man.
Naturalism
A later version of realism (1890s+) which explored the philosophy
of determinism and social Darwinism. Terms like the survival of
the fittest, natural selection, the struggle for survival and the
determination by strong forces/energies (instincts, the environment)
apply.
