Gilded Age

Question 1

Why did the South shift toward industrialization after the Civil War?

Answer 1

Slave labor was gone. Farmland, railroads, bridges, and buildings were destroyed. This created an opportunity to shift from farms to industry.

Question 2

What is a sharecropper?

Answer 2

A sharecropper is a farm employee (usually a Freedman) who works part of the land and gives the landowner a percent of his harvest to pay for use of land.

Question 3

What is industrialization?

Answer 3

Industrialization is when an economy is based upon manufacturing and selling goods.

Question 4

What industries grew in Tennessee and the south after the Civil War?

Answer 4

Some industries that grew in Tennessee and the South included mining, railroads, iron and steel manufacturing, textiles (cloth), Coca-Cola, lumber, and cigarette production.

Question 5

What were the requirements of the Homestead Act?

Answer 5

A settler could get 160 acres of free land if he or she:

1. Was man more than 21 years old or woman head of household
2. Paid a $10 filing fee
3. Lived and worked on the land for five years

Question 6

What people could receive land through the Homestead Act?

Answer 6

White men
Black men
Women
Immigrants

Question 7

What were some hardships of settling the Great Plains?

Answer 7

Settling the Great Plains came with many hardships including harsh weather, droughts, floods, tornadoes, prairie fires, blizzards, and locusts.

Question 8

How did settlers on the Great Plains build their homes?

Answer 8

Lack of trees meant that homes had to be built of sod or dirt.

Question 9

What did Freedmen who settled the Great Plains call themselves?

Answer 9

They called themselves Exodusters.

Question 10

How did Native Americans feel about the settlers in the Great Plains?

Answer 10

They were angry. Once again, they lost their land to settlers.

Question 11

Who were the Buffalo Soldiers and what did they do?

Answer 11

Buffalo Soldiers were Freedmen in the US military who went to the Great Plains to keep law and order.

Question 12

What did Buffalo Soldiers do?

Answer 12

They caught horse and cattle thieves, built roads, and protected the U.S. mail, stagecoaches, and wagon trains. They protected settlers from attacks of angry Native Americans.

Question 13

Who was George Jordan?

Answer 13

George Jordan was a Buffalo Soldier from Williamson County, Tennessee, who won the Medal of the Honor for bravery in leading his detachment against numerous Apache attacks.

Question 14

What is economic disparity?

Answer 14

Economic disparity is when there are some extremely rich people and many extremely poor people.

Question 15

Who were industrial capitalists?

Answer 15

Industrial capitalists are people who own the factories.

Question 16

What are other names did people call industrial capitalists?

Answer 16

Industrial capitalists were sometimes called Captains of Industry or Robber Barons.

Question 17

What sketchy practices did Robber Barons use to get rich?

Answer 17

They paid employees very poorly to maximize their profits. They purchased competitor companies so that they would have a monopoly.

Question 18

What is a monopoly?

Answer 18

A monopoly is when a company has complete control of all of a specific product in a market. Monopolies are bad for consumers because prices are high.

Question 19

Who was John D. Rockefeller?

Answer 19

He founded the Standard Oil Company to produce kerosene oil. He bought up other oil companies and created a monopoly. Was the world’s first billionaire.

Question 20

What is a philanthropist?

Answer 20

A philanthropist is a person who gives to charities.

Question 21

What was a sweatshop?

Answer 21

A sweatshop was a hot, cramped clothing factory where many women worked, often in unsafe conditions.

Question 22

Why did factory owners like to hire children?

Answer 22

1. They could pay children less than adults.
2. Children had small hands and bodies that could fit into places that big people couldn’t.
3. Children could be bullied into doing dangerous things that adults would not do.

Question 23

What were conditions like for workers during the Gilded Age?

Answer 23

1. Laborers worked 12-hour days, 6 or 7 days a week.
2. The pay was extremely low.
3. Work conditions were unsafe; dangerous machinery, hazardous chemicals, poisonous gases, etc.
4. Injured workers were fired and replaced.
5. No opportunities for workers to improve themselves.
6. Children working full time were not in school learning skills.

Question 24

What is a labor union?

Answer 24

A labor union is an organization that helps improve working conditions and wages.

Question 25

What is a strike?

Answer 25

A strike is when workers agree to stop working until the business owners improve conditions.

Question 26

What did Samuel Gompers do?

Answer 26

He founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL), a union for labor unions.

Question 27

What does the American Federation of Labor do?

Answer 27

The AFL provides temporary pay for striking workers so that they may continue striking until business owners agree to their demands.