Period 6 Vocabulary (Chapters 23-6)

Question 1

Tweed Ring

Answer 1

Textbook: A symbol of Gilded Age corruption, “Boss” Tweed and his deputies ran the New York City Democratic party in the 1860s and swindled $200 million from the city through bribery, graft, and vote-buying. Boss Tweed was eventually jailed for his crimes and died behind bars.

Me: An example of corruption during the Gilded Age, an age of industrialization. He scammed citizens out of $200M from New York through bribery, graft, & vote-buying.

Question 2

Credit Mobilier Scandal

Answer 2

Textbook: A construction company was formed by owners of the Union Pacific Railroad for the purpose of receiving government contracts to build the railroad at highly inflated prices—and profits. In 1872 a scandal erupted when journalists discovered that the Crédit Mobilier Company had bribed congressmen and even the vice president to allow the ruse to continue.

Me: This construction company was formed by the owners of the Union Pacific Railroad for the purpose of gaining govt contracts to build the railroad at inflated prices. The NY times newspaper exposed them for bribery against congressmen & the vice president.

Question 3

Patronage

Answer 3

T: A system, prevalent during the Gilded Age, in which political parties granted jobs and favors to party regulars who delivered votes on election day. Patronage was an essential wellspring of support for both parties and a source of conflict within the Republican party.

M: Prevalent during the Gilded Age, this was a system that politicians used to harvest votes for election. It turned into an essential thing for support for both parties.

Question 4

Sharecropping

Answer 4

T: An agricultural system that emerged after the Civil War in which black and white farmers rented land and residences from a plantation owner in exchange for giving him a certain “share” of each year’s crop. Sharecropping was the dominant form of southern agriculture after the Civil War, and landowners manipulated this system to keep tenants in perpetual debt and unable to leave their plantations.

M: Forming after the Civil War, in replacement of slavery, poor citizens (mainly targeted due to them just coming out of slavery, not having anything w/ already limited options) rented lands from a plantation owner in exchange for giving them a share of each year’s crop. They manipulated the system where they put the renters in a constant cycle of debt, unable to move on.

Question 5

Plessy v Ferguson

Answer 5

T: A Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of segregation laws, saying that as long as blacks were provided with “separate but equal” facilities, these laws did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. This decision provided legal justification for the Jim Crow system until the 1950s

M: A Supreme Court case where it supported the constitutionality of segregation laws, where it withheld the ‘separate but equal’ facilities. This provided legal justification for the Jim Crow law system until about the 1950s.

Question 6

Pendleton Act

Answer 6

T: Congressional legislation that established the Civil Service Commission, which granted federal government jobs on the basis of examinations instead of political patronage, thus reining in the spoils system.

M: The legislation that established the Civil Service Commission, granting federal government jobs based on examinations instead of political patronage. Meaning that positions will be filled by more certified people rather than just based off popularity.

Question 7

Homestead Strike

Answer 7

T: A strike at a Carnegie steel plant in Homestead, Pennsylvania, that ended in an armed battle between the strikers, three hundred armed Pinkerton detectives hired by Carnegie, and federal troops, which killed ten people and wounded more than sixty. The strike was part of a nationwide wave of labor unrest in the summer of 1892 that helped the Populists gain some support from industrial workers.

M: A strike located at a Carnegie steel plant in Homestead, PA, due to there being a decision to cut wages by 20%; it ended in an armed battle between the stickers, 300 armed Pinkerton detectives (hired by Carnegie), & federal troops. It was nationwide save of labor unrest, that helped the populists gain some support from industrial workers.

Question 8

Interstate Commerce Act

Answer 8

T: Congressional legislation that established the Interstate Commerce Commission, compelled railroads to publish standard rates, and prohibited rebates and pools. Railroads quickly became adept at using the act to achieve their own ends, but it gave the government an important means to regulate big business.

M: This legislation made railroads publish their standard rates, prohibiting rebates, and pools, & discriminating against citizens. They used this act to achieve their own ends, allowing the government to regulate big businesses.

Question 9

Horizontal integration

Answer 9

T: The practice perfected by John D. Rockefeller of dominating a particular phase of the production process in order to monopolize a market, often by forming trusts and alliances with competitors.

M: Practice used by John D. Rockefeller, it dominated a particular phase of the production process to monopolize a market, often by forming trusts & alliances with competitors (a bulldozer). In simpler terms, he manipulated other aspects of the industry into selling their companies to him, erasing all other competition.

Question 10

Vertical integration

Answer 10

T: The practice perfected by Andrew Carnegie of controlling every step of the industrial production process in order to increase efficiency and limit competition.

M: Practiced by Andrew Carnegie (steel company), took every aspect that would make his steel company successful by gathering all the different departments and making them into one. In other words, He controls every step of the Industrial production process in order to increase efficiency & limit competition. (Building up a ladder)

Question 11

Closed Shop

Answer 11

T: A union-organizing term that refers to the practice of allowing only unionized employees to work for a particular company. The AF of L became known for negotiating closed-shop agreements with employers, in which the employer would agree not to hire nonunion members.

Question 12

Settlement Houses

Answer 12

T: Mostly run by middle-class native-born women, settlement houses in immigrant neighborhoods provided housing, food, education, child care, cultural activities, and social connections for new arrivals to the United States. Many women, both native-born and immigrant, developed lifelong passions for social activism in the settlement houses. Jane Addams’s Hull House in Chicago and Lillian Wald’s Henry Street Settlement in New York City were two of the most prominent.

M: Primarily run by middle-class women, the first one was created (Hull House) by Jane Addams where it helped immigrants assimilate into American society, by providing housing, food, education, child care, cultural activities (enclaves), & social connections.

Question 13

Jane Addams

Answer 13

T: founded Hull House, America’s first settlement house, to help immigrants assimilate through education, counseling, and municipal reform efforts. She also advocated pacifism throughout her life, including during World War I, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.

M: Founded the Hull House, which was the first settlement house that’s goal was to help immigrants assimilate through education (teaching English), counseling, child care services, and reform efforts. She soon won the Nobel Peace Prize (1931).

Question 14

Jacob Riis

Answer 14

T: Danish-born police reporter and pioneering photographer who exposed the ills of tenement living in his 1890 book illustrated with powerful photographs, How the Other Half Lives. His work led to the establishment of “model tenements” in New York City.

M: This person was exposed to the ills of tenement living (poorly insulated, over-crowed) through reporting it, photographs, & ‘How the Other Half Lives’ , and help establish the ‘model tenements’ in NYC.

Question 15

WCTU

Answer 15

T: to combat the evils of excessive alcohol consumption, this went on to embrace a broad reform agenda, including campaigns to abolish prostitution and gain the right to vote for women.

M: The Women’s Christian Temperance Union formed to Combat the evils of excessive alcohol consumption, went to embrace a broad reform agenda ( like campaigns to abolish prostitution & gain the right to vote for women)

Question 16

Yellow Journalism

Answer 16

T: A scandal-mongering practice of journalism that emerged in New York during the Gilded Age out of the circulation battles between Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World and William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal. The expression has remained a pejorative term referring to sensationalist journalism practiced with unethical, unprofessional standards.

M: This term expressed the sensationalist journalism practiced w/ unethical, unprofessional standards. It was a scandal-mongering practice of journalism that emerged in Ny out of the circulation battles between Pulitzer’s NY World & Randolph’s NY Journal.

Question 17

NAWSA

Answer 17

T: An organization founded in 1890 to demand the vote for women. NAWSA argued that women should be allowed to vote because their responsibilities in the home and family made them indispensable in the public decision-making process. During World War I, NAWSA supported the war effort and lauded women’s role in the Allied victory, which helped to finally achieve nationwide woman suffrage in the Nineteenth Amendment (1920).

M: The National American Women’s Sufferage Association, demanded the vote for women. They agreed that women should be allowed to vote because their responsibilities in the home & family made them indispensable in the public decision-making progress. [1920] They achieved nationwide woman suffrage w/ the Nineteenth amendment.

Question 18

Reservation System

Answer 18

T: The system that allotted land with designated boundaries to Native American tribes in the West, beginning in the 1850s and ending with the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887. Within these reservations, most land was used communally, rather than owned individually. The U.S. government encouraged and sometimes violently coerced Native Americans to stay on the reservations at all times.

M: Where native populations were assigned to some tracks of the land of strict bounds (in the W). It ended w/ the Dawes Severality Act of 1887, where land ownership was communal.

Question 19

Dawes Severalty Act

Answer 19

T: Reflecting the assimilationist views of the reformers, the act dissolved many tribes as legal entities, wiped out tribal ownership of land, and set up individual Indian family heads with 160 free acres. If the Indians behaved themselves like “good white settlers,” they would get full title to their holdings, as well as citizenship.

M: The federal govt abandoned the reservation system & divided those lands into 160 acres of plots to be farmed by nations. It allowed US citizenship, ONLY if they assimilated into white culture.

Question 20

Populists

Answer 20

T: Officially known as the People’s party, represented Westerners and Southerners who believed that U.S. economic policy inappropriately favored Eastern businessmen instead of the nation’s farmers. Their proposals included the nationalization of the railroads, a graduated income tax, and, most significantly, the unlimited coinage of silver.

M: Known as the ‘People’s party’, they represented the angry farmers in the W & S, who believed that the US economic policy disproportionally favored the N businessmen instead of the nation’s farmers through tariffs. The advocated for the nationalization of the rrs, a graduated income tax, & the silver coins.

Question 21

Frederick Jackson Turner

Answer 21

T: Author of the famous “frontier thesis” in which Turner argued that the taming of the West had shaped the nation’s character. The experience of molding wilderness into civilization, he argued, encouraged Americans’ characteristic embrace of individualism and democracy. Although Turner is now criticized for, among other things, entirely ignoring the role of Native Americans in the West, his argument remains a keystone of thought about the West in American history.

M: Wrote the ‘Significance of the Frontier in American History” (93’), he argued that closing the frontier was not so much a cause for celebration but rather a cause for concern & mythic about a fresh start; Western expansion was means of releasing American discontent due to Britain. However, it encouraged Americans’ characteristic embrace of individualism & democracy.

Question 22

Gold Standard Act

Answer 22

T: An act that guaranteed that paper currency would be redeemed freely in gold, putting an end to the already dying “free silver” campaign.

Question 23

Fourth Party System

Answer 23

T: A term scholars have used to describe national politics from 1896 to 1932, when Republicans had a tight grip on the White House and issues such as industrial regulation and labor concerns became paramount, replacing older concerns such as civil-service reform and monetary policy.

Question 24

Pullman Strike

Answer 24

T: A strike by railroad workers upset by drastic wage cuts. The strike was led by socialist Eugene Debs but not supported by the American Federation of Labor. Eventually President Grover Cleveland intervened, and federal troops forced an end to the strike. The strike highlighted both divisions within labor and the government’s new willingness to use armed force to combat work stoppages.

M: Workers rebelled because the Pullman Palace Car Company cut wages by 1/3 and the American Federation of Labor refused to support the strikers. Military action was needed in order to keep mail delivery on track.