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AP US
Carpluk Terms 177-308
132
History
Undergraduate 1
03/21/2011

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Term
Mexican War
Definition
armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 in the wake of the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas, which Mexico considered part of its territory despite the 1836 Texas Revolution.
Term
Treaty of Guadlupe Hidalgo 1848
Definition
the peace treaty, largely dictated by the United States[1][2] to the interim government of a militarily occupied Mexico City, that ended the Mexican-American War (1846 – 48). With the defeat of its army and the fall of the capital, Mexico surrendered to the United States and entered into negotiations to end the war.
Term
Mexican Cession
Definition
a historical name in the United States for the region of the present day southwestern United States that Mexico ceded to the U.S. in 1848, excluding the areas east of the Rio Grande, which had been claimed by the Republic of Texas, though the Texas Annexation resolution two years earlier had not specified Texas's southern and western boundary.
Term
Wilmot Proviso
Definition
one of the major events leading to the Civil War, would have banned slavery in any territory to be acquired from Mexico in the Mexican War or in the future, including the area later known as the Mexican Cession, but which some proponents construed to also include the disputed lands in south Texas and New Mexico east of the Rio Grande.
Term
Ostend Manifesto
Definition
document written in 1854 that described the rationale for the United States to purchase Cuba from Spain and implied the U.S. should declare war if Spain refused. Cuba's annexation had long been a goal of U.S. expansionists, particularly as the U.S. set its sights southward following the admission of California to the Union. However, diplomatically, the country had been content to see the island remain in Spanish hands so long as it did not pass to a stronger power such as Britain or France. A product of the debates over slavery in the United States, Manifest Destiny, and the Monroe Doctrine, the Ostend Manifesto proposed a shift in foreign policy, justifying the use of force to seize Cuba in the name of national security.
Term
Gadsden Purchase
Definition
purpose of the US's construction of a transcontinental railroad along a deep southern route. It was also related to reconciliation of outstanding border issues following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican–American War of 1846–48.
Term
railroads;federal land grants
Definition
grants given to the railroad companies by congress to build railroads in America
Term
Panic of 1857
Definition
financial panic in the United States caused by the declining international economy and overexpansion of the domestic economy. Beginning in September 1857, the financial downturn did not last long; however, a proper recovery was not seen until the American Civil War.[1] After the failure of Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company, the financial panic quickly spread as business began to fail, the railroad industry experienced financial declines and hundreds of workers were laid off.[2] Since the years immediately preceding the Panic of 1857 were prosperous, many banks, merchants, and farmers had seized the opportunity to take risks with their investments and as soon as market prices began to fall, they quickly began to experience the effects of financial panic.
Term
Free Soil Party
Definition
was a short-lived political party in the United States active in the 1848 and 1852 presidential elections, and in some state elections. It was a third party that largely appealed to and drew its greatest strength from New York State. The party leadership consisted of former anti-slavery members of the Whig Party and the Democratic Party. Its main purpose was opposing the expansion of slavery into the western territories, arguing that free men on free soil comprised a morally and economically superior system to slavery. They opposed slavery in the new territories and sometimes worked to remove existing laws that discriminated against freed African Americans in states such as Ohio.
Term
Popular Sovereignty
Definition
belief that the legitimacy of the state is created by the will or consent of its people, who are the source of all political power. It is closely associated to the social contract philosophers, among whom are Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Popular sovereignty expresses a concept and does not necessarily reflect or describe a political reality.
Term
Compromise of 1850
Definition
intricate package of five bills, passed in September 1850, defusing a four-year confrontation between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North that arose following the Mexican-American War (1846–1848). The compromise, drafted by Whig Henry Clay and brokered by Democrat Stephen Douglas, avoided secession or civil war at the time and reduced sectional conflict for four years.
Term
Fugitive Slave Law
Definition
passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. This was one of the most controversial acts of the 1850 compromise and heightened Northern fears of a 'slave power conspiracy'. It declared that all runaway slaves be brought back to their masters. Abolitionists nicknamed it the "Bloodhound Law" for the dogs that were used to track down runaway slaves.
Term
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Definition
was an American abolitionist and author. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) depicted life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom. It energized anti-slavery forces in the American North, while provoking widespread anger in the South. She wrote more than 20 books, including novels, three travel memoirs, and collections of articles and letters. She was influential both for her writings and her public stands on social issues of the day.
Term
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Definition
created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opened new lands, repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and allowed settlers in those territories to determine if they would allow slavery within their boundaries. The initial purpose of the Kansas–Nebraska Act was to create opportunities for a Mideastern Transcontinental Railroad. It became problematic when popular sovereignty was written into the proposal. The act was designed by Democratic Sen. Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois.
Term
Republican Party
Definition
one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the Grand Old Party (GOP). The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S. political spectrum and is considered center-right, in contrast to the more center-left Democrats.
Term
James Buchanan
Definition
15th president of the United States
Term
"Bleeding Kansas"
Definition
was a series of violent events, involving anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian" elements, that took place in the Kansas Territory and the western frontier towns of the U.S. state of Missouri roughly between 1854 and 1858. At the heart of the conflict was the question of whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free state or slave state. As such, Bleeding Kansas was a proxy war between Northerners and Southerners over the issue of slavery in the United States. The term "Bleeding Kansas" was coined by Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune; the events it encompasses directly presaged the American Civil War.
Term
John Brown; Pottawotomie Creek
Definition
was a revolutionary abolitionist from the United States, who advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to abolish slavery for good. He led the Pottawatomie Massacre in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas and made his name in the unsuccessful raid at Harpers Ferry in 1859. He was tried and executed for treason against the state of Virginia, murder, and conspiracy later that year. Brown has been called "the most controversial of all 19th-century Americans."
Term
Sumner-Brooks Incident
Definition
Brooks approached Sumner at his desk in the Senate chamber during a recess, raised a heavy cane, and began beating him repeatedly on the head and shoulders. Sumner, trapped in his chair, rose in agony with such strength that he tore the desk from the bolts holding it to the floor. Then he collapsed, bleeding and unconscious. So severe were his injuries that he was unable to return to the Senate for four years. Throughout the North, he became a hero -- a martyr to the barbarism of the South. In the South, Preston Brooks became a hero, too. Censured by the House, he resigned his seat, returned to South Carolina, and stood successfully for reelection.
Term
Lecompton Constitution
Definition
was the second of four proposed constitutions for the state of Kansas
Term
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Definition
was a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that people of African descent imported into the United States and held as slaves (or their descendants,[2] whether or not they were slaves) were not protected by the Constitution and could never be U.S. citizens.[3] The court also held that the U.S. Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in federal territories and that, because slaves were not citizens, they could not sue in court. Furthermore, the Court ruled that slaves, as chattels or private property, could not be taken away from their owners without due process. The Supreme Court's decision was written by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney.
Term
Roger Taney
Definition
was the fifth Chief Justice of the United States, holding that office from 1836 until his death in 1864. He was the first Roman Catholic to hold that office or sit on the Supreme Court of the United States. He was also the eleventh United States Attorney General. He is most remembered for delivering the majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), that ruled, among other things, that African Americans, having been considered inferior at the time the Constitution was drafted, were not part of the original community of citizens and could not be considered citizens of the United States.
Term
Abraham Lincoln
Definition
served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led the country through its greatest constitutional, military and moral crisis—the American Civil War—by preserving the Union by force while ending slavery and promoting economic modernization.
Term
Lincoln-Douglass Debates
Definition
a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for Senate in Illinois, and incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate. At the time, U.S. senators were elected by state legislatures; thus Lincoln and Douglas were trying for their respective parties to win control of the Illinois legislature. The debates previewed the issues that Lincoln would face in the aftermath of his victory in the 1860 presidential election. The main issue discussed in all seven debates was slavery.
Term
"House Divided" Speech
Definition
was an address given by Abraham Lincoln (who would later become President of the United States) on June 16, 1858, in Springfield, Illinois, upon accepting the Illinois Republican Party's nomination as that state's United States senator. The speech became the launching point for his unsuccessful campaign for the Senate seat against Stephen A. Douglas, which included the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. The speech created a lasting image of the danger of disunion because of slavery, and it rallied Republicans across the North. Along with the Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address, this became one of the best-known speeches of his career.
Term
Harpers Ferry Raid
Definition
an attempt by white abolitionist John Brown to start an armed slave revolt by seizing a United States Arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Virginia in 1859. Brown's raid was defeated by a detachment of U.S. Marines led by Col. Robert E. Lee. John Brown had originally asked Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass to join him when he attacked the armory, but illness prevented Tubman from joining him and Douglass believed his plan would fail and did not join him for that reason.
Term
Election of 1860
Definition
set the stage for the American Civil War. The nation had been divided throughout most of the 1850s on questions of states' rights and slavery in the territories. In 1860, this issue finally came to a head, fracturing the formerly dominant Democratic Party into Southern and Northern factions and bringing Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party to power without the support of a single Southern state. Hardly more than a month following Lincoln's victory came declarations of secession by South Carolina and other states, which were rejected as illegal by outgoing President James Buchanan and President-elect Lincoln.
Term
Secession
Definition
In 1861, eleven states seceded from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America.[1] The states were brought back into the union during the Reconstruction era of the United States.
Term
Crittenden Compromise
Definition
was an unsuccessful proposal by Kentucky Senator John J. Crittenden to resolve the U.S. secession crisis of 1860–1861 by addressing the concerns that led the states in the Deep South of the United States to contemplate secession from the United States.
Term
Fort Sumter
Definition
site upon which the shots initiating the American Civil War were fired, at the Battle of Fort Sumter.
Term
Habeas Corpus
Definition
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations. It has historically been an important legal instrument safeguarding individual freedom against arbitrary state action.
Term
Border States
Definition
refers to slave states which did not declare their secession from the United States before April 1861. Four slave states never declared a secession: Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri, and four others did not declare secession until after the 1861 Battle of Fort Sumter: Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia — after which, they were less frequently called "border states". Also included as a border state during the war is West Virginia, which broke away from Confederate Virginia and became a new state in the Union.
Term
Confederate States of America
Definition
was an unrecognized state set up from 1861 to 1865 by eleven southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S. The U.S. government rejected secession as illegal, and after four years of fighting in the American Civil War, the Confederate armies surrendered, its government collapsed, and its slaves were emancipated. The Confederacy's control over its claimed territory shrank steadily during the course of the war, as the Union took control of much of the seacoast and inland waterways.
Term
Battle of Antietam
Definition
fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and Antietam Creek, as part of the Maryland Campaign, was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Northern soil. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with about 23,000 casualties.[4]
Term
Emancipation Proclamation
Definition
an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War under his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with the rest freed as Union armies advanced.[1] On September 22, 1862, Lincoln announced that he would issue a formal emancipation of all slaves in any state of the Confederate States of America that did not return to Union control by January 1, 1863. The actual order, signed and issued January 1, 1863, named the locations under Confederate control where it would apply. Lincoln issued the Executive Order by his authority as "Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy" under Article II, section 2 of the United States Constitution.
Term
13th Amendment
Definition
officially abolished and continues to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. It was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, passed by the House on January 31, 1865, and adopted on December 6, 1865. On December 18, Secretary of State William H. Seward, in a proclamation, declared it to have been adopted. It was the first of the Reconstruction Amendments.
Term
Battle of Gettysburg
Definition
The battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War[7], it is often described as the war's turning point.[8] Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, ending Lee's invasion of the North.
Term
Sherman's March
Definition
ame commonly given to the Savannah Campaign conducted around Georgia during November–December 1864 by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army in the American Civil War. The campaign began with Sherman's troops leaving the captured city of Atlanta, Georgia, on November 15 and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah on December 21. It inflicted significant damage, particularly to industry and infrastructure (per the doctrine of total war), and also to civilian property. Military historian David J. Eicher wrote that Sherman "defied military principles by operating deep within enemy territory and without lines of supply or communication. He destroyed much of the South's potential and psychology to wage war."
Term
Copperheads
Definition
a vocal group of Democrats in the Northern United States (see also Union (American Civil War)) who opposed the American Civil War, wanting an immediate peace settlement with the Confederates. Republicans started calling anti-war Democrats "Copperheads," likening them to the poisonous snake. The Peace Democrats accepted the label, but for them the copper "head" was the likeness of Liberty, which they cut from copper pennies and proudly wore as badges.
Term
Ex Parte Merryman
Definition
is a well-known U.S. federal court case which arose out of the American Civil War. It was a test of the authority of the President to suspend "the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus". Chief Justice Roger Taney, sitting as a federal circuit court judge, ruled that the President could not suspend, but President Lincoln ignored the ruling, as did the Army under Lincoln's orders.
Term
Homestead Act 1862
Definition
one of three United States federal laws that gave an applicant freehold title to up to 160 acres (65 hectares or one-fourth section) of undeveloped federal land west of the Mississippi River. The law required three steps: file an application, improve the land, and file for deed of title.
Term
Presidential Reconstruction
Definition
has two uses; the first covers the entire nation in the period 1865–1877 following the Civil War; the second one, used in this article, covers the transformation of the Southern United States from 1863 to 1877, with the reconstruction of state and society in the former Confederacy. Three amendments to the Constitution affected the entire nation. In the different states, Reconstruction began and ended at different times; federal Reconstruction policies were finally abandoned with the Compromise of 1877.
Term
Wade-Davis Bill 1864
Definition
program proposed for the Reconstruction of the South written by two Radical Republicans, Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio and Representative Henry Winter Davis of Maryland. In contrast to President Abraham Lincoln's more lenient Ten Percent Plan, the bill made re-admittance to the Union for former Confederate states contingent on a majority in each Southern state to take the Ironclad oath to the effect they had never in the past supported the Confederacy. The bill passed both houses of Congress on July 2, 1864, but was pocket vetoed by Lincoln and never took effect. The Radical Republicans were outraged that Lincoln did not sign the bill. Lincoln wanted to mend the Union by carrying out the Ten percent plan. He believed it would be too difficult to repair all of the ties within the union if the bill was passed.
Term
Andrew Johnson
Definition
was the 17th President of the United States (1865–1869). Following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, Johnson presided over the Reconstruction era of the United States in the four years after the American Civil War. His tenure was controversial as his positions favoring the white South came under heavy political attack from Republicans.
Term
Freedmen's Bureau
Definition
less commonly but more formally known as the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, was a U.S. federal government agency that aided distressed refugees and freedmen (freed slaves) in 1865-1869, during the Reconstruction era of the United States.
Term
Black Codes
Definition
were unofficial laws put in place in the United States to limit the basic human rights and civil liberties of blacks. Even though the U.S. constitution originally discriminated against blacks (as "other persons"[1]) and both Northern and Southern states had passed discriminatory legislation from the early 19th century, the term Black Codes is used most often to refer to legislation passed by Southern states at the end of the Civil War to control the labor, migration and other activities of newly-freed slaves.
Term
Radical Republicans
Definition
a loose faction of American politicians within the Republican Party from about 1854 (before the American Civil War) until the end of Reconstruction in 1877. They called themselves "radicals" and were opposed during the war by moderates led by Abraham Lincoln and after the war by self described "conservatives" (in the South) and "Liberals" (in the North). They strongly opposed slavery during the war and after the war distrusted ex-Confederates, demanding harsh policies for Reconstruction.
Term
Charles Sumner
Definition
American politician and statesman from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction, working to punish the ex-Confederates and guarantee equal rights to the Freedmen.
Term
Thaddeus Stephens
Definition
a Republican leader and one of the most powerful members of the United States House of Representatives. As chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Stevens, a witty, sarcastic speaker and flamboyant party leader, dominated the House from 1861 until his death and wrote much of the financial legislation that paid for the American Civil War. Stevens and Senator Charles Sumner were the prime leaders of the Radical Republicans during the American Civil War and Reconstruction.
Term
Civil Rights Act 1866
Definition
a federal law in the United States that was mainly intended to protect the civil rights of African-Americans, in the wake of the American Civil War. The Act was passed over the veto of President Andrew Johnson.
Term
14th Amendment
Definition
citizenship to black people
Term
Tenure of Office Act 1867
Definition
nacted over the veto of President Andrew Johnson, denied the President of the United States the power to remove anyone who had been appointed by a past President without the advice and consent of the United States Senate, unless the Senate approved the removal during the next full session of Congress.
Term
15th Amendment
Definition
prohibits each government in the United States from denying a citizen suffrage based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude" (i.e., slavery). It was ratified on February 3, 1870.
Term
Scalawags and Carpetbaggers
Definition
southern whites who supported Reconstruction following the Civil War, northerners who supported reconstruction and tried to better the south
Term
Blanche K. Bruce and Hiram Revels
Definition
U.S. politician who represented Mississippi as a Republican in the U.S. Senate from 1875 to 1881 and was the first elected African American senator to serve a full term. first African American to serve in the United States Senate.
Term
Sharecropping
Definition
system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crop produced on the land (e.g., 50% of the crop).
Term
William(Boss) Tweed
Definition
sometimes erroneously referred to as William Marcy Tweed,[1] and widely known as "Boss" Tweed – was an American politician most notable for being the "boss" of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th century New York City and State. At the height of his influence, Tweed was the third-largest landowner in New York City, a director of the Erie Railway, the Tenth National Bank, and the New-York Printing Company, as well as proprietor of the Metropolitan Hotel.
Term
Thomas Nast
Definition
German-born American caricaturist and editorial cartoonist who is considered to be the "Father of the American Cartoon".[1] Among his notable works were the creation of the modern version of Santa Claus, the male personification of the United States government, Uncle Sam, as well as the political symbols of both major United States political parties: the Republican elephant and the Democratic donkey.
Term
Panic of 1873
Definition
surrounded a severe international economic depression in both Europe and the United States that lasted until 1879, and even longer in some countries. It is nowadays referred to as the Depression of 1873[1] by historians. It was triggered by the fall in demand for silver internationally, which followed Germany's decision to abandon the silver standard in the wake of the Franco-Prussian war.
Term
Greenbacks
Definition
was an American political party with an anti-monopoly ideology[2] that was active between 1874 and 1884. Its name referred to paper money, or "greenbacks," that had been issued during the American Civil War and afterward. The party opposed the shift from paper money back to a bullion coin-based monetary system because it believed that privately owned banks and corporations would then reacquire the power to define the value of products and labor.
Term
Redeemers
Definition
were a political coalition in the Southern United States during the Reconstruction era, who sought to oust the Republican coalition of freedmen, carpetbaggers and scalawags. They were the southern wing of the Bourbon Democrats, who were the conservative, pro-business wing of the Democratic Party.
Term
Ku Klux Klan
Definition
Klan groups spread throughout the South as an insurgent movement during the Reconstruction era in the United States. As a secret vigilante group, the Klan focused its anger reacted against Radical Republicans and sought to restore white supremacy by threats and violence, including murder, against black and white Republicans. In 1870 and 1871 the federal government passed the Force Acts, which were used to prosecute Klan crimes.[12] Prosecution of Klan crimes and enforcement of the Force Acts suppressed Klan activity. In 1874 and later, however, newly organized and openly active paramilitary organizations, such as the White League and the Red Shirts, started a fresh round of violence aimed at suppressing Republican voting and running Republicans out of office. These contributed to segregationist white Democrats regaining political power in all the Southern states by 1877.
Term
Compromise of 1877
Definition
also known as the Corrupt Bargain[1], refers to a purported informal, unwritten deal that settled the disputed 1876 U.S. Presidential election and ended Congressional ("Radical") Reconstruction. Through it, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was awarded the White House over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden on the understanding that Hayes would remove the federal troops that were propping up Republican state governments in South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana. Consequently, the incumbent President, Republican Ulysses S. Grant, removed the soldiers from Florida before Hayes as his successor removed the remaining troops in South Carolina and Louisiana. As soon as the troops left, many Republicans also left (or became Democrats) and the "Redeemer" Democrats took control.
Term
Chinese Exclusion Act 1877/ Gentlemen's Agreement
Definition
as a United States federal law signed by Chester A. Arthur on May 8, 1882, following revisions made in 1880 to the Burlingame Treaty of 1868. Those revisions allowed the U.S. to suspend immigration, and Congress subsequently acted quickly to implement the suspension of Chinese immigration, a ban that was intended to last 10 years.
Term
Barbed Wire
Definition
a type of fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strand(s). It is used to construct inexpensive fences and is used atop walls surrounding secured property.
Term
Frederick Jackson Turner "frontier thesis"
Definition
was an influential American historian in the early 20th century. He is best known for his book, The Significance of the Frontier in American History, whose ideas are referred to as the Frontier Thesis. He is also known for his theories of geographical sectionalism. In recent years western history has seen pitched arguments over his Frontier Thesis, with the only point of agreement being his enormous impact on historical scholarship and the American mind.
Term
Reservations
Definition
an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Term
Sitting Bull,Crazy Horse, Chief Joseph
Definition
war chief during years of resistance to United States government policies.
Term
George Custer/ Little Big Horn
Definition
also as Custer's Last Stand and, by the Native Americans involved, the Battle of the Greasy Grass, was an armed engagement between combined forces of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho people against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. It occurred on June 25 and June 26, 1876, near the Little Bighorn River in eastern Montana Territory, near what is now Crow Agency, Montana.
Term
Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of Dishonor
Definition
was an American writer who became an activist on behalf of improved treatment of Native Americans by the U.S. government. She detailed the adverse effects of government actions in A Century of Dishonor (1881). Her novel Ramona dramatized the federal government's mistreatment of Native Americans in Southern California and attracted considerable attention to her cause,[1][2] although its popularity was based on its romantic and picturesque qualities rather than its political content.
Term
Dawes Severalty Act
Definition
was enacted by the U.S. Congress regarding the distribution of land to Native Americans in Indian Territory (later Oklahoma). It was signed into law February 8, 1887. Named after its sponsor, U.S. Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts, the act was amended in 1891 and again in 1906 by the Burke Act. The act remained in effect until 1934. The act provided for the division of tribally held lands into individually-owned parcels and opening "surplus" lands to settlement by non-Indians and development by railroads.
Term
Ghost Dance Movement
Definition
religious movement which was incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems.
Term
Wounded Knee
Definition
known as the event that ended the last of the Indian wars in America. As the year came to a close, the Seventh Cavalry of the United States Army brought an horrific end to the century-long U.S. government-Indian armed conflicts.
Term
"New" South
Definition
is a phrase that has been used intermittently since the American Civil War to describe the American South, after 1877. The term "New South" is used in contrast to the Old South of the plantation system of the antebellum period.
Term
Plessy v. Ferguson
Definition
a landmark United States Supreme Court decision in the jurisprudence of the United States, upholding the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation in private businesses (particularly railroads), under the doctrine of "separate but equal".
Term
Jim Crow Laws
Definition
were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans. In reality, this led to treatment and accommodations that were usually inferior to those provided for white Americans, systematizing a number of economic, educational and social disadvantages.
Term
Grandfather Clause; poll tax; literacy test
Definition
attempts to get African Americans not to vote and to further the seperation between them
Term
Ida B. Wells
Definition
was an African American journalist, newspaper editor and, with her husband, newspaper owner Ferdinand L. Barnett, an early leader in the civil rights movement. She documented the extent of lynching in the United States, and was also active in the women's rights movement and the women's suffrage movement.
Term
Booker T. Washington
Definition
was an American educator, author, orator, and political leader. He was the dominant figure in the African American community in the United States from 1890 to 1915. Representative of the last generation of black leaders born in slavery, he spoke on behalf of blacks living in the South. In his last 25 years, Washington maintained his standing because of the sponsorship of powerful whites, substantial support within the black community, his ability to raise educational funds from both groups, and his accommodation to the social realities of the age of Jim Crow segregation.
Term
National Grange Movement
Definition
raternal organization for American farmers that encourages farm families to band together for their common economic and political well-being. Founded in 1867 after the Civil War, it is the oldest surviving agricultural organization in America, though now much diminished from the over one million members it had in its peak in the 1890s through the 1950s. In addition to serving as a center for many farming communities, the Grange was an effective advocacy group for farmers and their agendas, including fighting railroad monopolies and advocating rural mail deliveries. Indeed, the word "grange" itself comes from a Latin word for grain, and is related to a "granary" or, generically, a farm.
Term
Interstate Commerce Act
Definition
a United States federal law that was designed to regulate the railroad industry, particularly its monopolistic practices.[1] The Act required that railroad rates be "reasonable and just," but did not empower the government to fix specific rates. It also required that railroads publicize shipping rates and prohibited short haul/long haul fare discrimination, a form of price discrimination against smaller markets, particularly farmers. The Act created a federal regulatory agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), which it charged with monitoring railroads to ensure that they complied with the new regulations.
Term
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Definition
a United States federal law that was designed to regulate the railroad industry, particularly its monopolistic practices.[1] The Act required that railroad rates be "reasonable and just," but did not empower the government to fix specific rates. It also required that railroads publicize shipping rates and prohibited short haul/long haul fare discrimination, a form of price discrimination against smaller markets, particularly farmers. The Act created a federal regulatory agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), which it charged with monitoring railroads to ensure that they complied with the new regulations.
Term
Panic of 1893
Definition
a serious economic depression in the United States that began in that year.[1] Similar to the Panic of 1873, this panic was marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures. Compounding market overbuilding and the railroad bubble, was a run on the gold supply (relative to silver), because of the long-established American policy of bimetallism, which used both silver and gold metals at a fixed 16:1 rate for pegging the value of the US Dollar. Until the Great Depression, the Panic of '93 was considered the worst depression the United States had ever experienced.
Term
Bessemer Process
Definition
he first inexpensive industrial process for the mass-production of steel from molten pig iron.
Term
Andrew Carnegie
Definition
was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, entrepreneur and a major phila
Term
Vertical Integration and Horizontal Integration
Definition
describes a style of management control. Vertically integrated companies in a supply chain are united through a common owner. Usually each member of the supply chain produces a different product or (market-specific) service, and the products combine to satisfy a common need. It is contrasted with horizontal integration/describes a type of ownership and control. It is a strategy used by a business or corporation that seeks to sell a type of product in numerous markets. Horizontal integration in marketing is much more common than vertical integration is in production
Term
John D. Rockefeller
Definition
was an American oil magnate. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy. In 1870, he founded the Standard Oil Company and aggressively ran it until he officially retired in 1897.
Term
John Pierpont Morgan
Definition
was an American financier, banker and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time.
Term
Sherman Antitrust Act 1890
Definition
requires the United States federal government to investigate and pursue trusts, companies, and organizations suspected of violating the Act. It was the first Federal statute to limit cartels and monopolies, and today still forms the basis for most antitrust litigation by the United States federal government. However, for the most part, politicians were unwilling to refer to the law until Theodore Roosevelt's presidency (1901–1909)
Term
Social Darwinism
Definition
a term used for various late nineteenth century ideologies which, while often contradictory, exploited ideas of survival of the fittest.[1] It especially refers to notions of struggle for existence being used to justify social policies which make no distinction between those able to support themselves and those unable to support themselves.
Term
Gospel of Wealth
Definition
Richest man in the World,"is an essay written by Andrew Carnegie in 1889[3] that described the responsibility of philanthropy by the new upper class of self-made rich.
Term
Horatio Alger
Definition
was a prolific 19th-century American author, best known for his many formulaic juvenile novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of respectable middle-class security and comfort through hard work, determination, courage, and honesty. He initially wrote and published for adults, but a friendship with boys' author William Taylor Adams led him to writing for the young.
Term
Knights of Labor
Definition
e largest and one of the most important American labor organizations of the 1880s.
Term
Haymarket Bombing
Definition
demonstration and unrest that took place on Tuesday May 4, 1886, at the Haymarket Square[3] in Chicago. It began as a rally in support of striking workers. An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at police as they dispersed the public meeting. The bomb blast and ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of eight police officers, mostly from friendly fire, and an unknown number of civilians.
Term
Samuel Gompers; American Federation of Labor
Definition
an English-born American labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL), and served as that organization's president from 1886 to 1894 and from 1895 until his death in 1924.
Term
Homestead Strike
Definition
an industrial lockout and strike which began on June 30, 1892, culminating in a battle between strikers and private security agents on July 6, 1892. It was one of the most serious disputes in US labor history. The dispute occurred at the Homestead Steel Works in the Pittsburgh-area town of Homestead, Pennsylvania, between the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (the AA) and the Carnegie Steel Company. The final result was a major defeat for the union, and a setback for efforts to unionize steelworkers.
Term
Eugene V Debs
Definition
was an American union leader, one of the founding members of the International Labor Union and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and several times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States.[2] Through his presidential candidacies, as well as his work with labor movements, Debs eventually became one of the best-known socialists living in the United States.
Term
"New" Immigrants
Definition
immigration had long been contentious in presidential politics. Before the Civil War, some native-born Americans feared Irish Catholic immigration would undermine democracy and Protestantism, and such fears still lurked
Term
Chinese Exclusion Act 1882
Definition
suspend immigration, and Congress subsequently acted quickly to implement the suspension of Chinese immigration, a ban that was intended to last 10 years.
Term
Tammany Hall; Political Machine
Definition
disciplined political organization in which an authoritative boss or small group commands the support of a corps of supporters and businesses (usually campaign workers), who receive rewards for their efforts
Term
Henry George; Progress and Poverty
Definition
an American writer, politician and political economist, who was the most influential proponent of the land value tax, also known as the "single tax" on land.
Term
Edwards Bellamy; Looking Backward
Definition
was an American author and socialist, most famous for his utopian novel, Looking Backward, set in the year 2000. He was a very influential writer during the Gilded Age of United States history.
Term
Jane Addams
Definition
was the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In a long, complex, career, she was a pioneer settlement worker, founder of Hull House in Chicago, public philosopher (the first American woman in that role), sociologist, author, and leader in woman suffrage and world peace.
Term
Social Gospel Movement
Definition
movement is a Protestant Christian intellectual movement that was most prominent in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The movement applied Christian ethics to social problems, especially social justice, inequality, liquor, crime, racial tensions, slums, bad hygiene, child labor, weak labor unions, poor schools, and the danger of war.
Term
Women's Christian Temperance Union
Definition
the oldest continuing non-sectarian women's organization worldwide. Organized at a national convention in Cleveland, Ohio in 1874,[1] the group spearheaded the crusade for prohibition. Members in Fredonia, New York advanced their cause by entering saloons, singing, praying, and urging saloon keepers to stop selling alcohol.
Term
Carry A. Nation
Definition
member of the temperance movement, which opposed alcohol in pre-Prohibition America. She is particularly noteworthy for promoting her viewpoint through vandalism. On many occasions Nation would enter an alcohol-serving establishment and attack the bar with a hatchet.
Term
W.E.B Du Bois
Definition
was an intellectual leader in the United States as sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, and editor.
Term
Frank Lloyd Wright
Definition
was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 projects, which resulted in more than 500 completed works.
Term
Gilded Age
Definition
refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post-Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century
Term
Stalwarts, Halfbreeds, Mugwumps
Definition
were a faction of the United States Republican Party
Term
Populist(people's) Party
Definition
was a short-lived political party in the United States established in 1891. It was most important in 1892-96, then rapidly faded away. Based among poor, white cotton farmers in the South (especially North Carolina, Alabama, and Texas) and hard-pressed wheat farmers in the Plains states (especially Kansas and Nebraska), it represented a radical crusading form of agrarianism and hostility to banks, railroads, and elites generally. It sometimes formed coalitions with labor unions, and in 1896 endorsed the Democratic presidential nominee, William Jennings Bryan. The terms "populist" and "populism" are commonly used for anti-elitist appeals in opposition to established interests and mainstream parties.
Term
Omaha Platform
Definition
was the party program adopted at the formative convention of the Populist (or People's) Party held in Omaha, Nebraska on July 4, 1892.
Term
Panic of 1893
Definition
a serious economic depression in the United States that began in that year.[1] Similar to the Panic of 1873, this panic was marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures. Compounding market overbuilding and the railroad bubble, was a run on the gold supply (relative to silver), because of the long-established American policy of bimetallism, which used both silver and gold metals at a fixed 16:1 rate for pegging the value of the US Dollar. Until the Great Depression, the Panic of '93 was considered the worst depression the United States had ever experienced.
Term
Coexy's Army
Definition
protest march by unemployed workers from the United States, led by the populist Jacob Coxey. They marched on Washington D.C. in 1894, the second year of a four-year economic depression that was the worst in United States history to that time. Officially named the Commonweal in Christ, its nickname came from its leader and was more enduring. It was the first significant popular protest march on Washington and the expression "Enough food to feed Coxey's Army" originates from this march.
Term
William Jennings Bryan, "Cross of Gold"
Definition
an American politician in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. He was a dominant force in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, standing three times as its candidate for President of the United States (1896, 1900 and 1908). He served in the United States Congress briefly as a Representative from Nebraska and was the 41st United States Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson, 1913-1916. Bryan was a devout Presbyterian, a supporter of popular democracy, an enemy of gold, banks and railroads, a leader of the silverite movement in the 1890s, a peace advocate, a prohibitionist, and an opponent of Darwinism on religious grounds. With his deep, commanding voice and wide travels, he was one of the best known orators and lecturers of the era. Because of his faith in the goodness and rightness of the common people, he was called "The Great Commoner."
Term
Mark Hanna
Definition
was an American industrialist and Republican politician from Cleveland, Ohio. He rose to fame as the campaign manager of the successful Republican Presidential candidate, William McKinley, in the U.S. Presidential election of 1896 in a well-funded political campaign and subsequently became one of the most powerful members of the U.S. Senate.
Term
Alaska Purchase 1867
Definition
the acquisition of the Alaska territory by the United States from Russia in 1867 by a treaty ratified by the Senate. The purchase, made at the initiative of United States Secretary of State William H. Seward, gained 586,412 square miles (1,518,800 km2) of new United States territory.
Term
Josiah Strong; Our Country:Its Possible Future and Current Crisis
Definition
American Protestant clergyman, organizer, editor and author. He was one of the founders of the Social Gospel movement that sought to apply Protestant religious principles to solve the social ills brought on by industrialization, urbanization and immigration.
Term
Alfred Thayer Mahan; The Influence of Sea Power Upon History
Definition
was a United States Navy flag officer, geostrategist, and historian, who has been called "the most important American strategist of the nineteenth century."[1] His concept of "sea power" was based on the idea that the most powerful navy will control the globe; it was most famously presented in The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660–1783 (1890). The concept had an enormous influence in shaping the strategic thought of navies across the world, especially in the United States, Germany, Japan and Britain. His ideas still permeate the U.S. Navy.
Term
Yellow Journalism
Definition
presents little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism. By extension "Yellow Journalism" is used today as a pejorative to decry any journalism that treats news in an unprofessional or unethical fashion.
Term
Spanish American War
Definition
conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States. It ultimately ended with the Americans defeating the Spaniards.[6] Revolts against Spanish rule had been endemic for decades in Cuba and were closely watched by Americans; there had been war scares before, as in the Virginius Affair in 1873.
Term
De Lome Letter
Definition
set off an 1898 diplomatic incident, was written by Enrique Dupuy de Lôme, the Spanish Minister with the Portfolio of Cuba. In a personal letter, which was stolen despite being under diplomatic protection, he referred to the US President : "...McKinley is weak and catering to the rabble and, besides, a low politician who desires to leave a door open to himself and to stand well with the jingos of his party." On February 9, 1898, the letter was published in the New York Journal, headlining it "the end of the world started this day "
Term
USS Maine
Definition
for her catastrophic loss in Havana harbor. Maine had been sent to Havana, Cuba to protect U.S. interests during the Cuban revolt against Spain.[2] On the evening of 15 February 1898, she suddenly exploded, and swiftly sank, killing nearly three quarters of her crew.[3] Though then, as now, the cause and responsibility for her sinking were unclear; popular opinion in the U.S. blamed Spain, and the sinking (popularized in the phrase Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain!) was one of the precipitating events of the Spanish–American War
Term
Teller Amendment
Definition
to a joint resolution of the United States Congress, enacted on April 20, 1898, in reply to President William McKinley's War Message. It placed a condition of the United States military in Cuba. According to the clause, the U.S. could not annex Cuba but only leave "control of the island to its people."
Term
Philippine Insurrection; Emilio Aguninaldo
Definition
was an armed conflict between a group of Filipino revolutionaries and the United States which arose from the struggle of the First Philippine Republic to gain independence following annexation by the United States
Term
Anti-Imperialist League
Definition
organization established in the United States on June 15, 1898 to battle the American annexation of the Philippines as an insular area. The anti-imperialists opposed the expansion because they believed imperialism violated the credo of republicanism, especially the need for "consent of the governed." They did not oppose expansion on commercial, constitutional, religious, or humanitarian grounds; rather they believed that annexation and administration of backward tropical areas would mean the abandonment of American ideals of self-government and isolation - ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence, Washington's Farewell Address and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
Term
Platt Amendment
Definition
a rider appended to the Army Appropriations Act presented to the U.S. Senate by Connecticut Republican Senator Orville H. Platt (1827–1905) replacing the earlier Teller Amendment. The amendment stipulated the conditions for the withdrawal of United States troops remaining in Cuba after the Spanish-American War, and defined the terms of Cuban-U.S. relations until the 1934 Treaty of Relations.
Term
Open Door Policy
Definition
U.S. Secretary of State John Hay sent notes to the major powers (France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, and Russia), asking them to declare formally that they would uphold Chinese territorial and administrative integrity and would not interfere with the free use of the treaty ports within their spheres of influence in China. The open door policy stated that all European nations, and the United States, could trade with China.
Term
Panama Canal
Definition
ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade.
Term
Roosevelt Corollary
Definition
an extension of the Monroe Doctrine by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt in 1904. Roosevelt's extension of the Monroe Doctrine asserted a right of the United States to intervene in order to "stabilize" the economic affairs of small states in the Caribbean and Central America, if they were unable to pay their international debts.
Term
Great White Fleet
Definition
opular nickname for the United States Navy battle fleet that completed a circumnavigation of the globe from 16 December 1907 to 22 February 1909 by order of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. It consisted of 16 battleships divided into two squadrons, along with various escorts. Roosevelt sought to demonstrate growing American military power and blue-water navy capability.
Term
Dollar Diplomacy
Definition
used to describe the effort of the United States — particularly under President William Howard Taft — to further its aims in Latin America and East Asia through use of its economic power by guaranteeing loans made to foreign countries.
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