| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Pendleton Act | 1883 legislation that attempted to replace the "spoils system" with a "merit system," by creating the Civil Service Commission. In other words, people seeking government jobs would now have to pass a test to receive the job, based on merit |
| Tammany Hall | New York democratic party/political machine; gained notoriety for corrupt practices; political machines came to power because of the rapid growth of cities-machines traded services to city-dwellers for votes at the polls |
| Boss-Tweed | corrupt party boss of Tammany Hall |
| Thomas Nast | most famous political cartoonist of the Gilded Age; known for his scathing editorials against the infamous Boss Tweed |
| Chinese Exclusion Act | 1882 legislation passed in response to complaints of workers on the West Coast that competition from Chinese immigrants was driving down wages and threatening white racial purity; ended Chinese immigration |
| Interstate Commerce Act | 1887 legislation passed to oversee fair and just railway rates, prohibit rebates, and end discriminatory practices; created the Interstate Commerce Commission to investigate and oversee railroad activities |
| Rural | agricultural, farming regions with little population density |
| The Grange | aka: The National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry; founded by Oliver Kelley; promoted education and socialization of farmers |
| Farmer's Alliances | political organization created to help fight railroad abuse and to lower interest rates |
| Jacob Coxey | 1894; along with other unemployed people lead a march to Washington, D.C., to support enactment of laws that would create public works projects |
| Populists | political party created in the 1890's that supported reform and represented the views of the farmers |
| Dry Farming | farming technique that became necessary in the Great Plains due to lack of rain |
| Inflation | economic situation in which goods and services are more expensive, therefore causing a decline in the value of money; loss of purchasing power |
| Deflation | a decline in general price levels, often caused by a reduction in the supply of money or credit |
| Sherman Antitrust Act | 1890 legislation that outlawed trusts and other restraints of trade; often used against labor unions by keeping them from protesting or striking |
| Dawes Severalty Act | 1887 legislation passed as an attempt to assimilate the Indians by dividing reservations into individual pieces of land, breaking up the tribes |
| A Century of Dishonor | written by Helen Hunt Jackson in 1881 to expose the atrocities the United States committed against Native Americans in the 19th century |
| The Turner (Frontier) Thesis | The Significance of the Frontier in American History argued the closing of the Frontier had ended an era in American History |
| Miners | in the mid 19th century, groups of miners searching for precious metal (gold and silver) began the surge into the West, beginning the boom-bust cycles of settlement |
| "Cross of Gold" Speech | famous speech given by William Jennings Bryan; in support of bimetalism, Bryan spoke of the gold standard as a burden (like the cross) |
| William J. Bryan | Election of 1896; partly because of the popularity of his speeches, he received the nomination of the Democrats and Populist |
| Sharecropping | a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crop produced on the land; primary occupation of African Americans in the New South |
| W.E.B. Du Bois | African American civil rights activist of the late 19th century and early 20th century demanded immediate rights and equal access for the "talented tenth" of African American Youth; co-founder of NAACP |
| Booker T. Washington | early African American civil rights leader; established Tuskegee Institute; known for his "Atlanta Compromise" of 1895 |
| Atlanta Compromise | speech given by Booker T. Washington that outlined his ideas concerning African American self-improvement through vocational education to achieve economic goals |
| Segregation | the separation of the races in the United States |
| 14th Amendment | provides equal protection and due process of the law |
| Disfranchise | taking away the right to vote |
| Suffrage | the right to vote |
| Literacy Test | unfair test administered to people in the South, to disfranchise black citizens |
| Poll Tax | voting tax used to keep black people from voting |
| Jim Crow Era | name adopted from a slavery-era play; during this time period, the law enforced segregation of African Americans from whites |
| Exodusters | the African Americans migrating to the Great Plains state (ie: Kansas & Oklahoma) in 1879 to escape conditions in the South |
| Bimetallism | the usage of both silver and gold as currency; Republicans believed i a money system based on the single gold standard, while the Democrats (Populist) believed in bimetallism |
| Greenbacks | paper currency (money) |
| Assimilation | absorbing of a weak/smaller culture by a stronger/dominant culture |
| Atrocities | horrible and vengeful acts carried upon by the weak or helpless |
| Annuities | government issued payments to Native Americans living on reservations |
| Nez Perce | Indian tribe led by Chief Joseph; ordered onto a reservation in Idaho in 1877, they fled instead; after giving up they were removed to a reservation in Oklahoma |
| Wounded Knee | 1890 U.S. cavalry slaughter of Native Americans marketing the end of the Indian Wars on the Great Plain |
| Munn v. Illinois | 1877 Supreme Court decision allowing state governments to regulate railroad rates |
| Wabash v. Illinois | the Supreme Court ruled in 1886 that only the federal government could regulate interstate commerce, leading to the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission |
| Plessy v. Ferguson | 1896 Supreme Court decision allowing for "separate but equal" facilities |
| Chisholm Trail | the major long drive route north from Texas to Ablilene, Kansas, where cowboys drove herds of cattle to the railroads to be shipped back East for huge profits |
| Range | vast areas of grassland owned by the government where cattle could graze |
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