1780 1827 1830

Melting Pot: A mixture of people of different cultures and races who blended together by abandoning their native langue's and cultures.

Sweat Shops: Any working environment considered to be unacceptably difficult or dangerous.

Socialism: any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods.

1850 1857 1859

Bessemer Process: A cheapened efficient process for making steel

Social Darwinism: an ideology of society that seeks to apply biological concepts of Darwinism to sociology

Fredrick Law Olmstead: Famous for co-desiging many well-known urban parks, including Central Park and Prospector Park in NYC

1860 1860 1860

Gilded Age: Period following civil war, late 1860’s to 1896 time of enormous growth that attracted millions from Europe

Patron Age: giving Government jobs to people who had helped a candidate get elected

Urbanization: Growth of cities, mostly in the regions of the northeast and midwest

1862 1863 1864

Homestead Act: Provided 160 acres in the west to who was head of the household and could cultivate the land for 5 years.

Sand Creek Massacre: The attack at dawn on November 29, 1864 killed over 150 people, mostly women and children.

Anquel Island: Asians and Chinese arrived here. Processing was similar to procedures at Ellis Island.

1866 1867 1868

Buffalo Soldiers: Originally were members of the US 10th cavalry regiment of the US Army, formed on September 21, 1866 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Tammany Hall: Boss Tweed became head of Tammany Hall, NYC’s most powerful democratic machine

Oliver Kelly: Started the patrons of husbandry, an organization for farmers that became popularly known as Grange.

1869 1870 1870

Transcontinental Railroad: Finished in 1869. Project at Union Pacific and Central Pacific. The two lines met in Utah.

Andrew Carnegie: Came to America in 1848 at 12, one of the first industrial moguls to make his own future, model of American success. Found the Carnegie Steel Company in the 1870’s

National Farmer’s Alliance: Aquarian economic movement in the late 1800’s,decrease debt, poverty, and lower crop prices.

1870 1871 1871

John D. Rockefeller: Established standard oil company in 1870, founded standard oil company and aggressively ran it until he officially retired in 1897.

Exoduster: an African American who migrated from the south to Kansas in the post reconstruction years.

Chief Joseph: Leader of the Nez Perce in their retreat from the United States troops (1840-1904)

1871 1875 1876

Tweed Ring: Convicted for stealing an amount estimated between $25 million and $45 million form NYC taxpayers through political corruption.

Battle of Little Big Horn: On June 25, and 26 of 1876, it was the most prominent action of the great Sioux War of 1876.It was an overwhelming victory for the Lakota.

Southern Alliance: Assume major proportions till 1886. Fed up with share cropping.

1876 1876 1879

Alexander Graham Bell: inventor of the telephone

Jim Crow Laws: State and local laws that mandated racial segregation in all public facilities in southern states.

Telephone: Developed in mid-1870’s by Alexander Graham Bell. People used it to communicate with each other. We still use it today.

1879 1879 1880

Nez Perce: Native American people, descended from Old Cardilleran Culture. They currently live in reservations in Idaho.

Dumbbell Tenements: were cheap housing units created when cities became packed with people during the industrial revolution. They were called dumbbell tenements because the design of the building, which looked like a dumbbell, had many housing units sharing a corridor. 

Thomas Alva Edison: Established the worlds first research laboratory in Menlo Park, NJ. There he perfected the Incandescent light bulb-pattented in 1880- and later invented an entire system for producing and distributing electrical power.

1880 1880 1881

Settlement house: community centers in slum neighborhoods the provide assistance to people in the area especially immigrants.

Mail-order catalog- a term which describes the buying of goods or services by mail delivery.

Vaudeville: a type of entertainment popular in the U.S. in the early 20th centenary featuring a mixture of specialty act such as burlesque.

1883 1884 1885

Joseph Pulitzer: a Hungarian immigrant who had bought the New York World in 1883

Eugene V. Debs: An American union leader, one of the founding member of the Industrial Workers of the World and several time the candidate of the Socialist Party of America. He was in office from 1885-1889

Mugwumps: Republican political activists who bolted from the US Republican party by supporting Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland in the US election in 1884.

1886 1886 1886

Colored Farmer’s Alliance: black and white farmers faced problems with decreasing profits, so the black made their own organization on December 11, 1886

Haymarket Affair: Refers to the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on Tuesday May 4, 1886 in Chicago.

Samuel Gompers: Led the cigar markers international union to join with the craft unions in 1886.

1887 1888 1890

Dawes Act: A law enacted in 1887, that was intended to “Americanize” Native Americans by distributing reservation land to individual owners.

Wounded Knee: The massacre by US Soldiers of 300 unarmed Native Americans at Wounded Knee Creek, SD.

George Eastman: invented roll film, helping bring photography mainstream.

1890 1890 1890

Sherman Antitrust Act: July 2, 1890 Prohibits certain business activities that reduce competition in the market place and requires US Federal Government to investigate trust and organizations suspected of being in violation.

Grandfather Clause: sated that even if a man failed the literacy test or could not afford poll tax, he was still entitled to vote if he, his father, or his grandfather had been eligible to vote before January 1, 1867.

Booker T. Washington: Believed racism would end once blacks acquired useful labor skills and proved their economic value to society. By 1881 he headed Tuskeque University

1891 1892 1894

Collective Bargaining: First used in 1891 by economic theorist Beatrice Webb, however, collective negotiations and agreements had existed since the rise of trade unions during 18th centenary.

Pullman Strike: Nationwide conflict between the new American railway union and railroads that occurred in the US in summer 1894. Shut down much of the nation freight and passenger traffic west of Detroit.

Ellis Island: About 20% of immigrants here ere detained for a day or more before being inspected. 1) pass physical exam 2) if passed they went to a government inspector. 1892-1924 this was an immigrant station.

1895 1895 1896

W.E.B. Dubois: the first African American to receive a doctorate from Harvard in 1895.

William McKinley: 1896 Republican candidate. 25th President of the United States.

William Randolph Hearst: Wealthy, purchased New York morning Journal in 1895

1896 1897 1901

Plessy vs. Ferguson: Supreme court ruled that the separation of races in public accommodations was legal and did not violate the 14th amendment.

Orville and Wilbur Wright: Makers of the first plane, the firs successful flight on December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, NC. Covered 120 feet and lasted 12 seconds.

Ragtime: Music characterized by a syncopated melodic line, evolved by black American musicians in the 1890’s.

1903 1911 1917

Political machine: Offered services to voters and business in exchange for political or financial support.

Literacy Test: used to make sure people could read before they signed up to vote.

George Westinghouse: Received the AIEE’s Edison Medal for meritorious achievement in connection with development of the alternating current system.

1917 1931

Poll tax: an annual tax that had to be paid before qualifying to vote.

Jane Adams: One of the most influential of the settlement house movement. First women to win Nobel prize.