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Capitalism: An economic system in which individuals or companies, rather than government
own most factories businesses and laborers produce products for a wage.
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Capital: money for operating a business.
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Corporations: Large businesses that are managed by a group of people.
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Labor unions: a group of workers that promotes and protects the rights of their members
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Prejudice: Strong feelings of dislike, usually against one of another ethnic group or race or
religion.
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Segregation: Separating someone from a group because they are of a different race, gender or
religion.
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Growth of Big Business: Large factories and big cities develop because of growth. National
wealth increases by 51/2 times.
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American Workers: workers didn’t share in the wealth; they barely made enough to live on.
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Jim Crow Laws: Laws that passed to enforce segregation-”Whites Only” meant to keep AfricanAmericans and others out.
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Patents: Protects inventions and inventors from people using their inventions for a certain
length of time.
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Eugene V. Debs: a labor union organizer
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Homestead, PA: A site of a violent strike
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Booker T. Washington: A leader of African-Americans, he struggled to improve their lives.
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W.E.B. DuBois: leader of African-Americans- views are different the Booker T. Washington, but
also helped the struggle to improve their lives.
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John Davison Rockefeller: Founder of the Standard Oil Company of Ohio. By 1880, he produced
90% of all the oil in the U.S.
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The Oil Rush: Fortune seekers raced to put down oil wells.
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Crude: The raw oil before it is processed.
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Refineries: Factories that purify raw oil.
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Oil Monopoly: Rockefeller made a secret deal with the Railroad. This deal allowed him to sell his
oil cheaper than anyone else. This forced everyone else out of business. By 1880- Rockefeller
owns 90% of all oil business in the U.S.
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Standard Oil Company: Company started by Rockefeller, later becomes SOHIO and is now BP.
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Monopoly: complete control of an industry, product or service.
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Andrew Carnegie: Scottish immigrant who built world’s largest steel mill in Pittsburgh, U.S.
Steel. He donated millions of dollars to build public libraries and charities.
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Bessemer Process: a process that Carnegie used in which the impurities are blasted out of steel
with a burst of air. It makes higher quality steel cheaper and faster.
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Molten: means liquid steel.
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Captains of Industry: Capitalists who took risks to develop giant businesses.
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Robber Barons: People like Rockefeller who got rich through ruthless business schemes.
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Business giants: Rockefeller, Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, developed giant businesses.
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Thomas Edison: Was a learning disabled inventor, who was kicked out of school in the 3rd grade
because he was unable to learn. He invented: phonograph, electric light bulb, and motion
pictures. He was born in Milan, OH. He was a trial and error inventor, who held 1100 patents.
He transformed daily life.
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Young Printer: at 12, Edison was a newsboy on trains. An accident on a train is believed to have
caused him to go deaf. Edison thought his deafness helped him to think. He was given $40,000
for his 1st invention.
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Scientific Wizard: He baked a cotton thread for 5 hours to produce a carbon filament. Put it in a
glass bulb, pumped the air out, turned the current on and had “light”
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Inventions of the 1900’s: Typewriter, air brakes, vacuum canning, steam engines, barbed wire,
telephone, camera, phonograph, light bulb, ore extraction, telegraph, motion pictures, airplane,
frozen food refrigeration, Model T.
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Business Manager: makes decisions to increase his own wealth- an eye for profitable inventions.
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Entrepreneur: A person who organizes a business.
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Incandescent: glowing with heat, a shinning bulb.
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Ellis Island: in New York Harbor. It was the gateway to American for 90% of the immigrants
entering the United States in the 1890’s.
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Ghetto: An area where many people of the same ethnic background live usually very poor.
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Tenement: Large buildings in ghettos where residents were crammed into, also called slums.
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Shops: name for factories where immigrants work
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Lower East Side: an area of NY where many Jewish and Italian immigrants lived.
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Jews: Fled persecution in homelands. Between 1881-1914, 2 million Jews immigrated to
America. They wanted jobs, free education and religious freedom
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Italians: lived in a section of NY called “Little Italy” Little Italy was a slum/ghetto. They brought
their distinct customs and religion.
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Sweatshops: small, dark dirty factories where workers worked 12 to 15 hours per day, 7 days a
week.
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Chinese: Immigrated to the West Coast. They lived in San Francisco in China Town.
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Prejudice: Strong feelings of dislike usually against one of another race or religion.
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1882 Immigration Law: The 1st law to limit immigration.
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Immigrants: People who leave 1 county to settle in another.
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Pullman-Greatest battle between labor and capital ever in the U.S.-strike in 1894. Tied up most
railroads in the Midwest.
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Helping the Poor: Pullman strike angers Americans. They begin to see what life is like for the
working poor. Most Americans felt it was wrong for a few to have all the money.
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Strikebreakers: in a labor disagreement persons who interfere with workers efforts to improve
their lot.
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Going to Jail: Railroad Companies get a Federal Court Order that made it unlawful to strike.
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Socialism: government ownership of factories and services with wages based on employees
needs.
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Capitalism: Privately owned business with wages set by employers.
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Debs: Union Organizer who wanted good wages, better life, working conditions for workers, He
went to jail for his beliefs.
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Plessy: Refused to leave “whites” only railroad car. He was arrested. He took his arrest all the
way to the Supreme Court.
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Testing the law: Arrest of Plessy is a deliberate test of the 13th amendment.
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13th Amendment: Outlaws (Prohibits) Slavery.
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Civil Rights: Those rights that are guaranteed to all citizens by the Constitution and other acts of
congress.
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Harlan: The only U.S. Supreme Court Justice who supported Plessy. He stated “ Our Constitution
is colorblind”
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Plessy vs. Ferguson: A case that challenged the 13th and 14th amendments-important because it
said the U.S. Constitution permitted segregation- “Separate but Equal”
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Separate but Equal: Plessy vs. Ferguson ruling not struck down until 5/11/54 when it was ruled
unconstitutional- saying you can’t have separate but “EQUAL”
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14th Amendment: Every person born or naturalized in the U.S. regardless of race creed or color
is a citizen and has the rights of being a citizen no matter what state they live in. Also
guarantees due process of law.
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Albion Tourgee: NY Lawyer hired to represent Homer Plessy to challenge the Jim Crow Laws that
Plessey was fighting,
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Sharecroppers: lived on and raised crops on other people’s land.
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Booker T. Washington: born a slave, worked his way through school, became a teacher, then
principal of The Tuskegee Institute which taught trade skills, believed only African Americans
had money in their pockets, they could begin to bargain for power and better treatment. He
urged blacks to go slowly in asking for full civil rights.
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Tuskegee Institute: School that taught trades to African-Americans. Run by Booker T.
Washington.
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W.E.B. DuBois: Harvard University graduate-1st African-American to earn a doctorate there. He
spoke about injustices of Jim Crow Laws. He was a founding member of the NAACP- he was a
strong, clear voice in the cause of equal rights for African-Americans.
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Lynching: murdering by a mob without a fair trial.
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The Souls of Blacks: book published by Dubois to protest the unfair Jim Crow Laws and to
demand equality.
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Niagara movement: Group that demanded complete political and social equality for AfricanAmericans.
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NAACP: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People: Made up of members
from Niagara Movement.
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The Crisis: Monthly magazine publicized and criticized instances of racial prejudice-gave
encouragement to African -Americans writers and poets. Sent message “Be proud that you are
black>” W.E.B. DuBois was editor.