1. 1865-1870’s; after the systematic killing of buffalo in the west, cattle took their place to graze. Cattle in Texas could not be profited off of if sold in Texas, but they were worth a lot in the east. For example, a longhorn might be worth $3 if sold in Texas, but it could be sold in the east for $40. So when a railroad in Missouri opened up, it was close enough that the Texas ranchers (who hired cowboys) started the ‘long drive,’ which herded the cattle hundreds of miles north to the railroad. This system only lasted until the railroads extended to Texas.  These long drives were hard and harsh to the cowboys, many of which where African Americans or Hispanic.  These long drives occurred during the Cattle Kingdom, during which the Indian Buffalo were being killed off and more and more ranches were coming into being in the West. 

1. 1879; when reconstruction was over and federal protection was gone, many southern blacks left the south for Kansas in fear of white vengeance. They wanted racial freedom. Some 6,000 blacks left for Kansas with nothing but the clothes on their backs, and in 1880 there were 40,000 blacks living there. These black homesteaders were different than others because they didn’t want to better themselves economically but instead wanted freedom. 

 (1876) Custer lead an attack, disregarding orders, against the Sioux warriors on Little Big Horn. Custer launched a surprise attack, but his forces were spread too thin across the battlegrounds. Crazy Horse led the Sioux to a great victory for the Sioux warriors. The government frowned upon the actions of Custer. This did nothing except postpone the capturing of the Indians. Later, the Sioux warriors gave up one by one and moved onto reservations. 

 1881; Helen hunt Jackson wrote this influential book, fueling the Indian sympathy movement. The book told about the unjust treatment of the Indians. Relating to this, the Indian Rights Association was created after the civil war. These reformers believed that the Indians needed to be assimilated into white society, starting with the children; this is why they had Indian school that attempted to Americanize the children.

People believed that private property would help the Indian assimilation and help to take away Tribal Identity, so the government passed this act, dividing up reservation lands into chunks that were then handed out to the heads of families. Each head would get 160 acres and individuals would get smaller pieces of land. The land would be held in trust by the US government for 15 years, after which the Indians would become citizens. Any leftover reservation lands would be sold off, with the profits going into an Indian education fund.

1891; They believed the spirits would protect them if they rebelled. The Indians awaited the day and practiced the Ghost Dance. Resident whites around the area became alarmed of the Indians. Soldiers stepped in and tried to disarm the Indians, starting a battle in South Dakota. The soldiers succeeded and this battle was the final battle in the war against the Plain Indians. The army brutally killed about 150 Indian men, women and children as they fled, unarmed. About 25 Americans died. Tribal lands were then divided and given to the Indians, although whites flooded into their lands, becoming the majority in Indian Territory. 

 (1882) Because of the poverty they had and the success of the California Gold Rush, the Chinese flocked to the US between 1850 and 1880. The Chinese became free workers in the US, usually working for a Confederation of Chinese Merchants (Six Companies) or working on the transcontinental and other railroads. After these jobs, the Chinese took to agriculture, irrigation, and other projects. California targeted the Chinese for racism because there were not many blacks. Mobs broke out and both the Republicans and Democrats joined with the cause of Anti-Chinese. Congress then passed the Chinese Exclusion Act which securely barred and further entry of Chinese laborers into the United States. 

 (1870) a devoted lover and preservationist of Yosemite. Yosemite later became a National Park in 1890 because of preservationists like John Muir. They failed to save the Hetch Hetchy gorge that was north of Yosemite National Park from being dammed up. California had become unique by linking the health of society with the preservation of the natural environment of California. 

(1836-1892) an American financer who was involved in the railroad industry. He, at one time, owned the Erie, Wabash, Union Pacific, and Missouri Pacific Railway systems. Gould was very involved in the stock market. He was called a Robber Baron: a person who takes riches from the economic system and gives nothing back in return. Gould owned so many railways in the Southwestern states they were called the “Gould System.” He was very greedy until the end of his life, even when the stock market turned against him and he was losing money. 

 (1860) The government wanted to help the railroads and make them prosper to benefit from the economic benefits. The government helped financially, but it also created a legal form of organization called corporations. These corporations allowed private capital to be raised in huge amounts. Investors who had stock in the railroad only risked the money they invested and were not responsible for the railroad’s debts. Corporations could also borrow money by giving out bonds. This became the most effective way of money accumulation. This was a system of free enterprise. The government created trust with the railroad companies.

 (1865) he instituted vertical integration into the livestock Market by creating such innovations as refrigerator cars and refrigerated warehouses to keep his beef cold. He then created facilities to process fertilizer, chemicals, and other products used in the slaughtering of his beef. He owned the slaughter house, the cattle, the railways, and the refrigerator cars in the process of making beef. This way he reduced labor costs and utilized waste products. This is an example of vertical integration in which one large company absorbs the processes of small, specialized enterprises. One company owns every stage of production in a product. 

 (1869) it started out as a secret society of garment workers in Philadelphia and wanted to create an egalitarian society to give every citizen hope to be economically independent. They wanted a new wage system that brought just order to capitalists and workers alike. They wanted to unite the all workers under one banner and move society towards socialism. The Knights of Labor turned into a national movement with comradeship and fraternal spirit that wanted to set up factories and shops that were owned by the employees. They wanted a cooperative commonwealth. No action really took place; rather, the Knights believed that through education they would mysteriously achieve their commonwealth. Blacks and eventually woman became a part of the Knights of Labor. They were lead by Workman Terence V. Powderly. 

 (1886) People began to fear the Knights of Labor because of their rapid growth and their actions that were similar to the trade unions. The Trade Unions felt attacked. Samuel Gompers attacked the ideals of the Knights, saying that grand theories and schemes used to excite labor reformers should not be used. Unions should stay focused upon achievable goals. Unions should organize workers by craft and occupation. This ideology came to be called “pure and simple” unionism. National Trade Unions then formed the American Federation of Labor with Gompers as the president, a response to the Knight activity of Haymarket Square. The AFL focused on small term, reachable goals that made sense in improving working conditions such as 8 hour days, more pay, job security, and organization of craft workers. They wanted no political party of workers. 

 (1886) Because of an 8 hour strike, inspired by the cause of the 8 hour work day,  in Chicago that left 4 dead, local anarchists held a protest meeting in Haymarket Square. Police tried to break up the meeting, leading someone to throw a bomb that killed police, leading to wild gun fire. The anarchists, though there was no evidence, were tried, convicted, and sentenced for the murder and criminal conspiracy. This Haymarket Square Incident was blamed on the Knights of Labor, leading to their ultimate demise. 

(1892) Andrew Carnegie’s steel mills in Homestead, Pennsylvania became the site of a great strike after Carnegie thought that collective bargaining was too expensive and that machines were the future of his company. Through a second in command man Henry Clay Frick, Carnegie cut ties the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (a Union). The plant had made it possible for workers to come back and work on an individual basis. The whole town, including the mayor, was for the union and decided to stand up for it. Open fire ensued when Carnegie hired armed guards to control his steel works. Men and woman mercilessly attacked the guards. The Governor of Pennsylvania put Homestead under martial law and brought out the state militia. This was influential because it marked the beginning of the end of the involvement of trade unions in the steel industry. Working people began to feel strife against corporate industry and the power of their government. 

 (1894) George M. Pullman invented the sleeping car that was added to railway travel. Because of the Panic of 1893, Pullman cut his wages when business was going badly. He failed to lower the cost of company housing, though, for his workers. Pullman fired a worker’s committee that complained of this, saying there was no connection between his role as landlord and employer. A strike ensued that brought in the American Railway Union. Workers were instructed not to hand the Pullman sleeping cars, as said by the leader of the ARU, Eugene V. Debs. The Pullman Boycott became a secondary boycott because it had to put pressure on the railroads in order to put pressure on Pullman. The railroads went to the government, saying that this feud meddled with the transportation of U.S. mail. Richard Olney, attorney General of Cleveland, later obtained a court injunction that prohibited the ARU from keeping up the strike. Debs and his cohorts resisted and were jailed. 

 (1900s) Mass production started to be the movement in production of products. Machines that were created to do the same job over and over came into being. Companies liked machinery because it increased the production rate, not caring about the impact on the actual workers. Frederick W. Taylor began to find a way to reduce the cost of production by managing the workers in a better way. Taylor instituted the Scientific Management to get the max amount of work from one worker by getting rid of the brain work from the manual labor and getting rid of the authority workers had in the workplace. The managers would then time and analyze each job through the time and motion study in order to increase the rate and make more money. Workers resisted this and it cost lots of money. These ideas, though, created new fields of personnel work and industrial psychology to get better labor from workers. This accompanied the death of the skilled worker in industry. 

(1905) The Industrial Workers of the World was a radical movement that greatly supported the issue of Marxist class struggle by resistance and strikes at the workplace, creating revolution. The I.W.W. was composed up of the Western Federation of Miners and left-wing socialists. Its followers were called Wobblies. They hoped that a new form of society would be created that was ultimately run by the workers and their industrial unions. This group was mainly composed up of unskilled workers. It also encouraged violence. Its main leader, Big Bill Haywood, was later put on trial for a murder. He was defended by Clarence Darrow. 

(1840-1910) Sumner was a sociology professor at Yale who brought Social Darwinism to new heights in America. Social Darwinism became the survival of the fittest in individuals, societies, countries, and nations. Natural selection was also a major part. Sumner also said that competition is a law of nature. Sumner wrote a famous essay entitled “The Absurd Attempt to Make the World Over” in 1894. Social Darwinists did not want the government to interfere with the social processes of society, rather, government was to simply deal with the property of man and the honor of woman. 

 (1870) Politics began to have these unofficial internal organizations that had many political insiders that did the work of the party in order to receive public jobs or advantages of this service. The “boss” ruled over these machines, although the secondary leaders almost ruled more than this single power. Bribes and kickbacks were used to get who they want in power. They wanted to get the vote out for their candidate. These political machines were present in both the Democratic and Republican parties. Some machine politicians actually served as effective legislatures and congressmen because of their experience with politics. Political machines filled a void in the public life. Wards also could be a part of Political machines, letting no immigrant slip through the cracks by giving them help in return for their vote. Tammany Hall was a main Democratic Political Machine located in New York. 

(1879) the president and leader of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union which was the largest women’s organization in the country. Willard took this organization past temperance, creating a “Do-Everything” policy for the organization. Willard wanted to extend the organization to woman not interested in the problems of liquor. WCTU also became interested in woman’s suffrage. Personal morals and disciplines began to be pertinent issues in the WCTU. The WCTU didn’t accomplish much because of its division over the issue of suffrage. Though, the organization did lay a groundwork for a new attack on male electoral politics, showing how a woman’s voice could be a huge park of political culture. 

 (1883) The spoils system said that government appointments were to be rewards for the people who had served the winning political party. Many disliked this so called scramble for office, so the Pendleton Act was created. This act said that there was to be a list of positions to be filled upon the basis of an examination. This examination would be administered by the newly created Civil Service Commission. This act did cause public administration to rise, but it only covered a mere 10% of federal jobs. The White house was still preoccupied with this issue. 

(1884) Not everyone liked the workings of machine politics. The social elite felt excluded in machine politics and wanted different values. Three men: Schurz, Godkin, and Adams did not want to be associated with the political Republican candidate for president, James G. Blaine. These renegade Republicans from New York and Massachusetts called themselves mugwumps because of their mean of pompousness and self importance. Instead of supporting the Republican candidate, the mugwumps supported the Democratic nomination for president Grover Cleveland and helped him win by getting him the winning margin in New York. Rather than running the government, the mugwumps focused on changing public opinion. Their major success was the fight for the secret ballot, which freed voters from part surveillance and pressure. The mugwumps wanted the government to govern the people less, not caring about the people. 

 (1888) In the late 19^th century, Blue Laws were created that were instituted to regulate public morals, banning certain activities on Sundays. Nebraska banned baseball on Sunday, upsetting German and Irish Catholics greatly. They thought that these laws were violating their personal freedoms. These issues were ultimately based upon Ethno cultural conflict. The ideals of the blue laws also spread over into the question of liquor consumption, creating laws and restrictions on alcohol. These major social issues ultimately caused a deep bond and significance to rise up in what party you were affiliated too. The political parties and morals became intertwined in both the Republican and Democratic parties. 

 (1890) The two party system of Democrats and Republicans, the rich and the poor, began to adopt black disfranchisement.  The Democrats had grasped power, creating a one party rule where they could finally adopt black disfranchisement. Literary tests and poll taxes were created to get around the 15^th amendment and keep blacks from voting. Poor whites took their anger out on the blacks. The Democratic Party changed the main issue of politics from economics to race. Democrats became the party of the white people. Jim Crow laws also became a part of this black disfranchisement, creating segregated communities by separating everything in society by black and white. 

(1892) The Populist movement consisted of small farmers, factory workers, and other small workers in the Southwest region of America. Farmers were in debt and suffering from the price drops in cotton and other crops. After creating alliances and organizations trying to bring the farmers together, these farmers abandoned their party allegiances to create the Populist Party. This party created roles for woman. The Populists were pro-government, anti-trusts and big businesses, pro-income tax, and pro direct election of senators. The farmers also wanted free silver, unlimited silver, that would create rapid inflation that would help the farmers in debt accumulate desperately needed wealth. The main leaders of the Populist Party were Mary Lease, James Weaver, Tom Watson, and Ignatius Donnelly. 

??(1895) Booker T. Washington, the most famous black leader of this age, made a famous speech of toleration of segregation only if blacks had equal facilities. He wanted the literary tests, property qualifications, and all other voting loopholes to apply to blacks as well as whites. The doctrine ideas of this speech became known as the Atlanta Compromise. Washington did not want to take on the white supremacy, but, rather, wanted them to accommodate the black community of America. This Atlanta Compromise opened up a new wave of economic struggle for the blacks. Washington fought long and hard against the Jim Crow Laws and black disfranchisement. Because the Southern wealthy needed labor, Washington stressed the need for industrial education of manual and agriculture labor. Through economic progress with the black population, Washington hoped that political and civil rights for blacks would come about. 

(1896) As a response to the Jim Crow Laws of segregation of blacks that was occurring in the South, the U.S. Supreme Court supported the South’s decisions concerning this matter of race. The Supreme court said that segregation of the blacks was not discrimination. It did not violate the black civil rights stated in the fourteenth amendment as long as the blacks received equal accommodations as the whites. The blacks are to be separate but equal.  The constitution is color blind. Booker T. Washington was a main advocate of the black people concerning these issues. Though the government said that the blacks should get equal accommodations, they usually never did. 

The Realigning Pattern with Republican Dominance is another description of this Election. The Democrats did not want to support Grover Cleveland again because he was too conservative and against free silver, so they supported Bryan who worked with Populism in the south. Bryan became famous through his attack on the gold standard with his cross of gold speech. The populists also supported Bryan because he supported free silver. The Republican candidate was McKinley from the North New England. Bryan was a great speaker of morals and rights, while McKinley was calmer and spoke of industrial and economic progress to help the common people. McKinley is victorious for the Republican Party. The Republicans became the dominant political party, finally ending the political equilibrium.  

(1879) In the urban environment, the poor greatly suffered, living in wooden shacks and on streets. Tenements were then constructed to house the masses of people. These five or six story buildings housed twenty or more families in small, unhealthy apartments. People recognized that these tenements were full of major issues; they turned to creating housing codes to improve the living conditions. One such housing code was The House Law of 1901 which required all new structures to include interior courts, indoor toilets, and fire safeguards. Another housing code said that all rooms must have windows.                                  

 (1880's) Through politics, immigrants, when arriving to America, all automatically became apart of a ward with a spokesman in City Hall who would vouch on their behalf if they needed anything. Each ward was divided into a few blocks sections in order for the political and urban machines to flourish. The machine was a service agency set up to help the jobless, homeless, and suffering. Businesses were also involved in the machine politics, getting licenses and privileges that they wanted. The machine gained votes from the tenements, money from the businesses, and other things from others who were helped through the services of the machine. The machine took some of the money through bribes and kickbacks. Others in the machine favored the "honest graft" of making easy profits through savvy insiders. Foreigners became a main part of the ward politics, taking young, ambitious people and involving them in the most democratic American institution. Ultimately, politics started to integrate ethnics and give immigrants and blacks a chance to thrive in the urban society. 

 (1887) The forms of mass transit began to advance and explode during this time period. Because of the perfecting of the railroad track design in 1852, a rail flush with the pavement, omnibuses and horse cars began to pull and more people, becoming a main form of transportation. Frank J. Sprague then created the electric trolley car, creating an electric driven system with overhead power lines. The horse car became quickly obsolete. Because of the congestion, in 1879 the first elevated railroads were created in New York City. The next form of mass transit to come about was the subway, making transportation much faster. American passengers were over double of that of the rest of the world combined. Night travel was an added bonus of electricity. Electricity became an evident part of city life through Charles F. Brush's electric Arc lamps while Edison's incandescent light bulb brought light to the home. Electricity allowed for night life in the city to be possible. Electricity also powered transportation, elevators-allowing for skyscrapers, and Alexander Graham Bell's telephone. 

 (Late 19^th century) The middle class, intermixed with new salaried middle classers from industrialism, wanted privacy and comfort away from the city. These middle class people held white-collar jobs which employed more than a fourth of all employed Americans. Some lived in apartments and houses in the city, but many wanted to follow the "rural idea" and find nature and domestic life. They fled to the countryside. This suburbanization affected all American cities, extending city borders and even going past the city limits. In a 1910 census, over 25 percent of urban people were said to live in suburbs. Where you lived in a suburb directly reflected your social class, the farther from the city you lived, the richer you were. Poorer people lived closer to the city because they needed to be close to the city for their jobs. The suburbs revived the idea of home ownership, while they continued to change the boundaries of suburbia. The living standards in the suburbs were good. The suburbs did not support community, but rather focused on work and family. 

 (1890) Fewer men were marrying in the late 19^th century, becoming the Age of the Bachelor. Being a bachelor became an alternative to marriage. The city allowed bachelors to have home, along with other conveniences such as clubs, saloons, and sporting events. A crisis began to evolve out of manhood Middle class because they felt they were not there own bosses and that they had no power derived from family life because of the loss of work and household. Masculinity became watching and playing sports like football and boxing, working out, and going outdoors. Many feared that they were losing their manhood 

(1895) Joseph Pulitzer and Randolph Hearst went at it to accumulate readers for their newspapers. Hearst wanted to beat Pulitzer and New York World at their own game. Hearst used a style of journalism, called yellow journalism that put the hard facts on the back burner and wanted to get the reaction of "Gee Whiz" out of the reader. This type of journalism was first introduced in the comic strip The Yellow Kid. Newspapers became a fierce source of information and entertainment catered to different types of readers.