American

History

Timeline

(1865-1895)Rob Stafford

1850

1862

1864

The Bessemer

Process is cheap

and efficient process

for making steel

which was

developed by British

manufacturer Henry

Bessemer and

American William

Kelly. The technique

involved injecting air

into molten iron to

remove carbon and

other impurities.

The Homestead Act

was a law enacted

that provided 160

acres in the West to

any citizen who was

head of household

and would cultivate

the land for five

years. This law led to

settlers claiming

private property

previously reserved

for Native Americans. Massacre at Sand

Creek- When the

Cheyenne returned

to Colorado’s Sand

Creek Reserve for

the winter, Colonel

John Chivington and

his troops

descended on

Cheyenne and that

Arapaho camped at

Sand Creek. The

attack at dawn on

November 29, 1864

killed over 150

inhabitants.

1867

Oliver Kelley

started the Patrons

of Husbandry, an

organization for

farmers that became

popularly known as

the Grange and

encouraged families

to promote the

economic well-being

of the community

and agriculture.

1869 1870 1870

The

Transcontinental

Railroad was

competed in 1869,

liking the Atlantic and

Pacific coasts of the

United States. This

railroad allowed

nationwide

transportation that

united the country.

In the 1870’s, trusts

became important.

Participants in a

trust turned their

stock over to a

group of trustees-

people who ran the

separate companies

as one large

corporation. In

return, the

companies were

entitled to dividends

on profits earned by

the trust.

Long drives are the

moving of cattle over

trails to a shipping

center. There was

normally one cowboy

to about every 250

head of cattle, a cook

who drove the chuck

wagon and set up

camp, and a wrangler

who cared for the

extra animals. Trail

bossed supervised

the drive and

negotiated with

settlers.

1870

At age 21, Jacob

Riis left Denmark for

the United States.

He found work as a

police reporter which

exposed him to New

York City’s slums.

He was shocked at

the conditions in the

overcrowded,

airless, filthy

tenements and

expressed these

hardships through

writing.

1871 1873 1875

Fredrick Law

Olmstead was a

landscape architect

who helped draw up a

plan for “Greensward”

which was selected to

become Central Park

in New York City. He

also planned

landscaping for

Washington, DC, and

St. Louis. He also

drew the initial

designs for one of

Boston’s park

systems.

Andrew Carnegie

moved from Scotland

to America and worked

his way up to become

private secretary of the

local boss of the

Pennsylvania Railroad.

He bought stock and

made his own fortune.

In 1873, he founded

the Carnegie Steel

Factory. He improved

manufacturing

operation and

controlled almost all of

the steel industry.

Kickbacks,

overpayments of

government money

that were

“kickbacked” to

government officials,

were very common

around this time.

1875

Tammany Hall was

New York City’s

powerful Democratic

political machine

headed by Boss

Tweed. The Tweed

Ring was a corrupt

organization that

Boss Tweed ran as

part of Tammany

Hall.

Greensward

1876 1876 1876

George Armstrong

Custer reported in

1874 that the Black

Hills had lots of gold.

In June 1876, he

and his troops

reached the Little

Bighorn River where

they met Native

Americans. The

Indians crushed

Custer’s troops

killing all of them

within an hour.

Alexander Graham

Bell, along with

Thomas Watson,

invented the

telephone.

The National

Farmers’ Alliance

groups included

people who

sympathized with

farmers. Lecturers of

this group traveled

educating and

persuading people

about lower interest

rates on loans and

government control

over railroads and

banks. Membership

in the group grew to

more than 4 million.

1876

Thomas Alva

Edison established

the world’s first

research laboratory

in Menlo Park, New

Jersey. He later

perfected the

incandescent light

bulb and invented an

entire system for

producing and

distributing

electricity.

1876 1877 1877

The Battle of Little

Bighorn occurred

when Colonel Custer

and his troops met

Native Americans at

the Little Bighorn

River. The Native

Americans, led by

Crazy Horse, Gall,

and Sitting Bull,

crushed Custer’s

troops. Within an

hour, Custer and all

of the men of the

Seventh Cavalry

were dead.

Chief Joseph

succeed his father

as the leader of the

Wallowa band of

Nez Perce when the

United States

government forcibly

removed them from

their land in Wallowa

Valley to a

reservation in Idaho

in 1877.

The Nez Perce was a

group of Native

American people who

lived in the Pacific

Northwest region of the

United States. In 1877,

they were ordered to a

reservation by the U.S.

government and

refused to go. They fled

to Canada and fought

the U.S. Army along the

way. After five days of

fighting, few Nez Perce

remained after they had

been defeated.

1880

Social Darwinism is

an economic and

social philosophy

based on Charles

Darwin’s theory of

evolution by natural

selection. This

theory was used by

philosopher Herbert

Spencer to explain

the evolution of

human society.

1880 1880 1880

Segregation, the

separation of people

based on the basis

of race, was a

controversial issue

during this time.

Southern states

passed laws to

separate white and

black people in

public and private

facilities.

The Gilded Age was a

time of enormous

growth in the United

States, railroads being

the major industry. The

North and West thrived

while the South

remained economically

devastated from the

Civil War. African

Americans were

stripped of many

rights. Rights for

blacks, tariff policies,

and monetary policies

were dominant issues.

Sweat shop was a

negatively connoted

term for any working

environment

considered to be

unacceptably difficult

or dangerous.

1880

John D. Rockefeller established

the Standard Oil Company and

used a trust to gain total control

of the oil industry in America. He

reaped huge profits by paying his

employees low wages and

driving competitors out of

business by selling his oil at a

lower price than in cost to

produce it. Once he controlled

the market, he hiked prices far

above original levels. He gave

away a lot of money and

established the Rockefeller

Foundation, provided funds to

found the University of Chicago,

and created a medical institute.

1881 1881 1881

Sitting Bull was the

leader of the Hunkpapa

Sioux who was a

warrior, spiritual leader,

and medicine man. He

believed whites should

leave Sioux territory.

His most famous fight

was at the Little Bighorn

River. Bull surrendered

to the government in

1881 and was killed by

Native American police

9 years later.

Gafts, the illegal use

of political influence

for personal gain,

were a large part of

political corruption

during this time.

Booker T.

Washington was an

African American

educator who believed

that racism would end

when blacks acquired

useful labor skills and

proved their economic

value to society. He

was born enslaved and

graduated from

Virginia’s Hampton

Industrial Institute in

Alabama. He aimed to

equip blacks with

useful skills for jobs.

1883

The Pendleton Civil

Service Act was a

law enacted that

established a

bipartisan civil

service commission

to make

appointments to

government jobs by

means of the merit

system based on

candidates’

performance on an

examination.

1884 1884 1885

Scabs were hired

strikebreakers paid

to keep the business

running while others

were on strike.

Guards would

protect these people

while they worked

during strikes

Mugwumps were

Republican political

activists who bolted

from the Republican

Party by supporting

Democratic candidate

Grover Cleveland in

the 1884 Presidential

election. They

switched because

they rejected the

financial corruption

associated with

Republican candidate

James G. Blain.

Dumbbell

tenements were

built in New York

City to

accommodate

immigrants. The

name is derived

from the shape of

the building’s

footprint of a

dumbbell.

1886

A settlement house

was a community

center providing

assistance to

residents, particularly

immigrants in a slum

neighborhood. These

houses were run by

middle-class, college-

educated women. The

houses provided

educational, cultural,

and social services, It

offered classes, health

care, and support for

women.

1850 1862 1864 18671887 1888 1888

The Dawes Act was a

law that was intended to

“Americanize” Native

Americans by distributing

reservation land to

individual Indian owners-

160 acres to each head

of household and 80

acres to each unmarried

adult. The government

would sell the remainder

of the reservations to

settlers, and the resulting

income would be used by

Native Americans to buy

farm implements.

Poll taxes were

created as annual

taxes that had to be

paid before qualifying

to vote. Black and

white sharecroppers

were often too poor to

pay these poll taxes.

Southern States added

the Grandfather Clause

to their constitutions. It

stated that even if a man

failed the literacy test or

could not afford a poll

tax, he was still entitled

to vote if he, his father, or

his grandfather had been

eligible to vote before

January 1, 1867. Before

that date, freed slaves

did not have the right to

vote. This law prevented

blacks from voting.

1888

George Eastman

developed a series

of more convenient

alternatives to the

heavy glass plates

previously used in

photography.

Photographers could

use more flexible

film and send it to a

studio for

processing. He

introduced the

Kodak camera in

1888.

1889 1890 1890

Jane Addams was

an influential

member of the

Social Gospel

movement who

founded the Hull

House in 1889 along

with Ellen Gates

Starr. This was a

settlement home

located near

Chicago, Illinois.

Jim Crow Laws were

laws enacted by

Southern States and

local governments to

separate white and

black people in public

and private facilities.

George

Westinghouse was

an entrepreneur and

engineer who

invented the railway

air brake and was a

pioneer of the

electrical industry.

He founded the

Westinghouse

Electric Corporation.

1890

Angel Island was a

US entry point in

San Francisco Bay,

California, where

immigrants from the

West Coast arrived

and gained

admission to the

United States.

These immigrants

were primarily from

Asia.

1890 1890 1890

Culture shock is

personal

disorientation that a

person may feel

when experiencing

an unfamiliar way of

life due to

immigration.

The Ghost Dance

was a movement that

spread rapidly among

the 25,000 Sioux an

the Dakota

reservation. It was

based on a prophet

who promised that if

Sioux performed a

ritual called the Ghost

Dance, Native

American lands and

way of life would be

restored.

America became

known as a melting

pot because of the

mixture of people

from different

cultures and races

who blended

together by

abandoning their

native languages

and cultures.

1890

Political machines

were organized

groups that

controlled political

parties in a city and

offered services to

voters and

businesses in

exchange for

political and financial

support.

1890 1890 1891

Wounded Knee- On

December 28, 1890,

the Seventh Cavalry

rounded up 350

starving and freezing

Sioux and took them to

a camp at Wounded

Knee Creek in South

Dakota. The next day,

soldiers demanded

that the Indians give

up their weapons. A

shot was fired and the

soldiers opened fire

killing 300 mostly

unarmed Native

Americans.

The Sherman

Antitrust Act was a

law enacted that was

intended to prevent

the creation of

monopolies by

making it illegal to

establish trusts that

interfered with free

trade.

Collective

bargaining was a

process of

negotiations

between employers

and a group of

employees aimed at

reaching

agreements that

regulate working

conditions.

1892

The Omaha Platform

was a party program that

adopted the convention

of the Populist Party held

in Omaha, Nebraska on

July 4, 1892. The

Preamble was by

Ignatius L. Donnelly. The

planks represented the

Farmers’ Alliance

concerns, free-currency

monetarism, and

endorsing the goals of

the Urban Knights of

Labor.

1894 1894 1895

Eugene Vs. Debs

attempted to form an

industrial union- the

American Railway

Union (ARU). Union

members were

mostly unskilled and

semiskilled laborers,

but engineers and

firemen joined too.

In 1894, the new

union won a strike

for higher wages.

Membership

eventually grew to

150,000.

When businesses fell

in 1894, George

Pullman cut jobs and

wages in a plant and

increased working

hours in order to

lower costs and keep

profits, but not rents

or prices in his town.

His workers launched

the Pullman Strike

which was eventually

broken up by federal

troops.

Ellis Island was a

popular immigration

station located in

New York Harbor.

Immigrants were

given medical

examinations,

government

inspections, and

various tests. Ellis

Island was the chief

immigration station

with an estimated 17

million immigrants.

1895

Urbanization, the

growth of cities, was

expanding especially

in the regions of the

Northeast and

Midwest.

1895 1896 1897

William Randolph

Hurst purchased the

New York Morning

Journal and also

owned the San

Francisco Examiner.

He tried to out-do his

competitors by filling

the Journal with

exaggerated tales of

personal scandals,

cruelty, hypnotism,

and imaginary

conquest of Mars.

In Plessy vs. Ferguson,

the Supreme Court ruled

that the separation of races

in public places was legal

and did not violate the

Fourteenth Amendment. It

began when Homer Plessy

was seated in the “whites

only” car and refused to

move. He was arrested,

tried, and convicted in the

District Court of New

Orleans for breaking

Louisiana’s segregation

law. He appealed, and sent

the trial to Supreme Court.

Ragtime was a

blend of African

spirituals and

European musical

forms, which

originated in the

saloons of the

South. This style

later led to jazz, rock

‘n’ roll, and the

blues.

1901

Monopolies

developed which

was a complete

control over it’s

industry’s

production, wages,

and prices achieved

by a firm that buys

out all its

competitors.

1902 1903 1900s

Debt Peonage was a

system in which

workers were bound

in servitude until their

debts were paid to

their employer.

Brothers Orville and

Wilbur Wright,

bicycle manufacturers

from Dayton, Ohio,

worked on planes.

They first built a

glider, then a four-

cylinder internal

combustion engine.

Their first successful

flight was on

December 17, 1903

at Kitty Hawk, North

Carolina. The flight

covered 120 feet and

lasted 12 seconds.

Literary tests were

voting restrictions

imposed in the

Southern States to

limit blacks’ votes.

The tests for blacks

were very hard and

sometimes written in

different languages,

making it almost

impossible to pass.

Officials could pass

or fail applicants as

they wished which

allowed for

discrimination

against blacks.

1900s

Vaudeville was a

theatrical genre that

included

performances of

song, dance,

juggling, slapstick

comedy, and a

female chorus.

Promoters sought

large audiences with

various backgrounds

to display various

cultures.

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Works Cited