Notes

Homestead Act: 160 acres to farmers that would farm it
- not enough to profit
- big farms bought the land from small farmers
Railroads: Farmers disliked because they made farmers pay much more compared to low prices for bulk goods
- also got land from government
- sold land for profit after railroads were complete
Frederick Jackson Turner: Said american frontier closing was bad because that had pushed americans forward, and was a fresh start.
- thought classism would develop like europe now
Native Americans were assimilated in boarding camps
- Sioux Wars protested that
- Indian Appropriation Act: Ended recognition of natives land and nullify previous treaties
- buffalos basically go extinct
- Dawes Act: split Native land into 160 acres and let Natives have the land and become citizens
- Wounded knee ended indian revolts
South had sharecropping as new method for farming - new form of slavery
- segregation (seperate but equal)
Industrialization
- railroads transport goods nationally (better steel with Bessemer process)
- coal/oil power
- telegraph (connecting america to britain)
- telephone (alexander graham bell)
Giant Monopolies
- buy out competition or lower prices to steal business
- Horizontal Integration: buy out all the competition to be only one
- Vertical Integration: Own all parts of production so you can maximize profits
- Laissez Faire Government: Not regulating business and letting them govern themselves
Immigrant workers had low pay
- women/children worked too
Carnegie "Gospel of Wealth": Godly responsibility to give back money to the poor
Even though gap between wealthy and poor increased, conditions for workers also increased
- had protests though for better conditions
Knight of Labor: excepted everyone, had lots of members
- 8 hour day, no convict or child labor, better working conditions
American Federation of Labor: skilled laborers, higher wages, better working conditions
- better success because of easier goals and skilled workers matter more (harder to fire)