The document summarizes key events and developments in the United States between 1850 and 1876 related to industrialization, transportation, communication, politics, and social issues. Some highlights include the Bessemer Process revolutionizing steel production, the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, the invention of the telephone by Bell and Watson, and the beginning of Jim Crow laws to enforce racial segregation in the South.
I assigned Newsweek\'s Johnnie Roberts to bring the complicated world of broadcasting mogul Cathy Hughes to light in this business profile for Essence. I give him high marks for shoe-leather reporting.
I assigned Newsweek\'s Johnnie Roberts to bring the complicated world of broadcasting mogul Cathy Hughes to light in this business profile for Essence. I give him high marks for shoe-leather reporting.
2. The Bessemer Process,
a cheaper, more Herbert Spencer used
efficient process for Social Dariwnism to
making steel, was explain the evolution of
developed. The new human society by natural
production process selection. His ideas
fueled the industrial stemmed from Charles
revolution further and Darwin’s theory of
caused major urban biological evolution as
development. published in his book On
the Origin of Species.
1850 1857 1859
Calvert Vaux and Fredrick Law Olmstead ,
planners of urban parks, drew up a plan for
Greensward. The plan was selected to
become central park in NYC. It improved
the beauty and serenity of the city.
http://tinyurl.com/b6jtgj3 http://tinyurl.com/adnaqba
3. The Patrons of
The Credit Mobilier Hasbandry, formed by
was a construction Oliver Hudson Kelley,
company formed by the was an organization for
owners of the Union farmers , later known as
Pacific Railroad. They the Grange. It was a
During 1862, several thousand African used it to fraudulently social and educational
Americans moved from the post- skim off railroad profits group that attempted to
reconstruction South to Kansas. They for themselves. combat the power of the
were referred to as exodusters. railroads.
1862 1864 1867
The Cheyenne returned to Colorado’s
The Homestead Act, a US Sand Creek Reserve, with the
law, was enacted in 1862. It assumption that they were under US
provided 160 acres in the government protection. On
west to homesteaders, November 29th, 1864, 15o Cheyenne
anyone who was head of people, mostly women and children,
the household and would were killed by militia colonel John
cultivate the land for five Covington. The event is often
years. Record numbers of referred to as the Sand Creek
settlers claimed private Massacre.
property in the area.
http://tinyurl.com/b79hoap http://tinyurl.com/bpgvc26
4. The Standard Oil
Company of Ohio was
In 1870, Jacob Riis
established by John D
left Denmark for the
Rockefeller. By 1870, it
United States. He
processed two to three
pointed out the
percent of the country’s
unclean and
crude oil. Within a
overcrowded
decade, it controlled 90
dumbbell
percent of the refining
tenements.
business.
1869 1870 1871
Under the direction of Boss
The Transcontinental Tweed, the Tweed Ring lasted
Railroad was completed in Thomas Nast, a political
from 1869 to 1871. The group of
1869. It stretched from the cartoonist, helped
corrupt politicians took on a
Atlantic to Pacific coasts of arouse public outrage
project to construct the NY
the US. The completion of against Tammany
County Courthouse. It cost
the track was in Hall’s graft, finally
taxpayers 13 million dollars, but
Promontory, Utah, were breaking the Tweed
should’ve only been 3 million
Central Pacific and Union Ring.
dollars.
Pacific Railroads connected.
http://tinyurl.com/bggqma2 http://tinyurl.com/d34f8df
5. Montgomery Ward and Sears
Roebuck brought retail George Armstrong
merchandise to small towns Custer reported that the
with the mail-order catalog. Black Hills, in the great
Ward’s catalog was launched in plains of western South
1872 and caused the Post Office Dakota. His claim caused a
to introduce a rural free delivery gold rush and two Sioux
system to bring packages to chiefs to appeal again to
every home. government officials in
Washington.
1872 1873 1874
Andrew Carnegie entered
the steel industry in 1873.
By 1899, the Carnegie Steel
Company manufactured
more steel than all the
factories in Great Britain.
http://tinyurl.com/c5svtdh
http://tinyurl.com/bjwhhv8 http://tinyurl.com/d59ooj9
6. Thomas Alva Edison created
the world’s first research
laboratory in Menlo Park, New
Jersey. He perfected the
incandescent light bulb and a
system to produce and
distribute electrical power
there.
1876
Bimetallism was a
monetary system in which
Alexander Graham Bell the government would
and Thomas Watson give citizens either gold or
unveiled the telephone silver in exchange for
in 1876. The invention paper currency or checks.
opened the way for a
worldwide
communications network.
http://tinyurl.com/cs7jpqz http://tinyurl.com/aqzja3h
7. Jim Crow
Laws were laws
enacted by
southern state
and local The Southern Alliance
governments was the largest alliance. It
to separate included white southern
blacks and farmers who accepted the
whites. separation of
organizations.
1877
Some of the Nez Perce people Gilded Age,
refused to leave their ancestral by Charles
land in the Pacific Northwest Dudley and
and move to the Indian Mark
reservation in Idaho. However, Twain,
they were forcibly removed, mocks the
causing the Nez Perce war with greed and
the US government. self
indulgence
of his
characters.
http://tinyurl.com/az6wrhp http://tinyurl.com/chu9rfp
8. George Pullman built a In 1883, Joseph Pulitzer
factory for manufacturing bought the New York World.
sleepers and other It included large Sunday
railroad cars on the editions, comics, sports
Illinois prairie. He also coverage, and women’s news.
built a nearby town for his He emphasized “sin, sex, and
employees, providing for sensation” in his paper.
all their basic needs.
1880 1881 1883
Booker T Washington The first settlement house was created in
was the leader of the 1876 in Chicago. It was a community center
Tuskegee Normal and providing assistance to residence, mostly
Industrial Institute. He immigrants, in a slum neighborhood.
believed that racism would
end once blacks acquired
useful labor skills and
proved their economic
value to society.
http://tinyurl.com/bn249rr http://tinyurl.com/audog82
9. The National Farmers’ Alliance
Samuel Gompers led included many who sympathized
the Cigar Markers’ with farmers. They sent lecturers
International Union from town to town to educate
to join with other craft people about the topics of lower
unions in 1886. interest rates on loans and
government control over railroads
and banks.
1886
On May 4th, people gathered in Chicago’s
The Colored Farmers’ Haymarket Square to protest police brutality.
Alliance was formed by a In the Haymarket Affair, the public began to
white Baptist missionary, turn against the labor movement.
R M Humphrey. It
prompted cooperative
buying and selling. They
had to meet mostly in
secret to avoid racially
motivated violence at the
hands of angry
landowners and suppliers.
http://tinyurl.com/bh7ygwj http://tinyurl.com/cpzzo33
10. The Interstate Commerce
Commission was a five member
group. They worked to reestablish the
right of the federal government to
supervise railroad activities. The group
formed due to the passing of the
Interstate Commerce Act.
1887 1888
In 1888, George
Dawes Act was Eastman introduced
passed by Congress in his Kodak camera. It
1887. It aimed to prompted many
Americanize the Americans to become
Native Americans. It amateur
broke up reservations photographers and
and gave some of the created the
land individual Native photojournalism field.
Americans.
http://tinyurl.com/ceaests
11. On December 28th, 1890, the 7th Cavalry
rounded up 350 starved Sioux and took
them to a camp at Wounded Knee Creek
in South Dakota. Soldiers demanded that
the Native Americans give up their
Alarmed at the tactics of the weapons and shots were fired. In the
industrialists, critics began to Battle of Wounded Knee, the Cavalry
call them robber barons. It was killed about 300, mostly unarmed, Native
a derogatory term used for Americans.
businessmen who made
immense amounts of money.
1890
A Paiute prophet promised the poor Sioux that if they
preformed the Ghost Dance ritual their land would be
restored. This alarmed military leaders who issued the The Sherman Antitrust Act made it
arrest of Sitting Bull. illegal to form a trust that interfered
with free trade between the states of
with other countries. The Government
feared that expanding corporations
would stifle free competition.
http://tinyurl.com/clum43b http://tinyurl.com/ctsggs6
12. Populism was a political On July 2nd, 1892, a populist party
movement demanding that convention in Omaha, Nebraska
people have a greater voice in demanded reforms to lift the
government and seeking to burden of debt on farmers and
advance the interests of farmers other workers. Their Omaha
and laborers. Platform gave the people a
greater voice in their
government.
1892
On March 9th, 1892, three African
American businessmen, friends
of Ida B Wells, were illegally
executed without trial. Many
other groups were discriminated
against politically and violently.
http://tinyurl.com/cczeyug
13. William Randolph Hearst
purchased the New York Morning
Due to the panic of 1893, the Journal in 1895. He sought to
Pullman Company laid off over outdo the Pulitzer by filling it
3000 employees and cut wages by with exaggerated tales of
up to 50%. Many took home less personal scandal, cruelty,
than 6 dollars a week. The hypnotism, and an imaginary
Pullman Strike turned violent conquest to Mars.
and federal troops were sent in.
1894 1895
Eugene v Debs felt unions
should include all laborers,
skilled and unskilled, in a
specific industry. He formed the
American Railway Union, which
won a strike for higher wages in
1894. The group added to the
momentum of the union
organizing.
http://tinyurl.com/bubbdn4 http://tinyurl.com/ahtbzc6
14. The supreme court case
of Plessy vs. Ferguson
tested the
constitutionality of
segregation. The court William Jennings
ruled that the separation Bryan gave his Cross
of races in public of Gold Speech in his
accommodations was 1896 presidential
legal and didn’t violate campaign for the
the 14th amendment. democratic party.
1896 1899
William McKinley was The Vaudeville theatre was called “an
nominated by the republican American invention” by Edwin Milton.
party as their presidential It offered something to attract
candidate in 1896, to state their everyone.
firm commitment to the gold
standard. He overall won the
election for president.
http://tinyurl.com/an4e62c http://tinyurl.com/begygcy http://tinyurl.com/bjlbv28
15. Starting in
W E B Dubois was the first African 1910, around
American to receive a doctorate 50000 Chinese
from Harvard. He founded the immigrants
Niagara Movement and insisted entered the US
blacks should seek a liberal arts through Angel
education so the African American Island in the
community could have educated San Francisco
leaders. Bay.
1903 1905 1907 1910
On December 17th, 1903, in
Kitty Hawk, NC, Orville and Ellis Island,
Wilbur Wright preformed located on the
their first successful flight. upper bay just off
They opened the way for the New Jersey
further advances in the coast, had a record
development of the airplane. number of
immigrants
processed in 1907/
http://tinyurl.com/ayn9xuu http://tinyurl.com/a28py4l