| A | B |
|---|
| Ellis Island | immigration processing station in New York Harbor through which some 17 million people passed between 1892 and 1924 |
| Angel Island | immigrant processing center in San Francisco Bay though which many Chinese immigrants passed before 1940 |
| melting pot | idea that the United States was a mixture of people of different cultures and races who were blended together to become Americans by abandoning their native languages and customs |
| nativism | overt favoritism toward native born Americans |
| Chinese Exclusion Act | banned entry of Chinese with few exceptions between 1892 and 1943 |
| Gentlemen's Agreement | deal between the Japanese and US government to limit Japanes emigration in exchange for concessions from the US government |
| urbanization | growth of cities |
| Americanization movement | designed to assimilate people of wide ranging cultures into the dominant culturete |
| tenements | multi-family urban dwellings that were often clumped together in dirty, dangerous slum areas |
| mass transit | transportation systems designed to move large numbers of people along fixed routes (train, subway) |
| Social Gospel movement | preached salvation through service |
| settlement houses | provided assistance to people in slum areas, particularly immigrants |
| Jane Addams | social reformer and advocate of settlement houses |
| political machine | an organized group that controlled the activities of a political party in a city |
| graft | the illegal use of political influence for personal gain |
| Boss Tweed | head of Tammany Hall, New York's powerful Democratic political machine |
| Tweed Ring | a group of corrupt politicians who defrauded New York City |
| patronage | giving of public jobs to people who had helped a candidate get elected |
| civil service | government administration |
| Rutherford B. Hayes | Elected in 1876, tried to reform the spoils system |
| spoils system | system of patronage in which the winners of elections gave jobs to their supporters |
| James A. Garfield | president who sought civil service reform; was assasinated by a disgruntled job seeker in 1881 |
| Chester A. Aurthur | became president upon Garfield's death and became a reformer |
| Pendleton Civil Service Act | made appointment to government jobs based on a merit system |
| Grover Cleveland | only president to serve two non-consecutive terms |
| Benjamin Harrison | favored high tariffs; elected president in 1888; got the McKinley Tariff Act passed |
| "birds of passage" | immigrants who intended only to be in America a short while, make money, then go home. |
| Europeans | Between 1870 & 1920, 20 million Europeans came to the US. |
| religious, political, and economic persecution | All reasons why immigrants left their homelands to come to the US |
| Chinese & Japanese | Asian immigrants arrived to the US in smaller numbers and through Angel Island processing station, in San Francisco Bay. |
| migration | As more and more farms merged into big companies, rural people moved to cities to find whatever work they could. |
| racial tensions | 200,000 African Americans moved to the north and west in an effort to escape racial violence only to find the same conditions or worse. |
| Jacob Riis | Photographer who documented the harsh life for the poor living in the cities. |
| Housing in the cities | overcrowded, rats, disease, no air circulation in the buildings |
| transportation in cities | mass transit developed. Street cars in San Francisco and electric subways in Boston |
| water in cities | often unclean, indoor plumbing seldom seen, cholera and typhoid fever occurred. |
| sanitation in cities | horse manure piled in the street along with human excrement, no dependable trash pick up |
| crime in cities | pickpockets, thieves thrived. First full time police department was organized in New York. |
| Fire in cities | limited water supply contributed to massive fires. Candles and kerosence heaters made the situation worse. |
| Fire departments, sewers, water works plants, mass transit, windows, trash pick up, brick buildings | All innovations that made life in the city safer |
| Social Gospel, Jane Adams, settlement houses | All things that set out to improve life in the city for people. |
| Gilded Age | time period of local and national political corruption. |
| political boss | People who used their power to gain personal wealth, buy voter loyalty, and extend their influence. |
| Immigrants and political machines | Political machines helped immigrants find work, shelter, and get their citizenship all in return for their vote at the polls. |
