Raima Shakoor 9th April, 2020 A.P.

United States History

America Reconstruction-The Boom of the 1920s

(1865-1920s)
Period: 1865-1898
The history of the United States from 1865 until 1918 covers the Reconstruction Era,
the Gilded Age, and the Progressive Era, and includes the rise of industrialization and the
resulting surge of immigration in the United States.
 The Reconstruction Era was the period in American history which lasted from 1863 to
1877. It was a significant chapter in the history of American civil rights. The term has
two applications: the first applies to the complete history of the entire country from 1865
to 1877 following the American Civil War; the second, to the attempted transformation of
the 11 former Confederate states from 1863 to 1877, as directed by Congress, and the
role of the Union states in that transformation.
 The Gilded Age was an era that occurred during the late 19th century, from the 1870s to
about 1900. The Gilded Age was an era of rapid economic growth, especially in
the Northern United States and the Western United States.
 The Progressive Era was a period of widespread social activism and
political reform across the United States that spanned the 1890s to the 1920s. The main
objectives of the Progressive movement were addressing problems caused
by industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and political corruption.

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS
The major political developments that took place during the period 1865-1920 occurred during
the Reconstruction Era from 1863 to 1877 and during the Progressive Era from 1890s to 1920s.
Following are the two major political developments:
1. Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
2. United States Presidential Elections of 1876

Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

I. Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American statesman and
lawyer who served as the 16th president of the United States (1861–1865).
II. He was assassinated by well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865,
while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington,
D.C. Shot in the head as he watched the play, Lincoln died the following day at 7:22 am,
in the Petersen House opposite the theater.
III. President Abraham Lincoln, America’s Civil War leader, was assassinated just
five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army
at Appomattox Court House, ending the four-year War Between the States.

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IV. On March 17, Booth and the other conspirators also planned to abduct Lincoln as he
returned from a play at Campbell Military Hospital. But Lincoln did not go to the play,
instead attending a ceremony at the National Hotel. This turned out to be a failed plan.
V. Booth and his conspirators had initially planned to kidnap Lincoln to save
the Confederate States. But as the Confederacy faltered, Booth’s thoughts
turned to murder. Booth may have decided to act on his hatred after Lincoln
endorsed giving the right to vote to African-American men who had served in
the Union Army.
VI. He was the first U.S. president to be assassinated, with his funeral and burial marking an
extended period of national mourning.
VII. Johnson, a Congressman and former slaveholder from Tennessee – and the only
Southern senator to remain loyal to the Union during the Civil War – favored
lenient measures in readmitting Southern states to the Union during
the Reconstruction era.
VIII. A proponent of states’ rights, Johnson granted amnesty to most former
Confederates and allowed Southern states to elect new governments. As a
result, new state governments formed across the South and enacted “black
codes.”
IX. Black codes were restrictive laws designed to limit the freedom of African
Americans and ensure their availability as a cheap labor force after slavery was
abolished during the Civil War.
X. These restrictive measures were designed to repress the recently freed slave
population. Soon, many African Americans had little choice but to continue
working on Southern plantations.

United States Presidential Elections of 1876

I. The 1876 United States presidential election was the 23rd quadrennial presidential
election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 1876.
II. It was one of the most contentious and controversial presidential elections in American
history, and is known for being the catalyst for the end of Reconstruction.
III. In the election of 1876, the Republicans nominated Rutherford B. Hayes, the governor of
Ohio, while the Democrats, out of power since 1861, selected Samuel J. Tilden, the
governor of New York. 
IV. The initial returns pointed to a Tilden victory, as the Democrats captured the swing states
of Connecticut, Indiana, New Jersey, and New York. By midnight on Election Day,
Tilden had 184 of the 185 electoral votes needed to win. He led the popular vote by
250,000.
V. But Republicans refused to accept the result. They accused the Democrats of using
physical intimidation and bribery to discourage African Americans from voting in the
South.
VI. Democrats threatened to filibuster the official counting of the electoral votes to prevent
Hayes from assuming the presidency.

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VII. An informal deal was struck to resolve the dispute: the Compromise of 1877, which
awarded all 20 electoral votes to Hayes. In return for the Democrats' acquiescence to
Hayes' election, the Republicans agreed to withdraw federal troops from the South,
ending Reconstruction.
VIII. After a controversial post-election process, Hayes was declared the winner.
IX. The 1876 election is the second of five presidential elections in which the person who
won the most popular votes did not win the election.
X. Reconstruction policies officially end. The South codifies and enforces segregation.
Violations of black civil rights will not command national attention again until after
World War II.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS
The major economic developments that took place during the period 1865-1920 occurred during
the Gilded Era from 1870s to 1900.
Following are the two major economic developments:
1. Invention of cigarette rolling machine
2. Growth of railroad industry

Invention of Cigarette Rolling Machine

I. James Albert Bonsack (October 9, 1859 – June 1, 1924) was an American inventor who
invented an early cigarette rolling machine in 1880.
II. The economic impact of his work might put him up there with Thomas Edison,
Alexander Graham Bell and the flying Wright Brothers.
III. Prior to that time, cigarettes had been rolled by hand. Readymade cigarettes were a
luxury item, but became increasingly popular.
IV. The slow manual fabrication process—a skilled cigarette roller could produce only about
four cigarettes per minute on average—was insufficient to satisfy the demands in the
1870s. 
V. In 1880 James A. Bonsack was granted a U.S. patent for a cigarette machine in which
tobacco was fed onto a continuous strip of paper and was automatically formed, pasted,
closed, and cut to lengths by a rotary cutting knife. 
VI. Bonsack's machine was able to produce 120,000 cigarettes in 10 hours, (200 per minute),
revolutionizing the cigarette industry.
VII. This rapid expansion of industrialization led to a real wage growth of 60%, between 1860
and 1890, and spread across the ever-increasing labor force.
VIII. Many cigarette industries and factories were developed in Manila.
IX. The cigarette improved the economy of the country and helped flourished trade.
X. Innovations like the Bonsack machine were followed by American and international
inventions that further increased cigarette production and packaging.

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Growth of Railroad Industry

I. Railroads were the major growth industry, with the factory system, mining, and finance
increasing in importance.
II. A high point in railway development came in 1869 when the workers laid tracks which
joined the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railways near the Ogden, Utah.
III. This event marked the completion of the world’s first transcontinental railway system.
The system linked the United States by rail from coast to coast.
IV. The new railways spurred economic growth. The mining companies used them to ship
raw materials to the factories over long distances very quickly. Railways became highly
profitable businesses for their owners.
V. Advances in communication provided a boost for economy. Railways replaced such mail
delivery systems as the stagecoach.
VI. In 1891 the Pennsylvania Railroad had 110,000 employees, almost three times the
number of men in all the armed forces of the United States. Its capitalization of $842
million was only $150 million less than the national debt.
VII. The railroads powered the industrial economy. They consumed the majority of iron and
steel produced in the United States before 1890.
VIII. As late as 1882, steel rails accounted for 90 percent of the steel production in the United
States.
IX. They were the nation’s largest consumer of lumber and a major consumer of coal.
X. They also distributed these commodities across the country.

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS
The major social developments that took place during the period 1865-1920 occurred during the
Progressive Era from 1890s to 1920s.
Following are the two major social developments:
1. Women’s Suffrage Movement
2. The Civil Rights Movement

Women’s Suffrage Movement

I. Long relegated to the domestic domain of the home, women in the early 19th century
began demanding that they should have an equal standing in society as issues
surrounding universal white male suffrage and abolition grew in force.
II. The women's suffrage movement began with the June 1848 National Convention of
the Liberty Party. Presidential candidate Gerrit Smith argued for and established women's
suffrage as a party plank.
III. Elizabeth Cady Stanton joined with Lucretia Mott and other women to organize
the Seneca Falls Convention, featuring the Declaration of Sentiments demanding equal
rights for women, and the right to vote.
IV. The women's rights campaign during "first-wave feminism" was led by Stanton, Lucy
Stone and Susan B. Anthony, among many others. 

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V. The abolitionist movement was the catalyst for many activists involved with the fight for
women’s equality, as many women who took part in the antislavery struggle learned
organizing, political, and rhetorical skills that would equip them for their own rights
struggle in later decades.
VI. The relationship between women’s rights leaders and abolitionists was not always
congenial, however, as many feminist leaders clashed with one another and other
abolitionists about whether to press for women’s suffrage in conjunction with efforts to
extend the franchise to black men.
VII. The split unfortunately led some prominent feminist leaders to actually oppose the 15th
Amendment because it did not include equality measures for women.
VIII. The Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 is considered the genesis of worldwide women’s
equality movements as leading American feminists and some men, including Lucretia
Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Frederick Douglass, came together to chart out a path
for achieving equal political and economic rights for women.
IX. By 1916, after various state-level campaigns and successful efforts to get both major
political parties to support suffrage in principle, these efforts coalesced into a final push
for a constitutional amendment under the leadership of Alice Paul and Lucy Burns in the
National Woman’s Party.
X. The hard work of these conventions and activism paid off with the passage of the 19th
Amendment in 1920 declaring, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall
not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

The Civil Rights Movement

I. The organized civil rights movement, as distinct from earlier efforts for racial equality,
dates to 1909 and the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP).
II. The effort to fully integrate African Americans into the nation’s social and political life
following the Civil War collapsed spectacularly with the end of Reconstruction in 1877
and the rise of segregation and white supremacy in both the South and the North.
III. A group of prominent white and black progressives, social reformers, academics, and
writers responded to this assault on black Americans by forming the NAACP to more
aggressively push for racial equality and the rights of blacks.
IV. The need for organized resistance from progressives became paramount after a series of
anti-black riots in Atlanta and Springfield.
V. The new NAACP set out to correct these injustices through organized efforts to secure
the promises of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.
VI. The organization grew substantially through its local chapters, legal fights against
discrimination and lynching, and high-profile public battles against racist propaganda
such as the 1915 Klan-glorifying film, “Birth of a Nation.”
VII. The NAACP added issues of economic justice to its mission by the 1930s as blacks
suffered disproportionately from the Great Depression and the need for decent jobs
became more pressing.

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VIII. Students also contributed greatly to civil rights efforts as many were organized into
“freedom rides” and “sit-ins” to challenge discriminatory policies on buses and in local
businesses.
IX. The famous March on Washington took place in the summer of 1963 and following
President Kennedy’s assassination, President Lyndon Johnson and civil rights leaders
finally secured passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The legislation forever banned
racial, ethnic, sexual, and religious discrimination in employment, education, and public
accommodation.
X. Beyond the important legal and legislative work of the NAACP—which eventually paved
the way for the monumental Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965—it
would take additional direct action by legions of ordinary blacks (and white supporters)
to fully cement racial equality in American society.

IDEOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS
The major ideological developments that took place during the period 1865-1920 occurred
during the Progressive Era from 1890s to 1920s.
Following are the two major ideological developments:
1. Harlem Renaissance
2. Popularity of Jazz Music

Harlem Renaissance
I. The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual, social, and artistic explosion centered
in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s. At the time, it was known as
the "New Negro Movement", named after The New Negro, a 1925 anthology edited
by Alain Locke.
II. The movement also included the new African-American cultural expressions across the
urban areas in the Northeast and Midwest United States affected by the Great
Migration, of which Harlem was the largest.
III. Most of the African-American literary movement arose from a generation that had
memories of the gains and losses of Reconstruction after the Civil War.
IV. Many in the Harlem Renaissance were part of the early 20th century Great Migration out
of the South into the African-American neighborhoods of the Northeast and Midwest.
Others were people of African descent from racially stratified communities in
the Caribbean who came to the United States hoping for a better life. Uniting most of
them was their convergence in Harlem.
V. Harlem was the destination for migrants from around the country, attracting both people
seeking work from the South, and an educated class who made the area a center of
culture, as well as a growing "Negro" middle class.
VI. Christianity played a major role in the Harlem Renaissance. Many of the writers and
social critics discussed the role of Christianity in African-American lives. For example, a
famous poem by Langston Hughes, "Madam and the Minister", reflects the temperature
and mood towards religion in the Harlem Renaissance.
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VII. The fashion of the Harlem Renaissance was used to convey elegance and flamboyancy
and needed to be created with the vibrant dance style of the 1920s in mind.
VIII. Many young women preferred- from short skirts and silk stockings to drop-waist dresses
and cloche hats. Women wore loose-fitted garments and accessorized with long strand
pearl bead necklaces, feather boas, and cigarette holders.
IX. Men wore loose suits that led to the later style known as the "Zoot," which consisted of
wide-legged, high-waist, peg-top trousers, and a long coat with padded shoulders and
wide lapels. During this period, African Americans expressed respect for their heritage
through a fad for leopard-skin coats, indicating the power of the African animal.
X. Some common themes represented during the Harlem Renaissance were the influence of
the experience of slavery and emerging African-American folk traditions on black
identity, the effects of institutional racism, the dilemmas inherent in performing and
writing for elite white audiences, and the question of how to convey the experience of
modern black life in the urban North.

Popularity of Jazz Music

I. Jazz music began in the early 1900s within the black community in New Orleans.
II. It was a new type of music that combined European and African styles. 
III. It is a difficult style to define as it incorporates several different elements of several
different styles, relies on a lot of improvisation and syncopated rhythms and is subjective
in many ways. 
IV. Jazz music reached the mainstream in the 1920s when Southern African American
musicians began moving up to Chicago looking for work. The Twenties are often called
the Jazz Age because the popularization of Jazz music had an enormous cultural effect.
V. Jazz music was important because it influenced fashion, dances, accepted moral
standards, youth culture, and race relations.
VI. It took influence from the harmonic style of hymns of the church, which black slaves had
learned and incorporated into their own music as spirituals.
VII. Two predominant black artists that had popularity and played in jazz bands were Louis
Armstrong and Duke Ellington, one influential white jazz artist at the time was Bix
Beiderbecke. 
VIII. The most famous jazz musician of the decade and possibly of all time was Louis
Armstrong. Armstrong was a popular African American jazz musician who played the
trumpet and cornet and was known for his distinct and gravelly singing voice.
IX. Another influential Jazz musician from the Jazz Age was Duke Ellington. Ellington was a
jazz band leader and a pianist. He was an influential figure in the jazz community but he
also did a lot for general popular music and dance music.
X. Jazz was the defining sound and style of the 1920s and has continued to be a popular art
form that has a constantly changing musical landscape.

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TIMELINE
The major events that took place between 1865 and 1920 which shaped the history of United
States of America are listed below.
1. 14 April 1865, Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in Washington, DC, and is
succeeded by his vice president, Andrew Johnson.
2. 1865, Thirteen Amendment Adopted, ending slavery.
3. 24th February 1868, President Johnson is impeached by the House of Representatives.
4. 8th May 1869, Transcontinental Railroad
5. 3rd February 1870, Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution if ratified
6. 8th October 1871, Chicago fire kills 300 and leaves 90,000 people homeless.
7. 1st March 1872, Establishment of Yellowstone National Park
8. 5th March 1877, Rutherford B. Hayes is inaugurated as the 19th president.
9. 1882, Chinese Exclusion Act
10. 28th October 1886, Statue of Liberty is dedicated
11. 1890, National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) is founded,
with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as president.
12. 15th February 1898, Spanish-American War: USS  Maine is blown up in Havana harbor.
13. 1898, Spain gives up control of Cuba, which becomes an independent republic, and cedes
Puerto Rico, Guam, and (for $20 million) the Philippines to the U.S.
14. 1903, USA acquires the Panama Canal Zone
15. 1903, Wright brothers make the first controlled, sustained flight
16. 1914-1918, World War I: U.S. enters World War I, declaring war on Germany (April 6,
1917) and Austria-Hungary (Dec. 7, 1917) three years after conflict began in 1914.
17. 1918, Worldwide influenza epidemic strikes; by 1920, nearly 20 million are dead. In
U.S., 500,000 perish.
18. 13th January 1919, League of Nations meets for the first time; U.S. is not represented.
19. 18th August 1919, Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, granting women
the right to vote.
20. 19th November 1919, Treaty of Versailles, outlining terms for peace at the end of World
War I, is rejected by the Senate.

INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE
The following are the most influential people in the history of America and the description of
the top five is mentioned below.
1. Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving
from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln was from a poor family and was
self-educated. During his time as president he led the United States through the
American Civil war, helped preserve the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the
national government and modernized the economy.

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2. John F. Kennedy 
John F. Kennedy (1917 – 1963) was president for three years before his untimely
assassination. He stamped his mark on America with his inaugural speech in 1961.
He was the first Catholic president and presented a young and liberal face to America.

3. Martin Luther King, Jr

Martin Luther King (1929 – 1968) was the leading figure in the US civil rights movement
during the 1960s. In 1963, his ‘I have a dream’ speech became a clarion call for an end to
racism and segregation. He also became involved in opposing the Vietnam War and
highlighting issues of poverty.
4. The Wright Brothers (Orville and Wilbur)
The Wright brothers – Orville (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur (April
16, 1867 – May 30, 1912) – were two American aviation pioneers generally credited with
inventing, building, and flying the world's first successful motor-operated airplane. They
made the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft with
the Wright Flyer on December 17, 1903.
5. Henry Ford
Henry Ford (1863 – 1947) was a businessman who revolutionized mass car production.
His Ford assembly lines were so efficient they reduced the cost of family cars making
them available to average workers for the first time.
The following is the list of the people ranked from least to most important:
1. John Steinbeck 
2. Charlie Chaplin
3. Mark Twain
4. Duke Ellington
5. Alexander Graham Bell
6. John D Rockefeller 
7. Jane Addams
8. Louis Sullivan
9. Frederick Douglass
10. Woodrow Wilson
11. Harriet Beecher Stowe
12. Elizabeth Cady Stanton
13. Andrew Jackson
14. J.P Morgan
15. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
16. Henry Ford
17. The Wright Brothers (Orville and Wilbur)
18. Martin Luther King, Jr
19. John F. Kennedy
20. Abraham Lincoln

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INFLUENTIAL EVENTS
Following are the influential events that took place and are majorly remembered in the history of
America during 1865-1920. The top five are mentioned below:
1. World War I 1914-18
The American entry into World War I came in April 1917, after more than two and a
half years of efforts by President Woodrow Wilson to keep the United States out of
the war. The experience of World War I had a major impact on US domestic politics,
culture, and society. Germany formally surrendered on November 11, 1918, and all
nations agreed to stop fighting while the terms of peace were negotiated.

2. Spanish American War 1898

The Spanish–American War was a war fought between Spain and the United States of
America in the year 1898. This war was fought in part because a lot of people
wanted Cuba, one of the last remaining bits of the former Spanish Empire, to become
independent.

3. Women’s Suffrage Movement

The women's suffrage movement was the struggle for the right of women to vote and
run for office and is part of the overall women's rights movement.

4. Panic of 1873
The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in
Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 until 1877, and even longer in
France and Britain. In the United States the Panic was known as the "Great
Depression" until the events of the early 1930s set a new standard.

5. 19th Amendment 1920

The Nineteenth (19th) Amendment to the United States Constitution granted women
the right to vote, prohibiting any United States citizen to be denied the right to vote
based on sex. It was ratified on August 18, 1920 after a long struggle known as the
women's suffrage movement.
The following is the list of the events ranked from least to most important:
1. Titanic Sink 1912
2. Wright Brother’s plane flies 1903
3. Chicago Fire 1871
4. Haymarket Square Riot in Chicago 1886
5. Statue of Liberty dedicated 1886
6. Johnstown Flood 1889
7. Enactment of Black Codes
8. Chinese Exclusion Act 1882
9. New immigration
10. Election of 1876
11. End of Reconstruction 1877
12. First Transcontinental Railroad

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13. Civil Rights Movement

14. Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
15. Freedmen’s Bureau
16. 19th Amendment 1920
17. Panic of 1873
18. Women’s Suffrage Movement
19. Spanish American War 1898
20. World War I 1914-18

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