Gilded Age period 6: 1865 – 1898 - Ms. Robinson's …msrobsclasses.weebly.com/.../gilded_age_-_period_6.pdfGILDED AGE PERIOD 6: 1865 –1898 • Economic, Political & Social Changes
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GILDED AGE
PERIOD 6: 1865 – 1898
• Economic, Political & Social Changes
• Growth of New Industries
• Immigration & Urbanization
• Westward Expansion & Native Americans
GILDED AGE
After Reconstruction from 1870s to 1900, defined by
gross materialism and political corruption. Shallow
display and worship of wealth.
Mark Twain
POLITICAL CHANGES
Grant’s Presidency (1868 – 1876)
Plagued w/ corruption
Local corruption
Patronage (spoils system)
Pendleton Act (1883) – merit vs party
Tammany Hall & Boss Tweed
Thomas Nast (muckraker) – exposed corruption & led to political reforms that gave voters more control
Compromise of 1877
Ends Reconstruction
SOCIAL CHANGES
Sharecropping
End of Reconstruction led to a return of the Democratic Party in the
South (“Redeemers”)
Supreme Court upholds segregation
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) – “separate but equal”
“New South” (Henry Grady) – industrialize & rebuild
ECONOMIC CHANGES
Panic of 1873 causes:
Overproduction
Over speculation by banks
Hard currency (gold & silver) vs. “greenbacks” (paper money)
Farmers supported inflationary policies
Economic issues distract people from Reconstruction cause
Laissez faire approach = “hands off”
Unregulated businesses
ECONOMIC CHANGES
Agriculture manufacturing
Big Business (oil, steel & RRs)
Rockefeller, Carnegie, Gould
Robber Barons – unscrupulous business
practices & corruption
Innovation
Edison: lightbulb – extends the work day
Bell: telephone – created new jobs (ie.
Secretaries)
ECONOMIC CHANGES
ECONOMIC CHANGES
Wealth disparity explained by
“Social Darwinism”
Wealthy people are smart &
hardworking
Laissez faire advocates
Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth”
The American Dream
Rich had an obligation to help the
less fortunate
Philanthropist
LABOR UNIONS
Govt & businesses dislike labor unions
Worker dissatisfaction labor unions
National Labor Union (1866)
Want higher wages & 8 hour work day
Knights of Labor (1869)
Terence Powderly
Open to skilled & unskilled, AAs, &
women
American Federation of Labor (AFL)
1886; Samuel Gompers
Skilled workers only
Focus on “bread & butter” issues –
wages & working conditions
LABOR UNIONS
Great Railroad Strike (1877)
In response to cut wages
Hayes sent troops to end strike
Haymarket Bombing (1886)
Rally to support workers striking
Bomb explodes & labor union is blamed
Knights of Labor popularity declines
Homestead Steel Strike (1892)
Workers locked out of plant & scabs are
called in
Violence among workers & security
Pullman Strike (1894)
Wages cut & lay-offs
Led by American Railway Union
Shut down the country’s RRs; govt
stepped in to end strike
IMMIGRANTS
IMMIGRANTS
Chinese immigrants
Spike in nativism toward Chinese
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
Prohibited immigration & denied
citizenship for 10 years
IMMIGRANTS
Pull factors:
JOBS! – industrialization
Political & religious freedom
Push factors:
Political instability
Violence against Jews
Loss of jobs due to mechanization
Ellis Island & Angel Island – immigrant
processing centers
URBANIZATION
Rapid movement to cities for jobs
Challenges cities faced
Lack of clean water, sanitation, resources
Overcrowded housing (tenements)
Segregated neighborhoods (de facto vs.
de jure)
Problems will lead to the Progressive Era
Response to urban poverty
Jane Addams est. Hull House –
settlement house for immigrants
Social Gospel Movement – Christians
should help those less fortunate
YMCA & YWCA
Salvation Army
AFRICAN AMERICANS
Booker T. Washington
Former slave
AAs should seek economic equality through vocational training & the social equality will follow
Does not advocate directly challenging white supremacy
Founded Tuskegee Institute
W.E.B. DuBois
1st AA to earn Ph.D from Harvard
Helped found the NAACP (1909)
Demanded immediate political & social
equality for AAs
“Souls of Black Folks”
Talented Tenth
WESTWARD EXPANSION
Transcontinental RR completed 1869
Land grants given to RR companies
Hoped to increase value of land out
west & get good rates for shipping mail
or transporting troops
Homestead Act 1862 – up to 160
acres to improve the land for 5 years
Impact of RR
Mass distribution & consumption
New cities around RR
Disruption to Native American life
Creation of time zones (1883)
Unregulated – pooling & rate fixing
TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD
TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD
Farmers demand change
Grange Movement
Populist Party (People’s Party)
Munn v. Illinois – state can regulate interstate commerce
Wabash cases – states CANNOT regulate interstate commerce
Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)
Federal govt oversight
Companies had to publish rates
Economy Out West
Mining & Castle
Open Range, Cowboys
Barbed wire
Impact on Natives
Decline of bison
Demand for hides
Undermines Native life & resistance
Loss of land and life
IMPACT ON NATIVE AMERICANS
NATIVE AMERICANS
Conflict erupts w/ Natives as more
people move westward
Sand Creek Massacre (1864)
Colorado Militia attack and kill over 100
Natives
Battle of Little Big Horn (1876)
Sitting Bull & Sioux tribe defeat Custer
(Custer’s Last Stand)
US Army retaliates by killing bison
Wounded Knee (1890)
Ghost Dance movement begins with
Sioux in Dakota territory
Cultural & religious revival
Rid their land of white settlers
Govt wants them to stop
Massacre of over 200 Natives
Last of Native frontier wars
NATIVE AMERICANS
POLITICAL REFORM
Populist Party
Govt ownership of RR
Unlimited coinage of silver (inflationary
policy)
Graduated income tax
Direct election of Senator, use of
initiatives & referendums
POPULIST MOVEMENT & THE WIZARD OF OZ
Ruby Slippers – originally silver
Coin silver
Yellow Brick Road = Gold Standard
Emerald City = Washington, D.C.
Dorothy = average American
Scarecrow = farmers
Tinman = factory workers
“brainless”
Lion = William Jennings Bryan
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