Farmers clearly understood the need for a hard-working wife, and numerous children, to handle the many chores, including child-rearing, feeding and clothing the family, managing the housework, and feeding the hired hands. Course Summary Check out the lessons in our US History: High School course to review key figures and events in American history. They hired young men ages 18–21 and promoted them internally until a man reached the status of locomotive engineer, conductor, or station agent at age 40 or so. Each denomination supported active missionary societies, and made the role of missionary one of high prestige. The largest and most notorious political machine was Tammany Hall in New York City, led by Boss Tweed.[85]. [147], In the face of years of mounting violence and intimidation directed at blacks during Reconstruction, the federal government was unable to guarantee constitutional protections to freedmen. The book (co-written with Charles Dudley Warner) satirized the promised "golden age" after the Civil War, portrayed as an era of serious social problems masked by a thin gold gilding of economic expansion. Hotels, resorts, and tourist attractions were built to accommodate the demand. Regulation was rarely an issue. Grant was cheated out of all his money, although some genuine friends bought Grant's personal assets and allowed him to keep their use.[90]. [181] If they remained unmarried they could have a prestigious but poorly paid lifetime career in the middle class. Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 5.3 (2006): 189–224. Local merchants and shippers supported the demand and got some "Granger Laws" passed. Railroads were the major growth industry, with the factory system, mining, and finance increasing in importance. The Granges set up their own marketing systems, stores, processing plants, factories and cooperatives. A selection of 100 significant documents pertaining to American history - from the Lee Resolution of 1776 to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. "Democracy, Republicanism and Efficiency: The Values of American Politics, 1885–1930," in Byron Shafer and Anthony Badger, eds. Financed by the "spoils system", the winning party distributed most local, state and national government jobs, and many government contracts, to its loyal supporters. The leading innovators were the Western Railroad of Massachusetts and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the 1840s, the Erie in the 1850s and the Pennsylvania in the 1860s. Many women abolitionists who were disappointed that the Fifteenth Amendment did not extend voting rights to them, remained active in politics, this time focusing on issues important to them. [16] Several monopolies—most famously Standard Oil—came to dominate their markets by keeping prices low when competitors appeared; they grew at a rate four times faster than that of the competitive sectors. The promotion of muscular Christianity became popular among young men on campus and in urban YMCAs, as well as such denominational youth groups such as the Epworth League for Methodists and the Walther League for Lutherans. Spurred by the Panic of 1873, the Grange soon grew to 20,000 chapters and 1.5 million members. As American wages grew much higher than those in Europe, especially for skilled workers, the period saw an influx of millions of European immigrants. In the southern states, lingering resentment over the Civil War remained and meant that much of the South would vote Democrat. [109] The British immigrants tended to blend into the general population. By far the largest number were in the building trades, followed far behind by coal miners. Did you know that the United States was formed in the year 1776 when the declaration of independence was made? A typical career path would see a young man hired at age 18 as a shop laborer, be promoted to skilled mechanic at age 24, brakemen at 25, freight conductor at 27, and passenger conductor at age 57. [31], The railroads invented the career path in the private sector for both blue-collar workers and white-collar workers. Manhattan alone had 130,000 horses in 1900, pulling streetcars, delivery wagons, and private carriages, and leaving their waste behind. Tindall, George Brown and Shi, David E. (2012). The fearful stayed home, while migrants were mainly motivated by a search to improve their economic life. The working-class generally did not own automobiles until after 1945; they typically walked to nearby factories and patronized small neighborhood stores. [81], Severe economic recessions—called "panics"—struck the nation in the Panic of 1873 and the Panic of 1893. This new concept justified the stratification of the wealthy and poor, and it was in this proposal that Spencer coined the term "survival of the fittest". The movement also enjoyed some political success during the 1870s. "Romanism" meant Roman Catholics, especially Irish Americans, who ran the Democratic Party in most cities, and whom the reformers denounced for political corruption and their separate parochial-school system. They then suffered from a slump in the 1880s when conditions in Europe improved. 2. Followers of the new Awakening promoted the idea of the Social Gospel which gave rise to organizations such as the YMCA, the American branch of the Salvation Army, and settlement houses such as Hull House, founded by Jane Addams in Chicago in 1889. The Census Bureau reported in 1892 that the average annual wage per industrial worker (including men, women, and children) rose from $380 in 1880 to $564 in 1890, a gain of 48%. In the largest cities, street railways were elevated, which increased their speed and lessened their dangers. The British invested heavily in railroads around the world, but nowhere more so than the United States; The total came to about $3 billion by 1914. Native Americans lived in the Americas for thousands of years until the arrival of Christopher Columbus which started the European colonization of the Americas. The United States dominated the global industry into the 1950s. African American Identity in the Gilded Age: Two Unreconciled Strivings Students use Library of Congress primary sources to examine how African-Americans in the Gilded Age were able to form a meaningful identity for themselves and reject the inferior images fastened upon them. [195], The Gilded Age plutocracy came under harsh attack from the Social Gospel preachers and reformers in the Progressive Era who became involved with issues of child labor, compulsory elementary education and the protection of women from exploitation in factories. In business, powerful nationwide trusts formed in some industries. Through vertical integration these trusts were able to control each aspect of the production of a specific good, ensuring that the profits made on the finished product were maximized and prices minimized, and by controlling access to the raw materials, prevented other companies from being able to compete in the marketplace. [189], The Protestant mainline denominations (especially the Methodist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Congregational churches) grew rapidly in numbers, wealth and educational levels, throwing off their frontier beginnings and becoming centered in towns and cities. Racial segregation and outward signs of inequality were everywhere, and rarely were challenged. A growing fear of communism c. The expansion of the consumer economy ... Reasons for Economic Problems of the Gilded Age • Rapid growth of trusts and monopolies • Ruthless business tactics of robber barons ... d. more sources of revenue for state governments. 'Tis not the affair of a City, a County, a Province, or a Kingdom; but of a Continent — of at least one-eighth part of the habitable Globe. They were not fast, and pedestrians could dodge and scramble their way across the crowded streets. The AFL was a coalition of unions, each based on strong local chapters; the AFL coordinated their work in cities and prevented jurisdictional battles. [183], Business opportunities were rare, unless it was a matter of a widow taking over her late husband's small business. Purpose. "[55], The rapid expansion of industrialization led to real wage growth of 60% between 1860 and 1890, spread across the ever-increasing labor force. They mandated de jure (legal) segregation in all public facilities, such as stores and street cars, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for Blacks. Europe, especially Britain, remained the financial center of the world until 1914, yet the United States' growth caused foreigners to ask, as British author W. T. Stead wrote in 1901, "What is the secret of American success? Industrialization in the Gilded Age R. Social studies skills. Click on the order now tab. The nation elected a string of relatively weak presidents collectively referred to as the "forgettable presidents" (Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur and Harrison, with the exception of Cleveland)[97] who served in the White House during this period. The farther west the settlers went, the more dependent they became on the monopolistic railroads to move their goods to market, and the more inclined they were to protest, as in the Populist movement of the 1890s. Even larger numbers purchased lands at very low interest from the new railroads, which were trying to create markets. Chicago, the main railroad center, benefited enormously, with Kansas City a distant second. [83], Competition was intense and elections were very close. They were successful in times of prosperity when the company was losing profits and wanted to settle quickly. [19] They systematized the roles of middle managers and set up explicit career tracks. In some ethnic groups, however, married women were encouraged to work, especially among African-Americans, and Irish Catholics. Its beginning, in the years after the American Civil War, overlaps the Reconstruction Era (which ended in 1877). King, were concerned that the United States was becoming increasingly in-egalitarian to the point of becoming like old Europe, and "further and further away from its original pioneering ideal. With leaders like Susan B. Anthony, the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was formed to secure the right of women to vote. In United States history, the Gilded Age was an era that occurred during the late 19th century, from the 1870s to about 1900. [15], Investors in London and Paris poured money into the railroads through the American financial market centered in Wall Street. They saw the Democratic party as their best protection from the moralism of the pietists, and especially from the threat of prohibition. The individualized system undermined the traditional communal tribal organization. The political landscape was notable in that despite some corruption, election turnout was very high and national elections saw two evenly matched parties. You will be directed to another page. • Gilded Age • America Becomes a World Power • Progressive Era • World War I • 1920s • Great Depression • World War II • Post-War Era • 1960s • Vietnam War • 1970-2000 • The 21st Century Transcriptions of letters written by soldiers during the Civil War. [126][127] This protest has now been attributed to the far increased uncertainty in farming due to its commercialisation, with monopolies, the gold standard and loans being simply visualisations of this risk. Religious lines were sharply drawn. When the husband operated a small shop or restaurant, wives and other family members could find employment there. [1] Conversely, the Gilded Age was also an era of abject poverty and inequality, as millions of immigrants—many from impoverished regions—poured into the United States, and the high concentration of wealth became more visible and contentious.[2]. [178], After 1860, as the larger cities opened department stores, middle-class women did most of the shopping; increasingly they were served by young middle-class women clerks. Here there is a form to fill. Widows and deserted wives often operated boarding houses. "[72] This strike did not involve labor unions, but rather uncoordinated outbursts in numerous cities. After taking account of the cost of living (which was 65% higher in the U.S.), he found the standard of living of unskilled workers was about the same in the two cities, while skilled workers in Pittsburgh had about 50% to 100% higher standard of living as those in Birmingham, England. Wheat farmers blamed local grain elevator owners (who purchased their crop), railroads and eastern bankers for the low prices. For example, many joined a local branch of The Grange; a majority had ties to local churches. Thousands of young unmarried Irish and French Canadian women worked in Northeastern textile mills. Together with rapid growth of small business, a new middle class was rapidly growing, especially in northern cities. [75] Police then randomly fired into the crowd, killing and wounding a number of people, including other police, and arbitrarily rounded up anarchists, including leaders of the movement. [18], Engineering colleges were established to feed the enormous demand for expertise. Filling the forms involves giving instructions to your assignment. You can be sure that our custom-written papers are original and properly cited. The construction of the Central Pacific Railroad from California to Utah was handled largely by Chinese laborers. Laborers wanted higher paying work and better conditions. Keep in mind the source here — the Foundaton for Economic Freedom. [184] When her husband died, Lydia Moss Bradley (1816–1908) inherited $500,000; shrewd investments doubled that sum and she later became president of his old bank in Peoria, Illinois. They strongly supported the GOP, as the table shows. Jensen, Richard. 1. After the end of Reconstruction in 1877, competition in the South took place mainly inside the Democratic Party. [100], From 1860 to the early 20th century, the Republicans took advantage of the association of the Democrats with "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion". [197][198], Colleges associated with churches rapidly expanded in number, size and quality of curriculum. We'll track players' scores … [34] By 1910, major cities were building magnificent palatial railroad stations, such as the Pennsylvania Station in New York City, and the Union Station in Washington DC. The corporation became the dominant form of business organization, and a scientific management revolution transformed business operations. By the end of the century, American cities boasted 30 million square yards of asphalt paving, followed by brick construction. [115], Historians analyze the causes of immigration in terms of push factors (pushing people out of the homeland) and pull factors (pulling them to America). In 1914–1917, they liquidated their American assets to pay for war supplies. [84], The major metropolitan centers underwent rapid population growth and as a result had many lucrative contracts and jobs to award. [114], The "New Immigration" were much poorer peasants and rural folk from southern and eastern Europe, including mostly Italians, Poles and Jews. [154], Childhood on western farms is contested territory. Documents include: Homestead Act (1862), Pacific Railway Act (1862), Morrill Act (1862), Emancipation Proclamation (1863), Gettysburg Address (1863), 13th Amendment to the Constitution (1865), Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address (1865), Treaty with Russia for the Purchase of Alaska (1867), 14th, Amendment to the Constitution (1868), 15th Amendment to the Constitution (1870), and the Act Establishing Yellowstone National Park (1872), Over 2,000 digitized maps pertaining to the Civil War can be found here. The new immigrants who arrived after 1890 seldom voted at this time. The exclusion policy lasted until the 1940s. Theodore Vail established the American Telephone & Telegraph Company and built a great communications network. [22], Petroleum launched a new industry beginning with the Pennsylvania oil fields in the 1860s. "[64], According to economist Richard Sutch in an alternative view of the era, the bottom 25% owned 0.32% of the wealth while the top 0.1% owned 9.4%, which would mean the period had the lowest wealth gap in recorded history. Please note, the library is not responsible for the content on these sources and it is the student's responsibility to properly cite from the proper location. Digitized letters, speeches and other documents of Jefferson Davis. In times of depression strikes were more violent but less successful, because the company was losing money anyway. [77], Strikes organized by labor unions became routine events by the 1880s as the gap between the rich and the poor widened. Both favored business interests. Collection features documents that focus on education, psychology, sociology, religion, science and technology. ", John D. Fairfield, "Rapid Transit: Automobility and Settlement in Urban America", Chad Montrie, "'Men Alone Cannot Settle a Country:' Domesticating Nature in the Kansas-Nebraska Grasslands,", Karl Ronning, "Quilting in Webster County, Nebraska, 1880–1920,", Nathan B. Sanderson, "More Than a Potluck,". [135] Overcrowding spread germs; the death rates in big city tenements vastly exceeded those in the countryside. Others built colleges and universities to train the next generation. [28] The emerging American financial system was based on railroad bonds. The Gilded Age was an era of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Western United States. Cotton prices were much lower than before the war, so everyone was poor. [62][63] French economist Thomas Piketty notes that economists during this time, such as Willford I. The poorest crowded into low-cost housing such as the Five Points and Hell's Kitchen neighborhoods in Manhattan. Pull factors were the economic opportunity of good inexpensive farmland or jobs in factories, mills and mines. Science played an important part in social thought as the work of Charles Darwin became known among intellectuals. [59] In terms of property, the wealthiest 1% owned 51%, while the bottom 44% claimed 1.1%. [76] One had in his possession a Knights of Labor membership card. Such corruption was so commonplace that in 1868 the New York state legislature legalized such bribery. Link, eds. Reformers wanted to give as many Native Americans as possible the opportunity to own and operate their own farms and ranches, so the issue was how to give individual natives land owned by the tribe. 1. [3][190] The great majority of pietistic mainline Protestants (in the North) supported the Republican Party, and urged it to endorse prohibition and social reforms. [67] In 1889, railroads employed 704,000 men, of whom 20,000 were injured and 1,972 were killed on the job. The middle class demanded a better transportation system. [78] There were 37,000 strikes between 1881 and 1905. From 1869 to 1879, the U.S. economy grew at a rate of 6.8% for NNP (GDP minus capital depreciation) and 4.5% for NNP per capita. [26] [153] One could keep busy with scheduled Grange meetings, church services, and school functions. University Park, Pa: Pennsylvania State University, 2004. by Donald H. Parkerson and Jo Ann Parkerson, United States presidential election of 1896, Economic history of the United States § Late 19th century, History of conservatism in the United States § The Gilded Age, History of immigration to the United States, History of agriculture in the United States § Railroad Age: 1860-1910, Cultural assimilation of Native Americans, National Association of Portrait Painters, National American Woman Suffrage Association, conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure, "Thoughts on Periodizing the Gilded Age: Capital Accumulation, Society, and Politics, 1873–1898", "The Accumulation, Inheritance, and Concentration of Wealth during the Gilded Age: An Exception to Thomas Piketty's Analysis", "Gold Democrats and the Decline of Classical Liberalism, 1896–1900", Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-born Population of the United States: 1850–1990, "Review of The Farmer's Last Frontier, Agriculture, 1860–1897", "Kansas Conflict: Populist Versus Railroader in the 1890s", "The Economics of American Farm Unrest, 1865–1900", "Bryan's "Cross of Gold" Speech: Mesmerizing the Masses", "Census Regions and Divisions of the United States", "Documenting the Gilded Age: New York City Exhibitions at the Turn of the 20th Century", "Summary of the American Art Association records, 1853–1924", "National Association of Portrait Painters", "Corporations, Corruption, and the Modern Lobby: A Gilded Age Story of the West and the South in Washington, D.C.", More general information to the Gilded Age, New Spirits: A Web Site on Americans in the Gilded Age, 1865–1905, Documenting the Gilded Age: New York City Exhibitions at the Turn of the 20th Century (NYARC), Gilding the Gilded Age: Interior Decoration Tastes & Trends in New York City, WWW-VL: History: United States: The Gilded Age, 1876–1900, Illinois During the Gilded Age, 1866–1896, The Cartoons from Thomas Nast provided by HarpWeek, Tusche, tone and stone: 19th C. news illustration in Harper's Weekly: Thomas Nast 1840–1902, Slum Life In New York City During the Nineteenth Century's Gilded Age, Photographs of prominent politicians, 1861–1922; these are pre-1923 and out of copyright, Drafting and ratification of Constitution, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gilded_Age&oldid=1003584124, Articles with dead external links from January 2017, Articles with permanently dead external links, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with dead external links from December 2019, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Laster, Margaret R., and Chelsea Bruner, eds. Apart from private academies, there were very few high schools until the 1920s. However, anti-assimilation traditionalists on the reservations resisted integration and the resulting loss of their traditional life. Labor unions became increasingly important in the rapidly growing industrial cities. 1. Most went bankrupt. [103], Many cultural issues, especially prohibition and foreign-language schools, became hard-fought political issues because of the deep religious divisions in the electorate. Travel from New York to San Francisco now took six days instead of six months. [94] By contrast, Republicans insisted that national prosperity depended on industry that paid high wages, and warned that lowering the tariff would bring disaster because goods from low-wage European factories would flood American markets.[95]. [54] Economist Milton Friedman states that for the 1880s, "The highest decadal rate [of growth of real reproducible, tangible wealth per head from 1805 to 1950] for periods of about ten years was apparently reached in the eighties with approximately 3.8 percent. The teaching profession had once been heavily male, but as schooling expanded many women took on teaching careers. The long-term goal of Dawes Act was to integrate natives into the mainstream; the majority accepted integration and were absorbed into American society, leaving a trace of native ancestry in millions of American families. White southerners showed a reluctance to move north, or to move to cities, so the number of small farms proliferated, and they became smaller as the population grew. [157][158][159], Native American policy was set by the national government (the states had very little role), and after 1865 the national policy was that Native Americans either had to assimilate into the larger community or remain on reservations, where the government provided subsidies. [82], Gilded Age politics, called the Third Party System, featured intense competition between two major parties, with minor parties coming and going, especially on issues of concern to prohibitionists, to labor unions and to farmers. [144] Cotton became even more important than before, as poor whites needed the cash that cotton would bring. [124], Despite their remarkable progress and general prosperity, 19th-century U.S. farmers experienced recurring cycles of hardship, caused primarily by falling world prices for cotton and wheat. The Gilded Age is no exception to this controversy. Both the number of unskilled and skilled workers increased, as their wage rates grew. [112] Although they were only a third of the total Catholic population, the Irish also dominated the Catholic Church, producing most of the bishops, college presidents, and leaders of charitable organizations. Chinese people were unwelcome in urban neighborhoods, so they resettled in the "Chinatown" districts of large cities. [120], A dramatic expansion in farming took place during the Gilded Age,[121][122] with the number of farms tripling from 2.0 million in 1860 to 6.0 million in 1905. Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures. Link, William A., and Susannah J. Catholics, Lutherans, and Episcopalians set up religious schools and the larger of those set up numerous colleges, hospitals, and charities. American steel production rose to surpass the combined totals of Britain, Germany, and France. The works of authors such as George and Bellamy became popular, and soon clubs were created across America to discuss their ideas, although these organizations rarely made any real social change. In 1934, national policy was reversed again by the Indian Reorganization Act which tried to protect tribal and communal life on reservations. [104], Prohibition debates and referendums heated up politics in most states over a period of decades, as national prohibition was finally passed in 1919 (and repealed in 1933), serving as a major issue between the wet Democrats and the dry GOP. [4] It was followed in the 1890s by the Progressive Era. These areas were quickly overridden with notorious criminal gangs such as the Five Points Gang and the Bowery Boys. [139], The South remained heavily rural and was much poorer than the North or West. Business rivals and political reformers accused him of every conceivable evil. The strike and associated riots lasted 45 days and resulted in the deaths of several hundred participants (no police or soldiers were killed), several hundred more injuries, and millions in damages to railroad property. [67], Craft-oriented labor unions, such as carpenters, printers, shoemakers and cigar makers, grew steadily in the industrial cities after 1870. The realization that anyone could buy a ticket for a thousand-mile trip was empowering. [150], Water management was more critical, lightning fires were more prevalent, the weather was more extreme, rainfall was less predictable. With the rapid growth of cities, political machines increasingly took control of urban politics.
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