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& The Gilded Age& The Gilded Age

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Industrialization

•A change in the system of producing goods from hand tools in homes & shops to power-driven machines in factories

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Industrial Revolution OverviewIndustrial Revolution Overview

• Change from small manufacturing to factory-based industry

• Change from a rural society to urban society

• Wealthy entrepreneurs

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OverviewOverview• Began in U.S. around time of Civil War

• Science, Technology, & Inventions were the focus of the US during this time.

• Western states joined the Union

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Factors Contributing to Industrial Growth:

• Capitalist Economic System• Raw Materials• Available Capital: $$$• Large Labor Supply: War

Veterans, Farmers, & Immigrants• Expanding Markets: domestic &

foreign

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Inventions that Fueled IndustryInventions that Fueled Industry

• Mills used to be powered by water

• James Watt developed steam engine

• Steam power allowed factories to be built in cities

• Caused rapid growth of factories

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InventionsInventions• 1844: Samuel F.B. Morse built

a telegraph line, improving communication

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Other Communication

Inventions•Pony Express & Time Zones

•Telephone: Alexander Graham Bell

•Typewriter: Sholes & Glidden

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InventionsInventions• 1856: Bessemer process of making steel

• 1868: Westinghouse created train air brake

• 1875: Production of electric power

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InventionsInventions• 1876: Alexander Graham

Bell patented telephone

• 1879: Thomas Alva Edison developed incandescent light bulb

• 1890s: George Westinghouse brought alternating current to America

BellBell

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RailroadsRailroads

• First built in America in 1820s

• Railroads connected eastern and western United States

• Traveled faster than boats

• Travel not limited by environmental factors

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Railroads•Connected the nation across

its 3,000 mile span •Opened lines of

communication & travel•Laws passed to encourage

building of RRs: Pacific Railway Act of 1862 & 1864

•RR Workers: Irish immigrants & Civil War Veterans

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RailroadsRailroads

• Railroad system grew rapidly

• Building was poorly organized

• “Free enterprise” kept government from interfering

• Railroads were constructed unequally

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• Chinese laborers recruited to build railroads

• Conditions were harsh

• Many died from unsafe working conditions

• Paid less than White counterparts

• Received no recognition

RailroadsRailroads

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• Standard track-size was created

• Creation of time zones stopped scheduling confusion

RailroadsRailroads

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• Government saw potential of railroads

• Government granted railroad companies land

• Companies later sold land for profit

• Profited by charging high shipping rates

RailroadsRailroads

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Central Pacific & Union Pacific

• Central Pacific: Chief engineer- Theodore Judah

• Union Pacific: Chief engineer- Grenville Dodge

• “Robber Barons”: RR entrepreneurs who were accused of making their fortunes by bribing and cheating.

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• Railroads became essential to businesses

• Railroad companies engaged in unethical business practices

RailroadsRailroads

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Captains of IndustryCaptains of Industry• Construction of railroads created wealthy

class

• Business owners desired more money

• Began corporations

• Corporations became trusts

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Entrepreneurs•Men & women who risk money, effort, time, and even failure to create a new business they envision.

•The “Big Three”: Cornelius Vanderbilt (RRs), Andrew Carnegie (Steel), & John D. Rockefeller (Oil)

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Captains of IndustryCaptains of Industry• John D.

Rockefeller: Standard Oil Company

• By age 39, monopolized oil industry

• Allowed him to control the price of oil

RockefellerRockefeller

Gave $540 million to charities (philanthropy)

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• John Pierpont Morgan: U.S. Steel

• Controlled 60% of American- produced steel

• Steel needed for railroad tracks

• Necessary for bridge and building construction

Captains of IndustryCaptains of Industry

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• Other businessmen created trusts

• Enabled them to control major portions of an industry

• Andrew Carnegie who controlled the steel business

• Cornelius Vanderbilt & Jay Gould who both controlled the railroad business

Captains of IndustryCaptains of Industry

GouldGould

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Andrew Carnegie

•Used the Bessemer Process of turning iron into steel.

•Wrote a book called The Gospel of Wealth.

•Gave over $350 million in charities.BB

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• Trusts allowed a few to own most

• Monopolies crushed competition

• Corporations manipulated stock prices

Captains of IndustryCaptains of Industry

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Criticisms of “Big Business”

•Ida Tarbell: wrote articles about Rockefeller’s “ruthless” pursuit of monopoly.

•Wrote a book History of Standard Oil Company.

•Laws passed to Regulate: Interstate Commerce Act, Hepburn Act, & Sherman Anti-Trust Act

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• Workers were exploited

• Owners viewed workers as objects

• Company owners drove down cost of labor

Captains of IndustryCaptains of Industry

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Working for a LivingWorking for a Living

• Work for Americans replaced by machines

• American farmers migrated to cities for factory jobs

• African Americans came for better jobs

• Immigrants from Europe came to the US

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• Many factories built in northern cities

Working for a LivingWorking for a Living

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• Jobs in factories used unskilled labor

• Jobs were physically exhausting

• Most jobs extremely dangerous

Working for a LivingWorking for a Living

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• By now, 40% of Americans worked in factories

• Work day was often 10-12 hours

• Work week six days; no “weekend”

Working for a LivingWorking for a Living

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• Workers often could not afford essentials

• Whole families worked, even children

• Women paid half men’s wages

• Immigrants and people of color usually given worst jobs

Working for a LivingWorking for a Living

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Gilded AgeGilded Age

• Was phrased by the writer, Mark Twain

• Considered a time of prosperity

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Gilded Age•Satire: Industrial America as

golden on outside but on inside reflecting extreme wealth & poverty

•Rise to new values, art, & forms of entertainment

•Americans believed in individualism

•Social Darwinism: “Survival of the Fittest”- powerful idea of the time

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Life in the CityLife in the City• Before 1880s: most

immigrants from western Europe

• Looking to escape religious persecution, force to serve in military, & social class system

• America: freedom, promised land, & opportunities would allow someone to become the person they wanted to be.

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Life in the CityLife in the City• After 1880: immigrants came from other

countries

• Traveled by boat, mostly to Ellis Island (NY City)

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• “Ellis Island of the West”: Angel Island

• Located in California• This facility was primarily a

detention center. 

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• Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, a series of restrictive laws had prohibited the immigration of Asians.

• Although all Asians were affected, the greatest impact was on the Chinese. 

Japanese picture brides arriving at Immigration Station

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Urbanization (Cities)• Jobs in factories & offices, as well

as city lights & activities drew immigrants, farmers, & small town residents to the big cities.

• Inventions that helped: electricity, telephone, telegraph wires, & elevators

• Skyscrapers, suspension bridges, & new methods of transportation all emerged during this time.

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• Came for better lives

• Problems: crime, violence, fire, disease, pollution, & congestion

• Similar or worse conditions than before

• Lived cramped in tenement buildings

Life in the CityLife in the City

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• Often no running water

• Apartments heated by coal or kerosene

• Used same stove for heating air and water and cooking

Life in the CityLife in the City

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• Workers without apartments lived in boarding houses

Life in the CityLife in the City

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• Tenements were extremely unhealthy

• Conditions exposed by book How the Other Half Lives

• Lincoln Steffins published Shame of the Cities describing Chicago, IL as a city 1st in violence, loud, lawless, unlovely, & ill-smelling

Life in the CityLife in the City

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Hull House• Founded by Jane

Addams in 1889• Located in Chicago, IL• Provided free lunches

& child-care services

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• Created their own sections within cities

• Maintained culture from place of origin

• Socialized within own communities

Life in the CityLife in the City

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Workers UniteWorkers Unite

• Idea of unionizing gained strength

• Some unions had existed prior to 1870s

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Status of Industrial Workers:

•Job insecurity: changes or layoffs

•Physical danger: accidents•Low Wages ($1.00 to $1.50 a day)

•Long Hours (10 to 14 hours a day, 6 days a week)

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Workers UniteWorkers Unite• Knights of Labor organized in 1869; Leader Terrance

Powderly

• Knew importance of strength in numbers

• Recruited members in all areas

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• Strike against railroad companies

• Knights of Labor gained 700,000

• Enough power to influence Congress

Workers UniteWorkers Unite

•Goals of Knights of Labor:8-hour workday, abolition of child labor, boycotts & arbitration, & currency reform

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• May 1, 1886: strike of all industry workers

• 340,000 laborers representing 12,000 companies

• Demanded work day be lowered from twelve hours to eight

Workers UniteWorkers Unite

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• Result: protest in Haymarket Square in Chicago, IL

• Led to Haymarket Riot

• Unions associated with violence

• Workers’ and management’s relationship worsened

Workers UniteWorkers Unite

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• 1892: Homestead Strike on Carnegie’s steel plant

• Value of steel had declined

• Management had cut wages of workers

• Carnegie wanted union to disband

Workers UniteWorkers Unite

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• Plant shut down

• Workers locked out

• Violence ensued

• Union eventually lost strength

• Those in union were fired

Workers UniteWorkers Unite

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• AFL—American Federation of Labor

• Wanted better life for workers

• Used boycotts and strikes to achieve goals

Workers UniteWorkers Unite

Leader of AFL: Samuel Gompers

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Laissez-Faire Approach

•The US Government’s “hands-off” policy towards business

•Neither aid nor regulation•Includes: low taxes, low spending, & little interference

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Political Machines• Political organizations with

“bosses”• Most Famous: Tammany

Hall in New York City- William M. “Boss” Tweed who ran a Democratic machine

• Political machines’ power grew by trading favors for votes.

• Examples: providing jobs, food, money, & legal aid

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Election of 1880 • Political

corruption split the Republican party into “Stalwarts” & “Half-Breeds”

• Result: Half-Breed James A Garfield became President & Stalwart Chester A Arthur became Vice-President

                                            

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Garfield’s Assassination

• Garfield motivated Congress to reform Civil Service jobs.

• Led to his assassination: Stalwart Charles Guiteau was refused a government job

• Pendleton Civil Service Act: replaced spoil system, reduced power of political machines, & diminished patronage-related corruption

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Government InterventionGovernment Intervention• Government had history of allowing free enterprise

• Workers’ suffering brought government intervention

• Government passed laws to help working class

• Election of 1884: Democrat Grover Cleveland won!

ClevelandCleveland

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Government InterventionGovernment Intervention

• Set up Interstate Commerce Commission

• At first was ineffective

• Federal government used constitutional authority

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Benjamin Harrison•Won the

Election of 1888

•Grandson of former presidentPolitical cartoon

representing President Harrison's administration and Congress playing football.

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• 1890: Sherman Antitrust Act

• Disbanded trusts and prohibited new ones

• Consequences included jail time and fines

• Result: Law was not enforced.

• McKinley Tariff: highest ever during peacetime

Government InterventionGovernment Intervention

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Election of 1892:• Grover Cleveland won• Primary issues for Cleveland:

reducing the tariff & stopping free minting of silver which had depleted the gold reserves of the U.S. Treasury

• Believed in gold standard• Split in the Democratic party:

led to the repeal of the Silver Purchase Act

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Populist Party:

• Appeared by the 1890s because of farmers’ complaints

• Industrialization led to lower crop prices

• RRs charged farmers higher rates

• Oliver Kelley organized the National Grange

• Farmers’ Alliance tried to advance agricultural reforms

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1892: People’s Party (Populists)

• Reform efforts: “bimetalism”- coinage of silver & the use of gold to increase the money supply

• Short-lived political party in the US in the late 19th century.

• Consisted of western farmers, based largely on its opposition to the gold standard

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1892: People’s Party (Populists) Platform:

• Government ownership of banks, RRs, telephone, & telegraphy companies

• Graduated income tax

• Secret ballot• Popular election of

Senators

• Initiative, referendum, & recall

• 8-hour Workday• Immigration

restriction• Candidate in

Election of 1896:

• James Weaver

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Panic of 1893

• Began with the bankruptcy of the Philadelphia & Reading RRs

• Stock Market Crashed

• Banks closed their doors

• Economy of the US: depression

• 18% of the Workforce were unemployed

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Election of 1896:•Populist Party:

• Candidate: William Jennings Bryan

• “Cross of Gold” Speech

• Nominated also by the split of the Democratic Party

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Election of 1896:• Republican candidate:

• William McKinley• Last veteran of the Civil

War to be elected• Former governor from

Ohio• Issue: high tariffs on

imports as a formula for prosperity

• Upheld the gold standard

• WON!!

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Segregation in the South

•Poll taxes & literacy tests were used to keep blacks from voting.

• Jim Crow Laws: passed in the South discriminating African Americans.

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Role of Blacks:

• Most became sharecroppers after the war

• Organized a mass migration of blacks from the rural South to Kansas

• Colored Farmers’ Alliance was founded

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Plessy v. Ferguson• 1896: Supreme

Court Case in which segregation was legalized

• Allowed a “separate but equal” of blacks and whites for public facilities such as schools, stores, restaurants, & restrooms

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African-American

Reformers:

• Ida B. Wells: • From Memphis,

TN• Reporter of

lynchings- most popular form of punishment to blacks in the South

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• Booker T. Washington:

• Spoke that blacks should concentrate on achieving economic goals rather than legal or political ones.

• Founded Tuskegee Institute for blacks

• W.E.B. DuBois:• Spoke for blacks to

demand, protect, & execute their voting rights

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AfterwardAfterward• By the early 1900s: Issues still remained unresolved

• Industry & workers saw improvements after the Depression

• Spanish-American War & World War I kept the US from advancing people’s rights in the factories