PROGRESSIVE ERA

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MAIN IDEA

• Political, economic, and social change in late 19th century America led to broad progressive reforms.

WHAT IS THE “GILDED AGE?”

• In American history, the Gilded Age refers to substantial growth in population in the United States and extravagant displays of wealth and excess of America's upper-class during the post-Civil War and post-Reconstruction era, in the late 19th century (1865-1901). The wealth polarization derived primarily from industrial and population expansion.

URBANIZATION IN THE GILDED AGE

• Cities grew rapidly throughout the late 19th century as a result of industrial growth

• Ex: Chicago (meatpacking), Detroit (automobile), Cleveland (automobile), Pittsburgh (steel), and

New York (textiles)

Urbanization in the Gilded Age

• Centers for manufacturing and transportation – created industrial jobs

• Harsh conditions for laborers in slums and tenements• Need for better public services

• Sewage and water systems were improved• Public transportation systems were improved

• Trolley, streetcar, and subways (NYC) were developed

Deaths per 100,000Boston, New York, New Orleans, and Philadelphia

  Tuberculosis

 Intestinal Disorders

Diphtheria TyphoidTyphus

Smallpox 

1864-1888  365  299  123  66  53 1899-1913  223  196  58  19  25 

Labor

• Labor supply in cities increased- due to immigration and migration from rural farms

GOALS OF PROGRESSIVISM

• Middle-class progressive reformers wanted to fix many of the problems that resulted from industrialization and urbanization in the late 19th century (the Gilded Age)

WORKING CONDITIONS

• Working conditions for laborers in factories:• dangerous, low wages, long

hours, no job security, no benefits

• child labor common, discrimination against women

• Dominance of big businesses and corporations

• government not being responsive to the needs of the people• SIG – these issues led to the

progressive movement – def. – use of government to reform problems created by industrialization and correct injustices in American society

GOALS OF PROGRESSIVE REFORMERS

Goals of Progressive Reformers:

1. Government controlled by the people

2. Guarantee economic opportunities through government regulation

3. Eliminate social injustices

SOCIAL REFORM

• Prohibition – the movement to ban the of manufacture, sale, and consumption of alcohol• Based on the belief that alcohol consumption was

undermining American morality• 18th Amendment – prohibition of alcohol went into effect• Repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933• Responses to: Bootlegging, Speakeasies, Organized

Crime (Al Capone)• Cities of the Underworld

• (Show up to 10:32)

IMPORTANT FIGURES IN THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT

Frances WillardBecame head of the WCTU in

1879; turned it into a powerful organization

Carry NationShe was so against alcohol

that she famously broke into saloons and took apart

bottles with an axe!

“Temperance is moderation of things that are good and total

abstinence from things that are

foul”

“I smashed five saloons with

rocks before I ever took a

hatchet”

WHAT WAS THE FIRST STATE TO GRANT WOMEN THE RIGHT TO VOTE?

• WYOMING!• Territory – 1869• State – 1890

• By 1919, a total of 15 states allowed women to vote in all elections• In VA, women were

still not allowed to vote

VOTES FOR WOMEN!

• Women’s Suffrage – the movement to give women the right to vote• National American Woman Suffrage Association

(NAWSA)• Benefited from strong leadership – Susan B. Anthony• Encouraged women to enter the workforce during World War I

• 19th Amendment – granted women the right to vote (suffrage)

ECONOMIC REFORM

• Background: During the Gilded Age (late 1800s), government took a “hands-off” approach to the economy and did not get involved in regulating business = Laissez-faire capitalism• big businesses used power to crush competition

The Gilded Age (1869-1901) was a time of laissez-faire economics: The U. S. government provided handouts to Big Business with a "hands off" policy.

RAKING THE MUCK!

• Muckrakers – def. – journalists who wrote about the corrupt side of business and public life in magazines during the progressive era• Ida Tarbell – “History of the Standard Oil Company”

attacked Rockefeller• Upton Sinclair – The Jungle – exposed horrible

conditions of the meatpacking industry in Chicago• Read excerpts from “The Jungle”

1906 Pure Food and Drug

Act 

Prohibits sale of adulterated or

fraudulently labeled foods and drugs

Meat Inspection

Act 

Enforces sanitary conditions in

meatpacking plants 

TRUST BUSTING

• Clayton Anti-Trust Act – strengthened the Sherman Anti-Trust Act• Outlawed trusts,

monopolies, and price-fixing

• Exempted unions from being prosecuted by the Sherman Anti-Trust Act

POLITICAL REFORM

• Local governments - • need to reform city governments with major

problems that resulted from increased urbanization

• Commissioners and city council managers – new ways to govern cities more efficiently in 250 cities in the U.S.

POLITICAL MACHINES

• An illegal gang that influences enough votes to control a local government.

• Gained support by trading favors for votes.• Bosses gave jobs, cash, or food to supporters.

• Tammany Hall (NYC) and Boss Tweed• Stole enormous amounts of money from the

city

• Did some good:• Built parks, sewers, schools, roads, and

orphanages in many cities• Also helped immigrants get settled and find

jobs or homes.

Boss Tweed

STATE GOVERNMENTS

• Secret ballot – def. – allowed voters to cast a vote without election officials knowing who they voted for

• Initiative – def. – a bill originated by the people rather than lawmakers on the ballot

• Referendum – def. - a vote by the people on a bill that began as an initiative

• Recall – def. – enabled voters to remove public officials from elected positions by forcing them to face another election before the end of their term

• Primary system – def. – voters, rather than politicians, would choose candidates for public office through a special election

NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

• President Teddy Roosevelt’s progressive plan = “Square Deal”• Involved trust-busting and

conservation projects

• President Woodrow Wilson’s progressive plan = “New Freedom”• Involved financial reform,

increased government regulation of business

Roosevelt

Wilson

PROGRESSIVE PRESIDENTS

• Theodore Roosevelt• Became President in 1901, after

William McKinley’s assassination

• Member of the Bull Moose Party• Progressive political party

• Promised voters a “Square Deal”• Government will ensure fairness for

workers, consumers, and big business

• “trustbuster”…broke up many Monopolies and Trusts

• The first environmental President

PROGRESSIVE PRESIDENTS

• William Howard Taft

• Elected President in 1908

• Supported safety standards for mines and railroads

• Supported the 16th Amendment:• Federal income taxes

• Disappointed progressives in the areas of tariffs and conservation

PROGRESSIVE PRESIDENTS

Woodrow Wilson• Elected President in 1912

• Passed the Federal Reserve Act• Established the modern banking system

• Established the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)• Tariff reform

• Clayton Antitrust Act:• Strengthened the Sherman Antitrust Act

• “New Freedom”• promoted antitrust modification, tariff

revision, and reform in banking and currency matters.

CHILDREN TO SCHOOL NOT TO WORK!

• Child Labor – progressives wanted to end the use of children in industry• Keating-Owen Act

(1916) – outlawed goods being transported from state to state if those products were produced by child labor• Later declared

unconstitutional

AMENDMENTS OF THE PROGRESSIVE ERA

• 16th Amendment – established a federal income tax

• 17th Amendment – direct election of senators• The people, not state legislatures, would vote on

candidates running for the U.S. Senate

• 18th Amendment – Prohibition on the manufacture, sale, and consumption of alcohol

• 19th Amendment – granted women the right to vote (suffrage)

JIM CROW AND SEGREGATION

MAIN IDEA

• Discrimination and segregation against African-Americans intensified and took new forms in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. African Americans disagreed about how to respond to the developments.

AFRICAN-AMERICANS FIGHT LEGAL DISCRIMINATION

• Background – During Reconstruction, African-Americans faced violent opposition to their new constitutional rights, especially voting rights.

• Voting Restrictions – all Southern states passed voting restrictions on African-Americans

• Literacy test – def. – difficult reading test given to African-Americans trying to register to vote

• Poll tax – def. – an annual tax that had to be paid by African-Americans before voting

• Grandfather clause – def. – state laws that allowed people to vote if their grandfather was eligible to vote in 1867

• African-Americans prevented from voting as a result

JIM CROW

• Jim Crow Laws – segregation laws passed throughout the South to separate white and black people in public

• SIG - applied to schools, hospitals, parks, and transportation systems

Vending-machine in Jackson, Tennessee

SEPARATE BUT (UN)EQUAL

• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) – U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation of the races in public accommodations was legal and did not violate the 14th Amendment• Established “separate but equal” doctrine – states could

maintain segregated facilities for blacks and whites as long as they provided equal service.

• SIG – segregation was legal for almost 60 years• http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24prom-t.html?scp=1&sq=separate%20proms&st=cse

AFRICAN-AMERICAN RESPONSES

• “Great Migration” (early 20th century) – def. – movement of African-Americans from the rural South to Northern cities in search of jobs and to escape poverty and discrimination in the South• Racial discrimination still existed in the North and

sometimes resulted in violence

AFRICAN AMERICAN RESPONSES

• Ida B. Wells – led an anti-lynching crusade and called for the federal government to act to stop oppression of African-Americans

AFRICAN AMERICAN RESPONSES

• Booker T. Washington,– believed the way to equality was through vocational education and economic success• Did not openly challenge

segregation• Founded the Tuskegee

Institute in Alabama

AFRICAN AMERICAN RESPONSES

• W.E.B. DuBois,– believed that education was meaningless without equality• Supported political

equality for African-Americans by helping to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NAACP