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