Period 6: 1865-1898

The Gilded Age & The American West

Key Concept I: Between the years 1865-1900 the United States witnessed an incredible amount of growth in terms of population, industry, and the size of their urban areas. This has been called the “Gilded Age” by many historians. During this time period the United States’ modern corporate capitalism was born. With the new economy came massive social changes such as a growing working class conscious, the birth of the middle class, and the growing power of a small, elite upper class.

Key Concept II: As major corporations combined during the Gilded Age so did workers as the labor movement developed unions. Unions fought for better working conditions, higher pay, and collective bargaining rights. Sometimes their actions grew violent and often the federal government, with the hopes of maintaining peace, came down on the side of big business. In response, radical political and economic ideologies also grew in popularity.

Key Concept III: The years of 1865-1920 saw millions of Europeans and Asians become Americans. Immigration combined with internal migration patterns led urban areas to grow by the hundreds of thousands, some, like New York and Chicago grew by the millions. With this sudden increase in population, problems, such as disease, crime, and municipal political corruption, accompanied urbanization. In response, the nation experienced its second great wave of attempts at reforming American society.

Key Concept IV: The resources needed to drive the industrialization and urbanization occurring in the American east were found in the new American west. The railroad was the focus of most industrial development, connecting the resources to the factories, as well as the goods to the people. Native Americans attempted to defend their homeland and as a result entered into a series of battles with the American military, eventually being forced into the reservation system.

Key Concept V: The corruption of government was at the local and federal level during the Gilded Age leading many to be disenchanted with the American democracy of the time period. As a result of this and the growing influence of corporations, specifically the railroads, a new political party emerged called the People’s Party, which forced the mainstream parties to change their platforms.

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Capitalism:

Source: Historical Statistics of the United States

Historical Context: Explain the People, Terms, Events from Unit that help make sense of this document. / Author’s Point of View, Purpose or Audience

Source: George Rice, “How I Was Ruined by Rockefeller,” New York World, October 16, 1898.

“I am but one of many victims of Rockefeller’s colossal combination,” said Mr. [George] Rice, “and my story is not essentially different from the rest. . . . I established what was known as the Ohio Oil Works. . . . I found to my surprise at first, though I afterward understood it perfectly, that the Standard Oil Company was offering the same quality of oil at much lower prices than I could do—from one to three cents a gallon less than I could possibly sell it for. I sought for the reason and found that the railroads were in league with the Standard Oil concern at every point, giving it discriminating rates and privileges of all kinds as against myself and all outside competitors.”

Historical Context: Explain the People, Terms, Events from Unit that help make sense of this document. / Author’s Point of View, Purpose or Audience

Homework Notes Begin Here:

  1. Innovations allowed for Industrialization

•Laissez-faire capitalism –

•Capital investments allowed inventors to develop new technologies such as:

–

–

–

–Bessemer Process –

  1. The Railroad Spurs Industrialization

•Land Grants –

–land was sold to homesteaders and local communities to fund construction

•This system led to corruption:

•Credit Moblier (1872) –

–Bribery and Congress:

–Criminal Charges:

•J.P. Morgan:

Effects of the RR on American Capitalism

  1. Social Darwinism and Business
  • Social Darwinism –
  • Racism and Classism:
  1. Industrialization and Working Conditions

•Challenges were faced by workers of the Gilded Age:

•Company Town:

•Scrip:

•Pinkerton Detectives

  1. Gilded Age Immigration

•“Old Immigrants” –

•“New Immigrants” –

•Causes of Immigration

–“Push” Factors –

–“Pull” Factors –

•Ellis Island – (1892)

•Angel Island –

•Congress also passed laws:

(End of Homework and Start of In-Class Activity)Read pages 446-447 and answer the following questions:

  1. What is nativism and why did it arise in the Gilded Age U.S.?
  1. What were the goals and effects of the American Protective Association?
  1. What were the goals and effects of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882?
  1. What was the goal and effect of the 1917 Literacy Tests?
  1. Organized Labor: Read Pages 428-435, answer 1-5 found below (in your packet), and complete the chart on Labor Actions.
  1. What were the differences between a craft worker (skilled laborer) and a common laborer (unskilled)?
  1. What is the difference between a craft union and an industrial union?
  1. How did corporations fight union organization?
  1. What is Marxism?
  1. What is Anarchism?
  1. What were the goals of and tactics used by the Knights of Labor?
  1. What were the goals of and tactics used by the American Federation of Labor?

Labor Action / Great Strike of 1877 / Homestead Strike / Pullman Strike
2 Main Causes of the Labor Action / 1.
2. / 1.
2. / 1.
2.
Union(s) involved
2 Main Effects of the Labor Action / 1.
2. / 1.
2. / 1.
2. Supreme Court’s In re Debs & Injunctions:
  1. Urbanization:

While reading pages 451-455, define the following terms:

  • High Society –
  • Middle-Class Gentility –
  • Working-Class –
  • tenements –
  • urban crime –
  • political machine –
  • Tammany Hall –
  • “Boss” Tweed –

Source 1: Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives, 1890

“Be a little careful, please! The hall is dark and you might stumble over the children pitching pennies back there. Not that it would hurt them; kicks and cuffs are their daily diet. They have little else. Here where the hall turns and dives into utter darkness is a step, and another, another. A flight of stairs. You can feel your way, if you cannot see it. Close? Yes! What would you have? All the fresh air that ever enters these stairs comes from the hall-door that is forever slamming, and from the windows of dark bedrooms that in turn receive from the stairs their sole supply of the elements… The sinks are in the hallway, that all the tenants may have access--and all be poisoned alike by their summer stenches. Hear the pump squeak! It is the lullaby of tenement-house babes. In summer, when a thousand thirsty throats pant for a cooling drink in this block, it is worked in vain. But the saloon, whose open door you passed in the hall, is always there. The smell of it has followed you up.

Historical Context: Explain the People, Terms, Events from Unit that help make sense of this document. / Author’s Point of View, Purpose or Audience

Source 2: New York City Machine Politician George Washington Plunkitt, 1905

What tells in holdin’ your grip on your district is to go right down among the poor families and help them in the different ways they need help. I’ve got a regular system for this. If there’s a fire in Ninth, I’m usually there with some of my election district captains as soon as the fire engines. If a family is burned out I don’t ask whether they are Republicans or Democrats, and I don’t refer them to the Charity Organization Society, which would investigate their case in a month or two and decide they were worthy of help about the time they are dead from starvation. I just get quarters for them, buy clothes for them if their clothes were burned up, and fix them up till they get things runnin’ again. It’s philanthropy, but it’s politics, too---mighty good politics. Who can tell how many votes one of these fires bring me? The poor are the most grateful people in the world, and, let me tell you, they have more friends in their neighborhoods than the rich have in theirs…

Historical Context: Explain the People, Terms, Events from Unit that help make sense of this document. / Author’s Point of View, Purpose or Audience

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The Clash of Cultures: Answer the questions:

  1. According to this website, what role did the buffalo play in the lives of the Great Plains Indians?
  1. What parts of the buffalo did the Native Americans use?
  1. In what ways does the use of the buffalo differ between the whites and the Native Americans?
  1. Why would the evidence presented in these three documents lead to anger by the Native Americans and confrontation between the white settlers on the Great Plains and the Native Americans living on that region?
  1. What was the connection between the Homestead Act and the Sioux Uprising?
  1. Read about the Massacre at Sand Creek and the Plains War. What were the causes and effects of Sand Creek?
  1. How is this account of the American soldiers attacking the Native Americans opposite of what we usually hear about the conflicts with Indians in the west?
  1. Why would this event at Sand Creek hurt the government’s efforts to convince Native Americans the reservation policy was beneficial?
  1. Return to the timeline. Who was Red Cloud and how did he become famous or infamous depending on who was telling the story?
  1. What was General Sheridan’s order in 1866?
  1. Analyzing the years 1867-1878, explain the multiple impacts of white settlement on Native American life in the Dakotas and Great Plains? Consider change of traditional lifestyle, impacts with whites, and causes of intertribal conflicts.
  1. Throughout the 1870s, how does railroad construction affect relations between the Sioux and the United States? Consider the actions of Sitting Bull and Red Cloud.
  1. What was the Carlisle School and how did it try to assimilate Native Americans into “civilized” culture? Consider the photo.
  1. In 1887 the Dawes Act was signed into law. What were the act’s goals and purposes?
  1. What did practitioners of the Ghost Dance believe would happen if they took part in the new religion? Read the entire link before answering the question.
  1. Why do you think the Ghost Dance gained so much popularity so quickly?
  1. Why did the Wounded Knee Massacre happen?