The Gilded Age: Industry, Urbanization, and the West

Second Industrial Revolution Began during Civil War Shift: consumer to capital goods RRs crucial: 320,000 miles by 1900 Abundant natural resources: coal, iron, copper, timber, oil Immense demand for labor Huge domestic demand for goods Abundant Capital – U.S. & European Labor saving technologies Talented managers and entrepreneurs Major Inventions: communications,

electricity Supportive government

Gilded Age Politics:

Conservatism & Complacency

Shift in focus from politics to economics Shift from idealism to cynicism Era of “forgettable presidents” Problems re: the growth of cities & industry were avoided by national politicians, left to state and local politicians Widespread patronage and corruption Civil Service Reform: Pendleton Act (1881) -- shift in role of party workers Tariffs: big disagreement!

Laissez-Faire Economics

Adam Smith’s “Invisible Hand” Hands Off vs. Helping Hands Pro-business government Capitalist Work Ethic Horatio Alger myth: the self-made man a rarity – psychological effects Social Darwinism

Industrial Empires Railroads (Vanderbilt and

Gould) The Steel Industry: Carnegie

Steel; U.S. Steel (J. P. Morgan) J. D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Anti-Trust Movement

Causes of Labor Unrest De-skilling created loss of autonomy, repetitive & monotonous work Concentration of wealth & sharper class divisions Wage-based labor: long hours, low pay Dangerous working conditions:

accidents, chemicals & pollutants Court injunctions Industrial warfare: strikes, lockouts,

blacklists, yellow-dog contracts, private guards & state militias

Panics of 1873 and 1892

National Labor Unions National Labor Union (1866), goals: higher wages, 8-hour day,

equal rights for women & blacks, monetary reform, co-ops

Knights of Labor (1869, public 1881): Powderly (leader) goals: worker co-ops, ending child labor & monopolies

AF of L (1886): Gompers (leader) goals: higher wages & safer conditions; tactics: collective bargaining -- first really successful Union

Major Events Great RR Strike (1877) Haymarket bombing (1886) Homestead Strike (1892) Pullman Strike (1894) Coxey’s Army (1894)

Immigration 1850-1900 : 16 million immigrants arrived & U.S. pop. grew from 23 to 76 million Reasons for immigration from Europe

displacement, overcrowding, persecution freedom, econ. opportunities, cheap

transport 1840s to 1880s: NW Europe: Protestants,

literate & skilled, meshed well with natives (“Old Immigrants”)

1890s to 1914: SE Europe: mostly Catholic, Orthodox & Jewish, illiterate , poor, from autocratic countries (“New Immigrants”) – dangerous work in factories

Strong Anti-Immigrant movement First legal restrictions, more rigorous standards Labor Unions, Social Darwinists, American Protective

League

Urbanization

Industrialization / Population influx Skyscrapers: spread upward, technology transformed

skylines (steel skeletons, elevators, central heating) Streetcar cities: spread outward from commercial

center Wealthy left central business districts & poor moved

in Landlords divided up older housing New tenements overcrowded, dirty, disease-y Distinct ethnic neighborhoods Boss & machine politics: consolidated power, corrupt but provided social welfare to immigrants By 1900, every major U.S. city had suburbs

Farming: Crisis & Response

Numbers of farmers declined sharply 1860-1900 Increased production = falling prices Rising costs: equipment, middlemen,

railroads, warehouses, elevators, taxes

National Grange Movement Farmers’ Alliances: 1 million

members, some inter-racial orgs in the South

Interstate Commerce Act (1886) National Alliance’s Ocala platform

(1890) re: election reform, tariffs, taxes, banking

Numbers of farmers declined sharply 1860-1900 Increased production = falling prices Rising costs: equipment, middlemen,

railroads, warehouses, elevators, taxes

National Grange Movement Farmers’ Alliances: 1 million

members, some inter-racial orgs in the South

Interstate Commerce Act (1886) National Alliance’s Ocala platform

(1890) re: election reform, tariffs, taxes, banking

Post-Reconstruction South Economic Development: new industries (lumber, tobacco, cotton mills) & cheap, non-union labor Most profits went North to investors High Poverty Rates: most southerners

were sharecropping farmers, barely got by

Agricultural Development: increased productivity re: cotton, diversification of crops

Farmers’ Southern Alliance (1 million); Colored Farmers’ National Alliance (250,000) -- lack of unity undercut effectiveness

Economic Development: new industries (lumber, tobacco, cotton mills) & cheap, non-union labor Most profits went North to investors High Poverty Rates: most southerners

were sharecropping farmers, barely got by

Agricultural Development: increased productivity re: cotton, diversification of crops

Farmers’ Southern Alliance (1 million); Colored Farmers’ National Alliance (250,000) -- lack of unity undercut effectiveness

Segregation and Loss of Civil Rights

“Redeemers” enacted segregation Used poor whites’ racial fears to deflect common economic concerns Supreme Court: Congress can’t prohibit

racial discrimination by private citizens, including railroads, hotels…

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) “separate but equal” ushers in the Jim Crow era

Grandfather clauses, literacy tests, property requirements, poll taxes used to disfranchise blacks or liberal whites

Blacks couldn’t serve on juries, harsher punishments, shut out of good jobs

Waves of lynching & other forms of terror

“Redeemers” enacted segregation Used poor whites’ racial fears to deflect common economic concerns Supreme Court: Congress can’t prohibit

racial discrimination by private citizens, including railroads, hotels…

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) “separate but equal” ushers in the Jim Crow era

Grandfather clauses, literacy tests, property requirements, poll taxes used to disfranchise blacks or liberal whites

Blacks couldn’t serve on juries, harsher punishments, shut out of good jobs

Waves of lynching & other forms of terror

Black Responses Migrate: western U.S.; Africa (Bishop Henry

Turner, International Migration Society 1894)

Ida B. Wells-Barnett, newspaper writer and editor fought against lynching & Jim Crow, death threats forced her to flee to North

Booker T. Washington: economic uplift, industrial, technical ed., no agitation (Tuskegee Inst. 1881)

W.E.B. Du Bois: end segregation, equal civil rights, higher ed., political activism

Migrate: western U.S.; Africa (Bishop Henry Turner, International Migration Society 1894)

Ida B. Wells-Barnett, newspaper writer and editor fought against lynching & Jim Crow, death threats forced her to flee to North

Booker T. Washington: economic uplift, industrial, technical ed., no agitation (Tuskegee Inst. 1881)

W.E.B. Du Bois: end segregation, equal civil rights, higher ed., political activism