Boom and Bust Economies in the 1880s and 1890s

The Farmers’ Alliance

Sought federal intervention to build warehouses and issue bonds to help farmers acces capital based on stored crops

The People’s Party/Populists

• Biracial reform movement

• Worked to nationalize railroad and telegraph systems

• Worked to establish a network of federally-managed warehouses (sub-treasuries) which would extend government loans to farmers

• Promoted a reformed, silver-backed, monetary policy for having more money in circulation

• Challenged one-party rule

Jim Crow Laws

Laws that enforced racial segregation in the South that were passed in the 1890’s

Eli Whitney and gun manufacturing and industrialization

Popularized interchangeable parts for guns, which led to interchangeable parts for other items. 

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

A series of railroad strikes across the country in 1877 that called for increased wages and the ability to unionize

Knights of Labor

• Producer-centered economy

• 8-hour work day

• Safer work contexts

• End child and convict labor

• Graduated income tax

• Equal pay for women

American Federation of Labor

• More conservative alternative to Knights of Labor

• 8 hour workday

• Higher wages

• Safer conditions

• Avoid strikes

• Trade-unionist to bigger union by adding UMU

• Merged with miners

Industrial Workers of the World

• Goal of “revolutionary industrial unionism”

• “An injury to one is an injury to all”

• Organized the “bottom ring” of workers

• Shorter hours

• Abolish the wage system

• End unemployment

• The most radical

• “Wobblies”

Southern and Eastern European immigrants

These immigrants were new workers, especially female and Catholic workers

William Jennings Bryan and Free Silver

• Ran for President under the Populist Party

• Money backed by silver

• Wanted to print more money

• Wanted more for farmers

Plessy v Ferguson

1896 court case that ruled the concept of “separate but equal” and that Jim Crow Laws did not violate the 14th Amendment

Frederick Taylor’s Taylorism

A management theory that stated that the task of factory management was to determine the best way for the worker to do the job, to provide the proper tools and training, and to provide incentives for good performance.

Andrew Carnegie

Built the American steel industry

John D. Rockefeller

Revolutionized the petroleum industry

J.P. Morgan

Shaped the country’s financial landscape

Henry Flagler

Founder of Standard Oil, a key figure in the development of the Atlantic coast of Florida, and founder of the Florida East Coast Railway

Railroad Industries’ role in industrialization

• Government subsidies

• Corporate structure and capital accrual created national markets

• Creation of time zones

• Railroad hubs in Chicago

• Meat packaging lead to refrigerated cars

• Gustavus Swift