Unit 6: Period 6: 1865-1890

-industrial revolution -capitalism, robber barons, rise of the industry -gospel of wealth -reform, socialists, populists -social gospel -labor Unions, society's great upheaval -AFL, Knights of Labor, strikes (Great Railroad, Pullman, Grange) -tariffs, working conditions -Andrew Carnegie (US Steel), John D. Rockefeller (Standard Oil Company) -monopolies, horizontal, vertical integration -debate on role of government in economics (should government have power to regulate trade?) -divide between rich & poor (wealth accumulate at top, not equally distributed) -imperialism, social darwinism -Gilded Age -new imperialism >> Spanish-American War, Philippines, Cuba, Platt Amendment, US intervention -conflict with natives (Dawes Act, Ghost Dance Movement, deforestation, hunting buffalo, New Perce) -William Jennings Bryan & "coinage of free silver"

“Great Upheaval of 1866”

a period in which a wave of strikes and labor protests that spread across the US

• reflects rise of industry & how unethical business practices cause controversy within the working class

standard gauge

distance separating 2 tracks of railroad, which made it possible for trains of one company to travel on another company’s tracks

Second Industrial Revolution

technological revolution that brought railways, automobiles, mass production, electrification, mechanization of agriculture, and other technological advancements

What spurred the Second Industrial Revolution?

Railroads

railroad time zones

major railroad companies divided the US into 4 distinct time zones

→ illustrated how railroads became central to American society to the point they rearranged time itself

→allowed practice of mass marketing by which national brands and chains became integrated into the economy (Quaker Oats, etc)

Thomas Edison

inventory of the lightbulb, power plants (system for generating and distributing power), motion picture, and phonograph

• inventions helped establish new industries & transform private life, and public entertainment

Nikola Tesla

Serbian inventor who emigrated to US; invented the electric motor, which overcame the challenge of using electricity for commercial & industrial purposes

General Electric

company whose creators included Thomas Edison that marketed electrical equipment

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Great American industrialist who popularized the use steel rails in his railway (from Chicago to New York), which made railroads more safe & economical

vertical integration

company that controlled every phase of the business from raw materials to transportation , manufacturing, and distribution; allows other companies in same industry survive and compete in marketplace

ex/ Andrew Carnegie

horizontal integration

several smaller companies within the same industry are combined to form one larger company, either by being bought out legally or by being destroyed through ruthless business practices such as cutthroat competition or pooling agreements; monopolies

Standard Oil Company

John D. Rockefeller’s grant oil corporation that was horizontally integrated, meaning that his company controlled/bought out other competing companies

• this company controlled over 90% of nation’s oil industry

John D. Rockefeller

Creator of the Standard Oil Company, who had a monopoly on the oil industry for a while; ended up giving much of his wealth away to foundations promoting education and medical research

Andrew Carnegie

industrial giant; owner of Carnegie Steel that was vertically integrated

Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth

Carnegie’s belief that the wealthy had a moral obligation to promote the advancement of society » distributed $$ to various philanthropies

Social Darwinism (in context to Industrial Revolution/Gilded Age)

philosophy promoted by Andrew Carnegie, claiming that in business, as in nature, unrestricted competition allowed only the “fittest” to survive

JP Morgan

owner of giant corporation, US Steel, horizontally integrated company by which 8 large steel companies were combined into the first billion-dollar economic enterprise

Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890

law forbidding people from restraining trade

“Captain of Industry”

industrial leaders whose energy & vision pushed the economy forward (supporters)

“Robber Barons”

industrial leaders who wielded power without any accountability in unregulated marketplace

» reflects Gilded Age Principles = abuse of power, lack of Democratic control, undermining of political & economic freedom

• bias in corporations thru bribery & manipulation

Sunshine and Shadow in New York (1868)

book by Matthew Smith that opened with an engraving that contrasted department store magnate Alexander T. Stewart’s $2million mansion with houses in the city’s slums

How the Other Half Lives (1890)

book by Jacob Riis that offered a shocking account of living conditions among the urban poor, complete with photographs of apartments in dark, airless, overcrowded tenement houses

"The Significance of the American Frontier in American History” (1893)

(aka the Frontier Thesis) famous lecture by historian Frederick Jackson Turner where he argued that the frontier was significant in …

1. shaping the American character

2. defining the American spirit

3. fostering democracy

4. providing a “safety valve” for economic distress in urban, industrial centers by providing a place to which people could flee

→west depicted as a region full of economic opportunity

WESTWARD EXPANSION →American frontier = GONE & so was the first period in American history

Bonanza farming

farms that covered thousands of acres of land and employed large #s of agricultural wage workers

»led to emergence of families on middle borders

Social Gospel

Movement led by (Protestant) activists who were dismayed by the poverty & urban slums that promoted public health and education, hoping that the moral lives of the poor would begin to improve

cowboys

collection of white, Mexican, and black men who conducted the cattle drivers in the WEST; became a symbol of the open range

Importance of Agriculture to the Industrial American Society

Agriculture reflected how the international economy was becoming more integrated.

• bonanza farms

• railroads bringing factory-goods to rural places

• farmers specializing in a single crop to sell to faraway places

Subjugation of the Plains Indians

• westward expansion led to conflict with natives

• new native tribes migrating to Great Plains to revel in advantages of horses & trade

• whites destroying foundations of Indian economy

• hunting buffalo to extinction

• deforestation

Chief Joseph

leader of the Nez Perce natives; delivered a speech to President Rutherford B. Hayes, using language of freedom and equal rights to condemn the policy of confining the native Americans to reservations

Battle of Little Bighorn (1876)

Most famous native victory when General George A. Custer and his entire command of 250 men perished as the Sioux & Cheyenne warrior—led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse—defended tribal land in the Black Hills of Dakota territory

Wounded Knee Massacre

deadliest mass shooting in America, involving nearly 300 Lakota people who were shot and killed by soldier of the US army

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show

popular traveling extravaganza complete with mock native American attacks and shooting and riding exhibitions

Dawes Act

law that broke up the land of nearly all native tribes (the reservations) into small parcels of land to be distributed to native families with the rest being auctioned off to white purchasers

» effort to try and assimilate the natives into white society

Ghost Dance Movement

religious revitalization campaign inspired by the visions of the prophet Wovoka, which promised followers that through proper ceremony & supernatural magic, federal expansion in the West WOULD END & Native Americans would be able to live peacefully on their lands

• large groups of natives joined together to sing, dance, and practice their religion

• troops were sent to reservations in fear of rebellion

Political bosses

group of corrupt men who typically helped the poor find homes and jobs & apply for citizenship or voting rights (mainly to gain more votes for themselves); occasionally required “donations” to fund community projects

• resorted to criminal means to achieve goals

Political machines

organizations led by political bosses who rendered services that communities would not otherwise have received (building parks, funded auxiliary police & fire dept, construction of roads & sewage lines) » BUT resorted to illegal means of accomplishing their goal; CORRUPT

Boss Tweed Scandal (NY Tweed Ring)

notorious political boss (was a prominent leader of Tammy Hall—political machine of NY Democratic Party) who embezzled $13million through extortion and fraudulent construction projects

Credit Mobilier Scandal

political scandal in the 1870s where Union Pacific Railroad insiders formed the Credit Mobilier company and then gave or sold shares to influential congressmen

Civil Service Act of 1883

created a merit system for federal employees with appointment via competitive examinations rather than political influence (interview process) → give everyone an equal chance

• inspired by assassination of President Garfield by a disappointed office seeker

Interstate Commerce Commission

established by Congress to ensure that the rates that railroads charged farmers & merchants to transport their goods were reasonable & did not show bias towards some shippers over others

Patrons of Husbandry (Grange Movement)

critics of railroads who moved to establish cooperatives for storing and marketing farm output in hope of forcing carriers to “take our produce at a fair price”

• advocates for social & economic well-being of US FARMERS

• bc of the high rates charged by railroad companies (seemed to favor large corps)

iron law of supply and demand

prices are determined by relationship between supply & demand

liberty of contract

refer to the emergence of labor contracts, which reconciled freedom & authority in the workplace; as long as labor relations were governed by contracts freely by an independent individual, neither gov or unions had right to interfere with working conditions

Lochner v New York

voided a state law that established 10hrs/day or 60hrs/wk as the maximum hours of work for bakers

• interfered with the liberty of contract principle

“yellow-dog contracts”

A written contract between employers and employees in which the employees sign an agreement that they will not join a union while working for the company

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

workers protesting a pay cut that halted rail traffic in much of the US in which military units tried to get them back to work; first national labor walkout

Knights of Labor

labor group organizing unskilled & skilled workers, men & women, black & white (racist towards Asians tho) in a labor union

Pullman Strike

workers at Pullman Palace Car Factory faced a wage cut and an increase in cost of their housing, so the American Railway Union (ARU), led by Eugene Debs, led over 250k railway workers to walk off the job, shutting down railway travel in 27 states

Eugene V. Debs

leader of the Pullman Strike of 1894 and president of the ARU refused to end the strike even after President Cleveland order the army to stop the strike & was convicted and jailed

• in jail, he allegedly read Karl Marx’s Communist manifesto

• became active in the socialist movement & became leader of the American Socialist party

socialism

social and economic doctrine that all’s for public rather than private ownership of property and resources

Communist Manifesto

book by Karl Marx and Fredreich Engels that advocated for proletarian revolution and abolition of bourgeois private property

• “working class uprising”

Utopia

book written by Edward Bellamy that envisioned a Utopian socialist society where the government owned the means of production and distributed wealth equally among all citizens

Haymarket Affair (1886)

labor demonstration gone wrong in Chicago’s Haymarket Square where a bomb went off, killing police

• many blame radical influence within Union movement (nobody actually know who threw the bomb)

Agricultural expansion and decline

agriculture prices were falling & farmers—especially in rural areas in the South & Mississippi West—were becoming more economically dependent on (larger) industrial companies

• sharecroppers & farmers in POVERTY

• failure of King Cotton Diplomacy during Civil War (cotton exports interrupted)

• farmers in debt (unable to pay back bank loans), charged high freight rates

• many joined Farmers’ Alliance

Farmers’ Alliance

labor union that sought to reverse the horrible economic conditions placed onto farmers

• poverty, debt, railroad companies charging high freight rates

People’s Party (Populists)

evolved from Farmers’ Alliance; advocated a variety of reform issues including the coinage of free silver, income tax, postal savings, regulation of railroads, and direct election of senators

• appealed to all “producing” classes (middle class)

Populism

A political philosophy supporting the rights and power of the people in their struggle against the privileged upper class; increased farmers' political power and to work for legislation in their interest

Coxey’s Army

band of several hundred unemployed businessmen in Ohio led by Jacob Coxey who marched to Washington demanding economic relief in response to the government sending federal troops to disperse a strike at Coeur d’Alene

“Free coinage” of silver

unrestricted minting of silver money called for by farmers; “silver vs gold debate” of the POPULIST Movement

• farmers looking for a solution to pay back their debts owed to banks

• trying to find a a more generous money supply

• bankers oppose because prefer gold

William Jennings Bryan

Democratic presidential candidate in 1896; supported by many Populists as he based his campaign on the call for free silver

“Cross of Gold”

famous speech given by William Jennings Bryan that argued that an easy money supply (although inflationary) would loosen the control that Northern banking interests held over the US

Election of 1896

William Jennings Bryan (Democrat) vs William McKinley (Republican) with main debate being about free silver

• McKinley WON (favored the big businesses & industry)

• led to end of the Populist movement

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1896)

novel by Frank L. Baum that is allegedly a political allegory that represented Populism & the election of 1896

• Dorothy = common citizen

• Dorothy’s silver shoes = silver standard

• Scarecrow = farmer

• Tin Man = industrial worker

• Cowardly Lion = William Jennings Bryan

Kansas Exodus

migration of about 40-50k African-Americans to Kansas in search of political equality, freedom from violence, access to education, and economic opportunity

McKinley Tariff (1890)

raised the level of duties on imported goods by 50%

Elimination of Black voting

From 1890-1906, every southern state enacted laws or constitutional provisions to eliminate black voting through non-race based voting requirements: poll tax, literacy tests, and understanding of the Constitution

• violation of 15th amendment

Civil Rights Cases

cases in which the Supreme Court invalidated the Civil Rights Act of 1875 (outlawed racial discrimination in public facilities), the 14th, and 15th Amendment

Plessy v Ferguson

court ruled that segregation was constitutional if facilities were “separate but equal”

“Separate but equal”

implemented by Plessy v Ferguson that gave the Court the approval to segregate or allow state laws to require separate facilities for whites & blacks

Immigration Restriction League (1894)

founded by a group of Boston professionals who called for the barring of illiterates from entering the US to reduce immigration

• in response to a new wave of immigrants, Nativism, and overcrowding

lynching

murdering via mob

• method to silence blacks in the South who sought to challenge white supremacist system

• ex/ Sam Hose was lynched

Jim Crow laws

set of discriminatory laws passed by Southern governments

Politics of Memory

politics of Civil War being remembered through memoirs—popular literature as a tragic family family quarrel among white Americans, in which blacks did not matter

• “brother against brother”

• no slave issue

• Reconstruction horror

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

temporary law passed by Congress that excluded immigrants from China from entering the US; first time that race had been used to exclude an entire group from entering the US

• people mad that Chinese people were “stealing” all of their jobs

Yick Wo v Hopkins (1886)

court ordered San Francisco to grant licenses to Chinese-operated laundries, which the city government refused to do

US v Wong Kim Ark (1898)

court ruled that the 14th Amendment granted citizenship to children of Chinese immigrants born on US soil!

Fong Yue Ting (1893)

court authorized the federal government to expel Chinese aliens without due process of law—violated the 5th Amendment rights

Booker T. Washington

southern black born into slavery; believed that the only way for blacks to be accepted into society was by following the laws set forth by whites; thought that white society wasn’t ready to accept the black man

• encouraged economic independence as means by which black people could improve their lives

• seen as accommodationist bc refused to press for immediate equal rights

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

a union of skilled laborers formed by Samuel Gompers in 1866; quickly became one of the most powerful unions in the United States

Samuel Gompers

leader of the AFL

new imperialism

when US took control of another country to extract resources to increase power of US

expansionism

US moving into regions to do business (not take over)

Our Country (1885)

book by Josiah Strong, a prominent Congregationalist clergyman, who sought to update the idea of manifest destiny, claiming that Anglo-Saxons should spread their institutions and values to “inferior races” all around the world

Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

founded in 1874 & became one of the largest female organizations of the era with it reaching about 150k members by 1890

» moved from demanding prohibition of alcoholic beverages to a program advocating for economic & political reform (including suffrage!)

The Influence of Sea Power upon History (1890)

book by naval officer Alfred T. Mahan that argued that no nation could prosper without a large fleet of ships engaged in international trade, protected by a powerful navy operating from overseas bases

• justify imperialism

“yellow press”

sensationalized stories by journalists

Teller Amendment (1898)

stated that when the United States had rid Cuba of Spanish misrule, Cuba would be granted its freedom

U.S.S. Maine

demands for US intervention in Cuba escalated when an explosion destroyed this American battleship in Havana Harbor

• yellow press blamed Spain → excuse to aid Cuban independence

Platt Amendment

McKinley forced Cuba’s new government to approve the new Cuban constitution; authorized the US to intervene militarily whenever saw fit, US also acquired permanent lease on naval stations in Cuba (Guantanamo Bay)

Hearst and Pulitzer papers

employed “yellow journalism” » sensationalized report on violent Cuban civil war (including what happened to U.S.S Maine)

Open Door Policy

McKinley’s policy that opened all Western nations hoping to trade with Asia

Spanish-American War (1898)

conflict fought between Spain and the United States; sparked by the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor and the desire of the U.S. to expand its influence in the Caribbean and Pacific

Emilio Aguinaldo

leader of the Philippine War against American occupation; established a provisional government with a constitution modeled off of the US

Fortaker Act (1900)

declared Puerto Rico an “insular territory” unlike western territory; denied statehood like the Philippines was

Insular Cases (1901-1903)

cases by which the Supreme Court settled the dispute over if “colonial subjects were entitled to the same protection and privileges granted to US citizens by the Constitution; ruled that the Constitution does NOT follow the flag

• US started acquiring an overseas empire (imperialism)

Anti-Imperialist League

opponents of US becoming a new imperial power; united writers, reformers who believed that American energies should be directed at home, businessmen feared of the cost of maintaining overseas outposts, and racists who did not want non-white immigration to US