Unit 6: Gilded Age (1865-1898) Full Review

Gilded Age (1865-1898)

A time period of outward prosperity but inward corruption/difficulty for the nation

Laissez-fair

describes the attitude of the gov not being very involved in the economy. the only time the gov got involved was to help big business and suppress the masses

Important to know Captains of Industry (Robber Barons)

- Andrew Carnegie: steel; Gospel of Wealth (Philanthropy)

- J.D. Rockefeller: oil (Standard Oil Company)

- J.P Morgan: banking

- Cornelius Vanderbilt and Jay Gould: railroads

How Robber Barons held control

By using horizontal and vertical integration, they created monopolies and trusts, also manipulating rebates, kickbacks, and other tactics to control their businesses and eliminate competition

Social Darwinism

The idea that people and/or groups and ultimately nations are selected out by their superiority over others. Basically the rich people and nations deserved to be rich while the poor deserved to be poor.

Political Machines

- an organized network that works to get a party or person elected

- often involved spoils system and very corrupt

- often take advantage of immigrant groups through manipulating them to vote for an individual with promises that it will benefit their community only to sell them short

New Immigrants

- from southern/eastern Europe: Italians, Greeks, Russian Jews, Poles, etc

- many were willing to work for low wages; employed as “scabs” or strikebreakers

- many immigrants lived in big cities, in slums and ethnic neighborhoods

Settlement Houses

homes intended to help immigrants with the transition, where immigrants could go to get job training, English classes, child care, etc. (Hull House in Chicago founded by Jane Addams)

Social Gospel

the idea that urban churches should actually live out the word of Jesus to help the poor, unlike some of the churches that seemed to cater to the rich. (YMCA and Salvation Army)

Eugenics Movements

Eugenicists believed that by selective breeding, undesirable traits could be bred out of the gene pool. This led to more racism and discrimination to people’s who’s traits were considered undesirable.

Comstock Act (1873)

A law that made it illegal to send obscene materials through the mail, including information on contraceptives and abortion.

National Railroad Strikes (1877)

wages were cut 10% so workers went on strike; government sent in troops to crush the strike

Haymarket Riot (1886)

Workers were striking in Chicago when someone threw a bomb in the crowd, killing several police. It was blamed on anarchists and associated with the Knights of Labor, leading to their downfall.

Homestead Steel Strike (1892)

the Homestead plant was owned by Carnegie; striking workers fought with Pinkerton protected strikebreakers; the gov sent in troops to crush the strike and it failed

Pullman Strike (1894)

Workers wages were cut by 1/3 but no corresponding cuts in company housing cost were made. Workers went on strike; overturned and burned railway cars. Ultimately the gov sent in troops to crush the strike.

Working conditions in the Gilded Age

- long harsh hours; low pay and few rights

- workers were forced to sign contracts promising to not join a union (iron-clad oaths)

- company towns: workers often lived in towns owned by the company they worked for

- injunctions: issued by the courts, these forced workers to go back to work effectively ending strikes

Knights of Labor

- Unskilled + skilled workers

- Leader: Terence Powderly

- More idealistic; wanted workers’ utopia

- Not very successful since unskilled laborers could be replaced with scabs

American federation of Labor (AFL)

- Skilled workers only

- Leader: Samuel Gompers

- Fought for high wages, shorter hours, etc

- Was more successful because they had only skilled laborers

Closed shops

an agreement or negotiation that unions would demand from employers that they must only hire union members

Jim Crow Era

- Jim Crow laws: laws that enforce segregation; lynching common

- Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): case that established separate but equal (legalized segregation)

- Sharecropping kept black people tied to the land

Booker T. Washington

- Born in the South

- Economic equality

- He believed that black people needed to work hard and earn whites’ respect

- Founded Tuskegee Institute

W.E.B. DuBois

- Born in the North

- Political/social equality

- He believed black people should demand equality

- Founded the NAACP

- 1st black PhD Harvard graduate

Great Plains Indians

- depended on herds of buffalo; used them for food, shelter, clothing, etc

- US army recognized that the best way to wipe out the Indians was to wipe out the buffalo

Dawes Severalty Act (1887)

- broke up tribal reservation land into individual family plots (basically Homestead Act for Indians)

- an attempt to assimilate natives; and make them more like white farmers

- whites would often come later and swindle unsuspecting Indians out of their land

Sand Creek Massacre (1864)

despite an American flag and a peace medal given to them by Lincoln, Black Kettle and White Antelope and their Cheyenne followers were massacred by Colonel Chivington and the US army in Colorado

Battle of Little Bighorn (1876)

- after gold was discovered in the Black hills of the Dakota territory in a Sioux reservation, gold seekers flood to the area leading to conflict

- this led to a huge gathering of natives in nearby Montana. Colonel Custer and his troops stumbled into thousands of native warriors and were massacred

Massacre at Wounded Knee (1890)

as US soldiers were disarming some Sioux Indians, a shot rang out and they soldiers began shooting into the crowd of Indians, massacring 128 people

The Grange

- originally promoted social activities among farmers

- eventually they moved to collectively owning railroads and grain elevators (where they could set their own prices)

The Grange Supreme Court cases

- Munn v. Illinois (1877): allowed for states to regulate industries that were in the public good (this means that states could control prices for things that farmers need

- Wabash v. Illinois (1886): this case put the decisive end on Munn. It states that because railroads represent intrastate commerce, the states can’t regulate them, only Congress could

Farmers Alliance

the more politically involved and successor to the Grange

- ultimately not very successful because they excluded black farmers

The Populist Party (1890s)

- they believed that farmer’s problems stemmed from the lack of money in circulation. It made it hard for them to pay their debts.

- the solution to this was to have money backed by silver instead of gold

- they were a significant 3rd party until the Democrats took over their ideas in 1896

James Garfield (1880-1881)

- Republican

- he is assassinated by Charles Guiteau, an office seeker, 4 months into his presidency

- his VP Chester Arthur becomes president

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

(under Chest Arthur presidency 1881-1884)

prevented immigration and restricted rights of Chinese immigrants

Pendleton Act (1883)

(under Chest Arthur presidency 1881-1884)

this required government workers to take a test to qualify to work

Grover Cleveland (1884-1888)

- he lowered tariffs which angered big business

- Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) (1887) and Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)

• The Sherman Act was supposed to break up big business monopolies, and anything that restrained trade; instead it was used to crush strikes

Benjamin Harrison (1888-1892)

- Republican

- he raised tariffs to appease big business which angered farmers so the formed the Populist Party

Grover Cleveland (again) (1892-1896)

- Democrat

- only president to serve two-nonconsecutive terms

Panic of 1893

(under Grover Cleveland’s presidency 1892-1896)

Jacob Coxey leads a march of men on Washington DC demanding the gov create jobs through public works projects (he got arrested for standing on the grass lol)

1896 Election: William McKinley vs. Williams Jennings Bryan

- Democrats took over the Populists’ idea of free silver as the solution to the ills of farmers and others

- Ultimately the failed to unite farmers and workers

- McKinley won and the US officially adopted the gold standard (using gold to increase the money supply)