Second Industrial Revolution (1865-1900)
Period after Civil War was marked by rapid industrial growth
Union victory was supported by North’s industrial strength
US abundance of raw materials
Iron ore (to make steel)
Metals (copper, tin, and gold)
Fuel sources (coal and oil)
Lumber (for building)
The first major industry in the US was railroads
The “Wild West” and Frontier
Settling the Great Plains
Homestead Act (1862)
Families could claim federally-owned land in the Great Plains
Promise to “improve the land” - plowing fields, digging wells, building houses, and dams
500k families moved west as a result - called “Homesteaders”
Pacific Railway Act (1862)
Federal land for transcontinental railroad
Eight new states added between 1867- 1896
NE, CO, ND, SD, MT, WA, ID, WY
Farming Frontier
Harsh and Difficult Life
Sod-brick homes
Limited fertile soil and water resources
Settlers grew hearty varieties of wheat
Farming, housework, and irrigation
Mining Frontier
California Gold Rush (1848-49)
Pikes Peak, CO (1859)
Comstock Lode - $340M in gold and silver in NV (1859)
Major cities in the West - mining supply towns
San Francisco and Sacramento (CA)
Denver (CO)
Virginia City (NV)
Western mining towns hired Chinese immigrants
Native-born white Americans resented job competition
Congress passes Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
Prohibited further immigration to US by Chinese laborers
First major act to restrict immigration based on race/ethnicity
Ranching Frontier
Vast, open grassland ideal for “longhorn” cattle
Ranchers = cattle drives from TX to railroads in KS
Railroads = transport cattle east for slaughter and meat packing
Gustavus Swift - refrigerated railroad cars (1882)
Growth of Midwest meatpacking cities
Chicago, Omaha, Kansas City
The American Cowboy
Often young and single men
Little pay for difficult work
“Cattle Towns” - saloons, gambling, prostitution
Plains Native Americans
Indian Wars (1866-1890)
Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Chief Joseph
General George Custer
Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)
Dawes Severalty Act (1887)
Distributed 47 million acres to Native Americans
Broke up larger plots of tribal land
Intended to “civilize” Native American communities
“The New South”
Advocates for a self-sufficient South
Achieved some economic progress
Growth of cities
Improved manufacturing techniques
Expansion of railroads
Birmingham, AL (steel)
Memphis, TN (lumber and logging)
Richmond, VA (tobacco)
Georgia and Carolinas (textiles)
Agriculture
South remained largely agricultural
System of sharecropping persists
Effect = Remained poorest region
African-Americans in the South
What happened in the South politically after Reconstruction? (Causation)
Southern Democrats took back government positions
Dominate Southern politics starting in 1880’s and 1890’s
What will Democrats do once they are back in power?
Systematically oppresses African-Americans again
Loss of Civil Rights and Voting Restrictions
Literacy tests and poll taxes
Grandfather clauses
Discrimination in Criminal Justice system
Barred from serving on juries
Were often given harsher sentences
Lynching and mob violence
Segregation of “Jim Crow” Laws
Separate public facilities for blacks and whites
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) - SCOTUS upheld “separate but equal” railroad cars in Louisiana
Causation - other Southern states passed “Jim Crow” Laws
Industrial Leaders (1865-1900)
Andrew Carnegie and Steel
Scottish-born immigrant
Establish steel manufacturing company in 1870
Latest technology - Bessemer Process
Business Tactic - Vertical Integration
Controlled every stage of manufacturing process
Owned mines where iron ore was extracted
Owned steel mill where iron was manipulated into steel
Owned railroads to transport raw materials and finished products
By 1900, Carnegie Steel produced more steel than all of Britain
Charitable giving - $350M for libraries and universities
John D. Rockefeller and Oil
Founded Standard Oil Company
Before: Oil industry was disorganized and chaotic
After: Rockefeller bought out weaker competitors
Consolidated them under one corporate umbrella
Known as horizontal integration
One large company buys out smaller competitors in the same industry
Puts them into one large-scale operation, known as a trust
By 1881, Standard Oil controlled 90 percent of US oil refining
Achieved lower prices by extorting rebates from railroad companies
Also philanthropic - universities and Baptist missions and aid societies
Railroad Tycoons
Railroad industry grew too fast and was poorly managed
Many investors bought up failing railroads and consolidated them
Cornelius Vanderbilt - used millions to create New York Central Railroad (NY to CHI)
J. Pierpont Morgan - bought railroads in 1893 and turned them into corporation
By 1900, two-thirds of US railways controlled by seven corporations
By 1890’s, richest ten percent controlled 90 percent wealth
Large mansions with lavish parties
The Breakers - Vanderbilt summer home in Newport, RI
The Biltmore - Vanderbilt mountain estate in Ashville, NC
Technology and Innovations
Mass-produced goods for average Americans
Telegraph - invented by Samuel Morse in 1844
Telephone - invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876
Typewriter (1867)
Cash register (1879)
Fountain pen (1884)
Kodak camera - invented by George Eastman (1888)
Safety razor and blade - invented by King Gillette (1895)
Thomas Edison
Research laboratory in Menlo Park, NJ
Phonograph, electric light bulb, motion picture camera
George Westinghouse - transformer for alternating current (1885)
Labor in America (1865-1900)
Labor Before Industrial Revolution
Before
Smaller workplaces or individual
Artisans or Craftspeople
Highly skilled labor
Created product start to finish
After
Large-scale factories
Semi-skilled labor
One step of manufacturing product
America’s Working Class (1865-1900)
Ten Hours a Day, Six Days a Week
No breaks; no workers compensation; no medical care
Dangerous jobs and materials
Heavy machinery, toxic chemicals, explosive materials
“Company Towns” - Employer controlled housing, utilities, store prices
11 million families earned less than $380 a week
Nearly two-thirds of all workers were in “low-wage” work
How might some workers try to change or improve working conditions?
Formation of labor unions
Designed around the idea of collective action or collective bargaining
Also used strikes and picketing
Prominent unions included:
National Labor Union
Knights of Labor
American Federation of Labor (AFL) - Samuel Gompers
American Railroad Union - Eugene Debs
Management’s Response
Used a variety of countermeasures to break up labor unions
Lockouts, blacklists, militias and private security forces
Injunctions - state and federal court orders deeming strikes illegal
Violence and Arrests
1877 - Railroad strike in Baltimore, MD (eleven workers killed)
1894 - Pullman strike broken up by federal troops
Eugene Debs arrested for Pullman strike
The Paradox of Capitalist Growth
Laissez-Faire
French for “to leave alone”
Proposed by Adam Smith in Wealth of Nations (1776)
Economics were governed by “invisible hand” of supply and demand
Government should leave businesses alone
Businesses should be motivated by self-interest and consumer improvement
Social Darwinism
Based on biological theories of Charles Darwin
Strong businesses and inherent “gifts” or “traits”
Struggling businesses had inherent flaws or weaknesses
Helping poor was misguided and “against the laws of nature”
Advocated by Yale professor William Graham Sumner
What was a consequence of Social Darwinism?
Used to justify racial superiority and intolerance
The Gospel of Wealth
Supported by A. Carnegie in Wealth (1889)
Rich had “God-given responsibility” for charity and philanthropy
“Doing for them better than they could do for themselves”
What are the positives and negatives of Gospel of Wealth?
Positives - Philanthropic leaders (Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt)
Negatives - Patronizing to wage-workers and poor
Horatio Alger and “Rags-to-Riches”
American myth of success
Rise from humble beginnings
“Self-made man”
Became successful businessmen or investors
What was a criticism of the Horatio Alger Myth?
Most industrialists were WASP’s (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants)
Most were also upper- or middle- class
Most had fathers or families in business or banking
Henry George, of Progress and Poverty (1879)
Poverty was a threat to natural rights and democracy
“Equality of political rights will not compensate for the denial of the equal right to the bounty of nature”
“The pillars of the republic that we thought so strong already bend under an increasing strain.”
Is Business Too Big? What About The Workers?
Horatio Alger and “Rags to Riches” - the idea of “self-made” man
Laissez-Faire - “to leave alone” - government should let markets self-correct
Social Darwinism - businesses and business leaders succeed because of inherent traits or gifts; others fail because they lack such gifts
Gospel of Wealth - Rich had “God-given” responsibility to help poor
Henry George - Of Progress and Poverty (1879)
"Equality of political rights will not compensate for the denial of the equal right to the bounty of nature”
“Old” and “New” Immigrants
“Old” Immigrants
1800-1880
Western/Northern Europe
British Isles
Germany
Scandinavia
Mostly Protestant
Some Catholics (Irish/German)
High levels of literacy
Skilled workers/tradespeople
“New” Immigrants
1890-1914
Southern/Eastern Europe (Italy/Greece)
Slavic People
Croats, Poles, Russians, Slovaks
Largely Roman Catholic
Greek and Russian Orthodox
Jewish
Poor, illiterate peasants
Push and Pull Factors
Push - Why You Leave Your Country
Political Upheaval in Europe
Economic conditions in Europe
Religious persecution
Pull - What Draws You to a New Country
US reputation for religious and political freedom
Abundance of industrial jobs
Steamships - “steerage”
Challenges of Urbanization
Urbanization - a shift in population from rural areas to urban areas
What are some of the problems that you envision with this influx of immigrants?
Housing - where will all these immigrants live?
Transportation - how will people move throughout the city?
Sanitation and Clean Water? - how will we keep the city clean?
Public Safety - how will we keep everyone safe and prevent crime?
Education - will immigrant children go to school? Will they learn English?
Leads to expansion of municipal (city) government
Subways, sewage, trash collection, utilities (electric and water)
Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)
Passed by Congress in response to antitrust concerns
Prohibited any “contract, combination, or trust”
Also prohibited actions “in conspiracy in restraint of trade”
What was the problem with the Act?
Too vaguely worded to have any effect
Other SCOTUS cases only applied to commerce, NOT manufacturing
Populism - a political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups
Farmers and Industrializations
Fewer Americans were farming as their profession
1860 - 60 percent of American families were farming
1900- 37 percent of American families were farming
Large/expensive machines (Reaper/thresher)
Population increase = high demand for crops
Grow more crops to pay down debt
More crops = increased supply = lower prices
The Farmers Respond
Labor Issues
Organized Labor and Labor Unions
Cooperatives (National Grange Movement)