UNIT 5 - Transformation of America c. 1865 to c. 1898

UNIT 5 - Transformation of America (c. 1865 to c. 1898)

Essential Questions

• How did different visions of Reconstruction shape the post-war United States and to what extent was Reconstruction successful in addressing social and political challenges?

• How did industrialization transform the American economy, society, and workforce?

• How did immigrants, workers, and farmers respond to the challenges of the Gilded Age and how successful were their efforts to reform American society?

• How did the rise of big business and political machines reflect tensions over power, democracy, and corruption?

Major Themes

• Different Reconstruction Plans

  • Issues resulting from various plans

  • Successes and failures of Reconstruction

  • Major technological innovations and their impact on labor and economy

  • Formation and justification of big businesses, corporations, trusts, and monopolies

  • Workers' conditions, including labor conflicts, unions, child labor

  • Patterns, causes, and consequences of immigration and urbanization

  • Gilded Age politics, corruption, and regulatory efforts

  • Emergence of reform movements: from Populism to Progressivism

Key Terms

• Reconstruction Definition: The period after the Civil War ($1865$-$1877$) when attempts were made to reintegrate Southern states from the Confederacy and address issues stemming from slavery.

• Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan: Abraham Lincoln, the $16^{th}$ President, aimed for a lenient approach known as the "$10$ Percent Plan." He sought to restore the Union quickly by allowing Southern states to rejoin once $10$% of their voters swore an oath of allegiance and accepted emancipation.

Reconstruction Successes and Challenges

• Successes

  • 13th Amendment: Abolished slavery in the United States.

  • Freedmen’s Bureau: Established to assist freed slaves and poor whites in the South with education, healthcare, and employment; it founded over $1,000$ schools for African Americans.

• Negative Developments

  • Black Codes: Laws passed in Southern states to restrict the freedoms of African Americans and compel them to work in a labor economy based on low wages.

  • Ku Klux Klan: A white supremacist group formed in $1865$ to use violence and intimidation to oppress Black individuals and restore white supremacy.

  • Sharecropping System: An economic system that trapped Black families in a cycle of debt and poverty, providing little real economic autonomy.

Radical Republicans and Congressional Reconstruction

• Radical Republicans’ Role: A faction of the party that advocated for the immediate abolition of slavery and harsh penalties for the South. Leading figures like Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens pushed for federal protection of Black civil rights.

  • Organizational Changes: Implemented Military Reconstruction in $1867$, sending federal troops to enforce laws in the South and protect African American rights.

• Amendments for Reconstruction

  • 14th Amendment: Granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. and provided for equal protection under the laws.

  • 15th Amendment: Prohibited the denial of suffrage based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

• Compromise of 1877: A political deal that settled the disputed $1876$ presidential election; it ended Reconstruction by withdrawing federal troops from the South, leading to the rise of Jim Crow laws.

Technological Advances and Economic Development

• Effects of Technological Advances

  • Telegraph: Samuel Morse's invention revolutionized communication speed across the continent.

  • Transatlantic Cable: Laid by Cyrus Field, it connected North America and Europe via instantaneous telegraphy.

  • Telephone: Patented by Alexander Graham Bell in $1876$, it improved personal and business communication globally.

  • Bessemer Process: A method for converting iron into steel by blowing air through molten iron to remove impurities, drastically reducing costs.

• Industrial Leaders

  • Cornelius Vanderbilt: Known as "The Commodore," he was a railroad magnate who consolidated numerous short lines into the New York Central Railroad, creating an efficient transportation network.

  • J.P. Morgan: A dominant financier and banker who founded J.P. Morgan & Co. He was famous for "Morgamization," reorganizing struggling industries like railroads and steel to ensure stability and profit.

  • Andrew Carnegie: A Scottish immigrant who rose from poverty to lead the American steel industry. He utilized vertical integration and later became a prominent philanthropist, authoring The Gospel of Wealth.

  • John D. Rockefeller: The founder of Standard Oil Company, he became the richest man in modern history. He mastered horizontal integration and established a near-monopoly over the oil refining industry.

• Market Organizations

  • Monopoly: Control of a market by a single entity, often leading to higher prices for consumers.

  • Trusts: Legal arrangements where a small group of trustees manage multiple companies to bypass anti-monopoly laws.

  • Vertical Integration: A business strategy where a company controls all phases of production, from raw materials to distribution.

  • Horizontal Integration: The process of a company increasing production of goods or services at the same part of the supply chain through mergers.

  • Laissez-Faire: An economic theory that government should not interfere in the free market.

  • Social Darwinism: The application of Charles Darwin's "survival of the fittest" to human society, used to justify the vast wealth of industrial tycoons.

  • Sherman Antitrust Act: The first federal action ($1890$) against monopolies; it was initially weak and often used against unions instead of corporations.

Labor in the Gilded Age

• Iron Law of Wages: David Ricardo's theory suggesting that wages would naturally sink to the lowest level necessary for subsistence due to population growth.

• Collective Bargaining: Negotiation between union representatives and employers to reach agreements on wages and working conditions.

• Major Unions

  • Knights of Labor: Led by Terence Powderly, it was an inclusive union that welcomed women and African Americans, seeking broad reforms like an $8$-hour workday.

  • American Federation of Labor (AFL): Led by Samuel Gompers, this union focused only on skilled craft workers and practical goals like "bread and butter" issues (wages and hours).

• Major Labor Strikes

  • Homestead Steel Strike: A $1892$ lockout at a Carnegie steel plant; it was crushed by Pinkerton detectives and the state militia, severely damaging the steelworkers' union.

  • Pullman Strike: A $1894$ railroad strike triggered by wage cuts; it paralyzed national rail traffic until President Cleveland sent federal troops to break it.

Immigration and Migration in the Gilded Age

• Push/Pull Factors: Factors like famine or religious persecution (push) and economic opportunity or political freedom (pull) that drove migration.

• Old vs. New Immigrants: "Old" immigrants ($1820$-$1860$) were mostly from Northern/Western Europe; "New" immigrants ($1880$-$1920$) came from Southern/Eastern Europe and Asia, facing higher levels of nativism.

• Chinese Exclusion Act: A $1882$ law that suspended Chinese immigration for $10$ years, marking the first time the U.S. restricted immigration based on race or nationality.

Reform in the Gilded Age

• Social Gospel Movement: A Protestant movement that applied Christian ethics to social problems like poverty, alcoholism, and child labor.

• Key Figures

  • Walter Rauschenbusch: A Baptist minister and theologian who was the leading voice of the Social Gospel, arguing that the church must work to improve the physical lives of the urban poor.

  • Jane Addams: A social reformer who co-founded Chicago's Hull House in $1889$. She provided child care, English lessons, and healthcare to immigrants and became the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Progressives

• Who Were the Progressives: A middle-class reform movement that aimed to use government power to check the abuses of industrialization and improve the lives of the urban poor.

• Goals for Government: Expansion of democracy (direct primaries, initiative, referendum) and scientific efficiency in administration.

• Prominent Figures

  • Muckrakers: Writers who exposed social and political evils; the term was coined by Theodore Roosevelt.

  • Theodore Roosevelt: The $26^{th}$ President, known as a "Trust Buster," he promoted his "Square Deal" which advocated for conservation, consumer protection, and control of corporations.

  • Square Deal: A program built on the three Cs: Conservation of natural resources, Control of corporations, and Consumer protection.

  • Trust Buster: A nickname given to Roosevelt after he successfully used the Sherman Antitrust Act to break up the Northern Securities Company.

  • Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle: A muckraking journalist whose novel exposed the gruesome realities of Chicago meatpacking, resulting in the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of $1906$.

• Conservation Efforts: Roosevelt established the United States Forest Service and signed the Antiquities Act, protecting millions of acres of public land.

• Civil Rights Organizations

  • NAACP: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, founded in $1909$ by W.E.B. Du Bois and others to use the legal system to fight for racial equality.

• Women’s Suffrage Movement

  • Susan B. Anthony: A lifelong activist who traveled the country giving speeches and was arrested for voting in $1872$; she served as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).

  • Elizabeth Cady Stanton: A leading theorist of the movement who organized the Seneca Falls Convention in $1848$ and authored the Declaration of Sentiments, which demanded the right to vote for women.