Social Classes In The 19th Century

The emerging inequitable class systems and antagonisms of the nineteen twenties saw the traditional order and moral values challenged, as well as the creation of great wealth for few and poverty for many. The Great Gatsby, written by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, explores the causes and effects of the unbalanced class structures. Fitzgerald outlines the idea that the desire to accumulate wealth and status is a common ambition amongst the lower classes; when that desire is reached, the traditional upper class is challenged by the emerging newly wealthy, which finally leads to destructive consequences. By creating rigid class structures, traditional upper class, new wealth, and the poor in The Great Gatsby, it is

In the English colonies there were six social classes. From the richest to the poorest, these were the gentry, the middle Class, poor whites, indentured servants, free africans and slaves. The people that made up these classes ranged from the most powerful to those with the least amount of rights, if any.

privileges that the lower classes do not have, such as more wealth. This means the lower class is

There is much debate about the issue of social class in the United States. There are arguments about whether social classes are distinctly separate or fluid, dependent upon one’s community or society as a whole, and if they are subjective or objective (Hughes and Jenkins). However, despite the debate surrounding social classes, it is still important to try to define them and analyze their effects, as they are such an important part of our identity and our opportunities in society. Although our society has tried to appear as though we have no classes, and it is becoming harder to tell what class someone is in by material goods, classes do still exist today (Scott and Leonhardt). The trend has been to divide the U.S. into four major

Although the United States was a British Colony in the early 1700s, the differences between the two were definitely noticeable, especially in the socioeconomic fields, mostly due to the fact that slavery played a much larger role in the United States.

As class and race had some influence on The Gilded Age and Progressive Era, gender explains the character of these periods because there were several instances were manhood was threatened, which pushed males to reassert their manhood. Gender was also critical in displaying women’s active role in American society. There even were cases in which these periods sought to protect women and demonstrated the emergence of women’s new identity.

Social, economic, and political changes derived from the Market Revolution in America. This suggests the many changes for better or worse the United States experienced during 1800-1860. The first impact was economic growth from the many types of machinery utilized to produce a product and the increasing number of industries in the North. By implementing factories, brought workers with raw materials out of their homes and shops into centralized location causing rapid mass production utilizing capital machinery and concentrated energy as coal (Adams, 1982). Therefore, new forms of transportation resulted from the steam engine to provide adequate travel by river and railroads, i.e. train, then adding new roads and canals to the improvements allowed

In the 16th century, European social hierarchy consisted of the superior classes, such as the nobles, who got special privileges, and the inferior classes, like the peasants, who were treated unfairly. This caused social tension and stress between the different social classes. Gradually, the peasants’ anger caused by differences in politics, religion, and economy culminated to create the violent peasant revolts that occurred from 1524 to 1526. The peasants’ belief that God gave them the right to rebel, their desire for a mutually respectful relationship with their lords, their demand for release from serfdom, and their requirement by the lords to do their work are what caused the German peasant revolts to arise. Consequently, the responses

There were several classes of whites in the Antebellum South. The first class is what you call your elite or high class which were the wealthy, high society, grower gentry who were land rich. The first class possessed at least 20 or more slaves and accomplished their wealth from the development and sale of the cash crops, cotton and rice. The children of the upper class were often educated by personal tutors or at private schools in South Carolina and abroad. Next, there was the middle class of white people. The middle class consisted of tradesman, merchants, sharecroppers and etc. When the economy stayed steady, it allowed the middle class people to make a living. Their children were taught to read and write, basically learn the

“There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully” (Chopin 129). One can interpret this to mean that parents in the 1800s (and to some extent today) desired a higher marital status for their daughters, so they could be well positioned for a stable life. As discussed in class, social status still exists in modern America which can significantly attract many candidates who want to marry a person for social status but not necessarily for love. These attitudes that continue to dominate America today stem from the aristocratic Old South as a means to achieve control of wealth for the few at the expense of impoverishing the masses.

Social class systems in the nineteenth century were comprised of the upper class, the middle class, the working class, and the underclass. The different social classes can be “distinguished by inequalities in such areas as power, authority, wealth, working and living conditions, life-styles, life-span, education, religion, and culture” (Cody). The poor, also known as peasants, were usually mistreated and segregated from the wealthy, or those of higher class. During his time, Charles Dickens “seen as a champion of “the poor” by some of the poor themselves” (“What was”). It is said that one of his greatest achievements “was to bring the problem of poverty to the attention of his readers through introducing varieties of poor persons into almost all of his novels, and showing the “deserving” majority of the poor, bravely struggling against the forces arrayed against them” (“What was”). This is clearly evident in A Tale of Two Cities. During the nineteenth century Victorian era, social class systems were a common excuse for the division and mistreatment of many individuals, as evidenced in Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities.

The upper class had high demands for serfs. Rebellions occurred because lords in the feudal system tried to continue impose the feudalism structure, which lead to the Peasant’s revolt. Through this, the laborers were able to demand better working conditions since the upper class was desperate for people to grow their crops. Those who were slaves gained power. Those who had their rights abused were able to stand up. “The peasants became slightly more empowered, and revolted when the aristocracy attempted to resist the changes brought about by the plague” (“1320: Section...”). The Peasant’s Revolt foreshadowed future labor unions. They wanted to have fairness and better treatment which started the end of feudalism. “This set Western Europe along the path of diverging classes” (“1320:

The economy is mostly made of money, processed goods & services, and it also controls the production and consumption activities. So how did these changes affect the rest of the country? All these components of the economy play a big role on the common people’s way of life. Most people in the United States during the 19th century had many challenges they had to face and overcome in order to be “successful”. In attempt to make the country better , there had been many changes in the economy. The common people in this era had been negatively affected , due to bad working conditions/wages, bad living conditions, discrimination, and job competition.

The power elite, or upper class, obtain their power not just from their money: their status is hereditary and preserved through history. Class itself cannot be defined without mentioning gender and race, as the majority of the upper class consists of white men. Those two axes of inequality mask the

With the abolition of Serfdom, various small time serfs started owning land, but they had to pay extremely heavy holding charges and redemption dues to the monarchy, which put undue pressure on them. Vast estates were held by the Aristocracy and the Church, whose benefits were distributed among very minuscule amount of people in the society, which led to discontent among the masses. The abolition of Serfdom had two sides to it, the good side was that slavery had ended and a lot of Serfs were given their own land. But the darker side was that a large number of these liberated serfs were without any land or any other means of production which forced them to work as agricultural labour. This hunger for land was a major social factor in the then Russian society. The idea of socialism or collective ownership thus spread first among the people of the countryside. The main social reason behind the 1905 revolt was the lack of connection between the monarchy and the people. (Gupta