The Era Of The Gilded Age

In the first half of the 19th Century the working class in the newly industrializing American society suffered many forms of exploitation. The working class of the mid-nineteenth century, with constant oppression by the capitalist and by the division between class, race, and ethnicity, made it difficult to form solidarity. After years of oppression and exploitation by the ruling class, the working class struck back and briefly paralyzed American commerce. The strike, which only lasted a few weeks, was the spark needed to ignite a national revolt by the working class with the most violent labor upheavals of the century.

During the Progressive Era of the Gilded Age, many laborers were being mistreated by the companies that they worked for. Because of this, workers started forming labor unions or organized association of workers, formed to protect and further their rights and interests. Many of these labor unions failed, while few of them achieved their goals and still exist today. Many factors contributed to the failure of these labor unions. The labor unions were given a bad image, the reason for this was the media, and they did this by publishing articles depicting the unions as violent, communist groups. The government supported big business during this time, since the government had a lot of power; this was a huge setback in the labor unions’ battles.

In the late 1800s and the early 1900s, labor was anything but easy. Factory workers faced long hours, low pay, high unemployment fears, and poor working conditions during this time. Life today is much easier in comparison to the late 1800s. Americans have shorter days, bigger pay and easier working conditions. Not comparable to how life is today, many riots sparked, and citizens began to fight for equal treatment. Along with other important events, the Haymarket Riot, the Pullman Strike, and the Homestead strike all play a vital role in illustrating labor’s struggle to gain fair and equitable treatment during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Throughout the early 19th century many unions were in act, striving for better pay due to the harsh working conditions they were condemned to work in. Many famous leaders who lead these unions were sent to prison for opposing their companies and conducting violence even though the cause of misconduct was caused by their followers who misinterpreted their words. These following documents thoroughly explain how the actions of the labor unions did not destroy the free market, instead restricted business with regulations essentially penalizing the wealthy from being successful. Furthermore, these unions desired to improve the living and working conditions of the poor, the Progressives stood in opposition to the wealthy who justified their actions through social darwinism, and abolished the exploitation of children.

The ensuing conflict, between labor vs. capital, during the late 1800s initiated a struggle of power in the workforce between the rich-industrialists (or corporate leaders) and the middle-class/lower-class workers. The Capitalists had intervened with the protests orchestrated by the workers, ensuring that the power remains with them. The strategies of the industrialists and the unique ways of protesting from the workers, contributes to spur a vigorous argument between the employers and their employees. The workers tried their best to ameliorate their working conditions by forming numerous unions, trying to fix currency (gold to paper) to economically help themselves, refusing to go to work, resorting to violence and non-violence, etc. However, the Corporate leaders kept an upper hand and dissolved the workers’ ambitions by hiring scabs, creating a strong relationship with the military (Pullman strike), controlling and fixing policies at work, hiring immigrants for cheap labor, etc. Throughout the late 1800s, the corporate leaders have been able to successfully prevent workers who had resorted to: forming unions, protests (ex. Pullman strike and Homestead strike), violence (ex. Haymarket Sq. Riot), etc., from achieving a radical solution to the workers issues with the management by using several different strategies including but not limited to: hiring scabs/immigrants in the Homestead strike, using government support in the Pullman strike and keeping the power on their side

* The Great RR Strike of 1877 shut down railroads from WV to CA & resulted in hundreds of deaths

From 1870 to 1900 era was called the Gilded Age, a time of immense growth in the United States in transportation, especially in railroads, American workers were paid higher wages than their peers in Europe. In this thirty year span the United States saw twelve million immigrants pass through her golden doors, 70% of these immigrants were English, Irish, and German. Crop failures (potato famine in Ireland), job shortages, and religious freedom were the motivations behind many immigrating to America. Newly arrived immigrants faced a harsh reality in America, employers took advantage of them, the men were often paid less than other native born men and the women were paid even less. Immigrants suffered verbal and physical abuse from employers and other employees because they were different. While researching my Italian heritage I learned that Italians, especially southern Italians were not treated well because they were hired as strikebreakers or scabs by mining and railroading companies. They were called derogatory names such as "dagoes or guineas". Newspapers of the time said the southern Italians were "intellectually inferior and having criminal tendencies" (Laura Teddy Turner, Demand Media n.d.) http://www.emmigration.info/us-immigration-tv

Labors did not have very good wages and it was problem during the Gilded Age. Labors’ had to live by paternalism, meaning that George Pullman owned them. It seems as if labors never got a profit for the long hours that they worked in the sweatshops. All the money goes straight back to Pullman, because they had to pay for rent and their goods and groceries provided by him. So basically, Pullman didn’t consider them valuable because there was always someone looking for a job. These reasons led to several unionizations like the Knights of Labor where they had to pay their dues to go on strike and fight for them. Anyone from radical to bosses could join this union except bankers and lawyers, which made no sense. They fought for workplace rights but where they did wrong is when they demanded outside workplace rights such as free public schools for their children. This union caused deaths

In the period immediately following World War I, American workers struggled to earn a living as prices rose and wages stagnated, forcing them to seek union support. Labor unions endeavored to represent the working class against their employers and corporations, who refused to increase wages or improve working conditions. In order to combat the capitalist’s immense political clout, unions made their voice heard through strikes. After the war, capitalists linked unions to the mounting communist threat, stressing that strikes undermined capitalism and threatened a republican form of government. As a result, government sided with capital against labor unions and the struggle of the American workers, who had no voice against corporations. This struggle can be exemplified in a correspondence between union leader, Samuel Gompers and bishop William Quayle, published in “The Twenties in Contemporary Commentary: Labor & Capital”. The letters demonstrate that in the 1920’s, labor unions were necessary as a means to overcome capitalist greed and enhanced the ideals of democracy by empowering the working class.

Throughout the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century, the United States saw a huge growth both socially and economically. The Gilded Age and the Progressive Era was a time when we saw great industrialization as well the construction of new railroads across the country. However, during the years of 1870-1900, known as the Gilded Era, this period was seen as a time filled with great corruption and uncontrolled politics and capitalism. Well-known author Mark Twain referred to these years of as the “Gilded Age” to reference how on the surface everything looked as though it was perfect or glittering, however beneath it all was corruption. (Mintz, S) Even though this era was known to have a great deal of corruption and scandals, it can also be seen that it was a time for development. A lot was changing and people were transforming from small town producers to urbanized workers. It is also to be considered as a time of economic and political reform. The last few decades of the 19th century will prove to be rough and challenging as people struggle to adapt to the new changes. As the turn of the century came, America entered into a new time known as the Progressive Era. During the early years of the 20th century Americans began to see political, social and economic reforms. There would be stricter laws on child labor, factory regulations were being improved, schools and playgrounds were being built and the corrupted politics were being replaced with more efficient

The 1800s is characterized with the rise of industrial America. As technological advances were introduced to industry, unskilled labor also rose in accordance to the rise in factories. However, this rise also introduced several labor unions such as the Knights of Labor, which organized a series of protests and riots. The labor unions had good intentions, aiming to lower the average work hours for workers, as well as increase their wages. However, their methods which involved riots and protests, were altogether not effective, and ended up being detrimental to their cause. Between 1875 and 1900, labor unions surged and were temporarily successful; however, their methods would prove detrimental to their cause overtime, leading to their

The Gilded Age (1869-1896), cynically named so by Mark Twain, was a time of industrial growth and underwhelming political movement. After Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, the Union’s top general, was elected President of the United States during the 1868 election. Grant himself really wasn’t cut out to be a politician, however, with the support of the Republicans and the campaign slogan “let us have peace” that resonated with the still war scarred nation he won. Other one liners such as “vote as you shot” and waving the bloody shirt, or reminding the public the gruesome war they just finished, were commonly used to rally citizens behind the Republican candidate.

The Gilded Age was the last three decades of the nineteenth century, when America’s industrial economy exploded generating opportunities for individuals but also left many workers struggling for survival. With the many immigrants, skilled and unskilled, coming to America the labor system is becoming flooded with new employees. During this period, the immigrants, including the Italians, were unskilled and the skilled workers were usually American-born. There was also a divide in the workers and the robber barons. Robber barons were American capitalist who acquired great fortunes in the last nineteenth century, usually ruthlessly. There was much turmoil throughout the business and labor community. Two major organizations, the Knights of

Throughout the history of the United States, the Gilded Age is regarded as a period that spanned the last three decades of the 19th century. This period starts from the Civil War came to an end in the 1865 up to 1900. The term Gilded Age was formulated by writers Charles Warner and Mark Twain in The Gilded Age: A Tale of Toady in 1873. They did this since they believed it to be an era that would be characterized by a variety of severe social problems that were camouflaged by a minute gold gilding.

The American Industrial Revolution, also known as the Gilded Age that took place from the 1870s to the very early 1900s. The Gilded Age is defined as, “A period of enormous economic growth and ostentatious displays of wealth during the last quarter of the nineteenth century” (Roark, p. 479). Over the years of the American Industrial Revolution, there have been an enormous amounts of new technology and innovation throughout this time period that have brought many exceptional advances to the revolution. But there are three particular technological advances that noticeably affected America’s Industrial Revolution. These three technological advances include, steel, automobile and electricity that substantially improved the Gilded Age.