Western Gold Mining Industry In North America

Rebecca Harding Davis wrote “Life in the Iron Mills” in the mid-nineteenth century in part to raise awareness about working conditions in industrial mills. With the goal of presenting the reality of the mills’ environment and the lives of the mill workers, Davis employs vivid and concrete descriptions of the mills, the workers’ homes, and the workers themselves. Yet her story’s realism is not objective; Davis has a reformer’s agenda, and her word-pictures are colored accordingly. One theme that receives a particularly negative shading in the story is big business and the money associated with it. Davis uses this negative portrayal of money to emphasize the damage that the single-minded pursuit of wealth works upon the humanity of those

This passage shows the disappointments of the trip and the unfairness of the rush. This author helps the reader understand the miners’ lives by showing the disappointments and some of the outcomes of the miners’. The author of this article uses words such as oppressive and meager to help describe the lives. In the passage it states, “laws are very arbitrary and strictly enforced,” this helps the readers understand the miners’ lives, because it shows how difficult it even was to even find the gold. In the article it states, “half of all mining land is reserved for the crown, a quarter or more is gobbled by corrupt officials, and a meager share left for the daring miners...” this helps understand the miners’ lives, because it shows the unfairness for the miners. Overall, the author of this passage shows the unfairness and difficulties that this miners had to

Despite the nation’s increase in wealth through urbanization and the façade of a prospering people, the fraudulency of the Gilded Age crippled the masses in their rise to security. The competiveness amongst laborers, a battle for control of

When the California Gold Rush took off almost everyone wanted to try their luck in California, and the first thing they had to do is get there. If you on the eastern side of the United State or from European you had two choices to get to California they were the sea or land route, but if you were on the Pacific Ocean coast you direct sea route to there. The land route took you across the great United State through some of its most extremes weather and terrain, and traveler had survived the untamed west on their own and what they bring. Also, they had to struggle against diseases outbreaks such as Cholera which the text said, “As many as 1500 travelers died from Cholera along the Overland Trail in 1849” (Gillon, 298). The most popular route

The daily life of a miner was far from perfect. The way the papers and other means of propaganda had portrayed getting rich quick, but it was far from easy. All the equipment that was needed to start out as a miner was for the most part outrageous. The earning wages from gold was” sixteen dollars an ounce” pg.8. Even so, the work was backbreaking. There was swarms of minors trying to get rich quick. To many miners that traveled to get a piece of the precious metal they where resorted to taking land from previous land owner just to get ahead in the Gold Rush. Not to mention that the living conditions where also outrageous. The “rentals of hotels and other business structures, whether of boards or of canvas, reached even dizzier heights than did commodity prices” pg.8. This spaces where set prices at 3,000 dollars a month or 40,000 dollars for a year, there was also other prices around the area of San Francisco. And in some cases miners where resorted to living in a room filled to the brim with other miners. This lead to very poor conditions for any one to live in. But nothing was better then being rich in a few months or

The author focuses on Alfred Doten, John Dobly, Timothy Osborn exemplify prevalent “vices” that men struggled with working in the California Gold Rush. Alfred Doten represents the man who is flexible with his sexuality because of his drive for intimacy. He openly flirted and indulged in Native women. He took part in “homosocial behavior,” and the article indicated he may have slept with several men. Yet, he continued to write to an Anglo white woman back at home. John Dobly represents the man who tried to uphold his Anglo Protestant

In the past Tuesday in class, we read Assembling California by John McPhee. In reading the first few pages of the book, I was amazed about how much gold was present in California at the start of the gold rush. I can’t even imagine gold being so prevalent that people were digging it out of rocks with knives. Eventually, as more people came for the gold and to ‘strike it rich,’ they brought other ways of harvesting the gold out of California, such as panning and gunpowder. This search for gold, and any raw material at that made me realize how extensive the desire for raw materials really is. I realized that people don’t care about the repercussions of their actions, provided that the immediate result of their actions is beneficial to themselves.

The Gold Rush of California was a “shot heard” round the world that caught the ears of many individuals who were seeking the golden opportunities of the West. (Chan & Olin 1992). With the dreams of wealth on the horizon, the Gold Rush brought on a drastic change in American society. For the women of this period, their lives would be altered in ways that would change the Western frontier. With an eagerness for wealth and equality women now found themselves struggling to survive in a society that was mainly male dominant and branch out from the normalcy of womanhood, which would transform occupational drive, prostitution and marital status.

If you had the opportunity to get rich off of gold, would you? Would you be willing to leave everything you have behind to move thousands of miles across the country just for gold? In 1859, the answer for many people was yes. Word of gold found throughout Colorado spread across the country and launched the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush or also known as the Colorado Gold Rush. There are several significant events in Colorado history that have had an influential impact on the state we know today. The Colorado Gold Rush, in 1859, was the most significant event in Colorado History for several reasons: the rush attracted thousands of people to our state, initiated the mining of other resources, succored farming and ranching throughout the state, and boosted the economy of the towns here in Colorado; these benefits of the rush continue to play a role in our state still today.

The Gilded Age in American History was a time period of great controversy. Those in wealthier classes believed the changes that had been made socially were for the best. For instance, Andrew Carnegie in the The Gospel of Wealth sees the industrialization in a positive light. He, along with other Robber Barons of the late nineteenth-century are the ones that created the idea of a “Gilded Age”. His class of folks believed their contributions to society was bringing back a Golden Age. Carnegie, though, didn’t necessarily approve of the wealth distribution and was aware there was an issue. However, others didn’t feel exactly the same. Upton Sinclair shows this in the novel, The Jungle. The novel highlights the social injustice and unfair treatment of the working class in the nineteenth century. Although a work of fiction, the novel brings to light true occurrences from heavily populated cities during this time period. In several instances, the novel details how the quickly rising issue of poverty in the United States wasn’t treated, as it should’ve been. In addition to Sinclair and Carnegie, there were several other views on either ends of the spectrum. Whether it was a view of the poorer class; or that of the wealthy class, the opinions were very controversial and gave a strong sense of the issues that occurred throughout the Gilded Age.

During the rise of industrialization, the United States had just ended the Civil War and was starting to move on. People had an aspiration at this time to make a more than decent living for themselves, and the economy was at the right spot for this to be possible. This time period in American History is referred to as the Gilded Age, termed by the famous author Mark Twain, which simply means covered in gold; however, Twain did not necessarily mean this in a good way. He believed right under the surface of this gold plating was still problems with the American society that didn’t look so appealing. This essay will discuss how practices during the rise of industrialization during the Gilded Age shaped the American work and labor force.

The American Dream of success and happiness during the Gold Rush started to fade away for the Chinese immigrants as striking rich overnight was not easy as they thought. The land of gold did not welcome them on account of the white men excluding them. Chinese men were unaccompanied and abandoned in a dissimilar area than what they were accustomed to, yet alone did not have any communication with their families and relatives. Nevertheless, these complications that they encountered did not stop the Chinese to pursuing their dream. The Chinese were very passionate workers, even if it was arduous to work as a miner. They found alternative approaches on their burdensome lifestyle, such as constructing railroads, being laundrymen, and becoming servants for the rich ( ).These Chinese men experienced abundant ways of living even if it was very difficult for them just so they can live and provide for their families. They had life threatening jobs such

Letters, journals, and reminiscences written by adventurers during the Gold Rush vividly illustrate the internal struggle which people experienced.

Narrator: There were some miners who died during this Gold Rush. Some people died because they got murder, it was by accident, bloody deaths, a mob that killed them, hanged themselves, got whipped by someone, trying to suicide, or a duel. *pauses for a few seconds and continue* During the time when the forty-niners were digging for gold, it was hard. The forty-niners had to spend all day trying to dig for gold, but they ended up digged mud, dirt, and stones instead. Soon, gold was hard to find.

Throughout Cultural Perspectives, many influential texts have been read, analyzed, and discussed. One text, Life in the Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis, integrates the thoughts of quite a few authors that have been discussed this semester. Through employing a Marxist view of history—there are always the “haves” and the “have-nots”—one can see that Life in the Iron Mills exemplifies the struggles that face many “have-not” citizens throughout history. One can then see the clear connections to various authors such as Mary Wollstonecraft, W.E.B. DuBois, Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels, and Adam Smith.