1. The Growth of America: The Gilded Age 1877 - 1900
Gilded - Covered with a thin layer of gold
The American economy expanded rapidly during the last quarter of the 19th century. There was westward growth, an expansion of industry, and the rise of big business.
The results of this were poverty for farmers, poor conditions for industrial workers, prejudice and discrimination, political corruption, and urbanization.

2. Reasons for Westward Growth
1. Railroads - Land Grants – 200,000,000 acres
- Transcontinental Railroad – 1869 – Promontory Point – Irish and Chinese Workers
2. Government + Homestead Act
- 160 Acres of public land if:
- 21 years old, citizen or applied for, had $10 fee
- 5 yrs. to improve land = ownership
- Other Land Grants
3. Jobs and Opportunity
- Farming – Bonanza Farms
- Mining – Boomtowns
- Herding Cattle – Texas Longhorn
Frederick Jackson Turner – 1893 – Frontier is closed
– 45 States

3. Reasons for Industrial Growth
1. Railroads - standard tracks and times
2. Communication - telegraph
- Alexander Graham Bell - Telephone
3. Electricity- Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse
4. Bessemer Process - Henry Bessemer – Steel - Brooklyn Bridge
5. Advances in Farming and Ranching
6. Raw Materials and Mining– Oil, Coal, Etc.
7. Labor Supply – Immigration – 30 Million
8. Republican Control of Government during Reconstruction – Tariffs, Banking, Internal Improvements

4. Big Business Monopoly - complete control of a product or service
Purpose – Reduce Competition = Increase Demand = Increase Prices and Profits
Andrew Carnegie
Steel Mills
Vertical Integration – purchase of companies at all levels of production
Coal and Iron Mines
RRs and Steamships

5. Big Business Cont. Trusts - number of companies
run by a board of trustees
John D. Rockefeller –
Standard Oil Trust
– Horizontal Integration purchase of competing companies in the same industry
By 1900 – 100s of Monopolies
- Singer, Morgan, Edison, Vanderbilt, Stanford, Swift

6. Pros v. Cons of Monopolies
Captains of Industry Robber Barons

7. Government Response What should the government do? Laissez Faire
Regulate Business v. Laissez Faire
Laissez Faire
Social Darwinism
Andrew Carnegie and “The Gospel of Wealth”
Government Corruption – Political Bosses and the US Senate
Sherman Antitrust Act – 1890

8. Problems with Westward Expansion
Debt for Farmers
Complaints:
1. Overproduction = Drop in Prices
2. Monopolies and Railroads
3. Tariffs
4. Money Supply – Deflation v. Inflation
- Gold Standard and Silver
5. Drought – Great Plains 1880s
3 D’s = Debt, Drought, and Deflation

9. Rise of the Populist Party
The Grange – 1866
The Farmers Alliance
Populist Party – 1890 – Political Reform
Platform = Regulation of Businesses and Railroads, Lower Tariffs, Direct Election of Senators, Free Coinage of Silver (Bimetallism)
Election of 1892 – 1500 Local Reps, 3 Governors, 5 Senators, 10 Congressmen, James Weaver

10. Problems Continued - Election of 1896
– William Jennings Bryan (D) “ You will not press upon labor this crown of thorns, you will not crucify mankind on a cross of gold.” – Cross of Gold Speech – Populist Party absorbed by Democrats
- William McKinley (R)
Importance of Third Parties Force the major parties to change

11. Problems Continued 2. Native Americans - Plains Indians and Buffalo
- Railroads and the Buffalo
Reservation System and Native American Wars
- Cheyenne + Black Kettle – Sand Creek Massacre
- Sioux War and Sitting Bull – Little Big Horn and Massacre at Wounded Knee
- Helen Hunt Jackson – A Century of Dishonor
- Dawes Severalty Act of 1887

12. The Factory Workers
Working Conditions

13. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (146)

14. Labor Unions 1. Knights of Labor - Terrence Powderly – ‘all who toil’
- government reform
2. American Federation of Labor (AFL) – Samuel Gompers
– skilled labor
- ‘bread and butter’ unionism
Collective Bargaining and Strikes

15. The Era of the Great Strikes
- Railroad Strike of 1877 – 10% Wage cut, President Hayes and federal troops – 100 killed, millions in damages
- Haymarket Square of 1886 – May 1 – 8 hr. workday rally, Chicago Police, 11 people killed, 8 arrested
- Homestead Strike of 1892 – Pinkerton Detective Agency and Scabs, 13 Killed, National Guard Troops
- Pullman Strike of 1894 – American Railway Union, President Cleveland, Court Injunction, Federal Troops

16. The Era of the Great Strikes
Results of the Strikes: - All of the strikes failed to accomplish the goals - All of the strikes ended violently - The government got involved to end all of the strikes Reasons for Failure: - Unskilled Work and Immigrants - Violence and Worker’s Reputations - Anarchists - Government Support of Business – Sherman Antitrust Act – Use of Federal Troops

19. Minority Groups: Immigrants
– 30 Million
Reasons for Immigration:
Immigration:
- European Immigration – Old v. New
– North and West (Old)
- 1890–1920 – South and East (New)
-Asian Immigration-
- Chinese – 250,000
- Japanese – 200,000
- Mexican Immigration – 1,000,000
Cities of the Northeast, Midwest and West Coast – Ethnic Neighborhoods

21. Minority Groups: Immigrants – Rise of Nativism
Nativism – Anti-immigration – Why?
New Restrictions:
- Ellis Island and Angel Island – Medical and Mental Tests
- Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
- Gentleman’s Agreement– 1907
- Why were there so few?
Settlement Movement and Social Gospel Movement
- Jane Addams and Hull House

26. Minorities: African Americans
- Voting Rights – Poll Taxes, Literacy Tests, Citizenship Tests, Grandfather Clauses – 15th Amendment
Jim Crow Laws – Segregation Plessy v. Ferguson – 14th Amendment – “Separate but Equal” Doctrine
Lynching – 180/yr. in 1890s

28. Minorities: African Americans
Civil Rights Leaders during Gilded Age:
1. Booker T. Washington – Atlanta Compromise
- “Cast down your bucket where you are”
- Industry, thrift, intelligence, and
property
- Education - Tuskegee Institute
2. W.E.B. DuBois
- Niagara Movement – Agitate and
demand political equality
– Top Ten Percent
- NAACP – Legal Battles

29. Urbanization Immigrants, Rural Americans
By 1900 – New York = 3.5 Million, Chicago = 1.6 Million, 1700 Cities, 40% Urban
- Ethnic Neighborhoods
City Planning – Sewage, Transportation, Fire and Police

30. Tenements
Multi-Family Apartments for the working poor

31. - Political Machines and Party Bosses – Graft, Fraud, Trading Votes for Jobs
- NYC - Boss Tweed

32. Leisure + Entertainment
Saloons and Trolleyparks
Movies – “The Great Train Robbery”
Theater – Vaudeville and Minstrel Shows
Sports
Newspapers – Yellow Journalism – William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer
Magazines and Books
Music - Ragtime