1. Industrialization in America
Did it cause more benefits or more problems for the nation?

2. Where we left off… Reconstruction ends
Federal troops pull out of the South, leaving African Americans defenseless against segregation and Jim Crow laws
Federal and state elections marred by fraud and corruption
The South still largely agricultural
Industry booming in the North

3. The times they are a’changin’
Settlement and development of the West
Government repossesses Native American land
Land distributed to railroad companies and white farmers
Transcontinental railroad – allows people and goods to travel more rapidly
Railroad companies make enormous profit on the backs of the men who built the railroads as well as the Midwest farmers who depend on the railroads to transport their products to the market

4. The times they are a’changin’
Immigration – over 7,000,000 immigrants between the end of Reconstruction and 1900
Before 1880 – from Western Europe and China
“New Immigration” – from southern and eastern Europe – considered ‘nonwhite’
They settled everywhere except the South
Cultural tensions
‘Nativists’ – people who considered America to be a ‘white’ country – made it increasingly difficult for immigrants to vote

5. The times they are a’changin’
Agricultural development
New farms established in the Midwest and West
Investment in technology – improved tools
Result: Yields increased and fewer people needed to do the work
Farmers could produce more than the country could consume
Migration – from rural to urban areas

6. The times they are a’changin’
Rapid industrialization
Manufacturing increases, more factories and mines open that need workers
Wage labor dominates
Low pay, long hours
Workers often lived in overcrowded cities, had poor housing and suffered from terrible sanitation, disease, and violence
Owners of the factories and mines grew obscenely rich while workers suffered

7. The times they are a’changin’
Labor unions organized to protect the rights of the workers
Strikes – often involved violence; the largest strikes involved government intervention
Government usually sided with industry
Demand for labor continued to grow
Children put to work – they were paid less than women, who were paid less than men
Children worked in textile mills and coal mines –DANGEROUS WORKING CONDITIONS!
Most did not attend school

8. The times they are a’changin’
Textile mills started to be built in the South to take advantage of cheap labor
Workers in the South paid less than in mills elsewhere
Only whites were hired
Cotton could be processed near where it was grown, saving the mills money
Many farmers moved to mill towns in search of steady paycheck
Often paid in ‘coins’ that could only be spent at the company store, where goods were sold at inflated prices

9. The times they are a’changin’
Working conditions often difficult and dangerous, especially for children
Mill life centered in mill villages – whole families often employed by a mill
Recreation included dances, baseball teams, and sewing circles
‘Paternalistic’ mill owners owned the homes the workers lived in – a degree of conformity was required
Many Southerners, both black and white, fled to northern cities to find a better life

10. The times they are a’changin’
Gilded – covered with a thin layer of gold
The Gilded Age – superficial, misleading, deceitful
Fantasies of overnight wealth proliferated
Moralists ignored the monopolies manipulation of power and money – saw money as a reward for hard work
From this view, poor people were at fault for the struggles they faced
‘Ethic of individualism left unprotected workers at the mercy of unregulated capital’

11. The times they are a’changin’
Imperialism and empire building
Spanish American War
Theodore Roosevelt and others felt an American empire was God’s plan - a “divinely ordained duty”
In opposition - the American traditions of decentralized power and government by consent
America gains ‘possessions’ from the Caribbean to the Pacific

12. The times they are a’changin’
1890’s – stock market crash leads to years of economic depression
Mass unemployment and starvation
“desperate search to stay alive among huge portions of the population”
Wealth remains concentrated in the hands of the few
The Progressive movement begins
Progressives pushed for reform; felt government should take an active role in improving the lives of its citizens