Unit 10: The Gilded Age

Economic and Social Changes: 1865 1920

(John Wayne greatest actor)

Part I: The Last Frontier

The Final Settlement of the Trans-Mississippi West.

Historiography
The Frontier Thesis: imp. Histrogarphical theory in US.
Who: Fredrick Johnson
What:
When: thesis forward in july 1893
American Identity:
Significance: famous article entitle significance of American historyfirst period of american
history was coming to a close this perios ahs nurture (individualism, democracy) and wide spread
economic opp.
1. Success of US in tied to westward expansion.
2. dev.of the American identity occurs where civilization meet the savage.
3. Describe what and American identity look like
Distinguished from an old world... nothing like old world
Power to train the wildmakes us strong and indp.

Essential Questions to answer:
how would other school of historiography view the west ?
how accurate u think turner speech is ? do u agree with his speech? Why or why not ?

5 Important Groups
Miners
 Railroads
Ranchers
Farmers
Native Americans (Plains Indians)

Miners
California Gold Rush in 1849:
Placer Mining: (Hollywood movie) started as individual
Quartz Mining: individual didnt do thisit was a corporations
Economic reality: individual sometimes found the depositmade much more money by selling their
resources to the cooperation cooperation the made the most direct from mining no skill minners
work for cooperation for very low wages.
Boomtowns: if the mineral deposit run out so does ppl.
Significance: The men of the industry had the mineral

Railroads
Pull factors: desire for the industry west desire to exchange goods with east and the west
Push factor: US gov. was motivated b/c of sectional division.
Pacific Railway Act of 1862: civil war was going onnorth and south knew each other so well but still
fought so the federal gov. pass the railroad lawthey gave away land to the rail road in order for the
money they gave them more money
2 rail road company had union specific and central specific
Union specific had the coal one they had easy route
Impact: provided a faster way to eastern southerner to move to west small town dev. All along the
rail road line
Significance: further increase western settlement in good of east westthey had big impact on
American identity ppl. Coming in contact
 First Transcontinental Railroad

Ranchers
Pull Factors: civil war cause industry to increase
Push Factors: reconstruction , ppl move out did something else
Longhorns: made good boots, jackets they made a lot of leather stuff
Tasteless meat by 1865,there were so many kettle ppl pay them to get rid of them so they took
their skin eat meat and boil their fat had no value in texas so they took to north they were
value to the cowboy and it was string enough to survive the ride
Cowboys: john waynemixture of Hispanic, freedmen and ex-confederate out of the south
Railroads: play imp. Role in ranching business in 1866 ranches dried as the rail road move further
west
The Long Drive: cowboys would round up btw 2000 to 5000 kettle at a time1.5 million kettle were
driven to chismen trail long drive from month to 2 months they had bunk houses where cow boy
would sleep every year cowboy would come in and sell their cows and (they want to have the
entertainment =/ )
Ranches:
Brands:
Cowtowns:
Settlers:
Commercialization:
Significance:

Farmers
Pull Factors:
Push Factors:
Railroads:
Geographic/Climatic Problems:
 Bonanza Farms:
Significance:

Conflict Over the Open Range

Conflict with cowboys:
What closed the Open Range?
Significance:

Native Americans
The Plains Tribes:
The Buffalo:
Conflict over resources: miners come into conflict..when they found big resources of minerals, farmers
didnt want buffalo either..buffalo leather turn out to have right amount of elastics and strength to be
turn into industrial belt so buffalo hunter start shooting buffalo.
U.S. Government Indian Policy: plain Indian got a free ride congress worried what to do with them
1867 ..one in Oklahoma and north and south dikota..territory..run by asian of neru and Indian affairs
During the Civil War:
Indian Peace Commission:
Treaty of Medicine Lodge (1867): south state Indian..move to Oklahoma US gov. agree to stop
the buffalo hunter to be moving in Indian territories
Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868): northern plains Indians..exact system agreement except they move
to north dikota
The Peace Policy:
President Grant: wants to slove Indian blah blah with a s much as small bloodshedfarmers
sent for ranchingsettle to be in American way plains indiand were not allowed to hunt
the buffalo. They gotta have seats, tools and equipments
4 Provisions: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The Peace Policy failed for 5 reasons:
 Only women would farm in plains Indian
Quakers kill all the ppl.
Congress was late in pay
Congress money was stolen by crocked Indians ..(or hire asiangot broken farming
equipment)
Gov. did nothing to stop buffalo hunt.
Leads to series of war ^^^^^^
The Plains Indian Wars:
Disgruntled tribes:
The Battle of Adobe Walls: june 27th 1874 contray a popular opinion short riffle to shoot
buffalo shoting coming and going qunnah parker was a chief of commission in 13th US
armyended by the southern plain Indians
Last of the Frontier Wars
The Battle of Palo Duro Canyon:
The Battle of the Little Bighorn: june 17 1866gather together and leave the reservation
US army try to rend them up terrycluster is known for his implusivenessforces dikota
to move away or flee to canada congrees takes a looks at the peace policythey gave them
land and they gave them to the tribe and not to individualthen they pass a dawes
The Dawes Act (1887): they redistribute the tribal land and allot a house to everyone farmer s
unexceptebale and they didnt like their land and move somewhere else
The Battle of Wounded Knee: (religious ritualghost dane) 25 soldiers werekilled and 200 men
and women(dikota) were killed

Final Note
Ppl who fought great indiand war were immigrants left the reconstructionbrought down
kamanchie..natve Americans as scott to help them defend the plians Indianshighest reservation rate
 Part II: Industrialism & Growth of Cities
The Rise of Industrialists : natural resources eg, pertroleum Minnesota had tons of iron gov doesnt
interfere with industry survival of the fittest- havard spensor
&
Mass Immigration.

Factors in Industrial Growth

Natural Resources:
Laissez-fair policies:
Entrepreneurs: need ppl tp provide the $ and are willing to take the risks
New inventions:
Increase in population: immigration and migration

Vertical & Horizontal Integration

Company that control all the means of the product to manufacture a product from raw to manufacture !
Earn other company that do the same thinno comp.
Robber Barons or Industrial Statesmen?
John D. Rockefeller:
Andrew Carnegie:
Cornelius Vanderbilt:
Henry Ford:
J.P. Morgan:

Impact of Industrialism
1. Rise of the Middle class:
A. Greater comforts:
B. Easier access to goods:
C. Less expensive products:
2. Development of Big Business:
3. Political Machines:
4. Labor Unions:
5. Urbanization:

Working Conditions
10-12 hour days, six days a week, am/pm shift
Work related dangers:
No minimum Wage.
Feeling of becoming a machine
Child Labor:
Women, children, ethnic minorities, immigrants:
Why stay?

Unions
Demands:
Tactics:
Factory Owners:
The Haymarket Affair:
Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions:
General Strike:
Haymarket Square Rally, Chicago, Illinois (May 4):
Significance:
Pullman Strike:
Pullman Palace Car Company:
American Railway Union (ARU)
Eugene V. Debs:
The Panic of 1893:
 Boycott:
Significance:

Immigration
Old Immigrants:
New Immigrants:
European Flood:
Cost of the Journey:

Arrival in America
Ellis Island, NYC:
Processing:
Steerage passengers:
Medical Inspections
Legal Inspections

Ethnic Enclaves
2/3 settled in urban cities:
Enclave:
Urban Conditions:
Rural immigrants faired much better:
Many exploited immigrants:
Immigrant children:
Americanization:

Asian Immigration
Taiping Rebellion:
Gold & Railroads:
 Angel Island.
Nativism:
End of open door
Chinese Exclusion Act:
Dillingham Bill 1921:

Part III: Populists & Progressives

Social, Economic, & Political Reformers of the Late 19th Century.

Populists
Populism:
Money Problems:
The Grange:
The Farmers Alliance:
The Populist Party (aka Peoples Party):
Significance of the Populist Party:

Coxeys Army
Panic of 1892.
Massillion, Ohio
1894
Jacob Coxey.
Washington D.C. April 30, 1894
L. Frank Baum:

The Rise of Segregation

Resistance and Repression.
After Reconstruction:
 Exodusters:
Colored Farmers National Alliance and Cooperative Union:
Democratic Party:

Disenfranchising African Americans

Circumventing the 15th Amendment:
Southern states created laws and regulations barring African Americans from voting:
Poll tax:
Literacy tests:
Grandfather Clauses:
Legalizing Segregation:
North vs. South:
Civil Rights Act of 1875:
Plessy vs. Ferguson:
Lynchings:
African American Response
Ida B. Wells:
Booker T. Washington:
W.E.B. Du Bois:

Progressives
Purpose:
Philosophy:
Progressive Goals:
Leaders of the Progressive Movement:
Government Reforms:
Prohibition:
Womens Suffrage:
 Child Labor:
The Bitter Cry of Children:
Keating-Owen Child Labor Law:
Compulsory education laws passed by various states.

Triangle Shirtwaist Co. Fire

When:
What:
Fire Department:
Significance:

Progressives and Big Business

Ideas:
Health & Safety:
Consumer Issues:
Eugene Debs:
Theodore Roosevelt (T.R.):
The Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902:
Consumer Protection:
The Meat Inspection Act of 1906:
The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906:
Significance:
Trust Buster:
The Northern Securities Company v. The United States:
J. D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company:
Department of Commerce and Labor:
Wilson:
Smith Lever Act of 1914:
 Federal Farm Loan Board (1916):
Adamson Act of September 1916:
The Clayton Antitrust Act:

Gilded Age