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What Was The Importance Of Railroads In The 19th Century

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The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 began on July 7, 1877 in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Workers became angry when the company had reduced their wages for the second time within the previous year. “The strikers refused to let the trains run until the most recent pay cut was returned to the employees” (“Great Railroad Strike of 1877”). The decrease in wages was a result of the economy’s recent downfall. According to Joseph Adamczyk, “That year the country was in the fourth year of a prolonged economic depression after the panic of 1873” (Adamczyk). The invention of the railroad changed everything. It was the beginning of a new era. The railroad was a new way to transport goods, materials, and people. According to Stuart Moulder, “Prior to the last spike being driven in 1869, the only ways to get from coast to coast of the United States were a months long journey by foot, horseback or (very expensive) carriage” (Moulder). This means that the railroad was not only a new way of transportation, but also a new way of life. To put things into perspective, an article …show more content…

“What Was The Importance of Railroads in the 19th Century?” Quora, Quora, 27 May 2016, www.quora.com/What-was-the-importance-of-railroads-in-the-19th-century.

“Great Railroad Strike of 1877.” Great Railroad Strike of 1877 - Ohio History Central, Ohio History Connection, www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Great_Railroad_Strike_of_1877.

Adamczyk, Joseph. “Great Railroad Strike of 1877.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 31 Jan. 2018, www.britannica.com/topic/Great-Railroad-Strike-of-1877.

“The Great Railroad Strike.” Digital History, Digital History, 2016, www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2&psid=3189.

“Railroads and the Making of Modern America.” Pittsburgh Daily Post, 20 July 1877,

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These railroads, however, were expensive and needed many willing workers and finances to keep it going. During the Panic of 1873, many of the railroads that were built or in the process of building, got shut down. The economy was plummeting and the railroad companies could not keep up with the expenses. One Canadian-born,

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Even though the railroad existed before the great division between the north and the south and it mainly contributed in providing goods for both sides, the invention of the railroad greatly contributed to the civil war. The first railroad created in the US was in 1827 and their major role was to transport goods from the North to the South and back. As slaves became more abundant in the South and less present in the North a war began on the idea of slavery. The railroad caused this Civil War by bringing goods to only one side and keeping their advantage. It went from having different point of views to all out battles that started with starvation and isolation, but led to death and separation.

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Before the 1860s U.S. railroads were inefficient for big business to explode, and shipping goods wasn’t as easy before Cornelius Vanderbilt organized a steam ship company. He also controlled all lines of railroad linking New York to the Great Lakes. His strategy was to create a monopoly to gain wealth and power of all the effective railroad lines into one major company. He expressed competition and set unfair prices for the workers. The workers soon revolted and went on strike in 1877 due to the low pay and increase of work hours.

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Meet You in Hell Essay Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Changed America is written by Les Standiford. Standiford is a historian and author who lives in Miami. In “Meet You in Hell”, Standiford tells the story of two men during America’s Gilded Age, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, who rise to be among the wealthiest men in history. Carnegie and Frick rise to power, dominating the new found Industrial Era.

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The organized labor of 1875-1900 was unsuccessful in proving the position of workers because of the future strikes, and the intrinsical feeling of preponderation of employers over employees and the lack of regime support. In 1877, railroad work across the country took part in a cyclopean strike that resulted in mass violence and very few reforms. An editorial, from the Incipient York Time verbalized: "the strike is ostensibly hopeless, and must be regarded as nothing more than a rash and splenetic demonstration of resentment by men too incognizant or too temerarious to understand their own interest" (Document B). In 1892, workers at the Homestead steel plant near Pittsburg ambulated out on strike and mass chaos the lives of at least two Pinkerton detectives and one civilian, among many other laborers death (Document G).

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During this time period there were great technological advancements. One of these advancements was railroads. Railroads were a positive change because it helped transport people and goods across the country. Businesses depended greatly upon transportation in order to transport their goods. Despite the positives of railroads, there were negatives.

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The Pullman Strike also had an impact on transporting people and goods. This was a problem because back then trains were a main source of transportation. Nowadays, there are additional means of transportation, such as trucks and

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Throughout American History, revolutions in transportation have affected the American society politically, socially and economically. Soon after the war of 1812, American nationalism increased which leads to a greater emphasis on national issues, the increase in power and prevalence of the national government and a growing sense of the American Identity. Railways, canals, and Turnpikes began to increase making many people employed. The era of 1830-1860 represents a shift from agrarianism to industrialism. Overall, during the transportation revolution, construction of turnpikes, roads, canals, and railroads led to the market economy expansion, an increased population in America and alternations of the physical landscape of America.

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The first way that the economy was impacted was that with the ease and efficiency of the railroads, they created a large demand for goods and labor because they needed a lot of people to help build the railroads and also needed a large quantity of steel for the rails and wood for the railroad ties. Secondly the railroads created a huge national market because of the simplicity of delivering goods from place to place. The railroads helped the people in even the most rural place prosper with the cost efficient transportation of the trains. From 1830 to 1861, the United States laid aproximately 30,000 miles of railroad track, which led to an increase in demand for coal which was used to produce iron for the

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By 1916, 254,000 miles later the Railroad’s were complete. One out of every twenty-five American worked to complete the railroads. In 1877 the United States had their first crucial rail strike as well as their first strike in the nation’s history. The Pennsylvania Railroad lost more than four million dollars due to angry crowds from Philadelphia. The crowds set fire to parts of the city, buildings, engines, passenger cars, and freight cars.

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*Pullman Strike * The Pullman Strike was widespread by the United States railroad workers, approximately a quarter-million worker were on strike at the peak and it impacted the expedition the railroad system across the states. The strike between the American Railway Union and George Pullman changed the course of future strikes when President Grover Cleveland ordered federal troops to break up the strikers; its influenced how the federal government and the court system would handle labor issues. The labor issues during the Pullman Strike were not limited that of rights of the workers, the role of management in the workers private life, and the roles of government resolving labor conflicts. Pullman planned communities for his workers how he determined

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The time period from when the Second Industrial Revolution was beginning, up until President McKinley’s assassination in 1901, is known as the Gilded Age. After the Civil War, many people headed out West to pursue agriculture, and many immigrants moved to urban areas to acquire jobs in industrial factories. It is in this context that farmers and industrial workers had to respond to industrialization. Two significant ways farmers and industrial workers responded to industrialization in the Gilded Age, were creating the Populist Party and the American Federation of Labor (AFL).

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Farmers and Industrial Workers in the Gilded Age In a time when industrialization was booming, immigrants were racing towards the “American Dream”, and cities were growing towards the sky, the United States was thriving. As a country, the United States went from rural, to mostly urban, which made America “the world’s largest industrial power” as stated by John Green. Since the U.S. had become mostly urban, this left the very few rural workers (farmers), and even some of the industrial workers unhappy. This period of industrialization is called the Gilded Age than spans from 1865 to 1900.The farmers and industrial workers responded to the Gilded Age in significantly negative ways including unions against their authority, strikes and political

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The building of roads, canals and railroads played a large role in the United States during the 1800s. They served the purpose of connecting towns and settlements so that goods could be transported quickly and more efficiently. These goods could be transported fast, cheap and in safe way through the Erie Canal that was built to connect the Great Lakes to New York. Railroads were important during Civil War as well, because it helped in the transportation of goods, supplies and weapons when necessary. These new forms of transportation shaped the United States into the place that it is today.

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The Tremendous Impact of Railroads on America In the late 19th century, railroads propelled America into an era of unprecedented growth, prosperity, and convenient transportation. Prior to the building of the railroads, America lacked the proper and rapid transportation to make traveling across the country economical or practical. Lengthy travel was often cumbersome, costly, and dangerous.

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