Gilded Age Research Paper

Have you ever wondered about the historical events that have led up to the way our society is today? About 150 years ago our country dealt with problems that created the Gilded Age. This era consisted of uneven wealth, unfair racial rights and other money issues. The Gilded Age was first called “gilded” by Mark Twain. He implied that this era seemed to be a time of construction and a new way of life for immigrants and native borns. In reality this was a time period of suffering and struggle. Although the three regions worked through each problem, the process of getting to the point that they’re at now was long and drastic. Our nation suffered from many deaths, land ownership, slavery and much more that took place in this era. During the Gilded

After the Civil War, the north had the most trouble recovering out of each region. Out of each region, the north struggled the most with the economy. While the northern cities began to evolve, the northern Industrialists built factories in the north because the north was willing to work for less pay (Ayotte). But because of taxes and sharecropping, farmers were being put into a continuous cycle of debt because they weren’t earning the money that they were working for (Ayotte). When one of the main railroad companies shut down, people went into an economic panic because they had invested so much money into them. People went to get their money back causing banks to fail, causing the economic Panic of 1873. This economic issue lasted a little over 30 years (Wikipedia, Panic of

Many immigrants and Native Borns took advantage of the act. They would gain 160 acres of free land in exchange of living on their land and caring for their crops for at least five years. In 1890 the Wounded Knee Massacre occurred. It was provoked by boundary conflicts and there were over 200 deaths due to the U.S. (Ayotte). This was the last battle of the Indian Wars, and about 200,000 Natives were lefts (Ayotte). After the wars farmers continued on with their lives but then ⅔ of the farms started failing (Ayotte). Small towns came together to create a community where families would live in dugouts and houses made of land and dirt (Ayotte). Women took on the role of care and would raise the children and even work along side with the