Progressive Era DBQ

Beginning in the late 19th Century, the Gilded Age was a historic period of time characterized by political corruption and angry sentiment towards government. As citizens of the United States became increasingly discontent about the current state of the nation, they started to express this anger in the form of reform movements. Leading up to the Progressive Era movements were various social, economic, and political concerns that revolved around political leaders failing to meet the needs of people. The rise of the Progressive Reform movements in the years 1870-1917 was largely influenced by conflict in the working class, governmental influence of big business, and the absence of civil rights for many American citizens. A major cause of the

Often times, six or more people were living together in one room, making it easy to transmit disease and other sicknesses. As for the conditions of the factories, they were also crowded and unsafe, and workers were barely paid enough to live. Soon the progressive leaders and other citizens realized that people could not reasonably live and work with the conditions.

“And yet, in spite of this, there would be hams found spoiled, some of them with an odor so bad that a man could hardly bear to be in the room with them” (Doc. F). In Upton Sinclair’s expose on the meat industry, The Jungle, he writes about the unsanitary and dangerous conditions in the workplace. The author first begins with an eye-opening description of how the meat is made and packed; he then describes the sickening odor that would fill the room. To conclude he details how the workers would need to find a way to sell anything by writing of their schemes of using spoiled meat to sell. Sinclair’s purpose is to expose the conditions of the meatpacking industry and how it was harmful not only to the workers, but also the consumers. He seems to have a large, general audience in mind because the majority

For example, the unsanitariness of the meat industry was exposed, leading to many fight for acts to reform the factories.

One muckraker, Upton Sinclair, wrote an entire novel including graphic details of the process and all the corruption that took place (F). Besides the industries, citizens were also lashing out towards the government because of the patronage system, which gave unqualified members of each political party jobs as a favor. Patronage became a more important issue than policy, and citizen’s, as well as the country’s concerns were pushed to the side. Resentment began to build up and eventually citizens decided they could no longer sit back and allow the government to run in such a corrupt manner. Different groups developed to target different aspects the reformers felt needed to be changed, including businesses regulation. In addition to the labor and business reformations, many issues brought about by the

Gilded Age initiated the need for civil service reforms. Around the country, especially the South and former Confederate states, Jim Crow Laws were enacted, which established legal racial segregation. In Plessy v. Ferguson, a notable court case, the idea of "separate but