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Industrial Workers During The Gilded Age

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In a time after the civil war, America improved their financing by switching to the gold standard, improved communication by boosting the telegraph, improved transportation by building railroads, and improved wealth by giving contracts for clothes to multiple companies. The economy was also improving massively also due to natural resources, demography, and law. Railroads allowed people as well as supplies to be transported quicker, safer, and cheaper. Companies bought each other out and formed monopolies which made the price go up and the owners very wealthy. Aside from all of these positives, there are also various problems that took place during the Gilded Age (1865-1900). Problems like how industrial workers and farmers responded to …show more content…

During the Gilded age billionaires like Carnegie, Vanderbilt, and Rockefeller were earning massive profits off of the backs of cheap, underpaid labor. Working conditions in the late nineteenth century were terrible and the pay was even worse.Workers would work for 12 hour days in harsh dangerous conditions with no job security and no safety standards These employees would earn a bare minimum wage of one dollar a day for six days a week. Outraged workers wanted better conditions and better pay, so they formed unions like the Knights of Labor (KoL) and the American Federation of Labor (AFL). These unions fought for eight hour work days, better conditions, and better pay along with other topics. The Knights of Labor included black and female members unlike the American Federation of Labor. In order of unions to get their demands they would hold walkouts and strikes. These strikes had to be strategic because the employees wouldn’t get paid while the protested. If a boss like Henry Frick, who ran a very large steel mill, doesn’t want to meet his employees ' demands he can either hire temporary scabs to keep the factory productive, or he can hire the Pinkerton Detective Agency. The Pinkerton Detective Agency was a groups of well armed and well trained mercenaries or soldiers for hire. These mercenaries would either threaten or kill employees to get them working again. One example of the Pinkerton Detective Agency being used was at the Homestead Strike in 1892 were over 300 Pinkerton Detectives came out to break up a large riot at one of Carnegie 's steel mills that was run by Henry Frick. Stikes planned by labor unions weren’t uncommon. One of the bigger strikes led to a whole riot called the Haymarket Square Riot. This riot started as a peaceful protest that had gone citywide. Until a group of eight people who were

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The economic growth during the Gilded Age affected the United States in both negative and positive ways. As a positive, the growing population formed an expanding market from the east coast to the west coast. The economic growth directly affected the supply and demand for basic essentials for the needs of the country. As the population traveled west, supplies and goods that were needed also traveled west. The expansion of the railroads during the Gilded Age, in my opinion, alone was the most major change for our country.

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In the post-Civil War United States, the South was in shambles. During the period of Reconstruction, Southern states had to be readmitted to the Union. The period from 1870 to 1900 is known as the Gilded Age, and it helped improve the unity of the country. Transcontinental railroads were being built and big corporations were being formed. The American people benefited from these changes because goods were easily available.

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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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At the end of the 18th century, a new aged had arrived, known as the Gilded Age, it is where the economic, social, and political atmosphere was heavily influenced by industrialization. Before the Gilded Age, United States was still expanding their territories, Southerners were still living in small farms, while England and other European countries were more advanced in industrialization. Then 30 years later, after the Civil War, America was one of the countries in the world to lead in industrial power. The dramatic development, changed everyone’s life, people that used to live in farms moved to the urban cities in search of new opportunities, wave of inventions such as the telephone was made, and industries boomed. Industries affected the economic, social, and political atmosphere, affluent industries was manipulating iron, oil, railroads and even the workers; which increased the gap between the wealthy and the poor.

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Imagine working sixteen hours a day in an unsanitary, dangerous, place for a big business gaining two dollars. This is what laboring-class Americans had to go through during the Gilded age. Politically, the first largest American labor union was formed during the Gilded age and many other organizations formed as well as violent strikes. Socially, different ethnics joined together to share their thoughts and realize the evils of big business and of the federal government. Mentally, most we 're losing their personal life while some were financially stable and glad.

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Factories were paying far too little for someone to feed their whole family for that little, so many either would die or would turn to crime to survive; these laborers wanted equality. Men, women, and children were working and got employed in factories to work, and the dangerous and strenuous labor that children were put through to help the family expense caused many young children to die. Workers individually could not stop corporations, but collectively they could make an impact on their wages. The corporations eventually had to succumb to the pressure of labor supplies because the National Trade Union convinced the majority of the labor force to work from 12 hours a day to 10 hours. After the labor unions won, workers worked less, and they still had the same salary.

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By 1886 the Knights of Labor had over 700,000 members (United States History 3). Unlike any other labor union, the Knights of Labor encouraged blacks to join. So, by 1886 over 60,000 blacks had joined. The Knights of Labor participated in many famous riots to get what they wanted from the labor laws, which was reasonable hours and safer working conditions. The nights also carried out their own strikes and as time went on they ended up joining to form the American Federation of Labor.

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The AFL advocated for most of the same things as the Knights of Labor. The American Federation of Labor used strikes and boycotts against owners to try and get what they wanted. Two major strikes that occurred were the Pullman Strike and the Homestead Strike. Both strikes were very dangerous and had millions of dollars of damage. Some of the strikes and boycotts did work and wages were raised, however some backfired and many workers ended up losing their

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The course material for this class was an eye-opener for me. I learned the history taught in classrooms is different from the true history. I wasn’t aware that authors and publishers of history textbooks have altered the information to make it appealing to their target audience (Loewen Ch. 1). I have always believed that the information in history textbooks were be true. Target audiences would purchase history texts if they are satisfied with how the text portrays the nation as a whole.

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The AF of L wanted “unionism” and opposed socialism. TheKnights of Labor, another labor union, was created in 1869 and enlisted in their ranks not only alllaborers but also everyone who could be truly classified as a producer. Labor unions, the two major depressions and the three “robber barons” were three of theforemost reasons the Gilded Age got its name. The “robber barons” invested in things that wouldultimately lead to a “Golden Industrial Age” but they didn’t achieve it totally legitimately, and thecreation of the labor unions sided with the workers, but at times, grew violent in their methods.

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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 laborer, toiling in factories and industry, did not fare much better than the small farmer. Immigration increased dramatically, providing the necessary workforce for industries. Socialist ideas, however, along with low pay, and the ability of some workers to enter the middle class (in part through the creation of a managerial class), kept labor unions from effectively protecting workers from exploitation. Low wages, long hours, job insecurity, hazardous working conditions, and gender, age and racial discrimination characterized the working life of many(?)/most(?)

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