The Industrial Revolution, which occurred in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, transformed America from a rural society based around agriculture to an urban and industrial one. Innovations such as the Bessemer process for the mass production of steel, inventions such as the telegraph and telephone, and the development of transportation systems all contributed to this significant shift. The Industrial Revolution marked a turning point in American social attitudes to a significant extent in that nativism and animosity against immigrants markedly increased, and by the end of the Gilded Age, women had emerged into larger societal roles.
Firstly, as a result of the American Industrial Revolution, women were given more significant roles in
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Many new immigrants from places in southern and eastern Europe such as Italy, Greece and Russia settled in Northern cities and became the backbone of industrial labor. Due to a lack of space in cities and the tendency of poverty among these immigrants, many of them had to live in tenements and slums. Since these immigrants were willing to settle for lower wages and worse conditions, they occupied many industrial jobs, frustrating the working class of whites and old immigrants. Along with the frustration that the immigrants were taking jobs away from natives, there was a widespread sentiment that these new immigrants were inferior. Furthermore, these new immigrants were religious but tended to be Catholic or Jewish as opposed to Protestant as was the majority, providing another basis of resentment. These factors all contributed to a growing attitude of nativism in the US. As a result, Americans attempted to institute exclusions and policies of discrimination against immigrants, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act, the American Protective Association, and literacy tests in order to vote. The increased nativism and hatred toward immigrants marked a turning point as African Americans were replaced by new immigrants as the enemy of the