Unit 11 -- The Gilded Age (1869 to 1895)

Unit 11

The Gilded Age (1869 to 1895)

Unit Key Terms

Settlement of the American West
Fencing in the natives
Turner's Frontier Thesis
Robber Barons and the Gospel of Wealth
Politics and Civil Service Reform
New Immigration -- Wops, Portagees and Polaks

Unit notes

"Gilded Age" -- period between 1869 and 1889 characterized by the major events listed below

rise of the great American businesses and trusts
growth of the cities
railroad expansion
growth of the West / Exploitation of American Indians
Standard Oil and US Steel
Control of the political parties by vast "machines"
Political corruption -- then reform and the Civil Service

Period was called the "Gilded Age" by author Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). Twain saw a society with a glossy exterior and a rotten core. While America seemed to be growing and become a great, wealthy country, most Americans were getting poorer and working harder.
Note -- compare the Gilded Age in America to the 1830s and 1840s in Western Europe during the age of Industrialization. America was about two generations behind -- due to the slavery question, civil war, and sectional questions.

"Go West Young Man"

In the three decades after the Civil War, thousands of families pulled up stakes and headed west in hope of a fresh start.
As white settlers headed west, they displaced Indians.
Between 1876 and 1900, eight new states entered the Union

Colorado -- 1876
North Dakota -- 1889
South Dakota -- 1889
Montana -- 1889
Washington -- 1889
Idaho -- 1890
Wyoming -- 1890
Utah -- 1896 (the Mormons gave up polygamy in 1890)

Only 3 territories remained by 1900 -- and all three would quickly be states

Oklahoma (created in 1889 from Indian Territory) -- 1907
Arizona -- 1912
New Mexico -- 1912

As more western states came into the Union, the East lost some of its power and influence
Instead of the country seeing a sectional political rivalry, as over slavery, one developed as the cities opposed farms. Thus the old NATURAL Alliance developed between the West and the South, one that concentrated on agricultural issues.
The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 helped western settlement
Indian Policy

Government agents signed treaties with the Indian tribes, putting them on reservations, often with promises of food, clothing, and other supplies.
Unfortunately for the Indians, whites often went back on the treaties.
Even "Indian Territory" was opened to white settlement as the Oklahoma Territory in 1889.
Indians were to be sent to white schools on the reservation and "Americanized" and forced to give up tribal religions and culture
White diseases, alcohol, and the virtual extermination of the plains buffalo, an animal they used for food, decimated Indians.
Some Indians struck back with violence and rebellion, but this only brought back swift retribution from soldiers
See map page 602 for the Indian Wars and Reservations of the West

Extermination of the buffalo

Often shot for sport, hundreds at a time
1865 -- estimates of 15,000,000 buffalo west of the Mississippi River -- as far as the eye could see
By 1885 -- less than 1000 left and the animal faced extinction
A few thousand are alive today in national parks

Miners -- started digging for gold and silver instead of panning like in California

1858 -- Gold discovered at Pike's Peak in Colorado
1859 -- "Comstock Lode" -- a fantastic load of silver and gold -- discovered in Nevada
Smaller strikes were found throughout the West
"Boom towns" sprang up, full of saloons, miners and "accommodating" women.
These towns often didn't last long and became "ghost towns" when everyone left
Silver came to be as important as gold -- note to students -- this will be important for politics later
By 1879 -- US mint begins to coin silver -- silver to gold exchange rate is 16:1

Cowboys -- working the trails

The development of the West saw the creation of a new occupation, one that would instill lasting images on the American psyche -- the cowboy
Cowboys would "drive" cattle (mostly longhorns) from Texas and Oklahoma to Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming, where the animals would be put on Railroad Cars to Chicago or Kansas City, where giant slaughterhouses would process the meat, put it on refrigerated railroad cars and send it east.
Frontier "cattle towns", such as Abilene and Dodge City, KS and Cheyenne, WY served as transfer points.
Unfortunately for the cowboy, the railroads also brought settlement. Settlers eventually fenced the land, cutting through the trails.
By 1890, cowboys and the trail were almost a fading memory to America, although they still survive in small numbers today.

Turner's Frontier Thesis (1893)

Fredrick Jackson Turner, an American Historian, wrote this famous essay in 1893. This thesis stated that European settlers had been transformed into Americans on the western frontier, and at the same time, had brought civilization to the West. Thus, the American national character had been transformed by the frontier experience.
According to Turner, the "frontier" no longer existed, and Americans now needed to turn to other proving grounds for civilization -- we needed new frontiers.

Problem -- did Americans "tame" a wild western frontier, or exploit and conquer it by suppressing Indian and Hispanic people already living there?

Business in the Gilded Age

In the years following the Civil War, the scale and scope of American industry changed dramatically.
Old industries became modern businesses, while new products and inventions drove America into a new revolution, one that would produce not only Modern America, but modern Americans as well.

Railroads -- America's First Big Business

Railroads had started before the Civil War, but really expanded after it.
NO real central plan or vision for the country,
Railroads went everywhere settlers went, as the iron horses were the key to both transportation and shipping.
1869 -- Transcontinental Railroad finished -- links Omaha, NE to San Francisco
Railroad mileage grew by 4x in the two decades following 1870
Small feeder lines fed into the great transcontinental systems, linking the nation together. (see map page 692 of American Promise)
By 1900 -- US has more track than Europe and Russia combined
With the railroad came the telegraph, a great way for Railroad Companies to keep track of time and freight

Discuss the need for standardized time (GMT) in class

Steel

Growth of railroads led to the growth of steel
First railroads ran on iron rails -- too brittle for longtime use
After Civil War -- vast source of iron ore found near the Great Lakes (UP of Michigan and upper Wisconsin)
Pittsburgh, PA -- became the steel center for America
Bessemer Process -- explain in class -- produces high grade steel
Andrew Carnegie -- Steel tycoon -- cut prices, monopolize the market and keep the mills running at full capacity -- the profits take care of themselves
Vertical Integration -- idea developed by Carnegie -- to guarantee the lowest costs and highest profit, all aspects of production and distribution. In other words, Carnegie wanted to own not only the steel mill, but controlled everything from mining the ore, to shipping it to the mill, to producing steel, to marketing it to customers.
He also ruthlessly ran his business, looking for any way to cut costs, especially labor
Carnegie Steel -- supplied the railroads, built the Brooklyn Bridge, the Washington Monument and other massive projects around the country, each of which brought the boss tremendous profits.

Mass Marketing -- Advertising on a grand scale

Idea began during the gilded age to attract customers
Grand new products and efficient means of production were of little use if no one bought the items produced
New target audience wasn't just the neighborhood, but the entire country

Brand names became household words

Swift -- meats -- instead of having meat slaughtered by local butchers, Swift developed the idea of having it slaughtered in central plants in the Midwest and then loading it on refrigerated railroad cars (invented in 1858) -- Swift used effective advertising to convince customers to trust meat they had not seen "alive".

Armour -- competed with Swift -- specialized in processed meat -- bologna and hot dogs

Heinz -- pickles, sauces, condiments -- contracted with local vegetable growers to ensure a steady flow of food into his factories, especially tomatoes -- by 1888, ketchup, unknown to most Americans in 1865, was an American staple.

Other important brand names from the Gilded Age

Quaker Oats

Procter and Gamble

Pillsbury Flour

Eastman Kodak

Ivory Soap

Coca - Cola (originally had a trace amount of cocaine in it)

Kellogg's Corn Flakes

Standard Oil (EXXON) -- father of the "Trust"

Oil was discovered in 1859 in Pennsylvania
Used for lubricating oil and kerosene lamps (lighting before electricity)
At first, many small refineries competed for the American customer
Eventually one company, Standard Oil, and one man, John D. Rockefeller, came to dominate 90% of the industry.
Conspired with the railroads to drive his competitors out of business, forcing them to sell their oil to him at rock bottom prices
Major Refineries began to sell out. IN return for shares of Standard Oil, these companies would run their refineries under their own brand names, but Rockefeller controlled everything, including prices.
One corporation could not OWN another, so Rockefeller invented the "TRUST", a company that controlled the STOCK of all the companies.
Rockefeller eventually turned to Carnegie's idea of vertical integration as well, and by the 1890s, he controlled most of the oil industry, from pumping it out of the ground to delivery of the oil to customers.
Rockefeller died at age 98 in 1937 as the country's first BILLIONAIRE
Most Americans saw him as a ruthless, despicable man, the very symbol of everything wrong with business.

Other inventions of the Gilded Age

Telephone -- Alexander Graham Bell (1876)

Electric Light Bulb -- Thomas Alva Edison (1879)

Elevator -- Elisha Otis (invented in 1854, but not in use until the 1890s)

Social Darwinism and the Gospel of Wealth

Darwin -- (1859) On the Origin of Species -- said that the "law of evolution" was a struggle for survival where species adapted to the environment. Those that were able to adapt survived. Those who remained locked in the past simply didn't make it.

Social Darwinism -- developed by Yale professor in 1883 -- applied Darwinism to social classes -- this will be used to subjugate blacks and poor workers
In other words, the poor are exactly where they are BECAUSE they can't rise. Those who can -- do.
Social Darwinism justified a system where men like Carnegie, Vanderbilt and others made hundreds of millions of dollars while the average worker earned less than $500 per year.

The Gospel of Wealth (1889) -- book written by Carnegie that called on the rich (like him) to take care of those who, through no real fault of their own, were too stupid to rise above their station -- Carnegie, once worth upwards of $300 million, gave away most of his money before he died, mainly to charitable organizations

Organized Labor

conditions for workers in the new industrial economy were terrible
As Big Businesses grew, the proletariat, the "means to production" as Marx called it, began to organize, not into a socialist bloc as they did in Europe, but into unions.

Knights of Labor

founded in 1869 in Philadelphia as a secret society of garment cutters
1877 -- the Great Railroad Strike (nationwide unorganized strike that eventually involved 100,000 RR workers) -- President Hayes called out federal troops when violence erupted -- the Great Strike was put down -- few concessions won for the workers -- causes sympathy for organized labor -- middle class grew fearful of the "mob" and "workers"
the Knights saw their membership grow exponentially after the Great Strike
By 1885 -- 700, 000 workers in the Knights
Knights advocated a king of "workers' democracy" and called for many different reforms such as free land, an income tax, the abolition of child labor and equal pay for women. This platform will form the basis for the political movement of American Socialism

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

Organized in 1886 as a union for skilled workers
Samuel Gompers -- president of the AFL -- pushed to maintain the AFL as an organization for skilled workers only
Platform

Eight hour workday (standard was 12)

Haymarket Riot

Different Labor organizations called for a rally on 01 May 1886 to call for an Eight hour workday
Knights turned out in large numbers
Gompers was there
About 45,000 workers showed up -- largest demonstration in American labor history during the 19^th century -- reminder to students about the Revolutions of 1848 in Europe and Marxist Revolutions
04 May -- at Haymarket Square in Chicago -- about 3000 workers rally in support of labor -- Police captain "Blackjack" Bonfield, a man with a reputation for police brutality, demanded they disburse
Suddenly, someone threw a homemade bomb into the police ranks -- the police drew their weapons and fired into the crowd
When the smoke cleared, 7 policemen were dead, along with about 15 workers (the number is unclear) -- dozens were injured
Fear gripped the country as a result of the "riot"
Middle class America turned against labor
Eight men, including seven German immigrants, were arrested, brought to trial and convicted (four were executed, one committed suicide and three received prison sentences)
The trials were a sham
For years, the memory of Haymarket would haunt Americans -- they feared anarchy

After the Haymarket riot, the AFL began to assume the role of the main organization for labor -- Gompers changed the mission of the AFL -- but still for skilled workers only

Push for concrete gains -- higher wages -- shorter hours
Push for government to help the working class -- don't call for revolution -- try to calm fears and work WITH the American bourgeoisie.

the Knights of Labor eventually lost most of its membership -- it had to buckle under during a series of strikes in the 1880s (unskilled labor is easy to replace with scabs), and thus unskilled labor lost its representative voice by about 1900

Politics in the Gilded Age

Gilded Age was an age where politicians took a back seat to businessmen of the time
In many ways, J.P. Morgan or Andrew Carnegie were much more important than any president, and everyone seemed to know it
Yet one major change took place politically during the time

Civil Service Reform

Old system -- in place since the Jackson's time -- "Spoils System"
Problem -- not always the best men for the job
1880 -- James Garfield (Republican from Ohio) elected to the presidency over Winfield Scott Hancock (PA)
there was, however, a split in the Republican party
when Garfield appointed his own men, and none of Senator Roscoe Conkling's (NY) men to offices, one of Conkling's supporters assassinated Garfield, shooting him in the back in a Washington train station
Garfield's death brought Civil Service Reform
Chester Arthur (NY) became president and although a disciple of Conkling, he pushed for reform
Pendleton Act of 1883

Established a merit system for making office appointments
Set up the Civil Service Commission
Started slow reform -- today almost all offices are decided by merit, except the ones at the top of the government, which still go to friends

Presidential Elections

1884 -- Grover Cleveland (D-NY) over James G. Blaine (R-ME)
1888 -- Benjamin Harrison (R-IA) over Cleveland
1892 -- Cleveland over Harrison

WOPS, PORTAGEES AND POLAKS

IMMIGRATION IN THE GILDED AGE

Immigration to the United States really stepped up after the rise of Germany and Italy in 1870
The new immigrants came from Eastern and Southern Europe
Aroused widespread alarm and "nativism"

High birthrate would soon make Anglo-Saxons a minority
Catholicism and its allegiance to Rome seen as following a foreign power
Language problems
Willing to work for low wages
Came with ideas of socialism, communism and anarchism

1886 -- French donate the Statue of Liberty -- set up in NY Harbor -- immigrants can see it from the boats -- it's the first thing they see of America (no skyscrapers yet)
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free" (inscription on Lady Liberty's base)
Roman Catholic and Jewish faiths -- numbers grew -- especially in the cities, where most of the new immigrants settled