“The Gilded Age”1865 – 1900

gild·ed [gil-did] –adjective 1.covered or highlighted with gold or something of a golden color. 2.having a pleasing or showy appearance that conceals something of little worth.

1890, 11 million of the nation's 12 million families earned less than $1200 per year.

Of this group, the average annual income was $380, well below the poverty line.

Gilded Age: Term coined by Mark Twain to describe the post-Reconstruction era which was characterized a façade of prosperity.

CH.7 “ISSUES OF THE GILDED AGE”

SECTION 1 “SEGREGATION & SOCIAL TENSIONS”

Listed below are several events that we have already studied. All occurred in the so-called Gilded Age (1865-1900). Each event glittered (had a very positive aspect) but the glitter hid

some tarnished aspect in American history. Read the glittered statement and describe the

tarnished aspect associated with it.

Preview Assignment:

1. General Lee surrenders the Confederate hopes at Appomattox Court House leading America into a rebuilding and reuniting phase

2. With new technologies and inventions industry increases and expands our economy, while giving work to millions of people.

3. Many immigrants flee to the United States escaping persecution, famine, and disease.

4. The Great American Frontier passes, and this great nation now includes all the land from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.

SEGREGATION & SOCIAL TENSIONS

(DOCUMENTS OF OUR NATION)

• Frederick Douglass, page 842

• Booker T. Washington, page 848

• MARTIN LUTHER KING, Jr. page 852

• Lyndon Johnson page 854

• Abigail Adams page 838• Sojourner Truth page

843• Elizabeth Cady Stanton

page 843• Betty Friedan page 853

CHAPTER 7 SEC.1BOOKER T. WASHINGTON - ATLANTA EXPOSITION IN 1895Page 848

Paragraph 1:It is important to not expect everything all at once.

Paragraph 2:Don’t run away from the problem, it won’t make it better. Plant yourself and begin to make it better where you stand.

Paragraph 3:Begin your work in honest and modest areas and build from there. You can you’re your way up the ladder of Capitalism. You’re either a part of the problem (continued griping and complaining) or part of the solution (you can work to make it better).

Ch.7 Sec.1 Segregation and Social Tensions (pages 184-191)

Students are to be placed in two groups.

Group 1: Your objective is to go through Chapter 7 Sec.1 and report on anything that is “old” news (information that has already been covered this year).

Group 2: Your objective is to go through Chapter 7 Sec.1 and report on anything that is “new” news (information that has not been covered to date).

Ch.7 Sec.1 Segregation and Social Tensions

• “OLD” ISSUES Jim Crow Laws Voting rights for African Americans Grandfather clause & Poll tax &

Literacy Tests Segregation Plessy v. Ferguson Knights of Labor Booker T. Washington Immigrants and racial prejudice Chinese Exclusion Act Land taken away Barbed wire 13th, 14th, 15th Amendment

• “NEW” ISSUES• On the eve of WW2, only 3% of African Americans could

vote• W.E.B. Du Bois attacks Washington ideas• Ida B. Wells cruscades against lynching's• Saun Song Bo - Chinese turned to courts to protect their

rights - Yick Wo v. Hopkins• Sante Fe Ring- Association of prominent whites got the

Federal government to grant the group control of millions of acres of land in New Mexico

• New Mexico didn’t have representatives in DC (not a state yet)

• Las Gorras Blancas- targeted the property of large ranch owners by cutting holes in barbed wire fences and burning houses

• Group of Hispanics in Tucson AZ. Formed the Alianza Hispano Americans in 1894 to protect the culture.

• Frances Willard led the Woman's Christian Temperance Union - Fought to ban sell of liquor - Fought for social causes (Public health and welfare reform) - Fought for a Constitutional Amendment

• Susan B Anthony & Elizabeth Cady Stanton - Formed National Woman Suffrage Association

• By 1906, 4 Western States granted woman’s voting (Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Idaho)

Jim Crow Laws

• Kept whites and blacks segregated• Took away voting rights (disenfranchising)• 1876- Rutherford B. Hayes removed troops

from the South– State and Local Issue

Limited Voting Rights• 15th Amendment• Restrictive measures

– Poll tax• $1-$2 to vote• Can’t pay disqualified

– Literacy tests• Denied education disqualified

– Grandfather clauses• Can only vote if ancestors had voted prior to 1866• Didn’t vote disqualified

“We have done our level best. We have scratched our heads to find out how we could eliminate the last one of them [black voters]. We stuffed ballot boxes. We shot them.”

- S. Carolina senator Ben Tillman

Some White Opposition to Laws

“If there must be Jim Crow cars [railroad], there should be Jim Crow waiting saloons. And if there were Jim Crow saloons, then there would have to be Jim Crow jury boxes and a Jim Crow Bible for colored witnesses. The whole idea is absurd.”

- Prominent Charleston newspaper writer

What was segregated?

• Railroad cars & waiting stations• Jury boxes• Cemeteries• Restaurants• EVERYTHING!!!!!!

Plessy v. Ferguson• 1896• Constitutionality of Jim Crow laws

upheld• “Separate but equal”

• Was this really the case? “Separate but equal”

• Not really equal– Example: 1915: S. Carolina spent

$14/white student but less than $3/black student

African Americans Fight Back

• Established:– Black newspapers– Women’s clubs– Fraternal organizations– Political organizations

Can you name one of the most familiar organizations?

Booker T. Washington

• Don’t focus on overturning Jim Crow laws• Accommodate to segregation

– “pull themselves up from their own bootstraps” by building up their economic resources and establishing reputations as hardworking and honest citizens

“The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social quality is the extremest folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than artificial forcing…It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercises of these privileges.”

W.E.B. Du Bois

• Criticized Washington’s willingness to accommodate southern whites

• Blacks should demand full and immediate equality and not limit themselves to vocational education

William Edward Burghardt

Ida B. Wells

• Free Speech – Condemned the mistreatment of blacks

• Editorials, pamphlets• Helped organize women’s

clubs

Chinese Immigrants

• 1879 – California barred cities from employing people of Chinese ancestry

• “Oriental” school• Chinese Exclusion Act• Yick Wo v. Hopkins

– Chinese descent, born in the U.S. couldn’t be stripped of their citizenship

– Chinese Exclusion Act still upheld

“That statue represents Liberty holding a torch which lights the passage of those of all nations who come into this country, but are the Chinese allowed to come? As for the Chinese who are here, are they allowed to enjoy liberty as men of all other nationalities enjoy it?”

- Saum Song Bo

Mexican Americans Struggle

• 1848- Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo– Guaranteed the property rights of Mexicans living

in the Southwest prior to the war

• 4 out of 5 lost their land• U.S. courts forced Mexican Americans to show

that they really owned the land• Americans used political connections

Mexican Americans Struggle

• Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California• Las Gorras Blancas – targeted property of

large ranch owners: cut holes in barbed wire and burned houses

• 1894 – Alianza Hispano-Americana – protect culture, interests, and legal rights

Women• Fighting for right to vote, own

property, receive an education• National Woman Suffrage

Association – 1869– Susan B. Anthony– Elizabeth Cady Stanton

• 1906 – four western states granted women the right to vote– Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Idaho

Women

• 1900 – 1/3 of college students were women

• Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) led by Frances Willard– Ban the sale of liquor

POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC CHALLENGES

Section 2

Questions Being Raised

• Inaction and political corruption

• Could a ‘democracy’ succeed in a time dominated by large and powerful industrial corporations and men of great wealth?

MAIN IDEAS – 3 NEGATIVE ASPECTS OF SOCIETY DURING THE GILDED AGE

1. Weak Leadership on a federal level: “Know Nothing Presidents”

2. Political corruption on the local level: “Political Machines”

3. Plight of the Farmers

Assignment: Complete the “Gilded Age Presidents” questions using pages 193-196 & 813 – 815

The presidents of the “Gilded Age” are often referred to as the “know nothing” or “do nothing” presidents.

Why?

Name (3) interesting findings after viewing the 18th-25th presidents of the United States using the pages listed above.

Ulysses S. Grant Rutherford B. Hayes James Garfield Chester Arthur Grover Cleveland Benjamin HarrisonWilliam McKinley

During the administration of Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881), the Republican Party was split into two factions:

The Stalwarts, the conservative faction, saw themselves as "stalwart" in opposition to Hayes' efforts to reconcile with the South. They opposed all forms of civil service reform, preferring to keep in place the existing patronage system. Among their numbers were many Radical Republicans, Union war veterans and most of the Republican political bosses. The Stalwarts also backed the protective tariff and sought a third term for U.S. Grant in 1880. Roscoe Conkling of New York was the most prominent Stalwart leader.

The Half-Breeds, a term of disparagement favored by the Stalwarts, was applied to the moderately liberal faction of the Republican Party. In the minds of the Stalwarts, the term "Half-Breed" was meant to suggest that they were only half Republican. The Half-Breeds backed Hayes' lenient treatment of the South and supported civil service reform. James G. Blaine of Maine was the leader of this group, but failed to win the party nomination in 1876 and 1880. The Republican convention of 1880 was deeply divided between Stalwarts and Half-Breeds, but after 36 ballots the convention settled on a "dark horse" compromise candidate, James A. Garfield. Although not closely affiliated with the Half-Breeds, Garfield supported policies of reform that they advocated.

The assassination of Garfield in 1881 by Charles Guiteau, a crazed Stalwart who declared, "I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts and Arthur will be President," promptly ended usage of the terms "Stalwart" and "Half-Breed.“

SOURCE: http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h722.html

Political Machines:

Assignment: Complete “The Workings of a Political Machine” handout to gain a better

understanding of this concept

•View Sunshine & Shadow (PBS via youtube)

Political Machine:Well organized political parties that dominated local and state governments in the late 1800’s through use of the “Graft” (acquisition of money or political power through illegal or dishonest methods)

PBS, New York - 3 Sunshine And Shadow (3/8)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoZLMlEhHlk&feature=related

Cartoon Analysis:Within your group, analyze (3) three of Thomas Nast’s most famous political cartoons.

Let’s read the handout to gain some background knowledge on Thomas Nast and your assignment.

Cartoon Analysis: Boss Tweed & Tammany Hall

Boss Tweed Escaped From Prison December 4, 1875

Tweed unsuccessfully attempted to bribe Nast to leave him alone, but on November 19, 1873, Tweed was tried and convicted on charges of forgery and larceny. He was released in January 1875, but was immediately rearrested. The state sued him for $6 million, and he was held in a debtor's jail until he could come up with half that amount for bail. In the debtor's prison, he was allowed daily trips, accompanied by the jailer, to see his family. On one of these trips, in December 1875, he escaped and fled to Spain. He was a fugitive there for a year, working as a commoner on a Spanish ship until he was recognized by his likeness to a Nast cartoon and captured. He died in a debtor's prison on April 12, 1878.

Assignment: Use page 195 of your textbook

1. Identify Civil Service & The Pendleton Civil Service Act

2.Which president was mostly responsible for trying to end the corruption of the Gilded Age?

3.What key event helped institute the push for civil service reform?

Pendleton Act (January 16, 1883) – act passed by Congress during the administration of Chester A. Arthur establishing a Civil Service Commission, which required competitive examinations for some federal jobs. It was the first comprehensive national merit system. The Pendleton Act helped dismantle part of the spoils system.

Section 3 “Farmers & Populism”

The Plight of the Farmer

The American farmer struggled to come to grips with a multitude of problems that made life difficult and prosperity anything but certain. While the industrial economy made America look much like the land of opportunity, rural America looked much different than the industrialized East. The farmers were smart enough to recognize that they would need to look to our democratic form of government for solutions to these problems. What they needed, more than anything else, was to organize large numbers of their own together in order to put more emphasis on their plight. But first, we need to see exactly what problems faced the farmers, and how these problems made life difficult in the late 1800’s.

The Plight of the Farmer:

Read: “Making Sense of Inflation & Deflation” &

“How Much did Things Cost?”

Therefore, let us examine the Economic Issues Challenging the Nation (pg.196)

Problem # 1: Falling Prices of Farm Products

The prices of most farm goods (wheat, corn, cotton) fell drastically. It did not help that farmers produced more crops to compensate thus the supply exceeded the demand. As a result, the price of the good fell.

Problem # 2: High Grain Elevators Prices

Once crops are harvested, they had to be stored somewhere until they were ready to be

transported on railroads. These storage places are called grain elevators, and farmers had to pay

rent for use of this space.

Problem # 3: High Railroad Freight Rates

Railroads were the only means to transport for the vast majority of agricultural goods. Railroads knew this, so they charged farmers high rates for shipping their crops. Farmers were “captured” by the railroads

Problem # 4: Borrowing from the bank

Farmers borrowed money from the bank, to start up farms and for supplies and materials. The payments for these loans were usually fixed on a monthly basis, thus as farmers saw their crop prices falling, their loan payments stayed the same. So farmers felt they “owed their soul” to the bank.

Assignment: Name & describe the (3) three organizations formed by the farmers to deal with the problems we discussed.

Use pages 197 – 201 in your textbook

The GrangeThe Grange - organization formed by Oliver H. Kelly

Farmer’s Organizations

Educational opportunitiesInitial ideas to regulate railroad rates and grain elevator costs

Farmer’s AllianceFarmer’s Alliance - formed cooperatives (work together with other farmers/share machinery, tools, and resources)

Populist PartyPopulist Party - the People’s Party formed in 1891 Stressed “FREE SILVER” …AND… (next slide)

Main Goals of the Populist Party Main Goals of the Populist Party • The Free Coinage of Silver – biggest goal of the Populists - Government should add silver to the monetary supply in-turn creating “INFLATION” = ↑ $ Supply

• Government Control of Railroads – Government should establish a fair price *(Munn v. Illinois & Wabash v. Illinois)

• The Eight Hour Work Day

The farmers knew they were too small in numbers to actually elect a president. Making the 8-Hour Work Day a goal would attract industrial workers to the party.

• Graduated income tax (which Amendment?)• Federal loan program for farmers• Election of U.S. Senators by popular vote (which Amendment?)

• Restriction on immigration

THE GOLD STANDARD VERSUS

THE SILVER STANDARD

THE OLD AMERICAN MONEY SYSTEM

Under the old system of money in the United States the paper money issued by the government had to be backed by gold.

This meant that there had to be a certain quantity of gold in the bank to back up every dollar in circulation.

The system was called the Gold Standard

DOLLARS EQUAL GOLD

=

Shift from an Inflated Economy to

Deflated Economy

During the Civil War, the U.S. government issued greenbacks to increase the amount of money, however, greenbacks were retired following the war leading to a $ issue

The American economy faced DEFLATION due to a low amount or lesser amount of $ in circulation

THE BIG BATTLE

VS

The main fight over the Silver versus the Gold standard was fought between:

BANKS: They wanted the stick with the gold standard and keep prices low so they would make more money.FARMERS: They wanted to use more silver to back the money. This would raise prices, and they would find it easier to make money and pay back the banks.

THE FIGHT OVER SILVER AND GOLD

The Election of 1896 William Jennings Bryan William McKinley

Democratic Party Nominee who supported Populist goal of “Free Silver”

Great Speaker – 1st candidate to travel the country speaking in many cities•Failure in politics (defeated in 3 presidential elections)

Most famous speech “Cross of Gold”

William Jennings Bryan

Bryan’s Cross of Gold Speech

You will not crucify mankind on a cross of gold, and I will fight for the common folk!

Listen to end of William Jennings Bryan’s Cross of Gold Speech

Site:http://www.americanrhetoric.com/

speeches/williamjenningsbryan1896dnc.htm

Republican Party Nominee who supported big business, the banks, and the “Gold Standard”

Ran a front porch campaign; allowed Bryan to talk himself out

William McKinley

Read “The Property of the People” An Army of Unemployed Marches on the Capitol

1.Who was Jacob Coxey?

2. What did Coxey’s Army demand?

L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , written in 1900, was a supporter of the Populist and supported presidential

candidate William Jennings Bryan

The “Wonderful Wizard of Oz” was written as an allegory (represents real situations in symbolic terms) to the so-called Gilded

Age/Populism. Every main character can be traced to either a particular person or group of

people. Even the word “Oz” may have been used as symbolism

Political Cartoons of the Time

1894

1896

1899

1894