The
Progressive
Era

• The Progressive Era was a time in the early 1900s when concerned citizens began to fight for reforms in all aspects of society.
• The Progressive Era movements started many years before this, though, in a time known as the 2 nd Great Awakening

nd
• In the early 1800s, a religious fervor
(energy) swept across America (aka Great
Awakening)
• This movement led many Americans to want to fix problems in our society
• Reform movements began that addressed education, voting, slavery, alcohol abuse and women’s rights

Muckrakers Journalists who exposed problems to the public became known as muckrakers b/c they exposed corruption in society.

Ida Tarbell
Exposed the terrible working conditions at
Rockefeller’s
Standard Oil
Company
Ida B. Wells
Publicizing the practice of lynching in the
South ( A Red Record )

Turn to page 646 in your textbook and read the Primary Source document labeled, Muckrakers.
How was each muckraker trying to help?
1) Samuel Hopkins Adams:
2) Nellie Bly:
3) Lewis Hine:

Who were the
Progressive
Reformers?
• Progressives tended to be/have:
– Middle Class
– Educated
– Time available to work on society’s problems
• Women were powerful contributors to the different reform movements

Due to the efforts of muckrakers and progressive reformers, reforms were passed that: a) expanded democracy b) enhanced the quality of life for all Americans

• Reformers wanted to ensure that more
Americans were able to participate in our democracy
• Reform movements: Women’s suffrage,
17 th Amendment, Civil Service Reform,
NAACP

• For most of America’s history, women were not given equal treatment as men
• Could not own property, divorce their husbands, go to the same schools/universities, perform certain jobs, or vote
• Throughout the
1800s, women worked to gain more rights and opportunities

• Held July 1848 in
Seneca Falls, NY
• About 200 women and
40 men attended
• Purpose of meeting was to discuss women’s rights
• Issued a Declaration of
Sentiments and
Resolutions
– Called for an end to discriminatory laws, more career and educational opportunities, and suffrage for women

Read both the Declaration of Independence and the Seneca Falls Declaration and answer the following questions:
1. In what ways had mankind been unfair/unjust to women? List at least 2.
2. Why did the authors of the Seneca Falls
Declaration use the Declaration of
Independence as their model? What message were they trying to send?

• By the early 1900s, the women’s suffrage movement is getting more powerful
• New inventions give women more time to get involved in causes outside of their homes
• WWI empowered women with new jobs, opportunities and ideas about their roles in society that they didn’t want to give up

• People didn’t want women to vote b/c they were unsure what women might do
– Women fight corruption and this worried the political machines
– Businesses thought that women would support minimum wage and child labor laws
– Others believe that women belonged at home and not in politics

• Susan B. Anthony &
Elizabeth Cady
Stanton founded the
NWSA in 1890
• Worked to get women the vote in states
(Wyoming, Colorado,
Utah and Idaho)
• Carrie Chapman Catt organized 1 million women
• She felt that women should have a say in laws that affected them

• Alice Paul, founder
• More radical than the NWSA
• Used parades, demonstrations, hunger strikes, pickets to bring awareness
• Jailed many times

th
• 19th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified
• Gives all American women the right to vote
– See map on p. 653

Ain’t I a Woman?
Read and listen to the speech, Ain’t I a Woman, by
Sojourner Truth and respond to this statement:
Sojourner Truth believed that women were just as smart and capable as men to vote. Give three pieces of evidence from her speech to support this statement.

• National
Association for the
Advancement of
Colored People
– NAACP fought discrimination and segregation
– Fought to give blacks more rights and protections
• Founded by
W.E.B. DuBois
• Believed African
Americans’ lives would improve through legal protections

Political
Reform
• Most cities were controlled by political machines
• Political machines were organizations that controlled all the jobs and services in the city
• If you wanted a job or a service delivered to your community, you had to pay off the

• Government jobs were reserved for friends and family politicians in power
(aka Spoils System)
• As a result gov’t was very corrupt and poorly run
• Common people had little power or say so in their government
• Progressives want to fix this

• Civil Service
Commission is created
• People who want a job with the gov’t must now pass a test to prove they’re qualified
• 2 purposes:
• Allows greater participation in democracy
• Ensures that important gov’t positions are filled with skilled people

th
• Gives voters the right to directly elect their senators to Congress

How do Women’s Suffrage, the NAACP,
17 th Amendment and the Civil Service
Commission expand democracy?

• Besides expanding democracy, reformers also wanted to improve Americans’ lives, create a healthier and safer environment, and protect workers and consumers from corruption
• Reform movements: Temperance, minority protection and education, food and drug safety, conservation, and trust busting

Temperance • Many felt that alcohol was to blame for society’s problems
• Religious revivals
(large meetings) preached the evils of alcohol
• Groups start to push for laws to make alcohol illegal everywhere in the
US
– Women’s Christian

• Outlaws the manufacture, sale, and consumption of alcohol
• Ushers in an era known as
Prohibition

Turn to page 420 in your textbook and analyze the political cartoon by answering the following questions:
1. What is happening in the cartoon?
2. Who are the people under the arch? Why are they there?
3. Is this a pro or anti-temperance cartoon?
Give evidence to support your claim.

• Booker T. Washington
- founded the
Tuskegee Institute for
African Americans
• Advocate for education
• Believed that African
Americans’ lives would improve through better education opportunities

• Mexican Americans
– Alianza Hispano-Americo: fight for rights and protections of Mexican
Americans
– Founder: Carlos Velasco
• Native Americans
– Society of American
Indians: improve living conditions for Native
Americans
– Zitkala-Sa fought against
Boarding schools

• For many years, the food and meat packing industry could add whatever they wanted to their products
• No one knew what they were eating
• A major scandal broke out when hundreds of
American soldiers fighting in the Spanish-American
War got sick from tainted meat they ate
• Reformers became very concerned about the purity of the country’s food

• Author: Upton Sinclair
• Wrote The Jungle to expose the terrible conditions of the meat packing industry
• Led to new legislation
• June 1906, Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act and the
Meat Inspection Act.
• January 1, 1907: the
Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) is created to oversee federal regulation and inspection of medicines and foods
• “I aimed for the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”

After reading The Jungle , many Americans called upon the government to make changes to the food industry in order to make food safer. Cite three examples from the book that Americans might use to justify their demands.

• March 1872: President
Grant creates the first national park,
Yellowstone National
Park
• Years later, President
Teddy Roosevelt would set aside 150 National
Forests, 51 Federal Bird
Reservations, five
National Parks, 18
National Monuments, 4
National Game
Preserves, and 21
Reclamation Projects
– Protecting nearly 230 million acres
• August 1916: National
Park Service is created

• A trust is when the different owners of businesses form a group to eliminate competition and control the prices of their products
• Trusts and monopolies had enormous control over American society, business and politics
• President Teddy
Roosevelt and members of Congress believed they had too much power and passed laws to break those trusts up
• By breaking up trusts, workers and consumers

1.) What is happening in the cartoon?
2) Is this cartoon pro or anti-trust? Give evidence to support your claim.

The Progressive Era dramatically changes
America. Give three examples from your notes to support this statement.