Politics, Culture, and Daily
Life in the Gilded Age
(1865 – 1900)
The Gilded Age
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The Gilded Age –
1873 novel by Mark
Twain
Tom Sawyer and
Huck Finn
Crooked politicians
The Spoils System
Poverty
Conspicuous Consumerism
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More people working
for wages instead of
themselves
More products available
R. Macy, Jordan Marsh,
Mont. Ward, M. Field,J.
Wannamaker =
Department Stores
RFD = Mail Order
Catalogs (like Richard
Sears’)
New Forms of Popular Entertainment
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Saloons and Ragtime
Amusement Parks like
Coney Island, NYC
Nickelodeons - The
Great Train Robbery
(1903)
Vaudeville Shows Family Variety Shows
Traveling Circuses
Popular Sports of the Era
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Baseball - Cincinnati
Red Stockings (1869)
Football - Walter
Camp - Rugby (1880s)
Basketball - Dr.
James Naismith
(1891)
Boxing, Horseracing,
Ice Skating, Bikes
Exit Slip – Popular Culture
during the Gilded Age
1.
2.
3.
4.
T or F: Conspicuous Consumerism exists
when demand is low for manufactured
goods.
T or F: Movie theatres began to appear in
America during the Gilded Age.
T or F: Ragtime appeared as a popular
form of music during the Gilded Age.
T or F: Basketball was the most popular
sport in American during the Gilded Age.
African American Voting Restrictions
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Ku Klux Klan (1865)
Jim Crow Laws
Poll Taxes
Property Ownership
Literacy Tests
(separate tests for
whites and blacks)
Grandfather
Clauses
Booker T. Washington
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Tuskegee Inst. (1881) in
Alabama
Vocational Skills
Accommodate Racism
in exchange for
Economic Equality
George W. Carver
Up From Slavery (1901)
Biography
W.E.B. DuBois
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PhD from Harvard
(1895)-1st Af. Am.
Niagara Movement
(1905)
NAACP (1910)
Advocated immediate
equality for Af. Am.
Hated Washington’s
“Atlanta Compromise”
and Accommodation.
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
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Upheld the Jim
Crow Laws
“Separate but
Equal” didn’t violate
14th Amendment
Common in the
North too
Not overturned until
1954
Exit Slip – The Age of Jim Crow
1. All of the following were passed in Southern states to
keep African-Americans from voting except
a. poll taxes.
b. literacy tests. c. amendments.
2. Booker T. Washington said the #1 concern for AfricanAmericans should be ___________.
a. fighting racism b. vocational skills c. Religion
3. W.E.B. DuBois strongly ________ with Washington.
a. Agreed
b. Disagreed
4. The landmark court case that established the doctrine of
“separate but equal” in 1896 was
a. Brown v. Topeka
b. Tinker v. Des Moines
c. Plessy v. Ferguson d. Gibbons v. Ogden
The Rise of Political Machines
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Goal was to keep their
political parties in
power
Spoils System,
Patronage, Graft
Ran by “bosses” &
appealed to immigrants
“Boss” Tweed and
Tammany Hall, NYC
Cartoonist Thomas
Nast
Reforming the Spoils System
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1829- Andrew
Jackson
Dem. & Rep. both
were guilty
“Grantism”
Pres. Hayes begun
reform in 1877, but
lost in 1880
Arthur Ends the Spoils System
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James Garfield (R)
elected in 1880
July 2, 1881-Killed
by Charles Guiteau
Lived for 3 months
(VP) Chester Arthur
is President
Pendleton Civil
Service Act (1883)
Exit Slip – The Spoils System
1. The most famous political machine of the era was
___________ Hall in New York.
a. Carnegie b. Tammany c. Cooper d. Alumni
2. The political cartoonist who helped bring Boss Tweed to
justice was __________.
a. Charles Schultz b. Chester Arthur c. Thomas Nast
3. The term “Grantism” refers to __________.
a. Raising taxes b. Honesty c. Bravery d. Scandal
4. The second U.S. President assassinated was _________.
a. James Garfield b. William McKinley c. U.S. Grant