Timeline of Gilded Age Unions and Strikes
•
National Labor Union (1866) – first attempt of a national
union of all workers
 Higher wages, 8-hour day (won for federal employees)
 Women and black equality, monetary reform, cooperatives
•
Knights of Labor (1881)
 Members included women and African-Americans
 Cooperatives, end child labor, anti-trusts
 Preferred method of arbitration over strikes
Timeline of Gilded Age Unions and Strikes
•
•
Haymarket Bombing (May 4, 1888)
 May Day celebration coupled with strike in Chicago led to police
killing 4 people
 Commemoration on May 4 led to bombing killing police officers and
to a police riot
 8 innocent anarchists tried and convicted in show trial and hanged
•
American Federation of Labor (AFL) (1886)
 Samuel Gompers and walkouts for collective bargaining
Dumbbell Tenement Plan
Tenement House Act of 1879, NYC
Another Struggling Immigrant
Family
Child Labor
Average Shirtwaist Worker’s Week
51 hours or less
52-57 hours
58-63 hours
Over 63 hours
4,554
65,033
12,211
562
5%
79%
15%
1%
Total employees, men and women 82,360
Womens’ Trade Union League
Women Voting for a Strike!
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
Asch Building, 8th and 10th Floors
Typical NYC Sweatshop, 1910
Typical NYC Sweatshop, 1910
Typical NYC Sweatshop, 1910
Typical NYC Sweatshop, 1910
Typical NYC Sweatshop, 1910
Typical NYC Sweatshop, 1910
Inside the Building After the Fire
Most Doors Were Locked
Crumpled Fire Escape, 26 Died
10th Floor After the Fire
Civil Service Reform
•
Patronage-appoint people you know to
government positions
•
President Garfield assassinated as a result
of patronage
•
Pendleton Act (1881)
 Civil Service Commission
 Exams and campaign contributions
Monopolies
• Monopoly—one company controls the entire
market for a certain good
• Allows to set price anywhere they want
• Stomps out all competitors
Pendleton Act (1883)
 Civil Service Act.
 The “Magna Carta” of
civil service reform.
 1883  14,000 out of
117,000 federal govt.
jobs became civil
service exam positions.
 1900  100,000 out of
200,000 civil service
federal govt. jobs.
Gilded Age Women
•
20% of American women worked as wage earners
 Most single women; 5% married
 Low-income families required women in workplace
•
Female-based Jobs
 Typical home-associated industries: textiles, foods
 New types of jobs: secretaries, bookkeepers, typists,
communication operators
•
Women and feminized jobs considered low status
and low salaries
Railroads Drive the Expansion
•
35,000 miles in 1865 to 193,000 in 1900
• Gauge standards connecting various local and
national lines
• Connection of rails to cities, water ports, market
centers, Atlantic to Pacific
 First Transcontinental Railroad (1869)
•
Federal land grants and subsidies
• Overexpansion and corruption led to
consolidation by business moguls
The Gild
The Boldt Castle
The Astor Family
Breakers of the Vanderbilt Family
Lockwood-Mathews Mansion
The Mount of Edith Wharton
Thomas Nast
• As a political cartoonist for Harper’s
Weekly, Nast attacked the Tammany Hall
(Democratic) political machine that ran
New York City in 1870 .
• Along the way, Nast created the
Democratic Donkey, Republican Elephant
symbols (he did not like the Democrats),
the Tammany Tiger and even Santa Claus.
*
©2010, TESCC
Thomas Nast
*
©2010, TESCC
Boss Tweed
"Stop them darn
pictures. I don't
care what the
papers write
about me. My
constituents can't
read. But, darn it,
they can see the
pictures."
Picture from Boss Tweed Page
http://www.polaris.edu/iltli/Tchrpgs/Tweed.htm
*
©2010, TESCC
POLITICS IN THE GILDED AGE
• As cities grew in the late 19th century, so did political
machines
• Political machines controlled the activities of a political
party in a city
• The head of the Political machine was known as the
“Boss”
ROLE OF THE POLITICAL BOSS
• The “Boss” controlled
jobs, business licenses,
granting of contracts
and influenced laws and
courts
• Political Machines
helped immigrants with
naturalization
(citizenship), jobs, and
housing in exchange for
votes
Boss Tweed ran NYC
Political Corruption was considered to
be widespread
• Voter Fraud- used fake names and voted multiple
times
• Patronage- granting favors in return for political
support
• Graft- bribes
• kick-backs - Return of money in exchange for a
business
Boss Tweed and
Tammany Hall
THE TWEED RING SCANDAL
• William M. Tweed, known as
Boss Tweed, became head of
Tammany Hall, NYC’s powerful
Democratic political machines
• Between 1869-1871, Tweed led
the Tweed Ring, a group of
corrupt politicians, in defrauding
the city
• Tweed’s ring stole between 40
and 200 million
• Tweed died in Jail
Boss Tweed
Industry and the Workers
• Working Conditions:
• Dangerous: People lose fingers, limbs, become physically handicapped,
stooped over, and other health problems.
• Long Hours- 12 -14 hour workdays, 6 days a week.
• Women and children paid less
• Sexual Harassment
• Poor Ventilation
• Beatings
• Abuse
• No Breaks
• Machines forced workers to work faster
• Monotonous work, or doing the same job all the time.
New Immigrants
Second Wave of Immigration 1870-1914, 25 million European Immigrants by
1920, 40% of pop-foreign born
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1870- 1 in 7 were Irish Immigrants
(New York)
Southern and Eastern Europe
Italians 3.6 million come.
Greeks
Russian (Jews)
Turks
Polish
Serbian
In the West- Chinese and then
Japanese
• 1880- 457,000 Immigrants
landed in Boston, New
York, Philadelphia,
Baltimore, New Orleans
• Most were unskilled:
• Worked in Factories
• Construction
• Docks
• Warehouses
• Domestic Servants
Immigration
Push Factors
Pull Factors
• Factors that pushed immigrants
out of their native lands to
America:
• Poverty• Lack of Economic Opportunity
• Political Repression - No
freedom
• Ethnic conflict• War- conscription
• No jobs
• No hope of a future
• Famine/ starvation/drought
• Factors that pulled immigrants
out of their native lands to
America:
• Economic Opportunity
• Jobs/ workers were needed
• Land
• $
• A future of land ownership
• Peace and stability
• Freedom to make a better life
How did/do people react to immigrants
coming to America?
•
• Whenever a new group enters into
an established community tension
is caused and a pattern of
development can be seen.
• Examples:
• When the Irish came in the 1840’s
the established groups of British
and Germans did not like the new
Irish.
• Irish where different:
• Language- Irish
• Religion Roman Catholic
• Culture different from British
• Lifestyles-
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
They were looked down upon and
discriminated against. See cartoons.
Xenophobia- anti foreigner
attitudes
Nativism- The idea of blaming
immigrants for problems.
Established groups blamed the new
groups for problems:
Taking Jobs, Lazy -Famous Slogan:
“No Irish Need Apply”
People said they were responsible
for: Crime
Immorality- alcohol abuse
Catholics- not loyal to America
DirtyInferior, Damaging to the United
States