1. How many people migrated to American cities in the years from 1870-1920? Answer: Thirty-six million people: eleven from the countryside, twenty-five from foreign nations. 2. What led them to move to the cities and what sorts of challenges did these people find once they arrived? Answer: Many immigrants moved to America to search for employment where their native European countries failed to provide, found that, unfortunately, sanitation, education, proper housing, well-paying jobs, and help with assimilation to the American lifestyle were all in short supply. 3. What sorts of new technological innovation were taking place during the period described? In railroading and in society in general? Answer: Railroads were now being expanded and forged in …show more content…
11. What led to the Great Railroad Stroke of 1877 and what was the outcome? Answer: In 1877, four of the largest railroads severed wages for their employees. Workers on the railways sought to protest this act, but their activism was put to an end by federal troops. 12. Who was Terrence Powderly and what organization did he found? What were the goals of that organization? Answer: Terrence Powderly was an activist who supported both skilled and unskilled workers alike. He was the ringleader of the Knights of Labor, a union that sought better conditions for employees nationwide. 13. Who was Samuel Gompers and what organization did he found? What were the goals of that organization? Answer: Samuel Gompers was an activist who supported capitalism. He founded the American Federation of Labor in 1886, which sought better wages, hours, and improved working conditions. 14. What were the significant differences between Powderly’s organization and those of
Firestone, like many other southern companies, controlled its employees using different wage standards for different races, but ultimately keeping wages at half of what the workers were making up North. The company would push racial separation, often instilling in the white workers, the fear of the black man getting to unionize. If the black man could unionize (through the CIO), then he could go after the white man 's job. This would keep many whites from joining the CIO, and the fight to unionize Firestone, but many still joined because of the "hardships of work (154)." George Bass, an United Rubber Workers ' organizer, would help take the charge of unionizing Firestone.
Industrial workers were a major working force, however, with this boom, a few people came to hold a majority of the wealth while the masses lived in poverty. During this time, laws were severely needed to control the corrupt corporations that ignored the masses. The railroads spanned the whole continent, which lead the opening of settling west. When Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, only 35,000 miles of steam railways were contracted, but by 1900, there were 192,556 miles of railway.
The Pullman Strike of 1894 was a nationwide strike started by the Pullman Palace factory in Chicago. Workers were upset by the cut in wages and struggled to pay their rent and buy food. Pullman’s actions were an aftereffect of the Panic of 1893. He increased hours, cut wages, and cut jobs. Workers weren't happy and decided to strike.
The transcontinental railroad revolutionized the nation, it was the first railroad to stretch across the United States. It began in 1863 and kept changing transportation and many other areas of life in America long after. The railroad was sometimes called the technological equivalent of manifest destiny. Three of the largest areas that it affected were transportation, industry expansion, and the economy. Transportation was widely influenced by the railroad mainly because of the train’s efficiency.
Railroads became a “stepping stone” for other advances and developments that have had a crucial impact on us, even till this day. The promotion of growth not only individually but as a whole, would have never had been possible without the construction of the railroads. White may see the railroads as a “creative destruction,” but one can see them as a “beautiful
The National Labor Union and the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor gave the laboring class ideas about how they could improve their lives and the lives of generations to come. Looking at this through the lens of someone in the twenty-first century the demands were logical. However in that day and age, company owners saw asking for any civil rights was seen as being lazy or troublesome. Just by getting these organization up and running was huge accomplishment, much to the dismay of big
The Knights of Labor were a group of around 800,000 diverse workers who wanted anarchism, socialism, 8 hour work days and many other things because of the unreasonable labor. These protests made the 19th century economy look bad to other people making it easier to
The feeling, shown in Nast's illustration after the railroad strike of 1877, that amalgamations simply lead to more " communistic values" and general uniformity made it very arduous to genuinely get anything done. Samuel Gompers, progenitor of the American Federation of Labor, argued that the right to strike was absolutely obligatory if any reforms were going to be made and not even this right had been officially granted to the people by regime (Document I). Gompers made it very pellucid that not even the very substratum of organized labor had been established and so up until this point the advances that had been made, were virtually frivolous. In conclusion, from 1875-1900 very few advances were made through organized labor in achieving better working conditions for workers.
After the Civil War, the unprecedented industrial and agricultural growth in the late nineteenth century was due to several factors. However, the most noteworthy factors include the new transportation and communications systems as these each allowed to boost businesses. Additionally, with the aid of leading entrepreneurs like John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and J. Pierpont Morgan big businesses were created to expand American’s economy. The unprecedented industrial and agricultural growth in the late nineteenth century was stimulated by the rise of new transportation and communication systems.
The AF of L wanted “unionism” and opposed socialism. TheKnights of Labor, another labor union, was created in 1869 and enlisted in their ranks not only alllaborers but also everyone who could be truly classified as a producer. Labor unions, the two major depressions and the three “robber barons” were three of theforemost reasons the Gilded Age got its name. The “robber barons” invested in things that wouldultimately lead to a “Golden Industrial Age” but they didn’t achieve it totally legitimately, and thecreation of the labor unions sided with the workers, but at times, grew violent in their methods.
The Knights of Labor, founded by Terence Powderly and Uriah Stephens in 1869, helped create a union contract with Carnegie’s Braddock Mill. While the Knights of Labor were trying to have broad social reform around the country, they created a lockout in the Braddock Mill. Workers like Kratcha did not care as much about the union’s goals, instead they wanted the mills to be open so that they could earn money (25). Large business owners, like Carnegie, tried, and usually succeed, at breaking strikes and unions in their mills. In Homestead and Braddock, Kratcha experienced the effects of strikes, and they were not positive.
As more people began to realize the opportunities of work and the places to live were getting smaller by the day, many began to migrate towards the West of the United States in hopes opportunities would be the same out there. By the end of 1970, it was estimated that almost six million
The migration of immigrants back then, were mainly because they wanted to find a better work experience. Some would even move to seek a new and improved religion. In the 1800-1880s, one of the main reasons immigrants moved, was because of the rising of taxes in their area which made them want to escape from that. Today, in modern day America, we still move in search for better jobs. Because the world has changed in so many ways, we constantly move, however, one of the main reasons is because of natural disasters that may have occurred in a particular area, which causes groups of families to move out of their old homes into a new location.
“In 1820, about 58 towns more than 2500 inhabitants; by 1840, there were 126 such towns, located mostly in the Midwest and Northeast.” The fastest growth occurring in areas were near canals, railroads, and roads because of the easy access of raw and manufactured materials. Toward the later 19th century, the settlers began to move west for cheaper property because the land inhabited near the town built around transportation was getting
The Tremendous Impact of Railroads on America In the late 19th century, railroads propelled America into an era of unprecedented growth, prosperity, and convenient transportation. Prior to the building of the railroads, America lacked the proper and rapid transportation to make traveling across the country economical or practical. Lengthy travel was often cumbersome, costly, and dangerous.