The hardest part for the people who had these types of jobs was that there was a large amount of labor involved with very little pay and it wasn’t just men who worked these jobs, it was women and children 3 years old and up. A very important of example of what the life was like in industrialization within the Gilded Age was the Cotton Mills Girls… “I was eleven years old when I went to work in the mill. They learnt me to knit. Well, I was so little that they had to build me a box to get up
During the Gilded Age, the economy was growing and rapidly urbanizing. The development of the transport network that was mainly via railroads increased the efficiency of communication and movement of people and goods. There was a significant shift from an agricultural economy to an industrial one. Many Americans moved from the rural areas to the rapidly growing urban areas . The economy gave birth to a middle class and consumerism in the cities.
Politically, economically and socially the Gilded Age was truly a “Gilded Age”. Noteverything added to the “Gilded” effect of the time period. The “robber barons”, two major de-pressions and the labor unions (though not originally a bad thing) did add to the age.The Gilded Age saw the rise of Andrew Carnegie, John
Farmers responded to industrialization in the Gilded Age from 1865-1900 in two significant ways, which included the Granger Movement and Farmer’s Alliance. The lives of farmers changed as their lifestyle had to adapt to the creation of mechanized railroad agriculture and the dependence of railroad companies. Farmers depended on the price given to their product to earn a living, and at times the “monied
It can be argued that the economic achievements of the Gilded Age looked different from the eyes of a shop floor worker, compared to the eyes of a corner office business owner. Thomas O’Donnell, a textile worker, gives a testimony before the U.S.Senate about the hardships workers during the Gilded Age go through. Factory workers knew that profits meant low wages, long hours, and frequent unemployment, while their employer would attain large sums of money and power. Thoma O’Donnell explains to Senator Blair that wage workers only had jobs as they were hired and how workers were often fired and then replaced by machines of other workers that could do the labor cheaper. O’Donnell goes on to explain to Senator Blair that men with boys were often hired first because the man’s son could act as a “back-boy” and only be paid $.30 to $.40 a day.
All of these immigrants going to the same urban areas led to cities being very over crowded. Despite this, greed motivates business to flourish, which is why industrial innovation thrived during the Gilded
Political machines, labor injustices, and unethical business actions ravaged the government. These actions of society created the upper and lower class. By the late 19th century, the economic difference between these classes was immense. Which is why in the Gilded Age, 70 percent of children age 5 to 18 were actively going to school. Historically oppressed Americans, the poor, female, and nonwhite, began to understand the impact education should have on their lives (The Gilded Age).
The Gilded Age, the period of the history of the United States from the Reconstruction to the early 20th century, witnessed the development of industrialization, urbanization, the construction of great transcontinental railroads, innovations in science and technology, and the rise of big business. There were many capable leaders who were building a better future. Vanderbilt stopped at nothing to connect the nation via railroads. Rockefeller used his trademark ruthlessness to establish his oil empire. Cities were expending to the sky, this was built on the strength of Andrew Carnegie’s steel.
After the Civil War, the United States’ economy grew by leaps and bounds to become one of the world’s leading industrial powers. Rapid growth and industrialization brought about a multitude of new dilemmas to the U.S, and posed the question of how the government would react. The federal government expanded its powers and redefined its role in the gilded age and progressive era through the 1920’s. Economic sanctions, immigration laws, constitutional amendments, and changes in foreign policy evolved the federal government’s role into what it is today domestically and internationally. The Gilded Age was a time of private excess and public corruption in America.
As a whole, during the Gilded Age “the middle and upper-middle class seemed to be becoming, in part as a result of its wartime experience, less sensitive to the suffering and hardship of the poor” (Ginzberg 207). Subsequently, “[m]iddle-class Protestantism became increasingly defensive of privilege, insensitive to the poor, and harsh towards efforts to change from within” (Ginzberg 207). In fact, “[m]any ministers came to endorse a corporate defense of property and expressed hostility to labor organizing” and it was believed that in no place “did the business spirit find greater favor than in the Protestant church” (Ginzberg 207). Similarly, Carter finds that the Gilded Age “was a time when the gospel of Christ was felt to be in full harmony with the Gospel of Wealth” (Ginzberg 207 fix citation). Had it been religion that shaped the morals of the people during the Gilded Age then the protestant church still would have reflected the same “self giving love seen in Christ” (Latourette 83) that christianity was built on.