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GA-Economic and Social 1877-1890 (Robber Barons (Vanderbilt (Fortune went…
GA-Economic and Social 1877-1890
Robber Barons
Vanderbilt
railroad tycoon
started in steamboats and mad 11 million by 1862
invested in rairoad in 1960's
First on standard track gauge and lighter replaces steel with lighter more durable steel
made 100 million during boom years of railroad
Died in 1877 at 83 the richest man in America
Fortune went to son William
ruthless manipulation ofcapital and labour
died 1885 richest man in the world
brutal handaling od strikes = most unpopular man in America
Carnegie
poor Scottish immigrant
Brought the new british bessemer converter for better and chaeper steel fro iron
Brought all the processes of Steel manifacturing together in Homestead Steelworks Penndylania
First mainifactured rails but as demand declined he went to cities and made bridges pipes and armour for navy
1900 he sold his empire to banker JP Morgan for $480 million
Rarely tried to buy out competitors
produce good steel at a lower cost
monopolised through vertical integration ie owned all aspects like supplier and distributer
1889 published his book explaining is philanthropy
as a self made millionair he helped those who helped themselves
donated to unierity , hospitals ,libaries,parks,swimming baths and churches
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Critisised by other business men for being a socialist
Also critisised for being an exploiter with low pay and long hours as well as ruthlessly destroying his rivals
Rockerfella
Visited the engo oil fields 1860 and saw he confusion and disorganisation
He found that the money was in refining and distributing oil and it could hae the same univeral use as steel
Undercut his rivalswith cheap transport ect
He caused public outcry due to his screcy and cost cutting measures ie he bought out his competitors in cleveland and kept it secret so he could pretend they were still competing
First oil refinary was bough 1862
8 yrs later set up standard oil in Ohio
Eliminated competitors
fixed prices
Attention to manifacturing
Negotiating skills
By 1880's he controlled 85% of American Oil
1899 fortuen of $200 mil
1913 the worlds first billionaire
Philanthropy giving away $550 million
African American education
Baptist church
Some argued he saed the oil industry from disater
Some argue his secret arrangments meant there couldnt be free and faire competition
Morgan
inherited $12 mil but increased it due to finance skills
behind the creations of large companies such as US steel Corpertaion - 1st billion $ corps in history
1871 began his own priate bank one of the leading financial firms in the countrie
Under media and gov scrutiny
Created monopolies so was critisised
love of high life and flaunted wealth ie company of acressess
Technology
Rapid progess in these years
Mark Sullivan a contemporary though it was due to 'intellectul curiosity'
2 big inventors were Thomas Edison=light bulb and Alexander Bell=telephone
Big business men that were politcians that controlled the industry and werent regulated by the gov
They had a direct political influenece esp in the republican party and mass newspapers benfiting from laissez faire
Philosophys
Social darwinism
Henery Spencer in 1850
opposed state aid to the poor and dissaporved of tarritfs and aid to agriculture or industry
Spencer toured Us in 1882 and talked about how a;; men can be eqal but economic inequalty can still exist
Become rich because they were superior humans compaired to the lower class
Rise of Organised Labour
Early Unions
Unions developed in this time period due to large industrialisation and mainly fought for the rights for trade unions to exist at all
Before 1877 unions were sporadic and local
National Labor union formed in 1866 was the exception
77 delegates represented 60,000 workers in Baltimore
Platform focued on securing legislation to protect 8 hr day
Short lived due to economic depression of 1973 drove people out of work and unions
1877 falled from 300,000 in 1872 to 50,000 1877
National Railroad Strike 1877
Baltimore and Ohio railroads announced a pay cut, the 4th in as many years
workers walked off the job joined by rival railroads and even different industrys
Attacked railroad yards with the worst violenec In Pittsburgh
5000 workers fought 650 federL TROOPS
layed waste to railroad yards and burned
500 cars
104 locamotives
39 buildings
25 pople killed when police fired into riot crowed
Military forces restored but strikers had destroyed over $10 million of property and terrified the middle class
middle class scared at the prospect of civil warefare just 10 yrs after Civil War
Labour realised they needed to orgainse
Business resoled to supress labour associations by any means
Knigthts of Labour
founded 1869 built a comprehensive orgainisation uniting workers of all races geneders occupations and ethnicity
Lobbied for 8 hr day and child labour restictions also inititive and refferendum allowing citizens to draft and vote on laws
Growth
1880's
100,000 members in 1885
1885 the Wabash Railroad sucess where a railroad company had tried to break a local union up and the Knights walked out in sympathy
Entire Southwest System was paralysed in days
Wabash forced to negotiate with workers
750,000 workers under Knights of Labour within a year
Most controversial request was to build more co-operative labout managment relations
Decline
1886 thousands of newly joined tried to innitiate action but only occassionally woukld other members be willing to walk out
by 1887 the mebershp was halfed and by 1897 the Knights were almost extinct
Haymarket Square violence over the 8 hr day meant the knights got blamed due to size and visibility
Haymarket Bomb outrage
McCormick Harvester Works in chicago 1886
battle between strikers and strikebreakerswith police protecting them
Police fired into the croud and some were kiled and many injured
Anarchist of the Black international , set up in Chigago 1881
Haymarket Square meeting
MAyor atteneded and saw it was peacful and left
It began to rain and people began leaing then someone threw a bomb that killed a policeman and wounded more than 60-6 died later
Police retliated firing into the crowed wounding more than 100
public was hostile towards the anarchist some of whom were hung for murderin 1887
Public sensation
The 8 hr movement failed largely asa result
only 15,000 retained gains at the end of the year
American federation of Labour
set up by Smauel Gomper 1885
english immegrant of Dutch-Jewish heritage
spent adolesence in a cigar-making shop
Prime concern was skilled labour
Elected president in 1896 and sered till his death in 1924
Admitted only skilled white men
concerned with
higher wages
shorter work days for memebrs
1892 1/4 million members
Aoided the mistakes of the Knights
recognised the autonomy of each trade
taxon memebrs unions allowed a strike fund and a secretariat
promoted labour legislation
Wanted to support unions in recognition
Immegration
Reasons
Push
economic dislocatation, shortages of land and antisemitism
Political economic and religious discontent
Industrial and agricultural discontent had changed europe as well increasing population
the changes started in Western Europe and moved East this was reflected in the immegration
more German immegration than any other 1854-94
Agricultural and industrial depression was a stron factor in Norway Britian and Sweden
Uemployment and poverty in ireland was due to agricultural mismanagment and absentee land lords
From Russia the immegration - great exodus of the Russian Jews After the Assassination of Alexander II in 1881 and antisemetic riots in the South and West- Jewish immegrants = 5000 in1880 and 90000 in 1900
Japan and China
1885 japanese exodus after the emporor revoked the benn on emigration
180-1890 most Japanese immegrants went to Hawaii to work on sugar plants as contract labourers
Chinese immegrants moved for economic reasons
Taiping rebellion began in 1848 and devestaded South east China
High wages on railroads enticed men from the Guangdong province
majorityof labourers that laid the track of Central Pacific through Sierra nevada in 1860's was chinese
census in 1870= 63 000 Chinese men and in 1880s 106,000
Pull
Proserperous farmers looking to buy land of the plaines
Poor peasents looking for the American dream
inexpensive farm land, Jobs in factories, mills and mines
rapid growth of American industry adnt eh need for cheap labout
Advertising
Guidebooks eg Where to Emigrate by the Americus 1869
Promise of political equality and religious tolerance
Steamships states and railroads
state beaureus focused on Britian Germany and Scandinavia
Minasota published a pamphlet in 1878 saying it could support 5 million people
Railroads had vast tracks and land that could be reached by it
Kansas Pacific, Santa Fe and Wisconsin Centeral railroads all distributed pamphlets
The Santa Fe even appointed a European agent Sochmidt in 1875 visited russia
Railroads induced immegrants through reduced sea and land fares , loand with low interest , classes in farming and building churches and schools
Reactions
Positive
1890 56% of labour force were of forgien birth
Immigrants were a symbl of a welcomes as seen Statueof Liberty
Without immegration USA could not had industrally developed as it did
Negative
some saw them as a drain on American resources esp the EAst
Labour unions opposed the presence of chinese Labour due to competition for jobs
Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act 1882 stopping chinese immegration to the US
Steryotypes
1879 siad English Workmen must change their habits
Scots were mean
Irish as ugly drunkards
Italian seen as organised criminals
Anti-Semitism meant Jews couldnt vote till mid 19th Century
Social ostracism continued
Jewish banker Seligman was excluded from the Grand Union Hotel in 1877
Sign s such as 'No Jews or Dogs'
Nativism
A gulf between the natie plutocracy ( wealthy white rulers) and the forgien working class
Immigration was depressing wages and closing the frontire - sealed off traditional route for discontent easteners
main groups
Unions that saw unskilled immegrants as a threat to organised labour
Social reformers who saw immegrants as exaggurating the probelms in Cities
Protestant conservatives who belied in nordic supremacy
Skilled workers had the most to fear
skilled Belgian and british glass workers for lower wages in Ohio the glass workers unions created a group called Local assembly 300- set up 1882
Pledged to oppose contract labour
1885 a bill was passed that banned forgien contract labour
Protestants
secret societys that pledged to defend school systems against the increasing Catholic schoolc
American Protective Assosiation in Iowa set up in 1887 by Bowers
During the Gilded Age was called 'New' immegration
Approx 10 million
very few immegrants went to the poerty stricken south
Lives of African Americans
Migration and work
Emancipation gave AA the freedom t moe to other regions or plantations
1870-1900 USA black population 4,4 mil to 7.9 mil
Mjo remined South moing around the region looking ofr higher payed jobs
Generally went south and west ie Texas and other boarder states
Found employment in farming , building railroads making tupentine and lumbering
tied to farming
Sharecroppers usually of labour intensie crops ie cotton or tobacco
suffered alot from theboll weevil in 1892 that dmaaged crops
1910 25% of lack farmers owned their land and standard of living was rising
Migration North
North West black population practically doubled-form 460,000 to 910,000
negative reactions
Small group moved to NY Harlem in 1880's and the 1st black ghetto developed
AA frequently barred from unions and had poor quality housing
o legal segregation but still discrimination and their opportunities for employment housing education and movemnt was limited
There was greater possibility in the north and a strong blavk culture was beginning to form
Segregation
developing before the end of reconstruction 1877
Jim Crow laws 1887-1891 when 8 states introduced it
Increased fear in white americans that AA would demand equality
Theories of Social Darwinism justified it
Popular press represented them as lazy violent and dumb so seperation would pevent racial tensions and bloodshed
Facilitys for AA were much poorer qualitiy
US Supream court 1880's'Negores as different'
denied Civil Rights cases
individual acess to hotela and protection against racism
The North
Tried to rectify the situation
Massachusetts in 1865 and many others by 1885 had passed civil rights laws incuding NYC
The statues were weak with few penlties and lax enforcement
Loss of franchise
Rapidly declining interest in the Republican party
Garfield belived Education would cloase the chasam but was killed
Arthur had little interst in AA
84 a democrat was elected in Cleveland
5th Amerndment had outlawed oting discrimination on the ground of race so the south used gener house ownership and heritage
By 1910 almost althe AA vote was eliminated in the south
Oppression
Lynching was commonplace encouraged by KKK- hight of lynching in Gilded Age
1882 and 1899 oer 2,500 men and women lynched
often accusation of rape attack or murder were the excuses for lynching
Ida B Wells was a black newspaper women in 1892 Memphis that attacked the lynching phase and was ran out of town and office destroyed by mob
born to 2 slaes she began to campaing against discrimination in 1884 after having to give up her seat on the train
Also supported womens rights esp the right to vote
Failed to get committment fro the congress or president
Lynching was a public event sometines with childen and goc and police didlittle to stop it
Even if lynching was brough to court all white jury would not convict
Education
1882 Senator Balir tried to introduce a bill that provided millions for balck and white southern schools but it was rejected by congress
Alabama minister 1891 ' We must hae coloured serants for there is no other labouring class'
black students soubled between 1877 and 1887 but only 1/5 of those eligible were entrolling
AA schools only open for a month or 2 so they could go back to picking cotton
White schools much better , black schools dirt floors ect and state subsadies were poor so parents had to make up for the difference
North
some integrated some mixed schools
by 1890's segregated schools were dissapearing
Most high schools accepted black applicants and colleges and uni admitted a small numbe rof AA