The document summarizes key developments during the Gilded Age in the United States from 1865-1900. Some of the major events and trends discussed include:
1) The completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 which connected the country and accelerated industrialization.
2) The rise of large trusts like Standard Oil and U.S. Steel which came to dominate entire industries through consolidation and integration.
3) Technological innovations in areas like electricity, steel production, and oil refining that powered the Second Industrial Revolution and made the U.S. the most powerful economy in the world by 1900.
4) However, this period also saw the rise of corporate power, inequality, and exploitation of workers
AP U.S. History Industrial Revolution and Rise of Big Business 1865-1900
1. AP U.S. History
Unit 9.1
Industrialism in the Gilded
Age: 1865-1900
Transcontinental
Railroad Completed
1869
Edison Develops the
Light Bulb
1870
Standard Oil Trust
Formed
1879
1889
Carnegie publishes
“Gospel of Wealth”
Pullman Strike
1894
1901
U.S. Steel
Corporation formed
2. Theme #1:
A
merica’s “Second Industrial
Revolution” in the Gilded Age (18651900) was spurred initially by the
transcontinental rail network, and saw
large businesses consolidate into giant
corporate trusts, as epitomized by the oil
and steel industries.
3. * Key to Remembering the 1st Industrial
Revolution:
T extiles
R ailroads
I ron
C oal
4. * Key to Remembering the 2nd Industrial
Revolution (after the Civil War):
R ailroads (transcontinental)
O
il
S teel
E lectricity
10. I. Major ideas
A. By 1900, U.S. was most powerful
economy in the world
1. U.S. was still a debtor
2. Technological innovations
a. Steel
b. Oil
c. Electricity
d. Business technology:
telephone, typewriter, cash
register, adding machine
11. 3. In 1880, 50% of Americans
worked in agriculture; 25% by
1920
4. Class divisions became most
pronounced in U.S. history
5. Farmers lost ground
a. 1880, 25% of farmers did not
own land
b. 90% of blacks in the South;
75% were sharecroppers
6. Depressions led to unrest: 1873
& 1893
12. II. Impact of the Civil War on the
Economic Expansion
A. Republican legislation
1. Pacific Railway Act (1862)
2. National Banking Act (1863)
3. Morrill Tariff (1862)
4. Homestead Act (1862)
5. Morrill Land Grant Act (1862)
B. Civil War economy
1. Mass production (e.g. muskets)
2. Capital invested after the war to
drive industrial growth
13. Memory Device: Republican
Civil War Economic Policies
A
Abolition of slavery
P
H istory
M akes
Me
Nauseous
Pacific Railway Act
Homestead Act
Morrill Tariff
Morrill Land Grant Act
National Banking Act
14. III. Railroad building
A. By 1900, U.S. had more railroad
mileage than all of Europe
combined
1. Gov’t subsidies
2. New cities
3. Growth of railroads sparked the
“2nd Industrial Revolution”
15. B. Pacific Railway Act, 1862
Act
1. Union Pacific Railroad
a. Land grants for each mile
of track constructed
b. Federal loans for each mile
of track laid
c. Irish workers (“paddies”)
d. Credit Mobilier
24. 5. Significance
a. Linked the entire continent via
railroad and by telegraph
b. Paved the way for incredible
growth of the Great West.
c. Facilitated a burgeoning trade
with the Orient
d. Seen by Americans at the time
as a monumental achievement
along with the Declaration of
Independence and the freeing
of the slaves.
26. C. Railroad consolidation and
mechanization
1. Cornelius Vanderbilt
a. Steel rails
b. Near monopoly of eastern rail
traffic
c. “robber baron”
27. D. Significance of America’s railroad
network
1. Spurred post-Civil War
industrialization (steel)
2. Continent became connected
3. Created huge domestic market
for U.S. raw materials and
manufactured goods.
4. Creation of 3 frontiers in the
West: farming, mining, ranching
5. Movement toward cities
28. 6. Facilitated influx of immigrants
7. Spurred investment from abroad
8. Creation of “time zones”
9. Emergence of a railroad
aristocracy
10. Indians subdued and put on
reservations
29.
30.
31. E. “Robber Barons” and railroad
corruption
1. Jay Gould
2. stock watering
3. Railroad tycoons became the most
powerful men in America
4. corrupt practices
a. pools, rebates
b. short haul, long haul
5. Cornelius Vanderbilt
32. Cornelius
Vanderbilt as the
Modern Colossus of
the Railroad
The sign on the right
reads: “All Freight
Moving Sea Bound
MUST Pass Here and
Pay Any Tolls WE
Demand.”
35. IV. Attempts to regulate railroads
A. Initially, Americans were slow to
react to the excesses of the
railroad oligarchy
1. Leery of gov’t intrusion in
business
2. Americans free enterprise
B. Supreme Court decisions
1. Depression of 1870s led
farmers to demand state laws to
regulate the railroads
36. 2. Slaughterhouse Cases, 1873
a. Protection of labor under the
14th Amendment was a state
responsibility, not federal
b. Protected businesses from
federal regulation if they
engaged only in intrastate
commerce
37. 3. Munn v. Illinois, 1877
a. Upheld one of the “granger
laws”
b. Declared the public has the
power to regulate business
operations in which the
public has an interest
38. 4. Wabash case, 1886
a. Court ruled states had no
power to regulate interstate
commerce
b. In effect, overturned Munn v.
Illinois decision
-- Stimulated public demand
for Congress to regulate the
railroads
39. 5. 1886, Court ruled that a
corporation was a “person”
under the 14th Amendment
a. It became difficult for the
federal gov’t to regulate
railroads
b. Railroad companies hid
behind the decision
40. C. Interstate Commerce Act (1887)
1. First large-scale legislation to
regulate corporations in the
public interest
2. Interstate Commerce
Commission (ICC)
3. Prohibited rebates and pools
and required published rates
4. Restricted short haul; long haul
5. Without strict enforcement
mechanisms, the ICC was largely
symbolic
41. V. Industrialism and mechanization
A. Civil war created a class of
millionaires who invested in
industrialism
B. Natural resources fed industrialism
C. New technologies
1. Patents increased significantly
2. Eli Whitney’s interchangeable
parts concept perfected
3. Typewriter, cash registers, and
stock tickers facilitated business
operations
42. Prototype of the
Sholes and
Glidden
typewriter, 1873,
the first
commercially
successful
typewriter, and
the first with a
QWERTY
keyboard.
43. 4. Urbanization spurred by the
electric streetcar, electric
dynamo, and refrigerated
railroad car
5. Alexander Graham Bell:
telephone (1876)
a. Nationwide network created
within a few years
b. Job opportunity for young
(middle class) women
44. 6. Thomas A. Edison
a. Incandescent light bulb,
phonograph, moving pictures
b. Electricity became another
cornerstone of the second
industrial revolution
• Edison Electric
Company
• Cities became lit;
electric streetcars
45. VI. Trusts emerge
A. Vertical integration: Andrew
Carnegie
B. Horizontal integration: John
D. Rockefeller
49. VII. Steel industry emerges
A. Cornerstone of the 2nd Industrial
Revolution
1. Skyscrapers, railroads
2. Typified heavy industry
3. By 1900, U.S. produced more
steel than Britain and Germany
combined
50. B. Andrew Carnegie
1. “rags to riches” story
2. Bessemer process
3. Ultimately, produced
25% of U.S. steel
4. 1901, sold company
to J. P. Morgan for $400 million
52. C. J. P. Morgan
1. Owned a major Wall Street
banking house
2. 1901, he reorganized the
United States Steel
Corporation
-- America’s first
billion dollar
corporation
D. Charles Schwab
53. VIII. Petroleum industry and other
Trusts
A. John D. Rockefeller
1. Erected his first well in PA in
1859 and launched the
petroleum industry
2. Refined petroleum: kerosene
B. Standard Oil Company, 1870
1. First trust in U.S.: Owned 95%
of U.S. oil refineries
2. Horizontal
integration
-- monopoly
57. C. Gustavus F. Swift and Philip
Armour
-- Meat industry
D. James Buchanan Duke
1. First to utilize automated
cigarette-making machine
2. American Tobacco Co.
monopolized cigarette market
E. Andrew Mellon
1. Venture capitalist
2. Aluminum Co. of America
3. Oil and coal in early 20th century
58. IX. “nouveau riche” (new rich) and
the justification of wealth
A. A super rich “leisure class”
emerged during the second
industrial
revolution
B. Resented by traditional aristocracy
1. Patrician families losing ground
2. Economic liberty & community
involvement overshadowed by
monopoly and political machines
3. Some became anti-trust
crusaders
59. C. “Captains of Industry” provided
material progress
1. Overall standard of living in U.S.
continued to rise
2. Most goods were cheaper
3. Provided millions of jobs
60. D. Social Darwinism
1. Charles Darwin, Origin of the
Species (1859)
2. Herbert Spencer
a. Applied Darwin’s theory of
natural selection to human
society
b. “survival of the fittest”
3. William Graham Sumner:
“millionaires were a product of
natural selection”
61. E. Some argued God chose winners
and losers
1. John D. Rockefeller
2. Resembled “divine right of
kings”
3. Argued the existing hierarchy
was just and decreed by God
4. Those who stayed poor were
“lazy” or “lacked enterprise”
a. Some “new rich” had come
from modest beginnings
b. Rev. Russell Conwell: “Acres
of Diamonds” lectures
62. F. Andrew Carnegie: “The Gospel
of Wealth”
1. Synthesized prevailing ideas of
wealth and “survival of the
fittest”
2. Claimed the rich should donate
most of their wealth for the
public
good
a. Criticized “nouveau riche”
b. Traitor to his class?
c. Rockefeller
3. Argued against cash handouts
63. X. Government regulation of trusts
A. Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)
1. Public demand for regulation
2. Forbade combinations in
restraint of trade (monopoly)
3. Lacked enforcement mechanism
4. Ironically used by trusts
weaken labor unions
B. Interstate Commerce Act, 1887
(see above)
65. “The Rising of the
Usurpers”, Thomas
Nast, Harpers Weekly,
July 27, 1889
66.
67. "Trusts--The Main
Issue"
Woman's headband
says "Liberty"
Tablet held by ape says
"Republicanism"
Arrow shot into ape
reads "Democracy"
The Verdict, July 10,
1899, cartoon by C.
Gordon Moffat
68. XI. The “New South”
A. Changing South after the Civil War
1. Political
2. Social
3. “Redeemers”
B. Growth of southern industry
1. Henry Grady
2. Major challenges to southern
industrialization
3. Cotton industry further developed
a. Mill towns
b. Vertical integration
c. Gov’t incentives
69. 4. Coal mining industry grew in
Appalachia
5. Tobacco trust
6. Iron and steel production:
Birmingham, Alabama
7. Thousands of miles of railroads built
C. Agriculture still dominant
1. Absentee land ownership
2. Crop-lien system/ sharecropping
70. D. Results of southern industrialization
1. By 1900, southern manufacturing
remained 10% of national total
-- Same as in 1860
2. Per capita income only 60% of
national average
3. Average income only 40% of average
income in the North
4. Sharecropping still dominated
southern agriculture (black and
white)
5. South still largely dependent on
North for banking resources and
manufactured goods
71. E. The “Lost Cause” and “Redemption”
1. Southerners remained proud of their
defiance in defense of states’ rights
during the Civil War (“War of
Northern Aggression”)
2. “Redemption” resulted in
Confederate memorials and
cemeteries commemorating the “Lost
Cause”
3. Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus
(1880)
-- Nostalgic view of a glorious
antebellum South
72. XII. 2nd Industrial Revolution’s impact
A. Standard of living ultimately rose
B. Urbanization
C. American agriculture eclipsed by
industrialism
D. Monopolies/trusts emerged
E. Regimented impersonal work-place
F. Woman achieved more social and
economic independence
G. Social stratification
H. Foreign trade developed
I. Rise of the labor movement
73. Theme #2:
Industrialization dramatically changed
the condition of American working
people, but workers’ attempts to develop
effective labor organizations failed to
match the corporate forms of business
and their political allies.
74.
75. THE SLAVE MARKET OF TO-DAY
"Going - going - lower - lower!"
Puck Magazine, January 2, 1882
76.
THE GALLEY
Dedicated to the States where Child Labor is Still Permitted.
Puck Magazine, August 4, 1909
Sign on wall reads, "Child-labor Investigators, Sentimentalists, Charity Organizations, and all
Meddling Old Women Keep Out".
77. XIII. Rise of Labor
A. Working conditions for urban
industrial workers were tough
1. Low-skilled jobs made workers
expendable
2. Working conditions often dismal
3. Recourse for workers was
minimal due to the power of
industrialists
a. Strikes often broken by “scabs”
b. “yellow dog” contracts
c. Public grew tired of strikes
78. B. Civil War boosted labor unions
1. Drain of human resources put
more value on labor
2. Rising cost of living led to
formation of labor unions
3. Collective bargaining: workers
sought to vote for their own
representatives to negotiate on
their behalf with company
owners
79. C. National Labor Union (1866)
1. Sought to bring craft unions
together into one big union
2. Lasted 6 years; 600,000 workers
-- Led by William Sylvis
3. Focused on social reform, 8-hour
work day, and arbitration of labor
disputes
4. Colored National Labor Union
founded in 1869 as a branch of the
NLU
5. NLU killed by the Panic of 1873
80. D. Molly Maguires
1. Formed in 1875 by PA anthracite
coal workers
2. Violence
3. Owners called in Pinkertons
4. Mollies eventually destroyed
E. Great Railroad Strike (1877)
1. Railroads announced 10% pay
cut for 2nd time since 1873
2. First nation-wide strike resulted
3. President Hayes called in troops
4. Greenback Labor Party
81. F. Knights of Labor (1881)
1. Continued the work of the NLU
a. Led by Terence Powderly
b. Initially a secret society
2. “One big union” included skilled,
unskilled, female, &
black workers
3. Sought economic
and social reform
a. Replace the wage
system
b. 700,000 members
83. An American Autocrat.
He Ties Up Railroads
and Exposes the Public
to Inconvenience and
Danger Whenever He is
Obliged to Do
Something to Earn His
Salary.
Puck, August 20, 1890
84. 4. Demise of Knights of Labor due
to the “Great Upheaval” and
Haymarket Square Riot (May
4, 1886)
a. Anarchists hanged or
imprisoned
b. Knights were unfairly seen as
associated with anarchy
c. Inclusion of both skilled and
unskilled workers proved fatal
86. F. American Federation of Labor
(AFL)
1. Samuel Gompers
2. Organization
3. “Bread and butter”
issues
4. Closed shop
5. Walk out; boycott
“Eight hours for work,
eight hours for rest, eight
hours for what we will..”
88. G. Major Strikes
1. Homestead Strike, 1892
Strike
a. 20% pay cut enacted
b. Workers went on strike
and kept scabs out
c. Frick called in Pinkertons
d. Governor called in troops
e. Union and strike
were broken
f. Demonstrated a strong
employer could break a
union with gov’t support
This 1892 drawing from
Illustrated Weekly depicts the
labor troubles at Homestead,
Pennsylvania, and the "Attack of
the strikers and their
sympathizers on the
surrendered Pinkerton men"
89. 2. Pullman Strike, 1894
Strike
a. Company town in Chicago
b. Wages cut by 1/3
c. Eugene Debs, American
Railway Union
d. President Cleveland’s
response
-- Strike crushed; union broken
e. First time the federal gov’t used a
court injunctionto break a strike
91. Memory Device for the Labor
Movement: 1865-1900
3 Big Unions
3 Big Strikes
National Labor Union
Knights of Labor
American Federation of Labor
Great Railroad Strike, 1877
Homestead Strike, 1892
Pullman Strike, 1894
92. H. By 1900 Unions had largely failed to
achieve their goals
1. Wages remained almost the same
compared to 1865
2. Work hours remained high in most
industries
3. Working conditions remained
oppressive
93. 4. Most unions were either broken or
severely weakened by owner or
government actions (e.g. Knights
of Labor, American Railway Union)
5. American Federation of Labor was
among the few unions that
remained intact and saw modest
improvements for its workers
6. After 1900, the fortune for unions
improved
Notes de l'éditeur
Encyclopedia Commons
public domain
Wikipedia Commons http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=107728&handle=li
Library of Congress Puck Magazine, 1904 Udo J. Keppler
Courtesy of New York Public Library Originally in The Verdict, January 22, 1900
public domain
public domain
public domain Puck Magazine, August 15, 1883 wwwlib.gsu.edu/spcoll/Collections/ AV/19cLabor/19clabor29.ht
Library of Congress Puck Magazine Bernhard Gillam January 2, 1882 Illustration shows trade union laborers, some in chains labeled "High Tariff" and "Tariff", and one standing on a block labeled "Trade Unions", being auctioned by a man labeled "Protectionist Statesman" to capitalists and manufacturers, among them are Cyrus W. Field and William H. Vanderbilt; in the background is a row of factories. A sign states "Quotations. Average wage for skilled workman $7 a Week or $359 a Year".
Library of Congress Puck Magazine August 4, 1909 Arthur Young
Library of Congress
Library of Congress wwwlib.gsu.edu/spcoll/Collections/ AV/19cLabor/19clabor29.ht
public domain
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public domain
NOTE: ANIMATION COVERS SOME TEXT SEE THE SLIDE FIRST IN SLIDESHOW MODE BEFORE MAKING ANY CHANGES
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