Unit PlanAP United States History

Unit 6: The Gilded Age (1865-1900)

Themeso Industrial America in the Late Nineteenth Centuryo Corporate consolidation of industryo Effects of technological development on the worker and workplaceo Labor and unionso National politics and influence of corporate powero Migration and immigration: the changing face of the nationo Social Darwinism and Social Gospel o Urban Society in the Late Nineteenth Centuryo Urbanization and the lure of the cityo City problems and machine politicso Intellectual and cultural movements and popular entertainment o Expansion and development of western railroads o Competitors for the West: miners, ranchers, homesteaders, and American Indianso Government policy toward American Indianso Gender, race, and ethnicity in the far Westo Environmental impacts of western settlemento Agrarian discontent and political issues of the late nineteenth centuryo Populism

Primary DocumentsAndrew Carnegie, The Gospel of Wealth, 1889The Homestead Act (1862)Frederick Jackson Turner, The Significance of the Frontier in American History (1893)“Farm Production in the United States (1860 - 1900)”American Folk Song The Farmer is the ManWilliam Jennings Bryan Cross of Gold Speech (1896)The Dawes General Allotment Act (1887)Mary Gertrude Bonnin School Days of an American Indian Girl (1900)

Essential Questions

1. What factors allowed the United States to lead the world in industrial output by 1900?2. What were consequences of industrialization for workers, farmers, and the middle class?3. What was city-life in the 19th century?4. What were Social Darwinism and the Social Gospel?5. What factors motivated Americans to migrate west in the late 19th century?6. Why was the culture of the Native Americans destroyed?

Outline

APUSH 1: American Industry Comes of AgeFive ThemesIndustrializationRailroadsNew InventionsLaissez-faire CapitalismImmigrationCorporationsVertical IntegrationHorizontal IntegrationAndrew CarnegieBessemer SteelJohn D. Rockefeller

APUSH 2: American Destiny Still ManifestHomestead ActMorrill ActExodustersPacific Railway ActTranscontinental RailroadComstock LodeCattle Boom

APUSH 3: The Gilded AgeThe Gilded AgeWealth DistributionMonopolies, Trusts and PoolsRobber BaronsSocial DarwinismThe Gospel of WealthCredit MobilierPolitical MachinesTweed RingSherman Antitrust Act (1890)Pendleton Civil Service Act (1893)

APUSH 4: The Tired, Poor Huddled MassesOld ImmigrantsNew ImmigrantsUrbanizationUrban SlumsWorking ConditionsNativismChinese Exclusion ActSocial GospelSettlement HousesJane Addams

APUSH 5: Workers of the World Unite!Labor UnionsCollective BargainingKnights of LaborMother JonesGreat Railroad Strike 1877Great Upheaval 1886Haymarket Riot (1886)Pullman StrikeHomestead StrikeAmerican Federation of Labor (AFL)Black ListsIron Clad OathsYellow-Dog Contracts

APUSH 6: The Cross of GoldAgricultural RevolutionThe Grange Granger LawsMunn v. IllinoisWabash v. IllinoisInterstate Commerce ActInterstate Commerce CommissionGreenback Labor PartyFarmer’s AlliancePopulists PartyFree SilverElection of 1896William Jennings BryanThe Cross of Gold SpeechThe Wizard of OzThe Role of Third Parties

APUSH 7: Bury My Heart at Wounded KneePlains IndiansSand Creek Massacre (1864)SiouxSitting BullCrazy HorseRed CloudBattle of Little Big Horn (1876)Chief JosephGeronimoGhost DancingMassacre at Wounded KneeAssimilationDawes ActIndian SchoolsA Century of DishonorBury My Heart at Wounded KneeFrederick Jackson Turner

Homework

APUSH 1: American Industry Comes of AgeHomework Due TodayPageant: 536 – 543

1. Make a list of new inventions were created in the United States in the 19th century.2. Describe Vertical and Horizontal Integration.3. What is a trust?4. Identify the following: John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan.5. How did tycoons use the concept of Social Darwinism to justify their wealth? 6. What was the Sherman Antitrust Act?

APUSH 2: American Destiny Still ManifestHomework Due TodayPageant: 528 – 535. Stop reading at “Government Bridles the Iron Horse”Pageant: 600-606

1. What was the Union Pacific Railroad Company? How was it paid? What kinds of people labored for it?2. What was the Central Pacific Railroad Company? Who labored for it? Who were Leland Stanford and Collis Huntington?3. What was the “laying of the Golden Spike”?4. Who was Cornelius Vanderbilt?5. How did railroad construction contribute to industrialization?6. Why was the continent divided into four time zones in 1883?7. What kinds of public and private corruption existed among railroad corporations in the 19th century? What was a “pool”?8. What was the Comstock Lode? Why did it inspire renewed interest in the West?9. Why did women in the Western territories and states have the right to vote before women in the East did?10. What was the Long Drive?11. What factors led to the decline of the open range cattle business by the 1890’s?12. What was the Homestead Act? Why in some ways was it a failure?

APUSH 3: The Gilded AgeHomework Due TodaySpirit: Andrew Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth (1889) p. 701.What was Andrew Carnegie’s view of wealth?

APUSH 4: The Tired, Poor Huddled MassesHomework Due TodayPageant 557-572Spirit: Jacob Riis Photographs the New York Tenements (1890) p. 96Spirit: Jacob Riis Documents the Tenement Problem (1890) p. 98

1. Describe the nature of cities in the late 19th century.2. What are tenements?3. What do Jacob Riis’ photographs and statistics say about life in the Lower East Side at the turn of the century?4. What are the differences between “Old” and “New” Immigrants?5. What were political machines?

6. What was the Social Gospel?7. Who were Jane Addams and Lillian Wald?8. What arguments did Nativists use in speaking against the New Immigrants?9. Why did Labor Unions oppose New Immigrants? 10. Identify the following: YMCA, Salvation Army, First Church of Christ Scientist

APUSH 5: Workers of the World UniteHomework Due TodayPageant 547-555Spirit: The Knights of Labor Champion Reform (1887) p. 84Spirit: Samuel Gompers Condemns the Knights (1886) p. 85

1. How did the American industrial age affect women?2. What factors kept wages low in the United States in the late 19th century?3. What was the Knights of Labor?4. What were the results of the Haymarket Square Riot for the Knights of Labor?5. Who was Samuel Gompers? 6. How was the American Federation of Labor different than the Knights of Labor?

APUSH 6: The Cross of GoldHomework Due TodayPageant: On page 535, read section entitled “Government Bridles the Iron Horse” also pages 606-620Spirit: William Jennings Bryan’s Cross of Gold (1896)

1. Who was Frederick Jackson Turner? What was his thesis?2. What impact did industrialization have on farming?3. List five reasons that Midwestern farmers experience economic difficulties beginning in the 1880’s.4. What efforts were made by the Grange to assist the plight of farmers?5. What was the Farmer’s Alliance? Why did it have difficulty organizing in the South?6. What were the demands of the People’s (Populist) Party?7. What was the Pullman Strike? How did it end?8. Who were the two candidates in the election of 1896, what were their platforms, who won and why?9. Who was William Jennings Bryan? For what does he advocate in his Cross of Gold Speech?10. What was the Grange? What is the significance of the Supreme Court ruling in Wabash v. Illinois?11. What are the Interstate Commerce Act and the Interstate Commerce Commission?

APUSH 7: Bury My Heart at Wounded KneeHomework Due TodayPageant: 590-600Spirit: Harper’s Weekly Decries the Battle of Little Bighorn (1876) p. 128Spirit: She Walks with Her Shawl Remembers the Battle of Little Bighorn (1876) p. 130

1. How were the Plains Indians different than the Indians of the East Coast?2. Why was it difficult for the federal government to negotiate treaties with the Indians regarding boundaries?3. Why did the Battle of Little Big Horn occur in 1876? What was the result?4. Who was Geronimo?5. Who wrote the book A Century of Dishonor and what is it about?6. What was the Dawes Act?7. What was the purpose of the special Indian schools created by the government?8. What was the Indian Reorganization Act?

In-class Documents

The Gospel of WealthAndrew Carnegie

The problem of our age is the administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood may still bind together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship. The conditions of human life have not only been changed, but revolutionized, within the past few hundred years. In former days there was little difference between the dwelling, dress, food, and environment of the chief and those of his retainers. . . The contrast between the palace of the millionaire and the cottage of the laborer with us today measures the change [that] has come with civilization.

This change, however, is not to be deplored, but welcomed as highly beneficial. It is well, nay, essential for the progress of the race, that the houses of some should be homes for all that is highest and best in literature and the arts, and for all the refinements of civilization, rather than that none should be so. Much better this great irregularity than universal squalor. Without wealth there can be no Maecenas [Note: a rich Roman patron of the arts]. The "good old times" were not good old times. Neither master nor servant was as well situated then as today. A relapse to old conditions would be disastrous to both-not the least so to him who serves-and would sweep away civilization with it..... . .

We start, then, with a condition of affairs under which the best interests of the race are promoted, but which inevitably gives wealth to the few. Thus far, accepting conditions as they exist, the situation can be surveyed and pronounced good. The question then arises-and, if the foregoing be correct, it is the only question with which we have to deal-What is the proper mode of administering wealth after the laws upon which civilization is founded have thrown it into the hands of the few? And it is of this great question that I believe I offer the true solution. It will be understood that fortunes are here spoken of, not moderate sums saved by many years of effort, the returns from which are required for the comfortable maintenance and education of families. This is not wealth, but only competence, which it should be the aim of all to acquire.

There are but three modes in which surplus wealth can be disposed of. It can be left to the families of the decedents; or it can be bequeathed for public purposes; or, finally, it can be administered during their lives by its possessors. Under the first and second modes most of the wealth of the world that has reached the few has hitherto been applied. Let us in turn consider each of these modes. The first is the most injudicious. In monarchial countries, the estates and the greatest portion of the wealth are left to the first son, that the vanity of the parent may be gratified by the thought that his name and title are to descend to succeeding generations unimpaired. The condition of this class in Europe today teaches the futility of such hopes or ambitions. The successors have become impoverished through their follies or from the fall in the value of land.... Why should men leave great fortunes to their children? If this is done from affection, is it not misguided affection? Observation teaches that, generally speaking, it is not well for the children that they should be so burdened. Neither is it well for the state. Beyond providing for the wife and daughters moderate sources of income, and very moderate allowances indeed, if any, for the sons, men may well hesitate, for it is no longer questionable that great sums bequeathed oftener work more for the injury than for the good of the recipients. Wise men will soon conclude that, for the best interests of the members of their families and of the state, such bequests are an improper use of their means.. . .

As to the second mode, that of leaving wealth at death for public uses, it may be said that this is only a means for the disposal of wealth, provided a man is content to wait until he is dead before it becomes of much good in the world.... The cases are not few in which the real object sought by the testator is not attained, nor are they few in which his real wishes are thwarted....

The growing disposition to tax more and more heavily large estates left at death is a cheering indication of the growth of a salutary change in public opinion.... Of all forms of taxation, this seems the wisest. Men who continue hoarding great sums all their lives, the proper use of which for public ends would work good to the community, should be made to feel that the community, in the form of the state, cannot thus be deprived of its proper share. By taxing estates heavily at death, the state marks its condemnation of the selfish millionaire's unworthy life.

. . . This policy would work powerfully to induce the rich man to attend to the administration of wealth during his life, which is the end that society should always have in view, as being that by far most fruitful for the people....

There remains, then, only one mode of using great fortunes: but in this way we have the true antidote for the temporary unequal distribution of wealth, the reconciliation of the rich and the poor-a reign of harmony-another ideal, differing, indeed from that of the Communist in requiring only the further evolution of existing conditions, not the total overthrow of our civilization. It is founded upon the present most intense individualism, and the race is prepared to put it in practice by degrees whenever it pleases. Under its sway we shall have an ideal state, in which the surplus wealth of the few will become, in the best sense, the property of the many, because administered for the common good, and this wealth, passing through the hands of the few, can be made a much more potent force for the elevation of our race than if it had been distributed in small sums to the people themselves. Even the poorest can be made to see this, and to agree that great sums gathered by some of their fellow citizens and spent for public purposes, from which the masses reap the principal benefit, are more valuable to them than if scattered among them through the course of many years in trifling amounts.. . .

This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of Wealth: First, to set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him; and after doing so to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called upon to administer, and strictly bound as a matter of duty to administer in the manner which, in his judgment, is best calculated to produce the most beneficial result for the community-the man of wealth thus becoming the sole agent and trustee for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience, and ability to administer-doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves.

The Homestead Act May 20 th 1862

(U. S. Statutes at Large, Vol. XII, p. 392 ff.)

AN ACT to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain.

BE IT ENACTED, That any person who is the head of a family, is at least 21 years old, and is a citizen of the United States, or who has applied to be a citizen, and who has never borne arms against the United States Government or given aid and comfort to its enemies, shall, from and after the first of January, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, be allowed to live on 160 acres of unappropriated public lands, as long as they applied to do so in advance.

Sec. 2. That the person applying for this benefit shall, upon application to the official of the land office, make affidavit (a sworn statement) before the official that he or she is the head of a family, or is twenty-one or more years of age, or shall have performed service in the Army or Navy of the United States, and that he has never borne arms against the Government of the United States or given aid and comfort to its enemies, and that such application is made for only his or her use, and upon submitting his application will pay a fee of $10.

Provided, that no certificate of ownership, however, shall be given until the expiration of five years from the date of his moving to the said land and until he has proved using two credible witnesses that he, she, or they

have resided upon or cultivated the land for five years after moving there.

Farm Production

Year Number of Farms (in millions)

Bales of Cotton

Bushels of Corn

Bushels of Wheat

Price Index1860=100

1860 2 3.8 839 173 1001870 2.7 4.4 1,124 254 1401880 4 6.6 1,706 502 1001890 4.6 8.7  1,65 449 901900 5.7 10.1 2,662 599 90

The Farmer is the Man

When the farmer comes to townWith his wagon broken down

Oh, the farmer is the manWho feeds them all

The farmer is the man,The farmer is the man,

Lives on credit till the fallThen they take him by the handAnd they lead him from the land

And the middleman's the manWho gets it all…

-American Folk Song (1800's)

Cross of Gold SpeechWilliam Jennings Bryan (1896)

“You come to us and tell us that the great cities are in favor of the gold standard. I tell you that the great cities rest upon these broad and fertile prairies. Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic. But destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country….

You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!”

Dawes General Allotment Act (1887)

CHAP. 119.—An act to provide for the allotment of lands to Indians on the reservations, and to extend the protection of the laws of the United States to the Indians.   Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled:

SEC. 1. That in all cases where a tribe of Indians has been located on a reservation created for their use, the President of the United States is authorized to have the reservation land surveyed (measured) and to allot (divide up into pieces for farming) the lands on the reservation to any Indian who lives there in quantities as follows:   To each head of a family, 160 acres;   To each single person over eighteen years of age, 80 acres;   To each orphan child under eighteen years of age, 80 acres   To each other single person under eighteen years now living, or who may be born prior to the date of the order of the President directing an allotment of the lands embraced in any reservation, 40 acres.   SEC. 4. That where any Indian not residing upon a reservation, or for whose tribe no reservation has been provided, shall make settlement upon any unappropriated lands of the United States.Approved, February, 8, 1887.Source: United States Statutes at Large 24:388-91

School Days of an Indian Girlby Mary Gertrude Bonnin (Sitkala Sa)

The first day in the land of apples was a bitter-cold one; for the snow still covered the ground, and the trees were bare. A large bell rang for breakfast, its loud metallic voice crashing through the belfry overhead and into our sensitive ears. The annoying clatter of shoes on bare floors gave us no peace. The constant clash of harsh noises, with an undercurrent of many voices murmuring an unknown tongue, made a bedlam within which I was securely tied. And though my spirit tore itself in struggling for its lost freedom, all was useless.

   A paleface woman, with white hair, came up after us. We were placed in a line of girls who were marching into the dining room. These were Indian girls, in stiff shoes and closely clinging dresses. The small girls wore sleeved aprons and shingled hair. As I walked noiselessly in my soft moccasins, I felt like sinking to the floor, for my blanket had been stripped from my shoulders. I looked hard at the Indian girls, who seemed not to care that they were even more immodestly dressed than I, in their tightly fitting clothes. While we marched in, the boys entered at an opposite door. I watched for the three young braves who came in our party. I spied them in the rear ranks, looking as uncomfortable as I felt.

   A small bell was tapped, and each of the pupils drew a chair from under the table. Supposing this act meant they were to be seated, I pulled out mine and at once slipped into it from one side. But when I turned my head, I saw that I was the only one seated, and all the rest at our table remained standing. Just as I began to rise, looking shyly around to see how chairs were to be used, a second bell was sounded. All were seated at last, and I had to crawl back into my chair again. I heard a man's voice at one end of the hall, and I looked around to see him. But all the others hung their heads over their plates. As I glanced at the long chain of tables, I caught the eyes of a paleface woman upon me. Immediately I dropped my eyes, wondering why I was so keenly watched by the strange woman. The man ceased his mutterings, and then a third bell was tapped. Every one picked up his knife and fork and began eating. I began crying instead, for by this time I was afraid to venture anything more.

   But this eating by formula was not the hardest trial in that first day. Late in the morning, my friend Judewin gave me a terrible warning. Judewin knew a few words of English, and she had overheard the paleface woman talk about cutting our long, heavy hair. Our mothers had taught us that only unskilled warriors who were captured had their hair shingled by the enemy. Among our people, short hair was worn by mourners, and

shingled hair by cowards!

We discussed our fate some moments, and when Judewin said, "We have to submit, because they are strong." I rebelled. "No, I will not submit! I will struggle first!" I answered.

   I watched my chance, and when no one noticed I disappeared. I crept up the stairs as quietly as I could in my squeaking shoes, -- my moccasins had been exchanged for shoes. Along the hall I passed, without knowing whither I was going. Turning aside to an open door, I found a large room with three white beds in it. The windows were covered with dark green curtains, which made the room very dim. Thankful that no one was there, I directed my steps toward the corner farthest from the door. On my hands and knees I crawled under the bed, and cuddled myself in the dark corner.

   From my hiding place I peered out, shuddering with fear whenever I heard footsteps near by. Though in the hall loud voices were calling my name, and I knew that even Judewin was searching for me, I did not open my mouth to answer. Then the steps were quickened and the voices became excited. The sounds came nearer and nearer. Women and girls entered the room. I held my breath, and watched them open closet doors and peep behind large trunks. Some one threw up the curtains, and the room was filled with sudden light. What caused them to stoop and look under the bed I do not know. I remember being dragged out, though I resisted by kicking and scratching wildly. In spite of myself, I was carried downstairs and tied fast in a chair.

   I cried aloud, shaking my head all the while until I felt the cold blades of the scissors against my neck, and heard them gnaw off one of my thick braids. Then I lost my spirit. Since the day I was taken from my mother I had suffered extreme indignities. People had stared at me. I had been tossed about in the air like a wooden puppet. And now my long hair was shingled like a coward's! In my anguish I moaned for my mother, but no one came to comfort me. Not a soul reasoned quietly with me, as my own mother used to do; for now I was only one of many little animals driven by a herder.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FRONTIER IN AMERICAN HISTORYFrederick Jackson Turner (1893)

In a recent bulletin of the Superintendent of the Census for 1890 appear these significant words: "Up to and including 1880 the country had a frontier of settlement, but at present the unsettled area has been so broken into by isolated bodies of settlement that there can hardly be said to be a frontier line. In the discussion of its extent, its westward movement, etc., it can not, therefore, any longer have a place in the census reports." This brief official statement marks the closing of a great historic movement. Up to our own day American history has been in a large degree the history of the colonization of the Great West. The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward, explain American development.

Behind institutions, behind constitutional forms and modifications, lie the vital forces that call these organs into life and shape them to meet changing conditions. The peculiarity of American institutions is, the fact that they have been compelled to adapt themselves to the changes of an expanding people--to the changes involved in crossing a continent, in winning a wilderness, and in developing at each area of this progress out of the primitive economic and political conditions of the frontier into the complexity of city life. Said Calhoun in 1817, "We are great, and rapidly--I was about to say fearfully--growing!", 2 So saying, he touched the distinguishing feature of American life. All peoples show development; the germ theory of politics has been sufficiently emphasized. In the case of most nations, however, the development has occurred in a limited area; and if the nation has expanded, it has met other growing peoples whom it has conquered. But in the case of the United States we have a different phenomenon.

Limiting our attention to the Atlantic coast, we have the familiar phenomenon of the evolution of institutions in a limited area, such as the rise of representative government; into complex organs; the progress from primitive industrial society, without division of labor, up to manufacturing civilization. But we have in addition to this a recurrence of the process of evolution in each western area reached in the process of expansion. Thus American development has exhibited not merely advance along a single line, but a return to primitive conditions on a continually advancing frontier line, and a new development for that area. American social development has been continually beginning over again on the frontier. This perennial rebirth, this fluidity of American life, this expansion westward with its new opportunities, its continuous touch with the simplicity of primitive society, furnish the forces dominating American character. The true point of view in the history of this nation is not the Atlantic coast, it is the Great West. Even the slavery struggle, which is made so exclusive an object of attention by writers like Professor von Holst, occupies its important place in American history because of its relation to westward expansion.

In this advance, the frontier is the outer edge of the wave-- the meeting point between savagery and civilization. Much has been written about the frontier from the point of view of border warfare and the chase, but as a field for the serious study of the economist and the historian it has been neglected.

The American frontier is sharply distinguished from the European frontier--a fortified boundary line running through dense populations. The most significant thing about the American frontier is, that it lies at the hither edge of free land. In the census reports it is treated as the margin of that settlement which has a density of two or more to the square mile. The term is an elastic one, and for our purposes does not need sharp definition. We shall consider the whole frontier belt including the Indian country and the outer margin of the "settled area " of the census reports. This paper will make no attempt to treat the subject exhaustively; its aim is simply to call attention to the frontier as a fertile field for investigation, and to suggest some of the problems which arise in connection with it.

In the settlement of America we have to observe how European life entered the continent, and how America modified and developed that life and reacted on Europe. Our early history is the study of European germs

developing in an American environment. Too exclusive attention has been paid by institutional students to the Germanic origins, too little to the American factors. The frontier is the line of most rapid and effective Americanization. The wilderness masters the colonist. It finds him a European in dress, industries, tools, modes of travel, and thought. It takes him from the railroad car and puts him in the birch canoe. It strips off the garments of civilization and arrays him in the hunting shirt and the moccasin. It puts him in the log cabin of the Cherokee and Iroquois and runs an Indian palisade around him. Before long he has gone to planting Indian corn and plowing with a sharp stick, he shouts the war cry and takes the scalp in orthodox Indian fashion. In short, at the frontier the environment is at first too strong for the man. He must accept the conditions which it furnishes, or perish, and so he fits himself into the Indian clearings and follows the Indian trails. Little by little he transforms the wilderness, but the outcome is not the old Europe, not simply the development of Germanic germs, any more than the first phenomenon was a case of reversion to the Germanic mark. The fact is, that here is a new product that is American. At first, the frontier was the Atlantic coast. It was the frontier of Europe in a very real sense. Moving westward, the frontier became more and more American. As successive terminal moraines result from successive glaciations, so each frontier leaves its traces behind it, and when it becomes a settled area the region still partakes of the frontier characteristics. Thus the advance of the frontier has meant a steady movement away from the influence of Europe, a steady growth of independence on American lines. And to study this advance, the men who grew up under these conditions, and the political, economic, and social results of it, is to study the really American part of our history.