The Gilded Age

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The Gilded Age: An Age of Inequality

1870 - 1915

Life Before 1870*

Not much technologyNo indoor electric lighting

People used candles or oil lamps

No refrigerators; only iceboxesMail traveled by horse and carriage

New Inventions*Oil is used for fuel (1858)Light bulbs become common (1880s)Telephone (1876)Steel invented (1856) Railroad tracks begin to cross the country (1869)

A New Capitalist Class*Capitalism – an economic system in which capital (businesses, factories) is owned by individual people (capitalists) These new inventions led to large corporations controlled by very rich capitalists.

Standard Oil Company John D. Rockefeller

Carnegie Steel Andrew Carnegie

A New Working Class*

Thousands of people move to cities to work in the new factories

1. Immigrants from Europe2. African Americans from the South3. Farmers from rural areas

The working class experiences very harsh living conditions

Exploitation*

Workers were paid very low wages and worked 12 - 16 hoursChildren as young as 6 worked in factoriesDangerous working conditions and no safety laws many injuries