The triangle fire and the gilded age

A brief introduction

The Triangle factory fire• Workers

concentrated in factories

• Workers concentrated in urban areas

• Workers were mostly immigrants

• Workers respond by attempting to form unions

• Government responds by passing progressive laws

Main themesNow

• Industrialization

• Urbanization

• Growing inequality

Later• Immigration

• Unionization

• Progressive reforms

Two historical eras

• The Gilded Age• Roughly 1870-1900• Tremendous economic growth and increasing

inequality

• The Progressive Era• Roughly 1900-1916• Political reforms aimed at expanding women’s

and workers’ rights and making government more democratic

• The era in which the US becomes a modern nation?

industrialization• Technological innovation• Factory production• More people working in

factories• Women• Children

• Tremendous economic growth

urbanization• People leave farms and flock to cities

• 1800: 5% of population in cities• 1920: 50% of population in cities

• Reasons for urbanization:• Pull of factory work• Immigrants seek other immigrants

• Changes in cities• Transportation systems (Tremont St.

Subway, 1897)• Tenements; unsanitary living conditions• Skyscrapers (Ames Building, 1893)

Chicago, 1820Population 15

Chicago, 1854Population 55,000

Chicago, 1898Population 1,700,000

inequality• Extreme wealth and extreme poverty• Robber barons/captains of industry

• J.D. Rockefeller (1839-1937)• Standard Oil (founded 1870)• Vertical integration• Monopoly

• Urban poverty• Low wages, long hours, dire conditions• Women and children working