Interpretation: Gilded Age 1875-1895

Question 1

What happened in wages for TU’s during the Gilded Age

Answer 1

Wages (for skilled workers particularly) dramatically increased, by roughly 60%, despite an increase in available workforce due to immigration.

Question 2

Was there demand for workers in the Gilded Age?

Answer 2

Yes- the increase in transport and heavy industry created a demand for labour

Question 3

Which trade union grew in the Gilded Age?

Answer 3

KOL- (1881: 20,000 members, 1886: 700,000) Including some women and AA’s

Question 4

When was the AFL established and what was it?

Answer 4

1886- First successful national labour federation. Wanted to link all unions. Some businesses were willing to work with it and establish mechanisms for negotiation.

Question 5

What were sickness clubs?

Answer 5

Gave income when contributors were ill.

Question 6

What was the impact of the economic slump?

Answer 6

Unemployment, job insecurity and reduction in wages

Question 7

What was the laissez faire policy?

Answer 7

Policy of minimum government interference, supported big businesses, added to lack of protection for workers

Question 8

How many rail workers died due to poor conditions in 1889?

Answer 8

2,000 rail workers

Question 9

Who were the remaining divisions between?

Answer 9

Skilled/ unskilled, white/AA, white A’s/ immigrants.

These divisions could be exploited by employers

Question 10

Mini conclusion of TU’s during the Gilded Age

Answer 10

Any gains made during the period of growth were short-lived. Worker’s position was weakened by division and attitudes of govt+employers towards the workforce.

Question 11

What was passed in 1887 and how did it impact NA’s?

Answer 11

The Dawes Severalty Act - gave NA’s the oppurtunity to become landowners. Mean’t that they became full American citizens but was not what they wanted. More concerned about preserving their own culture.

Question 12

What impact did Reservations have on NA’s?

Answer 12

Gave them the oppurtunity to establish farming communities. Provided the oppurtunity got better health care.

Question 13

What did the Reservations allow NA’s to do?

Answer 13

To preserve NA tribal customs and life to survive.

Question 14

What was established which gave NA’ s the oppurtunity to find better jobs?

Answer 14

Two boarding schools far away from the reservations. Eg. Indian Agency Officers. But, quality of education was limited and didn’t teach NA culture.

Question 15

What happened at the Battle of Littl Bighorn in 1876?

Answer 15

NA victory against Custer. Convinved some that their position needed to improve, conflict was the result of their poor treatment. Major breakthrough.

Question 16

What did the policy of assimilation do?

Answer 16

Attempted to westernise NA’s, removing their independence.

Question 17

What was the negative impact of reservations?

Answer 17

Land gradually reduced, NA’s lost their freedom and life was hard on reservations.

Question 18

Did government subsidies support NA’s?

Answer 18

No, they became dependent on the govt and these subidies were insufficient and cut further.

Question 19

Who was land given to in the family and how did this affect tribal culture?

Answer 19

Given to the male head. Which, in matriarchal tribes, removed the status of women.

Question 20

What was education like on the reservations?

Answer 20

Education was poor. Those who went to schools away from reservations were unable to get jobs. They were forced back onto reservations and viewed a untrustworthy by tribes.

Question 21

What happended at Wounded Knee?

Answer 21

The massacre of the Sioux tribe 1890. It broke resistance to reservation life and assimilation to white American culture.

Question 22

What did the Plessy vs Ferguson decision mean for AA’s?

Answer 22

Thw 1896 judgment enforced ‘separate but equal’ ideas and allowed segregated facilities.

Question 23

What did Booker T. Washington believe about segregation?

Answer 23

He favoured segregation believing that if AA’s took full advantage of the Gilded Age’s economic oppurtunities then priviledges would follow.

Question 24

What did Tennesse initiate in 1881?

Answer 24

Segregated transport, a segregated railway law. Every Southern state followed suit.

Question 25

What restricted black voting?

Answer 25

Registration laws: Granfather clauses and literacy tests.

Mean’t black voters had a powerless minority by 1895.

Question 26

What were the ‘granfather clauses?’

Answer 26

Allowed only people whose ancestors had voted or could vote before 1867 (when the First Reconstruction Act was passed) to skip the taxes and tests to vote.

Question 27

What were the govt reactions to violence and lynchings?

Answer 27

Punished as minor offences. Created a system where law was deliberately ignored in much of the South.

Question 28

What were the careers available for AA’s?

Answer 28

Most remained as sharecroppers. AA’s lacked the capital or expertise to travel westwards to create new homes.

Question 29

How did literacy change for AA’s?

Answer 29

Improved. In 1865 1/20 AA’s could read but by 1895 this had risen to 1/2.

Question 30

How many AA professionals were there by 1900?

Answer 30

47,000- including doctors, lawyers, teachers and artists. However this was out of an AA population of 8 million.

Question 31

What AA organisations was there a rise in?

Answer 31

Religious organisations, banks, insurace schemes and societies/ companies run by AA’s.

Question 32

What movement saw greater female involvement?

Answer 32

The Temperance Movement.

Some 60,000 women took part, often those who supported temperance also supported suffrage organisations.

Question 33

What were religiously involved women able to become a part of?

Answer 33

Women’s Christian Temperance founded in 1872.

But, the majority of members were white and middle class.

Question 34

How did the number of women in work change?

Answer 34

More women began working due to industrial growth.
By the 1880’s 26% of Philadelphia’s workers were woman.
In some urban areas women amounted to 1/3 of the workforce.

Question 35

What did economic expansion produce?

Answer 35

More oppurtunities for white-collar work.
By the 1880’s clerical work had opened up oppurtunities for women, especially with the development of the typewriter.
But, female wages were considerably lower than male wages for similar work.

Question 36

What was the role of unions for women?

Answer 36

Women were able to join them but often faced hostility.

Question 37

How did education change for women?

Answer 37

More oppurtunities.
New colleges for women in the east.
Co-educational oppurtunities in the west.
First training school for nurses- 1873 and by 1890 there were 35.

Question 38

What organisation cared for the welfare of younger urban women?

Answer 38

Young Women’s Christian Association established in 1867.

Question 39

What factors hindered the progress of women’s rights?

Answer 39

Divisions in the campaign, the impact of immigration and the issue of equal pay.

Question 40

What were the weaknesses of women’s organisations?

Answer 40

There were divisions between rival suffrage organisations which weakened the movement.
A lot of resentment, among male opponents, but also among some women eg Phyllis Schaffly.

Question 41

What did the influx of immigrants in the 80’s and 90’s do to women?

Answer 41

Led to many women from Southern and Eastern Europe working from poor homes in crowded cities, taking in lodgers and working in sweatshops, maids, cleaners and prostitutes.
Domestic work became associated with immigrants and lost status.

Question 42

What were the work oppurtunities for married women?

Answer 42

Hard for married women to work, often commen among AA’s also.
But single young women often ended up in low-skilled jobs instead of learning a trade.

Question 43

What were the attitudes towards women?

Answer 43

Distinct double standards. Men did not generally expect to play a part in domestic chores and wages were still unequal.