Laissez-faire Flashcards
What is the Laissez-faire?
Laissez-faire: Free competition, individual enterprise, minimum state interference
When did the economy expand?
From 1865-1890 the economy expands
What did William Graham Summer believe?
William Graham Summer believed that millionaires were ‘the naturally selected agents of society’. Churchmen argued ‘Godliness is in league with riches.’ This was reinforced by philanthropy
What were the consequences of the Laissez-faire?
- In textiles and garments, small business prospered into competitive markets. However, larger businesses usually bought out smaller ones to create monopolies.
- Free markets were rigged to favor big business.
- Big businesses fought hard to avoid state regulation and usually won.
- State and federal governments passed laws and set tariffs at levels big businesses wanted and ignored corruption or bad practice.
- By the 1880s, people began to oppose laissez-faire
What was the Reaction Against Laissez-faire?
- Power of the railroads and big business attracted criticism from the Granger Movement (small farmers) and the Knights of Labor (trade unions/industry workers). They pushed state governments to pass regulation legislation.
- Legislation rarely successful, undermined in 1886 by a judge.
- Protests against laissez-faire got support from farmers in West and South.
- Granger Movement had 850,000 members by 1885 (increase in railroad regulation and firms controlling corn and wheat distribution).
- Knights of Labor leader Terrence Powderly campaigned for 8 hour working day and was popular in 1880s.
- Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 attacked monopolies and cartels. Passed due to opposition against laissez-faire.
Immigration
Many immigrants saw the USA as ‘the land of the free’. From 1860 to 1890, the USA saw 10 million immigrants mainly from Germany, Sweden and Britain. Cities had ‘Irish’ or ‘German’ districts with newspapers and traditions. Nativism develops. Tensions over job security increases and the ‘Yellow Peril’ caused the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Chinese workers were hard working and cheap so employers favoured them, many Americans were threatened, and Chinese workers were favoured over African-Americans
African-Americans
• Many African-Americans in the South still tied to sharecropping and received artificially low process for their produce. In the North, they found employment in railroads, farming and lumbering.
• Still segregation in the South so many African-Americans migrated North but were still discriminated against in terms of housing, education and job opportunities. Jim Crow laws in the South. ‘Separate but Equal’. Northern states had some civil rights laws but never enforced them.
• Loopholes in laws and policies prevented African-Americans from voting in the South and complex laws were imposed to prevent any attempts.
• The KKK were still prominent and lynching was common. Between 1882 and 1899 over 2,500 men
and women were lynched. Accusations of rape, murder and violence ‘justified’ the lynching but were never proved. Ida B Wells attacked the lynching fever of 1892 in a black newspaper and was run out of town.
• Number of black students in schools doubled between 1877 and 1887 but only 2/5 of black children
were enrolled. By 1890, most segregated schools were disappearing in the North and many colleges and universities accepted black applicants.
Native Americans: Americanisation
The ending of tribal culture. Native Americans were taught English, become Christian and learn farming. Children were sent to schools to be free from any influence from their parents and taught American attitudes. By 1899, $2.5 million was being spent on these schools.
Native Americans: Dawes Act
Breaking up reservation land to individuals or families to make them farmers. The land was not arable and Native Americans didn’t understand the Act since private property was alien to them. Most fell into poverty or sold their land for a fraction of its worth. Native American reservations deteriorated quickly
Native Americans: Battle of the Wounded Knee
The Sioux tribe in South Dakota took up the Ghost
Dance to restore their lands. The Ghost Dance spread rapidly and alarmed the authorities. A leader, Sitting Bull, died after an attempted arrest and Lakota Sioux
fled their reservations with the army following. In 1890, the Calvary fired onto the Sioux at Wounded Knee. 200 Sioux died with 31 soldiers. Neither side wanted to vfight but the incident was creates on mutual distrust and fear
