Transcript Gilded Age - Your History Site

The Gilded Age
1870-1890
Mark Twain
Gilded means to cover something of
poor quality with gold
What does this imply about American
Society?
Wealth and economic growth covered
up the many problems that existed
Characteristics of the Gilded Age
Positives
Negatives
1.
2.
3.
4.
1. Working Conditions
2. Poverty and Living
Conditions in Cities
3. Gap between Rich and
Poor Increases
4. Farmers Struggle
5. Political Corruption
6. Treatment of Minorities
Industrialization
Economic Growth
New Inventions
Growth of Middle Class
and Suburbs
5. Manifest Destiny
Middle Class and the
Growth of Suburbs
• commute to the city
for jobs and
shopping.
• made possible by
railroads, horse
cars, and streetcars.
• get away from poor
immigrants
• Quiet and healthier
for family
• Segregated
Communities
Nouveau Riche
• The New Rich
• Conspicuous
Consumptionspending
money just to
show off
wealth
Conspicuous Display of Wealth,
Millionaire’s Row, New York
Carnegie Mansion
Vanderbilt
Chateau
How did the other half live?
The
Shift
to the
City
Urbanization- process in which an increasing
proportion of a population lives in cities or suburbs
of cities
MIGRATION FROM
COUNTRY TO CITY
• Immigration
• improvements in farm
technology meant less
labor
• Many rural people left
for cities to find work
• African Americans
Tenement
a rundown apartment
used to house large
numbers of low-income
families.
“Home of an Italian Ragpicker,” 1888
“One of Four Pedlars Who Slept in the Cellar of 11 Ludlow Street Rear,” c.
1892
URBAN PROBLEMS
• Overcrowded
Housing
• Sanitation: garbage
was often not
collected
• Polluted air
• Lack of clean water
• Crime
• Fire
Harper’s Weekly image of Chicagoans
fleeing the fire over the Randolph
Street bridge in 1871
POLITICS IN THE
GILDED AGE
• As cities grew in the
late 19th century, so did
political machines
• Political machines
controlled the
activities of a political
party in a city
• The head of the
Political machine was
known as the “Boss”
ROLE OF THE POLITICAL
BOSS
• The “Boss”
controlled jobs,
business licenses,
granting of contracts
and influenced laws
and courts
• Political Machines
helped immigrants
with naturalization
(citizenship), jobs,
and housing in
exchange for votes
Boss Tweed ran NYC
Political Corruption was
considered to be widespread
• President Grant’s
Administration
• Voter Fraud- used fake
names and voted
multiple times
• Patronage- granting
favors in return for
political support
• Graft- bribes
• kick-backs - Return of
money in exchange for
a business
Boss Tweed and
Tammany Hall
THE TWEED RING
SCANDAL
• William M. Tweed, known as
Boss Tweed, became head
of Tammany Hall, NYC’s
powerful Democratic
political machines
• Between 1869-1871, Tweed
led the Tweed Ring, a group
of corrupt politicians, in
defrauding the city
• Tweed’s ring stole between
40 and 200 million
• Tweed died in Jail
Boss Tweed
Does History remember
the Real Boss Tweed?
CIVIL SERVICE REPLACES
PATRONAGE
Applicants for federal jobs
are required to take a Civil
Service Exam
• Nationally, some politicians
pushed for reform in the hiring
system
• The system had been based
on Patronage; giving jobs and
favors to those who helped a
candidate get elected
• Reformers pushed for an
adoption of a merit system of
hiring the most qualified for
jobs
• The Pendleton Civil Service
Act of 1883 authorized a
bipartisan commission to
make appointments for federal
jobs based on performance