The Gilded Age is one of the most important eras in American history as it was the period industrialization took hold of the country’s economy leading to massive migration to urban centers. The period between 1860 to 1920 can be termed as the Gilded Age that got its name from the glittering outer appearance and a corrupt underneath. People like Rockefeller and Carnegie who were ruthless businessmen in oil and steel industries were known as the robber barons and were responsible for the capitalism adopted during the era (Claver.gprep, 2017). The new economic growth and industries offered most people within and outside the country to cities and towns leading to crowding of the cities that resulted in filthy living conditions.
The cities offered people the opportunities to become wealthy, but relationships between the millions of people were different. Traditional labor was overthrown by industrialization with machine use limiting the jobs available in the farms mostly in the south leading to more people migrating in search of opportunities. The owners of the industries had little or no respect for the workers leading to the workers working in harsh and dangerous working conditions (Claver.gprep, 2017). The industrial jobs resulted to over 1 million injuries and approximately 35,000 fatalities annually. The owners were just as the robber barons thus exploited the workers by paying them as little as $1 per day which was 12 hrs. Workers, on the other hand, wanted to be respected thus joined unions, for instance, The Knights of Labor which began in 1869 and by 1878 it had over 700,000 members all over the country.
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The unions would enable increment of wages, but with increase of foreign immigrants who were strikebreakers, the owners benefited. The strikes that followed, for example, the Haymarket Square bombing of 1886 led to damages of over $100 million and deaths of workers and militants (Sageamericanhistory.net, 2017). Immigrants’ increment did not please the Native Americans as they saw that the economic boom was theirs and should not be shared with the foreigners. Since there were different waves of foreign immigrants, some were not despised but with social issues rising due to over population and wages going lower than families sustain their needs. Hostility began with the arrival of Irish Catholics who were not welcomed due to their religion and acceptance of the, for instance, immigrants from Poland lived separately but integrated with others (Sageamericanhistory.net, 2017). Immigrants were also not friendly to each other for example; the Russians killed many Jews.
Due to the depression in late 19th century, some workers turned terrorists and used threats such as the Irish mine workers killed about 16 owners due to the poor working conditions. Industrialization led to working opportunities for women, but they were paid lower wages than the men. Men despised women working as they increased cheap labor supply thus lowering the wages. Most of the women who worked were unmarried and did not occupy managerial positions. Sexual exploitation was rampant at the time with no laws against it. The middle-class and lower-class were separated by their living areas and conditions (Claver.gprep, 2017). The middle-class would afford most of the essential commodities mainly those produced by the companies whereas the lower-class would not leading to crime increment. Although the living conditions were poor for all, lower-class workers lived in slums. To acquire economic freedom being the goal of all employees led to engaging in crime, unionizing, prostitution, among other businesses to ensure they could all benefit from the economic boom.
References
Claver.gprep. (2017). Labor 1875-1925. Claver.gprep.org . Retrieved June 13, 2017, from, http://claver.gprep.org/sjochs/labor.htm
Sageamericanhistory.net. (2017). The War Between Capital and Labor. The American Worker . Retrieved June 13, 2017, from, http://sageamericanhistory.net/gildedage/topics/capital_labor_immigration.html
