The Gilded Age

​The Gilded Age

American History - Soderberg

Gilding is the process of covering something relatively inexpensive (wood, metal, stone) with gold foil or paint.

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​This makes it look expensive and fancy.

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It is an illusion​

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The Gilded Age

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What Was The Gilded Age?

​A time of growth and achievement for the U.S.​

• Industrialization

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  • Factories

  • Railroads

  • Coal mining

  • Steel production

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• Inventions

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  • Alexander Graham Bell →telephone (AT&T monopoly nicknamed “Ma Bell” / “Mother Bell”)

  • Thomas Edison →phonograph; lightbulb

  • George Eastman → Kodak camera

  • Wright Brothers →successful flight

  • Henry Ford →Model T; assembly line

Open Ended

How might an invention like the lightbulb impact workers in a factory?

• After the Civil War, 12 million people come to America from around the world.

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  • Not all welcomed with “open arms”

    • Immigrants expected to assimilate - “fit in” with “American” culture​

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Open Ended

What might immigrants be expected to do in order to "fit in" to American culture?

• Three groups of people came together from 1870 to the early 1900s.

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  • Old Immigrants

  • New Immigrants

  • Nativists​

​Old Immigrants ("Second Wave")

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• From primarily Northern and Western Europe

  • Germany, Ireland, Scandinavia

• Protestant (Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian)

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• Literate (could read and write); many spoke English

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• Came as families, had some $, worked skilled jobs

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• Assimilated​

​New Immigrants (“Third Wave”)

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• 80% from Southern and Eastern Europe

  • Italy, Russia, Poland, Austro-Hungary

• Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish

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• Illiterate (could not read and write); few spoke English

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• Came with little $, could not speak English, unskilled labor

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• Had trouble assimilating

• Nativists

  • Not from the “old” or “new” immigrant groups

    • Many traced their ancestry back to the 13 original British Colonies

  • Anti-immigration

    • Desire to preserve a “true American” identity in the U.S.

    • Formed the American Party (“Know Nothing” party)

      • Protect the rights of white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs)

      • Feared that immigrants would threaten their social and economic standings​

Multiple Choice

Many immigrants tried to adopt American culture.  This is known as

• segregation

• nativism

• assimilation

• ethnicity

Multiple Choice

Some Americans were anti-immigrant and known as

• imperialists

• nativists

• industrialists

• communists

• Push Factors Drove Southern & Eastern Europeans to Leave Their Native Countries

  • Population growth in S and E Europe

  • Lack of jobs and food

  • Scarcity of Farmland

  • Mechanization of farming equipment

  • Pogroms

    • Religious persecution of Russian Jews​

• Pull  Factors Attracted Southern & Eastern Europeans to America

  • Democracy

  • Freedom of religion

  • Available land

  • Economic opportunity

    • Steel and railroad industries advertised for workers in Europe​

Multiple Choice

Which of the following was PULL factor for immigration?

• free land

• religious persecution

• poverty

• overpopulation

Multiple Choice

Which of the following is probably NOT a reason for increased immigration?

• Better opportunities

• Religious

  freedom

• Political persecution

• Harsh travel

​Tenement Buildings in the Gilded Age

• Cities scrambled to house immigrant families

  • Most new immigrants arrived at Ellis Island (NYC) and stayed in the urban centers (cities) on the East Coast

• Tenement buildings

  • high-rise apartments (5-7 stories)

    • Constructed quickly & cheaply

    • Not well lit or ventilated

    • No indoor plumbing

    • The rapid spread of disease and building fires were a hazard​

• By 1900, ⅔ of New York City’s population lived in tenements

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  • The Lower East Side had 350,000 people per square mile

    • Families stacked on top of each other in tenements that were built on lots that measured 25’ x 100’

  • The people inhabiting these buildings were not rich or powerful

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    • Most of them were European immigrants and poor laborers who could not afford to move to a better area of the city​

Multiple Choice

Many immigrants lived in urban apartment slums called

• high-rises

• suburbs

• tenements

• studi

Open Ended

Why do you think this era in American history is referred to as "The Gilded Age"?