Relative & Absolute Chronology…Cheesy words with an easy meaning!

Everything has it’s purpose and place in the world right? We are going to be spend time this year understanding how historical events shape our world & defined an era.Absolute Chronology= Is your standard list with dates from earliest to latest Relative Chronology= Doesn’t have any dates just which came first, second etc. Archeologist use this term when studying artifacts that are not easy to identify and they essentially match the artifact to actual artifacts KNOWN to be made during that year/era.In your journal draw a timeline. Start the timeline with 1865 and end it with 1900. Place the events below on the timeline in either absolute or relative order. You may not know the answer right now, but will be interesting to discuss your perception of time and what you think you know.

America In Transition South surrenders at Appomattox Courthouse; Civil War comes to an end. Railroads built in the West promoted settlers to start a new life, and clashed with

the Plains tribes. Alexander Graham Bell sends the first telephone message, “Mr. Watson-come

here- I want to see you.” Statue of Liberty as a gift from France will be viewed as a symbol for a new

beginning in America. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Tragedy awoke many unions to stand up

against deplorable working conditions in NYC. Business giants like Rockefeller & Carnegie employed capitalist business tactics in

hopes of reaping rewards for their risks they took. In Plessy vs Ferguson the term “separate but equal” was another example of how

Jim Crow laws in the South were used to intimidate blacks. Nativism grew stronger as more immigrants especially southern & eastern

Europe (Ellis) & Asians (Angel) brought cultural differences & skills.

As the silencing of the cannons of war left the victorious US with new set of problems more challenging than the war itself.

• How would the South rebuild its shattered societies & economy after the war?

• What would society look like for all the freed slaves and would the government help them adjust to their new freedom?

• Should the former states be treated as they had never left the union or suffer for leaving?

Notes #1

Reconstruction Amendments• After Civil War, Congress passed a series of amendments known as the Civil

War Amendments to the US Constitution which were aimed at protecting recently freed slaves.

• The THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT, ratified in September 1865 by all southern states except Mississippi, outlawed slavery in America.

• The FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT ratified on July 9, 1868, granted citizenship to all people “born or naturalized in the United States” and guarantees all people due process and equal protection under the law.

• The FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT ratified February 3, 1870, gave black men the right to vote, but true suffrage would not come quickly or easily.

• 13- Freed Slaves• 14-Made blacks citizens• 15-Gave black men the right to vote• However, Congress wanted to control former Confederate state (Military

rule) because racist laws like Jim Crow Laws made it difficult for a freed man to “feel free.”

• Supreme Court case such as Plessy vs Ferguson (1896) would be upheld and welcomed in the south as “separate but equal” was made legal separate coloreds from all public facilities

Affects of Jim Crow & Plessy vs Ferguson

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s54MsnV2Dp0&list=PLD754C18D1C67A5BF&index=4&feature=plpp_video

Pondering Question

How did all or any of these Reconstruction amendments pave the way for Americans throughout the course of history? Name one event and explain how that/those amendments affected that situation.(Consider- Did everyone in America still have the right to vote, and did Jim Crow Laws in the south seem fair?)

• With the Compromise of 1877; removing federal troops from the south, many blacks known as Exodusters (led by Pap Singleton) fled to the west to establish their own independent communities believing it was the “promise land.”

• The majority of the White settlers traveling west came from the Mississippi Valley where land and supplies had grown very scarce.

• From 1893 to 1896, some 12 millions ounces of gold were mined in Alaska & Northern Canada, which would later become known as the Klondike Gold Rush. This spurred further settlement of Russian Mennonites and Chinese who worked on railroads and in agriculture, developing boom & bust town, especially large sources of raw materials.

• Other seeking a new life in the west Congress approved of the Homestead Act (1862) which gave a 160 acre tract of land to any citizen willing to live on and cultivate the land for 5 years with the option to buy for $1.25 an acre.

• Many settlers adjusted to their newfound land by adopting dry farming techniques, growing sturdy crops, raising cattle, and building sod brick homes. Others who stayed in the south became sharecroppers.

Who Settled The West?

Little Known Fact:

Seattle's business community continued to flourish as a result of the Klondike Gold Rush. Many miners who returned to Seattle invested their fortunes in local businesses. For example, John Nordstrom invested $13,000 of Klondike gold into a shoe store, owned by a cobbler he had met in the gold fields.

Native American Relations: A Clashing Culture

► By 1850 most Native Americans lived west of the Mississippi River. Refusing to conform to settlers’ culture, Indians in the Great Plains posed a threat to these newcomers and were viewed as “Obstacles to the progress of settlement and industry”.

► Most tribes were nomadic whose culture revolved around following the buffalo . After the desecration of the buffalo, the federal government tried to confine most western tribes to reservations. Although the government promised to protect them, prospectors and settlers frequently invaded them.

► In efforts to assimilate Native Americans, Congress passed the Dawes Act in 1887. It dissolved many tribes as legal entities, did away with tribal ownership of land, and gave heads of individual families’ private ownership of tracts of land granting citizenship after 25 years on the reservations.

America’s First Major Industry: The Railroad

► Between the end of the Civil War & the start of the Gold Rush, a population explosion occurred in the Far West.

► Many pointed out the need for better communication and transportation, especially through the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains.

► Through raising enough funds, Congress granting land, and the dangers task labor force of the Chinese, Irish, and blacks, on May 10, 1896 in Promontory Point, Utah, the Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific completed the first transcontinental railroad by ceremonially driving a golden spike into the ground creating one national market.

Farmers Rise up in Protest► New urban populations and increased foreign

competition caused American farmers to produce more food

► Improved farm machinery, loans, high interest, and shipping rates, overrode the selling price of their crops forcing many to give up their farms.

► Known as the “National Grange Movement”, Oliver Hudson Kelley pushed for a philosophy known as populism, which favored the common person’s interest over wealthy business types.

► Farmers’ Alliances won seats in Congress pushing proposed laws and eventually launching the Populist Party (movement)= 17th Amendment Direct election of US Senators (100th anniversary- 1913). Populism was the movement to increase farmers’ political power and to work for legislation in their interest.

Power to the People• Interstate Commerce Act (1887): farmers wanted to

stop railroads from offering lower cost or secret rebates to larger businesses (Wabash vs Illinois

• Many wanted to outlaw the gold standard (system of backing a country’s currency with its gold reserves) & create an unlimited coinage of silver to save our economy that was currently in turmoil.

• William Jennings Bryan had a major impact on the Populist Party by attempting to run for president supporting the “silverites” over the “Gold Bugs” as a means for economic salvation.

Notes #2

Political Impact of the Populist • The world the farmers now felt they were losing

influence on was more big business. • Politically, they wanted to restore the government to

the people by means of :• Direct popular election of US Senators (instead of

indirect election by state legislatures) which would lead to the 17th (1913) =Amendment which is direct election of US Senators

• Enacting of state laws by voters themselves through initiatives and referendums, and recall (all accept or reject a particular proposal) placed on the ballot.

 

Economic Impact of the Populist Economically the Populist wanted to advocate:

(1). unlimited coinage of silver to increase the money supply. (This rapid increase in the money supply without an accompanying increase in goods or sale caused inflation, or a decline in the value of money. As the paper money lost its value, the prices of goods soared- helping farmers pay off their debt).

(2). a graduated income tax (the greater a person’s income, the greater the tax) which would develop into the 16th Amendment.

(3). public ownership of railroads by the US government.

(4). telegraph and telephone systems owned and operated by the government.

(5). an 8 hour work day for industrial workers

At the time, the Populist movement seemed revolutionary not only because of its attack on laissez-faire capitalism but also because of its attempt to form a political alliance between poor whites and poor blacks.

William Jennings Bryan Cross of Gold Speech- Read the 2 excerpts & Respond to the questions

You come to us and tell us that the great cities are in favor of the gold standard. I tell you that the great cities rest upon these broad and fertile prairies. Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic. But destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country.• What does Bryan say about the importance of

farming?

If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we shall fight them to the uttermost, having behind us the producing masses of the nation and the world. Having behind us the commercial interests and the laboring interests and all the toiling masses, we shall answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.• Explain the point Bryan is making by using the

thorns and cross metaphors to describe the gold standard.

• What effect will the gold standard have on the common man? Does he feel it will do more harm than good?

Allegory defined Background

symbolic work: a work in which the characters and events are to be understood as representing other things and symbolically expressing a deeper, often spiritual, moral, or political meaning

symbolic expression of meaning in story: the symbolic expression of a deeper meaning through a story or scene acted out by human, animal, or mythical characters

Scarecrow – Western Farmer, “Knew little about policies”

Toto – Teetotalers – those who supported Prohibition

Tinman – injury/pride

Originally silver to represent their “hero”

Bryan-Fight bravely against gold

Emerald City-Green=$ Gold=follow the yellow brick road=oz measurement

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7Rn6vAWMbA

Witch Witch is Witch?

South/North Good = Consciousness Green Witch = Witch of the West, evil

brought on by greed, corruption, and harshness – died by Water- what did the west need to survive? WATER

Her sister the East crushed by Dorothys house from Kansas= farmers crushing ideas/policies of the East.

WW

What message is the cartoonist trying to send?

Gold or Silver• A central political issue in the l890’s was whether to

back the countries money supply with gold or silver.• Conservative Republicans wanted to back each

dollar with GOLD keeping the supply of money and prices of goods down.

• The Democrats and farmers wanted to back money with more abundant SILVER, increasing the money supply and raising prices.

• Eventually GOLD would be set as the standard (till President Nixon’s ends the gold standard and replaces it with fiat money)

Why was the Second Industrial Revolution So Successful?

From 1865 to 1905 America entered a second industrial revolution emerging as a leading industrial power in the world exceeded their competitors of Great Britain, Germany, & France. How did this happen? 1) Large labor force made up of immigrants2) Advanced transportation networks & raw materials3) Businesses benefitted from government subsidies,

protective tariffs, & laissez-faire (hands off of business) approach. Europeans recognized them as a good investment.

4) Entrepreneurs emerged as 440,000 new patents creating more labor saving techniques. The Bessemer Process allowed more steel to be made then all steel mills in Britain, increasing railroad and multistory buildings.

An Innovation Nation► Many of the technological advances created a market for goods that

was national in scale, and by so doing encouraged mass production, mass consumption, and economic specialization.

► The resources used to build or promote these industries created new ones-coal, steel (Bessemer-1855), glass, rubber, oil (Edwin Drake-1859), & gasoline

► Technological Innovations such as the telephone (Alexander Graham Bell -1876), light bulb (Thomas Edison -1882), airplane, sewing machine, passenger elevator, & typewriter all increased the standard of living.

► As more people were moving into cities, urban transportation improved with the development of mass transit including trains, trolleys, and subways.

► But as urbanization was grow overcrowding and congestion during the 19th century brought a rise to social tensions, transportation, and inadequate public services

► Finally, the most important innovations of the railroads may have been the creation of the modern stockholder corporations and the development of complex structures in finance, business management, and the regulation of competition.

NYC… Dirty Now, Dirty ThenYou have no idea. Going back 100, 150 years, American cities were disgusting — and New York City was notorious as the filthiest and stinkiest. We were a laughingstock. The rumor goes that sailors could smell the city six miles out to sea. -

The New Capitalist Spirit Before the Civil War, the personal wealth of a few people

operating in partnership financed most businesses, including many early factories (most were very small).

By 1900 everything had changed. Big business dominated the economy, operating vast complexes of factories, warehouses, offices, and distribution facilities.

Big business would not have been possible without the corporation. A corporation is an organization owned by many people but treated by law as though it were a single person.

A corporation can own property, pay taxes, make contracts, and sue and be sued. The people who own the corporation are called stockholders because they own shares of ownership called stock. Issuing stock allows a corporation to raise large amounts of money for big projects while spreading out the financial risk.

Competition provided consumers lots of choices, but in the battle to sell products companies slashed prices; profits fell, debt rose, & bankruptcy. Those that stayed felt they had to limit their competition.

Notes #3"What is the chief end of man?--to get rich.

In what way?--dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must."

-- Mark Twain-1871

In your journal respond to this question: How would you describe someone who is

considered successful by American standards? Does everybody have the same

opportunities? Why or why not?

The Gilded Age 1878-1889(Gold on the outside, but not on the inside)

Every man during the Gilded Age (Horatio Alger Myth) believed in the rags to riches opportunity. While the rich wore diamonds, the poor wore rags.

11 million of the 12 million earned less than $1200 some earning $380 per month.

The business tycoons (or Founding Fathers of our economy) of the Gilded Age; Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, Cornelius Vanderbilt, & J. P. Morgan lived at a moment of riotous growth — & real violence — establishing America as the richest, most inventive, and most productive country on the planet.

Those who worked in their mills noted "a widespread feeling of unrest and brooding revolution." Violent strikes and riots wracked the nation through the turn of the century as if they wanted a carnival revenge.

Many of the immigrants who filled the factory worked lived in tenements (crowded city apartments) spread across city landscapes, teeming with crime and filth.

For immediate relief, the urban poor often turned to political machines providing useful services but often stealing from their pockets.

Big Business & The GovernmentCorporations expanded & reduced competition in many ways:1) Horizontal integration= Joining together as many firms

from the same industry as possible. Rockefeller employed this tactic by buying or brutally bankrupting his competitors. By undercutting his competitors by making deals with railroads, he could cut his oil prices until they would be forced to sell their business to him. By 1882, Rockefellers Standard Oil company controlled 90% of the nation’s oil production.

2) Vertical integration= Taking control of each step in the production & distribution of a product. From the mining of the raw materials to manufacturing, packaging, & shipping. Andrew Carnegie expanded his steel company in Pennsylvania owning more steel mills than all of Britain!

3) These entrepreneurs turned their businesses into a monopoly which will completely dominate a particular industries products and services.

4) Trusts is a set of companies that are managed by a small group known as trustees. The trustees have the power to prevent companies in the trust from competing with each other.

Effect: impersonal, extremely profitable, & responsive to its investors.

What do you see is going on in these cartoons? (name 5)

What is the artist point of view towards big business?

How does America portray big business today? You?

Government Leaves Businesses Alone By 1800s Americans realized big business was

limiting competition. The lack of competition which helped producers but

not consumers was a policy known as laissez-faire (allow to do). This doctrine was a belief that the market through supply and demand would regulate itself and the government didn’t interfere.

Social Darwinism held that the best-run businesses led by the most capable people would survive and prosper. Succeed or fail on their own- “Survival of the fittest”

Govt actually gave land, resources, protective tariffs, which would help our exports double.

From Industrialists to Philanthropist

From 1870- 1900 steel rose from 77,000 tons to 11 mil, oil from 5 mil barrels -63 mil a year, and RR from 53,000 miles to 200,000 over years.

Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Vanderbilt all started as entrepreneurs- risk takers to start a new business.

Once they accrued their fortunes they became philanthropist-a person who gives money to support a worthy cause.

Who & what impact have these people made?

Doing some good with all that $$$$

Person Organization

Purpose

Oprah (21)

Angel Network

Making people lives better

Warren (9) Buffet

Girls Inc & Gates Foundation$37 bn

Education/Recreation to @ risk girls

Bill Gates Gates Foundation

World Health educ

Mark Zuckerberg

Silicon Valley Comm Foundation

Fixing educ challenges in Cali

Government Takes Some Action

Increasing public concern finally provoked a response from the federal government.

The Sherman Anti-trust Act (1890) outlawed trusts, monopolies, and other forms of businesses that restricted trade (feeble attempts to enforce it).

For example the Supreme Court blocked government efforts to break up sugar trust that controlled most of the nation’s sugar manufacturing. In US vs E.C. Knight Co., the Court ruled that the Sherman Act applied only to trade, not to manufacturing.

The Political Machine & Spoil System Reform

By 1900 many cities were controlled by political machines which consisted of full-time politicians whose goal was to keep political power, influence & money that went with it.

At the top of this corrupt scheme was the political boss who controlled the machine and it’s politicians. William “Boss” Tweed of New York’s Tammany Hall cheated the city as much as $200 million.

Ward bosses and precinct captains offered the residents (immigrants) assistance in exchange for votes (police, fire, sanitation, schools, funeral) at election time, providing benefits (welfare) that most state or local governments did not provide.

Corporations often bribed state legislators to elected favored candidates to Senate= Millionaires Club- rich with close ties to powerful industries- gave $$ to limit competition.

Politicians frequently engaged in patronage- giving job to friends & supporters.

1883 Congress passed the Pendleton Civil Service Act set up guide lines for hiring civil service employees- non military

A commission would set up exams to new applicants for government jobs based on score & merit (pass the exam and have credentials)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Idp7fLSo-nE (GONY)

Notes # 4

The New Working Class Unlike European countries, the US didn’t have monarchs or

noble families who held economic power, but in the Gilded Age a class system emerged based on wealth and power.

In the late 1800’s thousands of African Americans moved north in search of jobs, but even in the north black workers were given low paying, dangerous jobs.

The number of American female workers doubled between the years 1870-1890 and number of laborers under the age of 16 also doubled in this time.

Throughout the 1800s child labor became a large part of the work force employing children as young as 6-8 working in coal mine and cotton fields under extreme conditions. Few laws passed to protect them.

Cities provided both a central supply of labor for factories and also a principal market for factory made goods. By 1900 almost 40% of Americans lived in urban communities than in rural areas.

Life of the Poor Life for those in poverty in the late 1800’s usually

was marked by crowded living conditions, long hours and poor sanitation.

Most were forced to live in rundown, poorly built apartment buildings called tenements, 4-6 stories usually housing four families on each floor.

Tenements were known for poor sanitation, terrible smell and a lack of privacy and safety, different immigrant groups created distinct ethnic neighborhoods where each group could maintain its own language, culture, church or temple, and social club.

Labor Begins to Organize In the late 1800’s , labor unions began to fight for shorter

hours, better working conditions, & higher wages for the American worker.

Must of union’s powers came from the threat of a strike, simply refuse to work until demands met. Many businesses pressured workers to sign “yellow dog contracts,” pledging not to join a union or blacklisting those suspected of being a member.

After the Civil War local unions started cooperating with each other and joined forces to form a national labor federation or group of unions.

In practice each of these national labor organizations acted as a union, engaging in collective bargaining, negotiations between employers & employees (wages, conditions, etc) calling strikes when it failed.

Heroes of the Labor MovementRose Schneiderman Became a union leader in NYC in the

early 1900s. After the 1911 fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, she worked as a leader with the International Ladies Garment Workers Union to enact fire safety laws.

Samuel Gompers Started as a cigar maker & local union leader in NYC. Founded American Federation of Labor for 40 years. Favored cooperation over strikes & resisted socialist efforts into the AFL

Marry Harris “Mother” Jones Roamed the country helping coal miners, textile workers form unions. Known as a “hell-raiser” she was considered one of the most dangerous women in America.

Eugene V Debs Worked as a locomotive fireman. Later founded American Railway Union, & Industrial Workers World. Father of the Socialist Party. Ran for president while in prison.

National Labor Unions: Common Goal, Different Strategies

Union Year & Leader Goals Members Strategies

Knights of Labor

1869, Terrence Powderly

• 8 hr workday• Abolish child

labor• Regulate trust• Equal pay men

& women• Education for

working class

• Skilled & unskilled

• Women• African

Americans

• Arbitration• Boycott• strikes

American Federation of Labor

1886, Samuel Gompers

• Increased wages • Improved

working conditions

• Limitation of work hours

• Only skilled workers in a particular trade

• Negotiation • Boycott• Strikes

Industrial Workers of the World

1905,Eugene V Debs, Daniel De LeonWilliam Haywood

• Organization of all workers into a single union

• Overthrow capitalism

• Lumbermen• Miners• Textile

workers• Dockworkers

• Boycotts • Strikes • Sabotage

Strikes Erupt Nationwide As labor unions gained strength, workers showed a

willingness to strike. In 1886, Haymarket Affair started when nonunion workers

were brought to replace striking workers. Anarchist called for a meeting at Haymarket Square, bombing the crowd killing several police, and 4 protestors.

1884, The Pullman Strike, supported management against striking workers. The Pullman Company made fancy railcars and the entire town made up of all the workers who worked for the company (food, school,etc). During an economic depression the company cut wages. Workers reacted by linking non-working Pullman Cars to the US mail cars which was a federal offense. Federal troops sent in to stop the strike.

The Immigration Process

The journey to America was often difficult, immigrant passengers traveled in steerage (a cramped, poorly ventilated area below decks).

Millions of immigrants were processed through Ellis Island in New York or Angel Island in San Francisco

Immigrants were interviewed and inspected, any immigrant with serious mental or physical health problems were deported, but most passed inspection

From 1891 to 1910, 12 million immigrants came to the US to escape poverty or persecution; many hoped to make money and return home and buy land.

Why Europeans Immigrated to the US

Immigration Restrictions Nativists (hatred toward foreign born, esp from Asia,

southern and eastern Europe) in the late 1800’s an Anti-Chinese movement began in the labor unions of California.

The Workingmen’s Party excited crowds and some Chinese were attacked and killed.

In 1882 Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act which denied citizenship to Chinese and stopped immigration of Chinese laborers (10 years).

In 1894 the Immigration Restriction League sought to impose literacy test on all immigrants but President Cleveland vetoed the bill.

Urban Reforms & Social Gospel Movement Some patriotic organizations pushed for Americanization of

immigrants, pushing American values, history, and citizenship. Jane Addams Hull House lead many educated young women

on a mission to help the poor and later to press for women’s suffrage.

Many middle class women joined Protestant churches to apply Christian principles to address the problem of poverty and churches offered counseling, job training, libraries and other social services.

By 1900, most states had passes Compulsory Education Laws which required parents to send children to school; by 1900, 72% of American children were in school.

A more educated public created a demand for books and newspapers written for the average American.