Progressive Era DBQ Essay
By the time period of 1900-1920 America was almost fully industrialized. At this time, America was going through a Gilded Age where everything looked good on the outer perspective however on the inside, there were many issues within society. The Progressive Era consisted of people who wanted to reform society politically, socially, and economically. Progressive reformers and the federal government were successful in bringing about reform at the national level by gaining some women's rights as well as African Americans trying to better their reputation in society, improving working conditions, and fixing the American economy.
Women and African American citizens were always treated unequally compared to white men.
…show more content…
Women and African Americans found the Progressive Era to bring about change for the better. These groups did in fact progress their treatments in society. Throughout history, women had almost never been viewed as equals compared to men. Women had started to protest against not having the same rights as male citizens. Some groups that women formed to support their cause was the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and National Woman's Party (NWP). Women supported the abolitionist movement in the U.S. After the Civil War, the reconstruction amendments were passed giving African American males the right to vote and women thought that wasn’t fair because they were helping in the abolitionist movement so they felt like they were just being ignored. Women started to turn their focus on their own suffrage rights. Woodrow Wilson was the President of the United States from 1913-1921. Many women were against him because he was not in favor of women having their own voice in society. Suffragettes like Alice Paul would protest against President Wilson and many times would compare him to Kaiser who was the monarch in Germany at that time. (Doc H). Alice Paul was the leader of the National Woman's Party. She would start strikes to get the attention of the public to make Congress to ratify an amendment that would allow women to have the right to vote. Aside from suffrage, women would strike for other issues such as equality, birth control, equal pay, and basically more independence. Women would also join the Temperance Movement which was a movement that wanted to limit the amount of alcohol being consumed. Women would join the Temperance Movement because men would get drunk and usually abuse women and women didn’t feel this was right. In the Progressive Era, women officially received the right to vote with the ratification of the 19th amendment on August 18, 1920. Data shows that from the years of 1900-1920 the percentage of eligible voters who casted ballots in presidential elections had decreased. Since women had received the right to vote in 1920, the graph shows that citizens who were allowed to vote, were not politically active and therefore it delayed the process of making changes in their society (Doc J).
Since women now had the right to vote, they wanted to expand the ideas of democracy by wanting a direct vote to select members of congress. Theodore Roosevelt supported the idea that members of congress should be selected by a direct vote. As a response to that, congress ratified the 17th amendment which would allow the people to select members of congress by the popular vote. (Doc D). Southerners would try and prevent African American males from voting in these elections. Southern states would allow Jim Crow laws which helped segregate African Americans. The supreme court case of Plessy v. Ferguson supported these Jim Crow laws by stating that African Americans should be segregated but viewed equal. There were many African American individuals who wanted to get better treatment in society such as Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois. These individuals wanted the same thing but had different methods of receiving those things. Booker T. Washington wanted to take things slow and have peaceful strikes but W.E.B. Dubois …show more content…
wanted to take action immediately. “For the America that represents and gloats in lynching, disfranchisement, caste, brutality, and devilish insult- for this, in this hateful return upturning and mixing of things, we were forced by vindictive fate to fight also. But today we return!... This country of ours, despite all its better souls have don and dreamed, is yet a shameful land” (Doc I). W.E.B. Dubois wanted to take action in order to make a change in society for African American citizens. He was the first African american to graduate from Harvard University. He believed in african americans becoming equals in society politically and economically. W.E.B. Dubois created the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in order to stop segregation and allow African Americans to get properly educated. Not only did African Americans stand up for these rights but they also had women and white men supporters. Herbert Croly believed that there was still a huge gap between African Americans and Whites because many American citizens viewed African Americans as an inferior race that will never be equal to the white man. (Doc F). Even though there were many new advancements for African Americans and women, citizens needed to apply these new laws to everyday American society in order to make a change in society. One of the main focus of the Progressive Era was the conditions of laborers and the unsanitary working conditions. Meat factories would have the most concern because of the unsanitary conditions and the carelessness of workers. “Meat scraps were also found being shoveled into receptacles from dirty floors where they were left to lie until again shoveled into barrels or into machines for chopping...and the employees in utter ignorance of cleanliness or danger to health, expectorated at will upon them” (Doc B). Workers would become sick because of these unsanitary conditions but also the consumers would become sick because of the unsanitary food they were eating. Muckrakers were people who would go into meat factories in secret and “pick up the dirt” on what was really going on in these factories. These Muckrakers wanted people to be informed on what they were consuming. Upton Sinclair was a Muckraker who wrote the novel “The Jungle”. This novel was published in 1906 and described the conditions of the meatpacking factories of Chicago which brought up attention to many people. As a response, there were laws put in place that regulated the meat industry. The Meat Inspection Act of 1906 ensured that meat was being packaged in sanitary conditions and The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 prevented the selling and transportation of dangerous and poisonous products that were being consumed by the people. Aside from the unsanitary conditions of meatpacking factories, there was also the issues of child labor. Many factories would hire children as a form of cheap labor. Child labor would be most common among middle class families. Children would also be hired because their small hands could reach in the little places of machines. “Are the educators, like the rest of us, so caught in admiration of the astonishing achievements of modern industry that they forget the children themselves?” (Doc C). Since children were expected to go into factory work, they would be deprived of valuable education. Jane Addams believed that children were being used to develop the country but once they finished industrializing America, then what else would they be good for if they weren’t educated. If children weren’t being educated that meant that the rich would be in control and nothing in society would change. Jane Addams formed settlement houses which was a place where workers would provide education to children. The Adamson Act of 1916, created an 8 hour work day and if workers stayed longer, they were entitled to extra pay. This act however, was only applied to railroad workers. The Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1906 prohibited the sale of products that were made by children under the age of fourteen. The supreme court case of Hammer v. Dagenhart, the Keating-Owen Child Labor Act was unconstitutional because “it not only transcends the authority delegated to Congress over commerce, but it also exerts a power to a purely local matter.” (Doc G). The supreme court believed that Congress had surpassed their limits because they attempted to regulate the production of goods. There were many labor unions that were formed such as the Knights of Labor and the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions which would fight for better working conditions. By the end of the Progressive Era, there were many new laws that worked in the favor of workers, however there was still more issues to be fixed in the work force. In the Progressive Era, people wanted to better the American economy.
One way they tried to better the economy was eliminating monopolies. Monopolies were companies that took control over small businesses which would decrease competition and that would harm consumers because they did not have a variety of companies and usually the prices would be very high. Some famous monopolies were Rockefeller's oil company, J.P. Morgan’s railroad company, and Carnegie’s steel company. These monopolies would limit competition meaning consumers were stuck on purchasing goods from them. Usually these individuals would lower prices to attract customers but once they had a lot of customers they would raise prices. Theodore Roosevelt was against bad trusts because he believed that they would harm the economy by raising prices for consumers but he favored the good trusts because he was able to regulate them and allowed them to have low prices (Doc A). The Sherman Antitrust Act was created to try and eliminate monopolies however, these monopolies did not respect the Sherman Antitrust Act because the supreme court said that the act only applied to commerce not manufacturing. When president Woodrow Wilson was in office, the Sherman Antitrust Act was later more clarified by the Clayton Antitrust Act. The Clayton Antitrust Act made it “unlawful for any person engaged in commerce, in the course of such commerce, either directly or indirectly to discriminate in price between different purchasers of
commodities which commodities are sold for use, consumption, or resale within the United States” (Doc E). The Clayton Antitrust Act strictly prohibited the formation of monopolies. It also set a fixed price on products so that a company wouldn’t take control. Monopolies became illegal because they prevented strong businesses from emerging. The Clayton Antitrust Act also allowed for the formation of labor unions. The US economy improved because of the elimination of monopolies. During the time period of 1900-1920, there were many reform movements that benefited people in American society. These Progressive reformers were successful because they gained some women's rights as well as African Americans trying to better their reputation in society, improving working conditions, and fixing the American economy. Even though there were many reforms in society, there were still issues that needed to be fixed in society. The Progressive Era helped society because people now had a voice and they were riled up and wanted a bigger change to occur in American society.
As the Reconstruction Era ended, the United States became the up and coming world power. The Spanish-American war was in full swing, and the First World War was well on its way. As a result of the open-door policy, England, Germany, France, Russia, and eventually Japan experienced rapid industrial growth; the United States decided to pursue a foreign policy because of both self- interest and idealism. According to the documents, Economic self- interest, rather than idealism was more significant in driving American foreign policy from 1895 to 1920 because the United States wanted to protect their foreign trade, property and their access to recourses. While the documents also show that Nationalistic thought (idealism) was also crucial in driving American foreign policy, economic Self- interest prevailed.
Groups of people soon received new rights. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. It gave black Americans full citizenship and guaranteed them equal treatment. Also, it passed the Fourteenth Amendment to make sure that the Supreme Court couldn’t declare the Civil Rights Act unconstitutional. The amendment made blacks citizens of the United States and the states in which they lived. Also, states were forbidden to deprive blacks of life, liberty, or property without due process. Additionally, blacks could not be discriminated by the law. If a state would deprive blacks of their rights as citizens, it’s number of congressional representatives would be reduced. The Civil Rights Act as well as the Fourteenth Amendment affected both the North and the South.
Roosevelt and Wilson were both strong believers in Progressivism. The Progressive movement was time of eliminating corruption and reform. Roosevelt wanted a stronger central government to help the people. He used his position as president as a “bully pulpit”, in that he would influence public opinion through his popularity. Roosevelt often took a more aggressive approach to domestic policy in that he would go against the Old Guard Republicans, whereas Wilson was one to speak directly in front of congress in order to gain their support. Roosevelt became president towards the beginning of the progressive movement, and so he had a harder time trying make reforms than Wilson did. Also, by telling the public that he was only going to run one term, his chances of running for a second term was greatly diminished, which is one of the reasons why Wilson came ahead in the election of 1912. Roosevelt promoted New Nationalism, while Wilson promoted New Freedom. They were very popular presidents in the eyes of the American people. Especially Roosevelt, who liked to vocalize his opinions and open up his private life to them. Throughout the early 1900s, Roosevelt and Wilson both were leaders in the progressive movement, with their own spin on how it should be done. The two presidents altered labor and large businesses, civil rights, and ultimately the role of the federal government.
Even though African Americans were now free and considered citizens thanks to the 13th and 14th amendments, they were still severely oppressed. While technically they had more rights and opportunities in the United Sates government than females, they did not truly receive them. As Frederick Douglass said over and over again in support of the 15th amendment, the abolishment of slavery did not eradicate racism. It was still a huge problem in America. Abolishment had been achieved in name and name only, because they were economically just as tyrannized as before. In the eyes of the feminists who supported the 15th amendment, they saw it as an opportunity for African American males to be able to make a bigger influence in American politics and hopefully lessen the iron fist they were under. With the ability to vote, the hope was that the rather large population of African American males would have the chance to make a real impact in
In the colonization period, the urge to conquer foreign territories was strong, and many lands in the Western Hemisphere were conquered. With the colonization of these areas, a mercantilist relationship was formed between the conquered civilization and the maternal country. A major part of this was the restriction of exportation of native resources only to the mother country as well as the banning of trading with colonies of other countries. In turn, there was an increasing in the number of smuggling activities during the time. According to a British sailor named William Taggart in 1760, the illegal smuggling of goods into these areas had a positive impact because it brought prosperity to the people in Monte Christi, as there were only one hundred poor families. Likewise, Dominica governor John Orde praised the trading because it created prices much lower than with its maternal country. However, British admiral David Tyrell, Roger Elletson, Dominica governor John Orde, and a 1790 Bahaman newspaper report all had similar views on the harmful effects and corruptness present in smuggling. Despite this, physician George Lipscomb and British Lieutenant Governor Thomas Bruce had neutral opinions on the matter, and only stated what they witnessed in the process.
The 19th amendment granted women the right to vote and was ratified in 1920 during Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat’s, presidency. Because of Jackson’s democratization of politics and his increasing want for more American citizens to be able to vote, women were finally granted this right less than a hundred years after his presidency. Jackson was determined to let his people help make government decisions and maintain their rights and this made the Jacksonian Era a democratization of politics because of the advancing opportunities to vote, the Indian removal, and being advantageous to the individual, middle and lower class people’s finances, wants, and
Due to the Jim Crow laws in the South, she completed limited schooling available for young black girls. During the period of Women's Suffrage in the early 1900s, sometimes black women were discriminated against from the end of the Civil War and onward. When the 19th amendment was passed in 1920, it enfranchised all women, white and black. Although within the few decades, state laws and vigilante practices, which would disenfranchise most black women in the South. It took a major movement- Civil Rights Movement to take effect in the 1960s for African Americans before black women in the South would have the right to vote effectively. (African American Women and Suffrage.
During the Progressive Era, pressure from labor, suffrage, and conservation movements profoundly changed the course of American history. Many of the reformers' ideas clashed with the male-dominated, capitalist economic structure present at the turn of the century. Some of the intended reforms opposed the current system, but the level of social unrest necessitated change. Businessmen and activists alike initiated the reforms during the Progressive Era. Government, due to the intention of calming the common man and quieting the seemingly more and more vocal middle class, supported them. In the final analysis, from the year 1900 to 1920, Progressive Era reformers were successful in bringing about reform to the United States.
At the turn of the century America entered a new age that many historians call the Progressive Era. During this time period, the American Political system changed its view on how America should be brought about. It provided a purification of the American government through direct democracy. This era included many social and political reforms, which were brought about due to monopolies, and trust corporations.
Within the period of 1900-1920, many national reforms were rising to the top as Progressive Era reformers and the federal government heard the voices of the people. The effectiveness of Progressivism is a controversial subject for some, but the future was changed through the events of any actions a president made, the rights of people, and unfair treatment and conditions. This era brings changes to our society that also changes the future of it. These two decades brought forth successful times in bettering America.
In an era of addressing social issues and inequality, many African Americans were segregated and divided; they fought for justice but racial tensions still formed. The Progressive Era: a time of major movements of the American population. During the decades between the 1890s and 1920, Americans were faced with many challenges and in turn, they entered a modern era of change. The states and cities were experiencing a newly diverse and urban society. There were new technological advances and industrial economics were growing rapidly since the Civil War. Although, not all innovations made during this time were beneficial. With the large innovations in society and the progressive mindsets, the lives of African Americans dramatically changed. The
Reformers known as Progressives attempted to undo the problems caused by industrialization. The Progressive movement sought to end the influence of large corporations, provide more rights and benefits to workers, and end the control possessed by party leaders. At the national level, Progressivism centered on defeating the power of large businesses. The Progressive Era was a period in American history in which improving working conditions, exposing corruption, improving the way of life, expanding democracy, and making reforms were the objectives at hand. With the emergence of the Progressive Era, two important figures gradually emerged as well.
The turn of the century was marked by a movement known as the Progressive Era, during which many groups sought to reshape the nation's government and society in response to the pressure of urbanization and industrialization. Progressives were mainly members of the Post-Civil War generation that made an attempt to master a world much different then that of their parents.
During the Progressive Era there were two major factors that made this time unbearable which were Child Labor and unsafe working conditions. This time, The Progressive Era happened during 1890-1920. Many changes were made to the United States. Many people were apart of this movement like Andrew Carnegie and Upton Sinclair. Like many during this time they wanted improvement and that's what they achieved.
The Progressive Movement brought about many changes to improve the lives of American people in many ways especially during the years between 1900 and 1920. There were reforms and changes to housing and sanitation. Garbage pick-up and improvements to the sewer systems were made and then inspectors were hired to make sure the new reforms were kept. Many of the inspectors who were hired were women. Women began to make more of an impact in the workforce. Women were also allowed to start voting.