The Gilded Age: The Gilded Age

Jeff Shaffer

Mr. Akers

English 3

2/25/14

The Gilded Age

Look around at our society today, would it be the same if not for the Gilded Age?? The Gilded Age resulted in many things that people still benefit from to this very day. The Gilded Age was an age of economic growth, especially in the North and West. Millions of European immigrants were attracted to the United States. The European wages, especially for skilled workers, were much lower than in America. Wages in the US grew at a very fast rate and continued to rise. The increase of industrialization means, an increasing labor force. However, even with an increase in jobs the Gilded Age was also an era of poverty as very poor European immigrants moved to the United States. The major industry was railroads, but labor unions, mining, and the factory system also increased in importance. One major nationwide depressions known as the Panic of 1893 stunted growth. The South remained devastated economically; its economy became tied to tobacco and cotton production, which suffered low prices. African Americans in the South lost their right to vote. The political outcome was notable despite some corruption, elections between the evenly matched parties were close and turnout was very high. The biggest issues were economic: tariffs and money supply, and cultural: especially including prohibition, ethnic and racial groups, and education.

Before the Gilded Age life in the United States was tremendously different. John D. Rockerfeller incorporated the Standard Oil Company. The 15th amendment was passed and it gave African Americans the right to vote. The first baseball league “The National Association” was established. The Chicago fire in 1871, caused 196 million dollars in damage, burne...

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...ats. Republicans insisted that paid high wages, and warned that European factories would flood the American market. Overall Democrat and Republican political platforms remained constant in the years before 1900. Democrats favored other Laissez-Faire policies, hard money, and free trade, Republicans generally favored inflationary, and protectionist policies.

Immigration to the United States in the Gilded Age brought about 10 million immigrants to the United States in what is known as the New Immigration. Many of the immigrants were poor peasants coming to the United States for the “American Dream” in unskilled manual labor in mills, mines, and factories. The “New Immigrantion” consists of very poor peasants and rural folk from southern and eastern Europe. The push factors included anti-Semitism, economic dislocation, and shortages of land. The pull factors were the