Discrimination, Industrialization& Culture Life During the Gilded Age

Bessemer Process Bessemer Process- involved injecting

air into molten iron to remove carbon & other impurities

Used to produce 90% of nation’s steel Railroads biggest customers for steel Steel changed nation; made innovative

construction possible

Monopolies Vertical Integration: buying out

supplies in order to control an industry (Carnegie) i.e. coal fields, iron mines, railroad lines

Horizontal Integration: buying out competitors to control an industry (Rockefeller)

New Technologies Printing- literacy rate rose, huge

quantities of cheap paper, cheap to buy newspapers

Airplanes- advance in transportation Orville & Wilbur Wright

Photography-made more flexible & portable Kodak camera

Voting Restrictions Denied legal equality to African

Americans Literacy Test Poll tax- annual tax that had to be paid

before qualifying to vote Grandfather clause- man is entitled to

vote if he, his father, or grandfather had been eligible to vote

Jim Crow Laws Racial segregation laws to separate

whites and blacks in public and private facilities

Schools, hospitals, parks, transportation systems

Plessy v. Ferguson Separation of races in public

accommodations was legal and did not violate the 14th amendment

Separate but equal Legalized racial segregation for 60 years

Race Relations Between 1882 and 1892, more than

1400 African Americans were shot, burned or hanged without trial

Many blacks migrated north in search of better-paying jobs & social equality

Discrimination also in the North

Discrimination in the West Mexican workers hired to work on

railroads Worked for less money than other ethnic

groups Chinese immigrants pushed into

segregated schools & neighborhoods

Reformers Mobilize Social Gospel Movement- preached

salvation through service to the poor Settlement Houses- community centers

in slum neighborhoods that provided assistance to people in the area (esp. immigrants) Middle class, college-educated women ran

Jane Addams- founded the Hull House

Social Darwinism Charles Darwin’s biological theories

used to explain evolution of human society

Some individuals of a species flourish while others do not

Less suited individuals are weeded out Riches are a sign of god’s favor; poor

must be lazy or inferior Used as justification for millionaires

Dawn of Mass Culture Rise of consumer culture Whites had leisure time for recreational

activities Amusement parks Bicycling and tennis Spectator sports Baseball

Spread of Mass Culture Newspapers

Joseph Pulitzer William Randolph Hearst

Fine Arts Ashcan School

Popular Fiction

New Ways to Sell Goods Urban Shopping- first shopping center opens Department Stores chain stores

Woolworth’s Explosion in advertising

Modern consumerism Catalogs

Montgomery Ward & Sears Rural Free Delivery- system that brought

packages directly to every home Music spread by NYC’s Tin Pan Alley