Day 42 Politics in the Gilded Age 1877-1900 Homework: 267-271.
Social and Cultural Changes 1877-1900
-
Upload
dean-richard -
Category
Documents
-
view
43 -
download
0
description
Transcript of Social and Cultural Changes 1877-1900
Social and Cultural Changes1877-1900
American life seemed much the same in 1877 as it had been a century earlier. Most Americans were white Anglo-Saxon
Protestants, who owned their own homes and led quiet, generally healthy lives. But urbanization and
industrialization were changing all aspects of American life.
Manners and Mores
• Late 19th century
– Victorian morals
– Middle class
– Behaved “properly”
• Religious values
– Reform movements
• Alcohol
• Pornography
• Political corruption
Leisure and Entertainment
• Free time
– At home playing cards, croquet or other games
• Music
– Ballads, ragtime
• Circus, organized sports (baseball, football, basketball)
• Street Lights changed American’s leisure habits
Changes in Family Life
• Poor Lower Class– Family life disappeared
• Middle Class– Father commuted– Mother-made home a
domestic refuge– “just a housewife” was
almost shameful, domesticity never fully honored
• I have a little boy at home,
• A pretty little son;
• I think sometimes the world is mine
• In him, my only one…
• ‘Ere dawn my labor drives me forth
• ‘Tis night when I am free
• A stranger am I to my child;
• And stranger my child to me
Changing Views:A growing assertiveness among
women• “New Women”
– Demanded the elimination of laws that discriminated against them
– Spoke openly about topics that had long been considered taboo
Educating the Masses
• States required young to attend school– Only to 6th grade
• Teaching– Unimaginative– Routine– Students were NOT
encouraged to be active• South-Segregation, Rural
poverty– 1896- “Separate but
equal” school systems
Higher Education
• Colleges flourished– Medicine– Nursing
• Women accepted• Racial discrimination
persisted– Booker T.
Washington-concentrate on vocational education
– WEB DuBois-wanted equal quality education
Booker T. Washington
WEB DuBois
Higher Education for African Americans
Booker T. Washington• Ex-slave
• Founded the Tuskegee Institute
• Stressed patience, manual training & hard work
• Focus on economic gains. Go to school to learn skills
• Acknowledge white domination.
• Rather than fight, show they are worthy of their rights
WEB Du Bois• Attended Harvard University• Civil Rights activist• More aggressive strategy• Worked his way up and used
sociology to study the effect of urban life on blacks
• Focus: change the environment and people will change
• Urged African Americans to aspire to professional careers
– Fight for their rights– Get a college education– Called for integration of schools and equal
opportunity