Unit 7 The Gilded Age 1877-1900. The Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes – 19 th President of U.S. 1...

Unit 7

The Gilded Age

1877-1900

The Presidents

Rutherford B. Hayes – 19th President of U.S.

• 1 term: 1877-1881• Republican Party

• Removed remaining Federal troops from the South

• Ended Reconstruction

James A. Garfield – 20th President of U.S.

• 1 term: 1881• Republican Party

• Assassinated

Chester A. Arthur – 21st President of U.S.


Grover Cleveland – 22nd and 24th President of U.S.

• 2 terms:

1885-1889

1893-1897

• Democratic Party

Benjamin Harrison – 23rd President of U.S.


Grover Cleveland – 22nd and 24th President of U.S.

• 2 terms:

1885-1889

1893-1897

• Democratic Party

William McKinley – 25th President of U.S.

• 2 terms: 1897-1901• Republican Party

Reshaping the Nation

The Frontier West

The Frontier West

• Comstock Lode, 1859– “Danged blue stuff”

• Miners come from across U.S., France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, and China

• Boom town grew into Virginia City, Nevada

The Frontier West

• Other strikes– Colorado: gold

Denver & Colorado Springs grew up near gold mines

– 1870s: major gold strikes in Black Hills of South Dakota

The Frontier West

• Thousands of people go west to supply miners’ needs– tools – stores– food – laundries– clothing – boarding houses– supplies – hotels– restaurants

• Miners paid high prices

• Stagecoaches and mule teams could not carry enough supplies West quick enough

The Frontier West

• Miners forced Native Americans off their lands, and foreigners were ill-treated

• Few miners got rich quick– Eventually, most mining in the West was taken over

by large companies

• Boom towns → Ghost towns– Many boom towns lasted only a few years until the

ore “played out”

1873: Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis patented blue denim pants with copper rivets

Within 2 years, workers throughout the West (such as miners) were wearing these sturdy “blue jeans”

The Frontier West

• Railroads– Federal government encouraged the building of

railroads• Gave land to railroad companies• Ignored rights of Native Americans

• Transcontinental Railroad– 1863: Two companies started a race

• Union Pacific – began in Omaha, Nebraska• Central Pacific – began in Sacramento, California

The Frontier West

• Building the Transcontinental Railroad– Labor was scarce during the Civil War– Railroad companies hired immigrant workers

• Central Pacific hired thousands from China• Union Pacific hired newcomers from Ireland• Both hired African Americans and Mexicans

Promontory Point, Utah – May 10, 1869

– First transcontinental railroad was completed– Leland Stanford, Pres. of Central Pacific, hammered a

golden spike in the rail joining the two tracks

The Frontier West

• Railroads– More new railroad lines were built linking East and

West– Brought rapid growth and settlement in West

• New states– 1864: Nevada – 1890: Idaho– 1876: Colorado – 1890: Wyoming– 1889: North Dakota– 1889: South Dakota– 1889: Montana– 1889: Washington

Shooting buffalo from a train

Frontier: Plains Indians• Sioux

– Lakota, Dakota, Nakota

• Sun Dance– Important religious ceremony

Frontier: Plains Indians

• Great Plains– Good for farming and ranching

• Gold strikes and railroads bring white settlers

• U.S. government forced Indian leaders to sign new treaties, giving up their land– Some Native Americans refused

• attacked trains• burned settlers’ homes• killed miners and U.S. soldiers

– Across Great Plains, soldiers and Indians went to war


• Red Cloud– Lakota War Chief


• Federal government wants peace– Urged Native Americans to live like whites– Took Lakota children to a school in Indiana

• New treaties in late 1860s– Indians moved to reservations in Oklahoma and

South Dakota


• Sioux War of 1876– 1874, prospectors found gold in Black Hills of South

Dakota• Thousands of miners go there

– U.S. army sent to drive Indians to reservation and away from miners


• Col. George A. Custer– Led U.S. army soldiers

• Battle of Little Big Horn– June 1876– Lakotas and Cheyennes

war with U.S. army– Custer knew he was

outnumbered, but attacked anyway

– Custer and his men were trapped and killed


• Crazy Horse


• Black Hills, SD– Eventually, more soldiers arrived and forced Indians

onto reservations– A few Lakota leaders fled to Canada

• Plains Indians suffer– Losing battles– Buffalo being destroyed– Starvation– Broken treaties– Forced onto reservations

Frontier: Plains Indians• Ghost Dance

– Lakota religious ceremony– Celebrated time when Indians lived freely on Plains– White settlers alarmed – thought Indians were preparing

for war


• December 1890– Police officers enter Standing

Rock Reservation to arrest Lakota Chief Sitting Bull

• Settlers claimed him responsible for spread of Ghost Dance

• Officers and Indians struggle• Sitting Bull accidentally shot

and killed– Groups of leaders fled reservation– Army troops pursued and brought

them to Wounded Knee Creek


• Wounded Knee Creek– Indians began to surrender and giving up guns– A shot was fired– Army opened fire with rifles and machine guns– Nearly 300 Native Americans (men, women, and

children) were killed– About 30 soldiers died

• Fighting at Wounded Knee marked end of Indian wars and end of Ghost Dance religion


Lakota Chief Big Foot

Corpse of Big Foot several days after his death when troops came to bury the frozen bodies


• Long history of broken treaties between U.S. and Native Americans– Life on reservations changed Native American

culture– Federal government wanted Indians to give

up old ways (language, religion, customs, etc.)• Assimilation

– Indians became dependent on federal government for food and supplies


• 1887 Dawes Act– Divided up some Native American lands and

gave to individual families• Encouraged Indians to become farmers• Promoted assimilation• Broke up some reservations• Policy failed

Plains: Ranching & Farming• After Civil War, growing cities in East demanded more

beef• Ranchers began cattle drives north to ship their cattle by

rail to Chicago– Chisholm Trail (best known trail)– Sedalia Trail – Abilene, Kansas, was major shipping point

Plains: Ranching & Farming• Cattle drives

– Hot, dirty, tiring work– 10-14 hour days– Took about 3 months– Hazards

• Stampedes• Crossing rivers• Swamps• Grass fires• Attacks from cattle thieves

• Cowboys celebrated when they reached a railroad town– Difficult for sheriffs to keep the peace

Plains: Ranching & Farming

• 1862 Homestead Act– Government gave 160 acres to anyone who could

farm it for 5 years– By 1900s, half million farmers settled on Great Plains

• 1870s• Cattle ranches began springing up in West

– Water scarce on open range– Ranchers fight over water holes and streams

• Farmers began moving onto open range


• Sodbusters– Plains farmers– James Oliver designed special sod-busting plow– Farmers built windmills to reach water often hundreds

of feet below surface– Hazards

• Grass fires• Grasshoppers• Winter winds, icy gusts, snow drifts

– Sod houses


• 1879 Exodusters– Large group of African Americans move to Kansas

• Southern blacks escaping the South

• 1880s• Harsh winters in late 1880s led to loss of herds• Ranchers and farmers began using barbed wire

– Era of open range and cattle drives ended


• Oklahoma Land Rush– Last major land rush– Began at noon on April 22, 1889– “Boomers” charged in to stake land– “Sooners” snuck in and staked much of best land

• 1890– No more frontier in U.S.


• Populist Party– People’s Party– Formed in 1891 to help farmers and laborers– Called on government to help

• Falling farm prices• Regulation of railroad rates• Income tax• 8 hour work day• Limits on immigration• Free silver (to increase the supply of money)

– Also wanted direct election of senators and secret voting ballots


• William Jennings Bryan– “Great Commoner”

– 1896 Presidential candidate for Democrats & Populists

– Lost to Republican candidate William McKinley


• Populist Party– Broke up after 1896 when prosperity returned, but

many ideas lived on• 8 hour work day later became the standard for

American workers• 1913 Constitutional Amendment authorizing

Income Tax

Reshaping the Nation

Cities & Industry

Bessemer process

• Henry Bessemer– patented in 1855

• First inexpensive industrial process for mass-production of steel from molten pig iron

• Key principle – removal of impurities by oxidation – air blown through the

molten iron

1871 Chicago Fire

• One of largest U.S. disasters in 19th C• October 8 – 10• Destroyed 4 sq. mi.

1882 Chinese Exclusion Act

• Banned all but a few Chinese immigrants• Not lifted until 1943

1883 Pendleton Act

• Civil Service Reform Act• Created Civil Service Commission

– Civil Service exams

1886 Haymarket Riot - Chicago

• Workers strike at McCormick Harvester Co.• Workers clash with police trying to break up

strike• Police open fire and kill 4 workers• Next day, thousands of workers gather to protest• A bomb explodes• Police open fire, killing 10 & wounding 50

1890 Sherman Antitrust Act

• Outlawed trusts• Supreme Court did not support

• Trust– Different companies agree to work together

• Economic, territorial, industrial, & population expansion

• “Gilded Age” coined by Mark Twain

Gilded Age1877-1900

• Growing cities– Crowded conditions– Filth (lack waste & garbage removal)– Lack of clean water– Disease– Transportation problems

Gilded Age

Expansion of industry in North

leads to growth of big business

Gilded Age

• Social Darwinism– Government should allow free competition in

business to allow the best individuals to succeed

Gilded Age

• Robber barons– Leaders who used trusts to control an industry

• Trust– Different companies agree to work together

• Monopoly– A firm controlling all competition in an industry

Robber Barons

• Andrew Carnegie– Steel

Robber Barons

• J. P. Morgan– Financier/banker

Robber Barons

• John D. Rockefeller– Oil

Robber Barons

• Cornelius Vanderbilt– Railroads &

shipping

William McKinley – 25th President of U.S.

• 2 terms: 1897-1901• Republican Party

• Spanish American War• Assassinated

Unit 7 The Gilded Age 1877-1900. The Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes – 19 th President of U.S. 1...

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Transcript of Unit 7 The Gilded Age 1877-1900. The Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes – 19 th President of U.S. 1...