As you have seen over the past few chapters, America was changing A LOT during the decades following Reconstruction.
Events like recreation, urbanization, immigration, sanitation, political corruption and many more were dominating the headlines.
For this week's blog-visit this website. Notice the drop down menu at the top that says "38. From the countryside to the city". When you click the drop down menu you'll see options "38 a-f" and more. Please select a topic between "38 a-f" and "38 a-e". These are all Gilded Age topics.
Read what this website has to say AND look at other websites to get more info about whatever topic you selected.
For the comment section, write 200 words discussing what you learned about the Gilded Age topic of your choice.
I read about how corruption ran wild during this time. Also how political machines were in control of people and some institutions and in order to stay in power they had to keep the workers happy. So they might have to give them what they want. The number one party boss or political machine was Boss Tweed and he had a lot of power over some big companies. For twelve years he ruled New York. He gave to the poor and authorized the Christmas turkey handout and winter coal to prospective reporters. While he did this he also took a lot of taxpayer money. This was corrupt an cartoonist named Thomas Nast brought this corruption to attention through his cartoons.(200)
ReplyDeleteI read about how corruption was running wild. In this article it talks about how if you were high up you were most likely corrupted. An examples of this that the article gave was how mayors in big towns were usually successful if they were corrupted and those who were not shriveled up. This article also goes on to talk about illegal gambling and Prostitution rings. They said that these were some examples of companies breaking the laws and maybe even there own rules. This leads to one of the number one sayings they had was you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. This saying is the reason why a lot of people went against the laws and their company rules they just did all of it for money, basically. The last thing the article talks about is how Boss Tweed who was one of the top dogs at his time was arrested in 1876. He was arrested because of the political cartoons made on him showing what he was really all about. The article also tells us that Tweed did escape prison but was recaptured after a person recognized him in Spain and his life ended in prison in 1878. (202)
ReplyDeleteThe gilded ages was a time that grew America into the country it is today. With new inventions rapidly coming along, America started to become the modern city it is today. First the tall skyscrapers came along. They seemed to be running out of room to make enough buildings so they thought, if we can’t build out let’s build up, and that’s what they did. They started building large, tall, steel skyscrapers which created a whole other level for America. Inventions like the elevator, electricity, telephone, cable cars, subway and much more created a more modern look for America and added much success. What also helped the cities grow was electricity. Electricity didn’t always reach to the farms so they decided to keep the electricity for only the center part of town what we would know as “downtown”. The creation of cable cars and subways gave the option for family’s to live outside the rural area. You could still get to what you needed to now because of the transportation options. Not everyone had the access to the new urban cities. Although America was on its way to great success, there were many underlying issues, that had been ignored, which created major problems for the US. (206)
ReplyDeleteI read about The rush of immigrants. In America, many immigrants would come from Southern and Eastern Europe, and Asia. This brought many new languages, religions and complexions. New parts of cities like Chinatown, Greektown, and Little Italy helps immigrants to adapt to America. Many people American citizens were not very open minded to the new immigrants. Business owners saw this as a great way to have cheap labor. In 1882, Congress passed the Chineese Exclusion Act. Twenty-five years later, Japanese immigration was collected by an executive agreement. These two groups were the only ethnicities to not be allowed to immigrate to America. In 1917, Congress required the passing of a literacy test to gain admission. Finally, in 1924, it was impossible for new immigrants based on ethnicity. The new ban was based on the United States population of 1890 and was made to nitrile the past immigrant groups of the United States. The cultures coming together made a new culture for America. Although many ethnic groups wanted to maintain their old ways of their cultures, their children believed differently. Many learned English and lived the ways they wanted to. Immigrating to America helped many ethnic groups come together to create new cultures. (203)
ReplyDeleteI read about how corruption ran wild, back in the days of the gilded age there wasn’t really any major control in the country, and any control there was didn’t really belong to the president. One thing this article said is that if you wanted to become mayor, it was like entering a cyclone, there were so many things circling around you that you almost couldn’t handle it. It also said how if you were a mayor and made it as mayor, you were most likely corrupt, because you had to do a lot of things that could possibly corrupt you. One of the most corrupt leaders of this time was Boss Tweed of New York, this man was a very corrupt man who took major advantage of the power he was given, many people in high places of power were like this, they abused the power they had been given. The people like Boss Tweed were not heavily liked either, they often were not liked by people not in their position, and the people they worked with probably did not like them either since they probably didn’t get as much power as the others. This time wasn’t a good time for people not in power positions.(207)
ReplyDeleteI read 38a “The Glamour of American Cities” which explained the why big cities, such as Chicago, expanded so largely. As competition between industries rose, the companies would need more and more factories and fast to be able to compete. Laborers needed houses close to their work, so they would need to build roads to connects to their houses, work, and markets. With no design for the city they were able to expand in any direction, making the cities spread at an alarming rate. But the cost to buy more land was very expensive, but it was completely free to build up which led to very tall buildings and skyscrapers being built. In 1861 Elisha Otis invented the elevator so walking up and down these massive building were not a problem. Other electrical inventions would surface, such as light bulbs that would light up entire cities during the night. Subways and cable cars allowed the middle class to live and work even further from the city’s center and cause more spreading. The electric fan, sewing machine, and iron gave a huge quality of life increase to everybody, and the telephone greatly expanded communication. The gilded age gave birth to one of the greatest technological advances in history, a great increase in urban living, and even brought back Chicago in a much greater glory than it had before it was destroyed in a great fire in 1871. The massive downside is that all of this opportunity was not obtainable by a lot of people, leading to a largely unseen social issues by America and the government.(265)
ReplyDeleteThis article contained features of the history of the Civil War, the Gilded Age, immigrants, a political cartoon of Thomas Nast, and some parts that look like modern current events. It tells the story of political bosses such as William Tweed, Mayor of New York City, from 1858 until 1871. Boss Tweed is the most infamous political boss of the Gilded Age. For these twelve years during the American Civil War, he ruled New York. His method to get elected and stay in office was to give gifts such as Christmas turkeys and winter coal to prospective voters. Staying in office allowed him to cheat taxpayers out of money which went into his and his friends pockets.
ReplyDeleteBoss Tweed appealed to immigrants because they were poor and the most desperate of his voters. He provided soup kitchens to receive votes. Community leaders in local neighborhoods were often rewarded jobs in return for getting large numbers of voters to turn out for their political boss.
Tweed knew how to satisfy big business and did so by rewarding them with city contracts for construction of factories or public works. These businesses would then contribute lots of money to keep him in office. These activities could appear to be legitimate. The problem was that many political leaders broke their own laws to suit their purposes. Public tax money and payoffs from the business sector increased the bank accounts of these corrupt leaders.
Voter fraud was common. Political bosses arranged to have voter lists get longer to include many of the names of persons not allowed to vote. Friends of the Mayor would travel from polling place to polling place to place multiple votes. One district in New York one time reported more votes than it had residents. (301)
I read 38e. Religious Revival: The "Social Gospel". At this time in the gilded age there was a gigantic influx of immagration of whom wished to retain their culture. Due to such the Protestant Church in the US suffered as the immigrants would stayed loyal to their culture and went to churches of their countries respective dominations and sects. Those mostly being Russian Orthodox Churches and Catholic Church along with their synagogues. As for the natives faith although the majority were Protestant with culture rapidly changing in the gilded age the Protestant teachings of “hellfire and brimstone” were becoming overused and somewhat counterintuitive in accordance to retaining and growing a Church. This was especially true for lower class people who often had very hard jobs and hours who didn’t want to go to worship and here about the wrath of God. Thus the “Social gospel movement” was formed as a savior for the church. Whereas as the contemporary problems of society would be addressed by the teaching of the church. Consequently, involving ministers in politics in order to promote growth in their church. Of whom, WASHINGTON GLADDEN was among the most prominent of the social gospel ministers. He publicaly supported the workers' right to strike in the wake of the Great Upheaval of 1877. Him among other called for an end to child labor, the enactment of temperance laws, and civil service reform as backed by their teachings. This movement pioneered congregationalists and Unitarian Churches into what could be considered a “mainstream church” as they collectively led the way in social activism. Apthough, this movement didn’t only effect previously established physical churches. As Urban revivalists preachers swept the nation's cities. One of the most famous being Dwight Lyman Moody. Of whom was a shoe salesman who took his fiery “oratory” on the road. As he traveled from city to city preaching , he attracted crowds large enough to affect local traffic patterns. The movement didn’t only affect adults either. Out of the movement The Y.M.C.A. And the Young. Woman’s. Christian. Association. we’re formed for urban children. This time was known as the Third Great Awakening. Whereas the church solidified itself in the minds of people as an active force of good that keeps up with the needs of people according to the will of God. From this I learned the orgigins of many things I heard about growing up in church and was supringsly interested in hearing about their origins. As well as not interested but really enjoyed hearing about a time where the church wasn’t only focusing on filling the pews and getting tides but actually doing the work of Jesus and helping people the way he did and taught. (453)
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