HIS 125 Essay 1 (The Gilded Age) Professor Clock PDF

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Luis Ortiz Vasquez Professor Clock History 125 30 September 2017 America’s Gilded Age: A Great Period, For the Rich America’s Gilded Age (1870-1890) was a period where many major changes took place. One of these major changes was the second industrial revolution which brought with it exponential economic growth. Since working for wages was quickly replacing farming, more and more people were moving into the cities. During this period of change, many industrial leaders seized this opportunity to increase their workforce and take advantage of the lack of regulations to exploit their workers. America’s Gilded Age was a period of labor-force exploitation and uneven distribution of wealth. During the Gilded Age, several industry tycoons took advantage of their workers and made themselves exponentially richer in the process. One of them was John D. Rockefeller, who drove out competing companies by means of cut-throat competition and horizontal expansion, thus establishing a monopoly. While it is true that Rockefeller’s companies created many jobs, the working conditions provided were a high price to pay for such jobs. About 35,000 industrial workers died each year between 1880 and 1900 due to work-related accidents, which is the highest rate in the industrial world (Foner 599). Aside from the fact that the industrial workers had to face these tremendously dangerous working conditions, Rockefeller offered them no health insurance or injury compensation.

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The lack of worker’s rights was one of the worst drawbacks faced by the industrial workers of that time period. If an employee was indisposed, whether it was due to illness or family emergency, they were fired and quickly replaced by somebody else. Since so many farmers were now moving into the cities and working for wages, it was very easy for employers to replace their workers. During the depressions of the 1870’s and 1890’s, millions of workers were replaced or got a reduction in their pay rate. The “tramp” was a very popular figure during these times as thousands of men were on the roads trying to find work (Foner 599). Moreover, the fact that there was not a defined number of hours to a workday gave way for even more exploitation. It allowed companies to make their employees labor incessantly for long hours at an extremely low pay rate, which they had to accept if they didn’t want to be replaced. Another important aspect of the gilded age was the uneven distribution of wealth. While a very few percentage of people were able to partake of the growth opportunities that were produced, the vast majority of people still struggled to even bring food to the table and satisfy some of the most basic human needs. Not to mention that in order to barely get by, every single member of these poor families had to go out in search of work and contribute a share of the expenses. This meant of course, that children had to renounce getting an education and work as adults to help their parents. The lack of education these children suffered tremendously reduced their chances of ever growing out of poverty, and thus forcing them to repeat the vicious cycle of their parents. It was such unfair conditions that made many reporters of the time feel the need to decry the unfair way in which the country’s wealth was being distributed. One of them was Nell Cusack who published in the Chicago Times a series of articles titled “City Slave Girls,” in which he decried the egregious conditions in which women at the time were working in rich people’s homes, factories, and sweatshops. “One woman singled out domestic service—still the

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largest employment category for women—as ‘a slave’s life,’ with ‘long hours, late and early, seven days in the week, bossed and ordered about as before the war’” (Foner 600). In conclusion, America’s Gilded age was a period where millions of industrial workers were overworked and underpaid, while the wealthy became exponentially wealthier. It was also a period characterized by a lack of opportunity for the working class. While a few might have been able to partake of the wealth that the country produced during this time, such as Rockefeller and other industry leaders, the conditions in which the workers and their families lived outweigh the economic growth of a very small percentage of the population....