During the Gilded Age, 1866 until 1900, the factory workers lacked union, they were mainly slaves and immigrants. Their bosses made them work for very little money, or no money at all. There were no controlled labor laws during this time in history. The white people who owned factories would hire immigrants and slaves, as well as children to work for them for a very low cost. Labor organizations were shut down when they tried to start them. The only labor unions that worked out were the ones who met in private and didn’t talk about it to other people. These labor unions were started because there were so many differences between the rich and the poor and their working conditions which led to riots. The Gilded Age was surely gilded. Mark Twain used the term “gilded” to describe this era, because it was just like a gold layer of paint painted over all the corruptness going on during this time period.
During the Industrial Revolution factories were used to lower the price of merchandise and to make the product better, the people who owned these factories made big profit. These factories were in very poor condition, the workers were under paid, and it was just unsafe. There was once a fire in a factory, and it was mostly women working with a lot of fabric, and there were not enough exits for all of them to make it out, most of these women died, some from jumping out of the window trying to get away from the fire, and some just being trapped inside, this is known as the Triangle Fire.
Train wrecks, fires, and accidents caused by machines were very common. It was all so very hard to receive any money from insurance in a work-related incident. There would be children as young as 10 years old working in these poor conditions, although most of the factory workers were either immigrants or African Americans. Although during the Industrial Age, many jobs for women were created, mostly factory jobs. Poor families usually would send their children to work, child labor laws were nonexistent at this time.
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This was the Gilded Age in America. People began forming labor unions in 1881 and after a long ‘war’ Congress passed The Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, which states everyone has the right to be paid minimum wage, and basically banned children working. During the Gilded Age, numerous people brought our country a lot of economic success, making it expand greatly. John D. Rockefeller contributed greatly by discovering Standard Oil, he built his business up by making secret contracts, which allowed him to sell his oil for cheaper than his opponents. Andrew Carnige was the owner of the Carnige Steel Company, he built the largest steel company in the United States. Alongside of them was Fredrick Weyerhaeuser, owning millions of acres of land all filled with timber. The American economy soared at this time. The United States had then become the biggest industrial country in the world.
Industrialization made the need for factory workers increase tremendously. Therefore, immigration increased during this time, because factory jobs did not require many skills, so the immigrants took those jobs. Workers continued to work in poor conditions and receive poor pay, while the big business owners were bringing in big profit. The factory workers earned barely enough money to support themselves let alone their families. But with the economy rising so much during this time, cities in the United States became bigger. The transcontinental railroad grew rapidly, making it easier to travel and making it easier for businesses to transport goods.
New technological advances helped transform the United States in the Gilded Age, things like the telephone, skyscraper, refrigerator, car, lightbulb, typewriter, and motor. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Making communication easier for businesses all across the United States. All the new technology and machinery really industrialized America and made it take a turn for the better, in some areas. The economy was great, the middle class began to do better, our cities expanded greatly with all the new people coming in to the United States but there were still some problems.
Jacob Riis, a muckraker, wrote How the Other Half Lives, a book that is meant to bring attention to how bad housing was in New York, trying to convince the people of New York as well as it’s politicians to do something about it. Ida Tarbell was another muckraker, she wrote about how corrupt John D. Rockerfeller was in becoming successful with his oil company. There were a lot of corrupt things that happened during the Gilded Age, it was a cut throat competition between the wealthy, so they did what they had to do to be on top.
In conclusion the Gilded Age was a successful era for the United States, going from being a country filled with mostly agriculture, to a country that was industrialized. The success that every one of these people brought the United States was outstanding, even though some of the people from this time did not get as lucky as others, such as being wealthy, they were able to experience a huge turning point for the United States, economically and industrially. It transformed our businesses here in the United States from nothing into something very powerful and influential. It was the start to a new and better life for most Americans.
