The Gilded Era and Immigration

How does the growth of (relatively unregulated) industrial corporate capitalism have on people’s lives and on crime?

During the Gilded Age businesses began to grow. During this time there was a lot of racial tension and fear because these businesses would try to pay as little as possible to their employees and thus favored recent immigrants. Recent immigrants could work hard for very little and directly competed with the Americans who were impoverished looking for a decent paying job. The great fear back then was that America would be swallowed by immigrants. A good example of this were Chinese railroad laborers. With increased wealth stratification in cities thanks to the industrial revolution, the wealthy were very wealthy, and the poor had to live in slums.

Examples of the wealthy homes were Astor Mansion and Vanderbilt. However, poor people were in such dire straits, some slept outside huddled together. If they lived in tenements, they lived with multiple people in tiny rooms with virtually no privacy. Those that wished to make money outside of legal means opened dives related to opium. They managed to stay in business through bribery and reopening spots under ‘clean’ names. Crime also flourished because gangs took care of their own, gave young people a group to belong to, and invested money back into their communities.

Although attempts were made to break up monopolies through the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act, businesses still had a lot of control over how they managed things leading to whites not receiving the kind of wages they wanted or needed. Segregation was common at the time and many blacks were lynched. This era represented a dark time in American history.

What is Progressivism? How does it fit with the history of the Gilded Age?

The Progressive Era began in 1900 and ended in 1919. Progressives were often not a unified movement but were religiously driven with majority being women. They were Anti-Trust and Anti-Big Business and aimed to end government corruption as well as improve social welfare. While the Progressives aimed to reform, they ignored specific segments of the population like farmers and minorities. Furthermore, they had to contend with differing viewpoints regarding immigration. Businesses loved the cheaper labor immigrants brought, but labor did not want immigration because worker competition created lower wages.

During the Gilded Age there was a lot of racial tension with 90% of the 5,000-people lynched being black. Along with the tension from the Gilded Age, the Progressive era brought with it an increase in race riots from fear of immigrants taking jobs and soldiers frustrated after retuning home post-war. Many blacks were killed during the 25 race riots that occurred across the country in 1919. The most notable one was in East St. Louis 1917. They estimated around 250 blacks were killed by angry whites. The whites also burned the “Negro Section” of St Louis attempting to destroy their ‘competition.