Week of 1/28-2/3/2013 (2nd Week of 3rd 9 Wks)

Greetings History Minions!

Check out this description of the Gilded Age from SparkNotes:

"The Gilded Age and the first years of the twentieth century were a time of great social change and economic growth in the United States. Roughly spanning the years between Reconstruction and the dawn of the new century, the Gilded Age saw rapid industrialization, urbanization, the construction of great transcontinental railroads, innovations in science and technology, and the rise of big business.

Industrialization and Big Business

The Civil War had transformed the North into one of the most heavily industrialized regions in the world, and during the Gilded Age, businessmen reaped enormous profits from this new economy. Powerful tycoons formed giant trusts to monopolize the production of goods that were in high demand. Andrew Carnegie, for one, built a giant steel empire using vertical integration, a business tactic that increased profits by eliminating middlemen from the production line. Conversely, John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company used horizontal integration, which put competitors out of business by selling one type of product in numerous markets, effectively creating a monopoly. These “captains of industry” cared little for consumers and did anything they could to increase profits, earning them the nickname “robber barons.”

Railroads

Railroads were the literal engines behind this era of unprecedented industrial growth. By 1900, American railroad tycoons like Cornelius Vanderbilt had laid hundreds of thousands of miles of track across the country, transporting both tradable goods and passengers. The industry was hugely profitable for its leaders but riddled with corrupt practices, such as those associated with the Crédit Mobilier scandal of 1871.   Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887 to protect farmers and other consumers from unfair business practices.

Organized Labor

Organized labor did not fare nearly as well as big business during the Gilded Age, as most Americans looked down on labor unions during the era. The first large-scale union, the National Labor Union, was formed just after the end of Civil War, in 1866. Workers created the union to protect skilled and unskilled workers in the countryside and in the cities, but the union collapsed after the Depression of 1873 hit the United States. Later, the Knights of Labor represented skilled and unskilled workers, as well as blacks and women, in the 1870s, but it also folded after being wrongfully associated with the Haymarket Square Bombing in 1886.

Despite these setbacks for organized labor, workers continued to strike, or temporarily stop working, for better wages, hours, and working conditions. The most notable strikes of this era were the Great Railroad Strike, the Homestead Strike, and the Pullman Strike, all of which ended violently. The more exclusive American Federation of Labor, or AFL, emerged as the most powerful union in the late 1880s.

The Grange

High protective tariffs and the Depression of 1893 had disastrous effects on poor subsistence farmers in the Midwest and South. Many of these cash crop farmers, often deeply in debt, were unable to afford the unregulated railroad fares to send their products to the cities. As a result, over a million impoverished farmers organized the National Grange to fight for their livelihood. The Grange managed to win some key victories in several midwestern legislatures, supporting the Greenback Party in the 1870s and then the Populist Party in the 1890s.

The Populist Party

The Depression of 1873, which effectively dissolved the National Labor Union, also threatened many new settlers in the Midwest. Plagued by steep railroad fares, high taxes under the McKinley Tariff, and soaring debt, thousands of small farmers banded together to form the Populist Party in the late 1880s. The Populists called for a national income tax, cheaper money (what Populists called “free silver”), shorter workdays, single-term limits for presidents, immigration restrictions, and government control of railroads."

Now that you've read some background information to "spark" your memory, here is this week's prompt!
Prompt:
Analyze the ways in which farmers and industrial workers responded to industrialization in the Gilded Age (1865-1900). 

As always, do not repeat what has already been said when you contribute to the converstaion and prove your point.  Do not simpy agree or disagree with what has been said already.  Give a new fact to support your opinion.  Happy blogging my History Minions!

Week of 1/21-1/27/2013 (1st Week of 3rd 9 Wks)

President Lincoln wanted the nation to follow his Ten Percent Plan after the Civil War.  In his opinion, far too many lives were lost and far too much bitterness was engendered.  The following is from SparkNotes:

“Lincoln’s blueprint for Reconstruction included the Ten-Percent Plan, which specified that a southern state could be readmitted into the Union once 10 percent of its voters (from the voter rolls for the election of 1860) swore an oath of allegiance to the Union. Voters could then elect delegates to draft revised state constitutions and establish new state governments. All southerners except for high-ranking Confederate army officers and government officials would be granted a full pardon. Lincoln guaranteed southerners that he would protect their private property, though not their slaves. Most moderate Republicans in Congress supported the president’s proposal for Reconstruction because they wanted to bring a quick end to the war.

In many ways, the Ten-Percent Plan was more of a political maneuver than a plan for Reconstruction. Lincoln wanted to end the war quickly. He feared that a protracted war would lose public support and that the North and South would never be reunited if the fighting did not stop quickly. His fears were justified: by late 1863, a large number of Democrats were clamoring for a truce and peaceful resolution. Lincoln’s Ten-Percent Plan was thus lenient—an attempt to entice the South to surrender.

President Lincoln seemed to favor self-Reconstruction by the states with little assistance from Washington. To appeal to poorer whites, he offered to pardon all Confederates; to appeal to former plantation owners and southern aristocrats, he pledged to protect private property. Unlike Radical Republicans in Congress, Lincoln did not want to punish southerners or reorganize southern society. His actions indicate that he wanted Reconstruction to be a short process in which secessionist states could draft new constitutions as swiftly as possible so that the United States could exist as it had before. But historians can only speculate that Lincoln desired a swift reunification, for his assassination in 1865 cut his plans for Reconstruction short.”

But what of the freedmen?  The first African Americans to serve in the United States Congress  were Republicans during the Reconstruction Era.  On February 25, 1870, Hiram Rhodes Revels was seated as the first black member of the Senate, becoming also the first black member of the Congress.

Blacks were a majority of the population in many congressional districts across the South. In 1870, Joseph Rainey of South Carolina was elected to the US House of Representatives, becoming the first directly elected black member of Congress. Freedmen were elected to national office also from AL, FL, GA, LA, MS, NC, and VA.

All of these Reconstruction Era black senators and representatives were members of the Republican Party.  The Republicans represented the party of Abraham Lincoln and of emancipation. The Southern Democrats represented the party of planters, slavery and secession.

But from 1868, southern elections were accompanied by increasing violence, especially in Louisiana, Mississippi and the Carolinas. In the mid-1870s, groups such as the White League and Red Shirts worked openly to turn Republicans out of office and intimidate blacks from voting. This followed on the earlier years of secret vigilante action by the KKK against freedmen and allied whites. 

Many historians believe the Reconstruction was a “glorious failure”.  What was the Reconstruction supposed to do for the South, for the newly freed African Americans, and for society?  While African Americans initially made rapid gains, by the end of the Reconstruction, northerners were tired of the Reconstruction and its many “issues”, and African Americans largely lived in fear of white reprisal should they choose to exercise their constitutional right to vote.  No more African Americans would serve in Congress until 1928!!

Prompt:  Was the Reconstruction a success OR a failure?  Consider the intent of the Reconstruction and what it accomplished (or failed to accomplish).  Be sure to support your opinion WITH FACTS.  As always, DO NOT repeat what has been said!

Here are some additional notes to get you thinking J

·         1865 Lincoln is assassinated; Johnson becomes president Congress establishes Joint Committee on Reconstruction;  Southern states begin to issue black codes

·         1866 Johnson vetoes renewal of Freedmen’s Bureau charter Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1866 over Johnson’s veto Congress drafts Fourteenth Amendment Johnson delivers “Swing Around the Circle” speeches; Ku Klux Klan forms

·         1867 Radical Reconstruction begins Congress passes First Reconstruction Act ; Congress passes First and Second Reconstruction Acts Congress passes Tenure of Office Act

·         1868 House of Representatives impeaches Andrew Johnson Senate acquits Johnson Fourteenth Amendment is ratified;  Ulysses S. Grant is elected president

·         1869 Fisk-Gould Gold scheme evolves

·         1870 Fifteenth Amendment is ratified

·         1871 Congress passes Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871; Tweed Ring is exposed

·         1872 Liberal Republican Party emerges Grant is reelected Crédit Mobilier scandal is exposed

·         1873 Depression of 1873 hits; Supreme Court hears Slaughterhouse Cases

·         1874 Whiskey Ring scandal occurs;  Democrats become majority party in House of Representatives

·         1875 Congress passes Resumption Act; Civil Rights Act of 1875 passed

·         1876 Samuel J. Tilden and Rutherford B. Hayes both claim victory in presidential election

·         1877 Congress passes Electoral Count Act Hayes becomes president Hayes removes remaining troops from the South to end Reconstruction