By the 1890s, 10% of the population held 90% of the wealth in the United States. Jacob Riis documented the poor living conditions of immigrants in New York City through photographs in his 1890 book How the Other Half Lived, showing overcrowded tenement housing and families living in poverty. Labor unrest grew during this time period as workers organized unions like the Knights of Labor to demand better treatment and wages from industrialists and robber barons accumulating vast wealth, leading to events like the Haymarket Riot in 1886 and the Homestead Steel Strike in 1892.

2. By the 1890s, 10% of pop. held 90% of U.S. wealth.

3. The ‘Robber Barons’

4. The Protectors of Our Industries

5. Hopelessly Bound to the Stake

6. What a funny little government!

7. Bosses of the Senate

8. One sees his finish unless
good government retakes the ship

9. Cornelius [“Commodore”] Vanderbilt
Can’t I do what I want with my money?

10. William Vanderbilt
$ The public be
damned!
$ What do I care
about the law?
H’aint I got the
power?

18. Jacob Riis:
How the Other
Half Lived
(1890)

19. Tenement Slum Living

20. Lodgers Huddled Together

21. Struggling Immigrant
Families

22. Men’s Lodgings

23. Women’s Lodgings

24. Immigrant Family Lodgings

25. Blind Beggar, 1888

26. Italian Rag-Picker

27. 1890s “Morgue” – Basement Saloon

28. “Black & Tan” Saloon

29. “Bandits’ Roost”

30. Mullen’s Alley “Gang”

31. “Dumbell “
Tenement

32. The Steel Industry
• Henry Bessemer and
Bessemer process
(1859): oxygen into
molten iron to burn
impurities = steel

33. The Steel Industry
• Andrew Carnegie

34. John A. Roebling:
The Brooklyn Bridge, 1883

35. Louis Sullivan:
Bayard Bldg.,
NYC,
1897

36. Flatiron
Building
NYC –
1902
D. H.
Burnham

37. Singer
Building
NYC - 1902

38. D. H. Burnham:
Marshall Fields Dept. Store, 1902

39. DH Burnham:
Railway Exchange, Chicago,
1904

40. Woolworth
Bldg.
NYC - 1911

41. Railroads
• Eastern Lines: consolidated under Cornelius
Vanderbilt post-Civil War (NY Central RR, 1867)

42. Grand Central Station, 1913

43. Railroads
• Transcontinental RR: opened May 10, 1869 via
Union Pacific and Central Pacific. Creates national
market for goods and provided many jobs.

44. The Oil Industry
• Edwin Drake – first
oil strike (PA, 1859)

45. The Oil Industry
• John D. Rockefeller

46. The Oil Industry
• John D. Rockefeller

47. The Oil Industry
• John D. Rockefeller

48. Other Inventions of the Time
• Thomas Edison - light bulb (1880)
• Christopher Sholes – typewriter (1867)
• Alexander Graham Bell – telephone (1876)
• G.M. Pullman - sleeper cars for passenger trains
(1880)
• George Eastman - Kodak camera (1888)
• King Gillette – disposable razor (1895)

49. The City Changes
1900: ~40% of Americans in cities = urbanization
African Americans from Southern farms to Northern cities
= Great Migration
Upper and middle classes moved to suburbs as cities
grew and became dirtier
Streetcars: replaced horse-drawn carriages and
pedestrians for commuters
Skyscrapers: 10 stories of steel structure; first in
Chicago

50. Urban Growth: 1870 - 1900

51. Immigration
• “Old” Immigrants: northern and western Europe; mostly
Protestant and Catholic
• “New” Immigrants: eastern and southern Europe (Italy,
Greece, Russia, and Austria-Hungary); Catholic, Orthodox,
and Jewish)
• Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
• Angel Island, CA
• Ellis Island, NY/NJ
• Statue of Liberty

54. Gilded Age Business
Laissez-faire = unregulated free market capitalism
Social Darwinism = survival of the fittest
Horatio Alger novels = rags-to-riches American Dream

55. Gospel of Wealth
$ Andrew Carnegie
$ Wealth viewed as sign of
God’s approval; Christian
duty to accumulate
wealth.
$ Should not help the poor
directly; instead
philanthropy
Andrew Carnegie

56. Monopolies
Vertical integration = Carnegie Steel

57. Monopolies
Horizontal integration = John D. Rockefeller’s Standard
Oil Co.

58. Iron & Steel Production

59. Relative Share of World
Manufacturing

60. Changing Labor Force

61. Child Labor

62. Child Labor

63. Labor Unrest: 1870-1900

64. Management vs. Labor Union
“Tools” of
Management
“Tools” of
Labor
Pinkertons
Lockout
Blacklisting
Yellow-dog contracts
“scabs”
P. R. campaign
Boycotts
Strikes

65. Great Railroad Strike of 1877
RR workers struck one week
over 50,000 miles of track;
Pres. Hayes used military to
end strike

66. Knights of Labor
Terence Powderly (1869) - 700K members by 1886-87,
Haymarket Riot damaged reputation

67. Goals of the Knights of Labor
 8 hr workday
 Worker-owned factories
 Abolition of child and prison labor
 Equal pay for men and women
 Workplace safety codes

68. Haymarket Riot
(1886)
Chicago, IL - protest
following killing of six
strikers at McCormick
Harvester plant;
7 police dead;
four protesters
executed, one suicide,
others rec’d life in
prison; bomber never
found; devastated K of
L membership

69. American Federation
of Labor (AFL)
Samuel Gompers (1886);
craft union, sought small
goals; membership at 1 m.
by 1900

70. Homestead Steel Strike (1892)
The Amalgamated Association
of
Iron & Steel Workers
Homestead Steel
Works
near Pittsburg, PA; strike
against Carnegie US Steel;
battle against Pinkertons;
strike unsuccessful; breaks
labor movement

71. Pullman Cars
A Pullman porter

72. Pullman Strike of 1894
Panic of 1893: wages and cut jobs but not rent on company
housing; American Railway Union (ARU) striked. Federal
troops sent in.

73. The Socialists
Eugene V. Debs

74. President Grover Cleveland
If it takes the entire army and navy to
deliver a postal card in Chicago, that card
will be delivered!

75. International Workers of the
World (“Wobblies”)
Mary “Mother” Jones and
William “Big Bill” Haywood
(1905) –global socialist
working class revolution

76. The Rise & Decline of
Organized Labor