Gilded Age and Unionization (1865-1900)
Laissez-faire Capitalism
"Allow to do"; Minimal govt intervention, little-to-no labor laws; Boom and bust economic cycles; Rise of big business in US; Mass production and entrance into national markets; Impersonal relationship with workers; Wealthy industrialists and unskilled laborers; Anti-competitive practices (i.e. mergers, monopolies)
Chinese Exclusion Act
Chinese immigration curtailed on the West Coast; 1882; Chinese immigrants face hard labor conditions and discrimination
Railroad Strike
1877; West Virginia; Rail workers strike
Haymarket Affair
1886; Chicago; Bombing during labor demonstration; Bad look for unions; Anarchists making their way into unions
Homestead Strike
1892; Pennsylvania; Steelworkers strike
Pullman Strike
1894; Chicago; Employer cuts wages resulting in labor demonstrations; Results in labor laws nationally
Key Gilded Age Business Figures
Andrew Carnegie; Cornelius Vanderbilt; John D. Rockefeller; JP Morgan - All making their fortunes in the post-Civil War Gilded Age of American business
Mary Harris "Mother" Jones
Co-founder of IWW (Industrial Workers of the World); American strike organizer and schoolteacher
Ellis Island
Entrance to US for poor/working class Europeans; New Jersey location, past Statue of Liberty; Immigrants are subject to literacy tests, medical inspections; 2% sent back
Thomas Edison
Famous American inventor; Creates iteration of the lightbulb; Captures the publics attention; Works with big business
Knights of Labor
Founded in 1869; Organizing both skilled and unskilled workers; Unorganized
American Federation of Labor
Founded in 1886; Organizing skilled workers; Organized; Spurred by workers opposed to the Knights of Labor
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
Founded in 1905; Also called "Wobblies"; Embracing Socialism
Samuel Gompers
Founded the AFL (American Federation of Labor); Labor and union leader
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
Garment/textiles factory (most employees being teenage girls) fire; Doors locked; 146 deaths; Jumpstarts national interest into working conditions and child labor
National Labor Organizations (Unions)
Multiple employees (often in blue-collar jobs); Campaigning for higher pay, lower hours, and other terms; Forming strikes and uprisings; vs. business owners; Utilizing collective bargaining; Began late 1860s and 70s; Relative victories
Vertical Integration
Practice in which a single entity controls 2 or more aspects of production; as opposed to those pieces of the supply chain being owned by separate companies
Horizontal Integration
Practice in which an entity controls a majority of a single key aspect of the production
Rose Shneiderman
Prominent garment factory strike organizer and feminist in the early 1900s
Eugene V. Debs
Ran for President 5 times, Socialist, Prominent union and strike organizer; Co-founder of IWW (Industrial Workers of the World)
Push Factors
Reasons for European immigrants to leave their home countries: Population growth, famine, land scarcity, violence, and persecution
Pull Factors
Reasons for European immigrants to move to America: Freedom/democracy, land/recourses, jobs, American letters (i.e. relatives in America), Quick passage
Angel Island
West Coast Ellis Island; Entrance to the US for Asian (mostly Chinese) immigrants and workers; Literacy tests, medical inspections; 10% sent back
