The Gilded Age

Gilded Age  Refers to the time following the Civil War  The age of the “new rich” due to industrialization and big business  Glittering with showy wealth, but corrupt to the core

Social Darwinism  The theory that stated the most competent people make it to the top, the weak fall

Labor Organizes  Workers organized to maintain control over their wages and working conditions

Knights of Labor  The first to last a long time  Began as a union for tailors; later accepted all workers  Pushed for an 8-hour work day  By 1886 had 700,000 members

American Federation of Labor (AFL)  Led by Samuel Gompers  Organized from skilled workers  Advocated using strikes to improve wages and hours  Used boycotts as a means of peaceful protest

Haymarket Riots, Chicago, May 1886  Started with a strike at McCormick Harvester works for 8 hour day  7 police were killed by a bomb, 67 civilians injured  Police fired and killed 10 strikers  Result- public against labor unions

Homestead (Pa.) Strike, 1892  A strike by steel workers over wages  Several people were killed  Held out for 9 months, but public opinion went against the union  People soon quit the union, returned to work, and steel worked were left unorganized for 40 years

Pullman Strike, 1894  American Railway Union was led by Eugene V. Debs  Union struck against the Pullman Sleeping Car works  Failed after the President issued an injunction – an order to end the strike  Injunctions then became a powerful tool for the corporations in opposing strikers