Industrialization In The Gilded Age

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After the time period of the Civil War the United States emerged into and industrial power and the time became known as the Gilded Age from 1865 to 1900. This time and huge revolution for the United States impacted two groups of people particularly, farmers and industrial workers. These two groups were affected in both positive and negative ways making them respond in different ways. Industrialization in this age made it easier to transport goods for farmers but there were also a lot of injustices farmers were dealing with on a daily basis. As for industrial workers, despite the emergence of many new job opportunities, work conditions and the non-existent benefits strongly hit workers and their families. With so much good going on in the country …show more content…
Although the group eventually died out, the strong bond among the farmers had been formed and they now stood together as a whole creating the People’s Independence Party. This party grew and was actually favored by many. They worked for fairness and acknowledged farmer struggles and actually aimed to help them politically and economically.rness. Farmers struggled greatly in the time period of the Gilded Age due to large farms receiving most of the business, overproduction, and high taxes and tariffs they did not make enough money to pay off. Many Southern farms were destroyed due to the Civil War and they did not have enough money to completely repair them, with prices rising on their raw materials and the expenses of transporting them, farmers could not keep up with the rising prices and low income that they received. When they had to raise their products price due to them not being protected by a tariff, the prices of the good and the demand for it then went down. With all the struggles they were facing not only economically, but on their own lands, farmers needed someone to blame and straighten out their problems with. Farmers blamed …show more content…
Although these people were receiving job opportunities and companies were employing more people, the conditions they were working in ruined any positive outcome that this time period could have had on the workers. Industrial Workers were paid barely anything especially considering the long hours that they put in. Many workers worked all days of the week and had about 12 hour days, much longer than today's average of about 8 hours a day. The workers also received no benefits such as sick days, holidays, unemployment, retirement, or health insurance. Along with horrible hours and unfair treatment, there were also horrible conditions, the factories were dirty and overcrowded causing quickly spread illnesses. Businesses also found it acceptable to cut wages of the workers, but not cut any of the prices surrounding them. This caused people to barely be able to afford the rent or food in their companies towns. With all of this going on workers realized something had to be done, thus setting up Labor Unions. Two of the main labor unions set up were the Knights of Labor and the AF of L. These unions were specifically set up to negotiate the wages and benefits that labor workers deserved as well as 8 hour days and equal treatment for African Americans and Women. These workers also turned to having strikes against the big businesses that controlled the conditions they were facing. Famous
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