Lecture Notes: Labor in the Gilded Age

Introduction

• Focus: Labor during the Gilded Age (1865-1898)
• Gilded Age described metaphorically as a "golden covered turd"
• Goals: Explain socioeconomic continuities and changes due to industrial capitalism

Inequality and Wealth

The Wealthy Class

• Wealthy business owners displayed wealth conspicuously ("conspicuous consumption")
• Example: Biltmore House by Vanderbilt, a symbol of excessive wealth

The Working Class

• Lived in poverty, wages below comfortable living standards
• Economic turmoil affected workers more than wealthy (e.g., Panic of 1873, Panic of 1893)
• Despite low wages, standard of living increased due to price drops and wage increases

Labor Conditions

• Industrial jobs were dangerous (factory, railroad, mining)
• High rates of injuries and deaths
• Difficulty in addressing issues individually due to large immigrant workforce

Labor Unions

• Solution to labor issues: Formation of labor unions to create collective bargaining power
• Tactics included political action, slowdowns, strikes

Major Strikes

• Great Railroad Strike of 1877: Wage cuts led to widespread strike, violence broke out, federal intervention
• Pullman Strike: Wage cuts led to strikes, federal intervention after attaching Pullman cars to mail trains

Key Labor Unions

Knights of Labor

• Founded in 1881, opened to all laborers including blacks and women
• Goals: Destroy trusts/monopolies, abolish child labor
• Declined after Haymarket Square Riot (1886), perceived as violent

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

• Led by Samuel Gompers
• Goals: Higher wages, safer conditions
• Grew to 1 million members by 1901, influenced later labor improvements

Conclusion

• Continued influence of labor unions into the next period
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