Agriculture/Industrial Workers Frq

Agriculture/Industrial Workers FRQ
The Gilded Age, the time from the end of the Civil War to the end of Reconstruction, was an age marked by economic prosperity, but at the expense of corruption. A majority of the Gilded Age can also be defined with the Industrial Revolution, although it began long before the era of corruption. This revolution was marked by an increase of factories and invention that then created a mass chain of events that can be seen in an increase of immigrants, who became workers. With these large numbers of unskilled and unemployed immigrants, along with an abundance of natural resources, aided by the new railroads that made transport quicker and cheaper, the industries in the North boomed. The small farms that used to supply these natural resources were being replaced by Bonanza farms. These farmers would either join labor groups like the Grange or leave their small, bankrupt farms, for the large cities, where the jobs were “plentiful”. The jobs found in the cities were bad, and their pay was low because of the corruption of political machines and the willingness of many immigrants to work for less and worse situations. These workers joined unions and used strikes to attempt to get what they wanted from their management and employers.
In the more agrarian West, small farmers from the Homestead Act were losing their business to the Bonanza farms that had the money for new equipment, and the favor of the railroads. From these groups of small farmers, who felt cheated by bankers, railroads, and big corporations groups like the National Grange were formed. The Grange, or the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, was concerned with the movement of crop prices and railroad rates. It also opened opportunities for women and supported their suffrage movement. The Populist Party was formed from groups like the Grange, and several others including the Farmers’ Alliance and the Greenback Party. This Populist Party was commonly known as the Peoples’ Party...