Unit Five

Industry to Immigration
The Growth of Big
Business
SSUSH 11
The student will describe the economic, social, and
geographic impact of the growth of big business
and technological innovations after Reconstruction.

Key Terms

Big Business
Chinese Laborers
Electric Light Bulb
John D. Rockefeller
Monopolies
Motion Pictures
Phonograph
Railroad Industry
Standard Oil Company
Steel Industry
Thomas Edison
Transcontinental Railroad
Trusts
Railroad Industry
Huge amounts of capital were needed to create
and maintain a nation-wide business.
o Capital acquired through both public (government) subsidies and private
investments.
Large professionally trained managerial staffs were
needed to keep up with many passengers, cargo,
and equipment.
New means of accounting were created
Internal organization led to the consolidation of
many railroads.
Expansion of Railroads
1
st
Transcontinental Railroad
o Completed in 1869
o Union Pacific built from east to west
Irish laborers
o Central Pacific built from west to east
Chinese laborers
o Met at Promontory Pt, Utah in 1869
Rise of Big Business
Development of corporations
o Several people share ownership of a business
Corporations wanted to increase profits:
o Tried to gain a monopoly
Complete control over a product or service
o Created trusts group of separate companies that are put under the
management of a single group
John D. Rockefeller
Standard Oil Company
o Began buying inefficient companies in 1870
o Controlled 90% of the refining capacity in the U.S. by 1879
o 1882 he combined the companies to form the Standard Oil Trust
1890 the trust was broken up by the Ohio Supreme Court
John D. Rockerfeller
http://www.history.com/topics/john-d-
rockefeller/videos/john-d-rockefeller-oil-money-and-power

http://www.history.com/topics/john-d-rockefeller/videos/the-
men-who-built-america-the-american-
dream?m=528e394da93ae&s=undefined&f=1&free=false

http://www.history.com/topics/john-d-rockefeller/videos/the-
men-who-built-america-the-rise-of-cornelius-
vanderbilt?m=528e394da93ae&s=undefined&f=1&free=false
Thomas Edison
Electric Light Bulb (1880)
Motion Pictures (1888)
o Built the machine needed for filming and projecting motion pictures
Phonograph (1877)
o Early record player
American Industrial
Growth
SSUSH12
The student will analyze important consequences of
American industrial growth.
Who came to America?
Old Immigrants

before Civil War (1820-60)
from Northern & Western
Europe
mostly skilled workers
most moved onto small
towns & farms of North and
West
language, customs,
religion similar to
Americans
faced hostility, but more
easily assimilated into
American society
New Immigrants

after Civil War (1880-1914)
from Eastern & Southern
Europe & Asia
mostly unskilled workers
most remained in cities of
Northeast ethnic islands
language, customs,
religion, appearance
different to Americans
faced hostility and
suspicion; not easily
assimilated
Why did immigrants come to
America?
Push Factors
famine
lack of opportunity
racial, religious,
political
persecution
required military
service in home
country
Pull Factors

economic
opportunity
industrialization
created jobs
freedom from
persecution
RR advertisements
legislation
Contract Labor Law
What were the major points of entry for
immigrants coming to the United States?
Established by the Bureau
of Immigration

1892 Ellis Island opened in
New York Harbor as major
immigration station on
East coast

1910 Angel Island
opened in San Francisco
& became a major
station on West coast



Ellis Island
Angel
Island
Chinese Exclusion Act
The Act was passed in 1882.
It prevented Chinese laborers from entering the
country.
Congress created this law on behalf of the labor
unions and racists along the west coast of the US.
This act was not repealed until 1943
How did immigration impact
America?
encouraged industrial
growth - built railroads,
worked in coal mines &
factories

made traditions part of
American culture

became active in labor
unions and politics



Angel
Island
Why did immigrants face
hostility?
Competed for jobs (created a surplus)
kept wages low and those who did not join a
union made it difficult for unions to organize &
gain advantages

Competed for housing (caused shortages)
caused crowding and rents increased

Religious differences:
Old Immigrants Irish Catholics
New Immigrants Jews and Orthodox religions

Sometimes affected American politics / elections
(often blamed for political machines corruption)

How did immigrants
respond?
Organizations formed American Protective
Association fought for immigration restrictions

American Federation of Labor
o Samuel Gompers
President of union from 1886 1924
o Accepted only skilled workers
o Organized by craft
o Did not see capitalism as the enemy
o Urged workers to work with owners for higher wages and better working
conditions
o Was not above using work stoppages though when needed

Industrial Unrest
1894 Pullman Strike
o Pullman Palace Car Company laid off workers and reduced wages, later
shut down plant
o Employees were forced to live and pay rent in Pullman (located in Chicago)
o Owner: George Pullman
o A.R.U. called for a nationwide strike
o Halted railroad traffic & mail delivery
o President Grover Cleveland sent federal troops to end strike
o Debs put in prison (he violated Sherman Antitrust Act)
Why did farmers move
West?
Railroads advertised land
for sale, especially in Europe

Homestead Act of 1862
government offered farm
plots of 160 acres to anyone
willing to live on the land for
five years, dig a well, and
build a road
Sources of Conflict: Views on
Nature
Indian cultures saw
themselves as part of
nature; viewed nature as
sacred

White settlers saw land as
a resource to produce
wealth
A pile of buffalo
skulls waiting
to be made into
fertilizer.
Courtesy of the
Burton
Historical
Collection.
Sources of Conflict:
Broken Promises
1830s Native
Americans forced to
resettle west of the
Mississippi Great
American Desert

1850s gold & silver
discovered in Indian
Territory, Indians are
forced onto smaller
lands

1860s Indians forced
onto reservations
New Settlers & Native
Americans Clash
Battle of Little Big Horn
o 1875 gold discovered on Sioux hunting
grounds in the Dakotas & Montana
o Chief Sitting Bull & Chief Crazy Horse
assembled Sioux and tried to drive white
settlers out
o U.S. sent troops against Native Americans
o 1876 Colonel George Custer & men
arrived early and all were killed by the
Sioux


Ghost Dance Religion
religious revival among Indians
would banish white settlers & restore buffalo

Lakota Song about Ghost Dance:
The whole world is coming,
A nation is coming, a nation is coming,
The eagle has brought the message to the
tribe.
The Father says so, the Father says so.
Over the whole earth they are coming,
The buffalo are coming, the buffalo are
coming,
The crow has brought the message to the
tribe,
The Father says so, the Father says so.
Wovoka a Paiute medicine
man and mystic
New Settlers & Native
Americans Clash
Wounded Knee (1890)
o U.S. government concerned, ordered
arrest of Sitting Bull he & others were killed
when followers tried to rescue him

o U.S. troops followed Sioux who escaped
killed more than 100 at Wounded Knee,
South Dakota

o end of Plains Indian resistance



Dawes General Allotment
Act
1887 law that broke up
reservations, divided
reservation land into private
family plots, and sold the
rest to white settlers

U.S. government refused to
recognize tribes and
treated Indians as
individuals
The Progressive Era
SSUSH13
The student will identify major efforts to reform
American society and politics in the Progressive Era

Key Terms
Conservation Movement
Direct Election of Senators
Hull House
Ida Tarbell
Initiative
Jim Crow
Muckrakers

NAACP
Plessy v. Ferguson
President Theodore
Roosevelt
Recall
Referendum
Upton Sinclair

What is the Progressive
Movement
1890 1920
Movement that responded to the pressures of
industrialization and urbanization by promoting
reforms
Upton Sinclairs The Jungle
Published 1906
Exposed dangerous and unsanitary conditions in
Chicagos stockyards
President Roosevelt read it and got Congress to
pass the Meat Inspection Act it provided federal
agents to inspect meat sold across state lines and
required federal inspection of meat-processing
plants.
The Jungle
That was 1906
o Things are better today right!!!!



o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj4sSZIZco0


Women in the Progressive
Era
Jane Addams
o Opened a settlement house in Chicago
o Community centers organized to provide social services to the urban poor
o Examples of services provided:
Gave mothers child care classes
Taught English
Ran nursery schools and kindergartens
Alice Paul and the NWP
National Womans Party
o Worked to earn women the right to vote used public protest marches
1
st
to picket White House and use hunger strikes
Jim Crow America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQNQvyuGt0
o

Niagara Movement
Founded in 1905
Group of African Americans who
pushed for immediate racial reforms,
especially in education and voting
practices.
Leadership:
o W.E.B. DuBois
Membership only grew to a few
hundred
NAACP
National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People
o Formed in 1909
Interracial organization founded to abolish
segregation & discrimination and to achieve
political & civil rights for African Americans
Strategy: use courts to challenge unfair laws
Plessy v. Ferguson
1890 Jim Crowe Law in Louisiana
o Required separate seating cars on railroads in the state
1892 NAACP planned an event to bring attention
to the law
o Homer Plessy (1/8
th
African-American, thus meeting the legal definition,
but not looking African-American)
o Boarded a White Only seating car
o He was arrested and his trial went all the way to the Supreme Court of the
United States
1896 Supreme Court Ruling
o Separate but equal is constitutional
o Racial discrimination is now legal
The Muckrakers
Muckraker term originated from a President
Theodore Roosevelt speech in which he praised
journalist for uncovering that which was hidden
from a corrupted society.

The most famous Muckraker was Ida Tarbell
o A History of the Standard Oil Trust
They had never played fair, and that ruined their greatness for me.
Describes Rockefeller as being money-mad and a hypocrite
Our national life is on every side distinctly poorer, uglier, meaner, for
the kind of influence he exercises, she concluded.
Political Reforms of the
Progressive Era
Initiative/referendum:
o Allowed voters to suggest and approve laws directly without going
through state legislatures
Recall
o Enabled voters to get rid of politicians who were unsatisfactory, without
waiting for a complete election cycle
Direct Election of Senators
o The 17
th
Amendment provided for the direct election of U.S. Senators
ending the state legislative cronyism responsible for the appointment of
Senators.
Economic Reforms of the
Progressive Era
Child labor laws
o Set a minimum age for employment
o Restricted the types of jobs children could hold
Women in the Workplace
o Set a minimum wage for female labor
o Set a maximum number of hours females could work
Workplace Safety
o Worksite inspections to insure
Health
Safety
Sanitation
Workers Compensation Laws


Social Reforms in the
Progressive Era
Designed to improve living conditions for the poor in
cities
Jacob Riis
o How the Other Half Lives (1890)


The Conservation
Movement
Three Schools of Conservationist
o 1
st
Businesses supported a laissez-faire approach believing that business
should be allowed to do as they wished with public lands.
o 2
nd
Environmentalist believed that nature was sacred and humans were
intruders.
o 3
rd
Conservationist believed that nature could be used but it should also
be protected.


Theodore Roosevelt
Life-long naturalist
Majored in Natural History at Harvard
As President he increased the number of:
o National forest reserves
o Mineral lands
o And hydropower sites
He also:
o Created the National Forest Service
o 5 National Parks
o 18 National Monuments
o 51 Bird Reserves
o 4 Game Preservations
o 150 National Forest