Group work project - 50 points
Over the next two class periods, we shall be exploring the Gilded Age through the following social and political lenses:
· African Americans After Slavery
· Indian Policy
· Changing Status of Women
· Farmers' Revolt
· Responses to Industrialization
Directions:
1. Chose one of the topics above and move to the table marked with that label. This will be your working group for our first project of the new marking period.
2. You group must complete the following tasks on our class blog OR powerpoint:
Using resources at the Digital History archive: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/gilded_age/index.cfm
A) Create a mini-timeline identifying 8 events related to your topic. Summarize three of the most important of these events in detail. Use the timeline link on the homepage for this assignment to aid you in this process.
B) Identify and summarize a landmark Supreme Court case that related to your topic of study. How did the outcome/ decision influence society in the Gilded Age?
C) Answer any two of the questions at the end of your topic summary. Overall, do you feel the trends and developments related to your topic in the Gilded Age advanced or hindered social progress in the United States?
D) Post and summarize at least two visual sources (cartoons, maps, graphs, photographs, etc.) related to your topic. This task requires internet research outside of the URL provided, so be sure to post links to your visual sources and (if possible) include MLA citations.
E) Compose three study questions that your classmates should be able to answer upon reading your group’s work.
3. Present your work to the rest of our class (Thursday)
Note: we will only have access to the computers in class today (Tues 2/5) and tomorrow (Wed. 2/6) so it is vital that you take responsibilty for some of this work at home.
Your homework tonight is to work on this assignment.
9-10 points: accurate analytical work that reflects a comprehensive understanding of the period and topic area assigned. Insightful connections drawn to economic, social and cultural trends and/or other periods of US history.
7-8 points: Accurate work that reflects a thorough understanding of the era and topic assigned. Work is straightforward and provides historical detail with some analysis.
5-6 points: Work includes factual errors but attempts to meet guidelines of the task.
3-4 points: Work is incomplete
0 points: section missing
4 comments:
Women’s Rights Group
Kasey Fausak, Ashley Fishkis, Rachel Geissler and John Harden.
Timeline of Women’s Rights in the Gilded Age
1. 1869 - The women's rights movement splits into two factions as a result of disagreements over the Fourteenth and soon-to-be-passed Fifteenth Amendments. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony form the more radical, New York-based National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, and Julia Ward Howe organize the more conservative American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), which is centered in Boston.
2. 1871 - Victoria Woodhull petitions Congress demanding that women receive the vote under the 14th Amendment.
3. 1872 - Susan B. Anthony and other women's suffrage advocates are arrested for attempting to vote in Rochester, N.Y. in defiance of the wording of the Fourteenth Amendment. Bail was set at $500, and all but Anthony chose to pay it. After the date for the trial was set, Anthony traveled across the United States, telling her side of the story, and even published her analysis of the Amendment in several newspapers.
4. 1873 - Myra Bradwell vs. State of Illinois 1873 Supreme Court Case/Decision. Myra Bradwell met the standards set to become a member of Illinois State Bar, but her gender caused others to refuse her admittance. Myra stated that the 14th Amendment protected her rights as a citizen to apply for a job and receive it if requirements are met. A 8-1 ruling upheld the courts decision that Myra’s denial of employment was just. Citing that Privileges or Immunities Clause of the 14th Amendment did not include right to practice profession.
5. 1874 - The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is founded by Annie Wittenmyer. With Frances Willard at its head, the WCTU became an important force in the fight for woman suffrage. Therefore, one of the most vehement opponents to women's enfranchisement was the liquor lobby, which feared women might use the franchise to prohibit the sale of liquor. (Temperance Movement)
6. 1878 - The Senate defeats a woman's suffrage amendment 34-16. The Amendment stated, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” The same amendment, called “The Anthony Amendment,” was reintroduced in every Congress afterwards, but made no progress for years.
7. 1879 - Congress grants woman attorneys the right to argue cases before the Supreme Court.
8. 1893 - Colorado is the first state to adopt an amendment granting women the right to vote.
Supreme Court Analysis
During the Gilded Age, one movement still on the rise was that of the woman’s rights movement. The Supreme Court case of Bradwell vs. State of Illinois is a prime example of the unjust treatment of women during the Gilded Age. Myra Bradwell had passed all the obstacles that come with choosing to become a lawyer. These include partaking in and finishing law school. However, when Myra applied to the Illinois State Bar she was denied; reason being her gender.
Myra was outraged by this oppressive decision made by the Illinois State Bar and thus decided to sue the state. She believed that the 14th Amendment protected her rights to accessing employment. The 8-1 decision upholding Illinois’ point of view solidified the narrow reading of the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and determined that the right to practice a profession was not among these privileges. Today, a hundred years later, the Court began employing the Fourteenth Amendment as a way of overturning gender-discriminatory state laws. In doing so, however, it would typically use the "equal protection" clause, unlike Myra “privileges and immunities."
Questions
1. What factors, in your view, contributed to the decline in the birth rate?
Between 1800 and 1900, the birth rate declined by about 50%. This could’ve been caused by the female fight to go against the grain and break tradition. New radical female movements for more rights consumed the time which would be necessary to raise children. Furthermore, women were fighting to break the mold and broaden their horizons, thus trying to shed responsibilities which would otherwise hold them back. Had they kept up the birth rate, women would be pushed to conform to being a fulltime housewife and mother.
2. Has the divorce rate risen sharply or gradually? What factors might have contributed to the increasing divorce rate?
Based on the graph, the rate at which divorces increased was neither sharp, nor gradual, rather somewhere in the middle. The rise varies between increases of 2% and 9% from 1870 to 1970. One factor that likely contributed to the increasing divorce rate is the decreasing age of individuals at the time of their first marriage. Men and women were committing themselves to one another at younger ages, thus they would be cutting down on their childhood and adolescence by getting marriage. Perhaps some men and women were not yet mature enough to get married. Also, growing support of women’s suffrage could’ve possibly created tensions between husbands and wives. Men may have liked having superiority over their wives in the sense of having more rights. Thus, they may have begun to resent the female fight for more rights.
Image Analysis
1. http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/csl1878l.jpg
“Women Wearing Men’s Clothes”
In this cartoon we see Emily wearing her brother’s waistcoat as to symbolize how a woman in men’s clothing is the same as “a sheep in wolf’s clothing.” It seems that once a woman puts on men’s clothing, she feels that she should be entitled to the same rights as a man, such as higher wages and voting rights. A free list, by definition is “A list of goods that a country has designated as able to be imported without being subject to tariff or import licensing.” Emily is stating that her brother allows her to wear men’s clothing while he is out of town, letting her take the appearance of a man, so it seems.
2http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/csl1988l.jpg
“Terrible Results of the Higher Education of Women”
This political cartoon is highly satirical in its views. The cartoonist obviously felt that if women were to become more educated, they would be picky in a choice of husband, thus putting off marriage and reproduction. Even if she was to marry this young man, she would not be able to have a “rational conversation” with him. A spinster is an unmarried older woman, and this cartoonist manages to sneak that information right into the passage to further his point.
Teresa Konopka
AP US
Farmers’ Revolt
Supreme Court Assignment
Part B
In 1894, the Wilson Gorman Tariff Act came into place, which would lead to a tremendously important Supreme Court case. This act stipulated that, for a five-year period, any “gains, profits, and / or incomes” would be taxed at 2%. However, these assets would only be taxed if they exceeded $4,000.
In response to the act, a New York-based company arose—The Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company. This company announced to its shareholders that it would pay the tax associated with the Wilson Gorman Tariff Act. The company also promised to provide to the collector of internal revenue the names of all the people for whom the company was liable for being taxed under the act. These names were given directly to the Department of the Treasury, so they would know whom the company was acting for. A shareholder of The Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company was a man by the name of Charles Pollock. He was from Massachusetts and owned ten shares of stock.
Angered by the Wilson Gorman Tariff Act, Mr. Charles Pollock sued The Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company to command it form paying the tax. In lower courts, Pollock lost horrendously. Still, he did not give up. When he finally appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, they agreed to hear the case. In total, the case was argued by the Supreme Court over five days in March of 1895. The final decision was reached on April 8, 1895. The chief justice at that time was Melville Fuller. His associate justices were Stephen Johnson Field, John Marshall Harlan, Horace Gray, and George Shiras, Jr., just to name a few.
In the end, Fuller ruled in Pollock’s favor. He declared that the Wilson Gorman Tariff Act was imposing on “income from property” and was thus unconstitutional. So, Fuller treated the tax as if it were a direct tax. Under the statutes of the constitution at that time, direct taxes had to be in proportion to states’ population. Ultimately, even though the tax still existed and had to be paid, it was now different in each state. While Pollock never abolished the tax, he did get the satisfaction of knowing that, because of him, Americans had to pay the tax in proportion to their state.
Conversely, in 1913, the sixteenth amendment to the constitution was ratified. This allowed the Congress to levy an income tax without regard to the states’ population. Thus, Pollock’s triumph was reversed with this change in the constitution. Still, he did have eighteen years while his success was in the law.
This Pollock vs. Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company was a landmark case during the Gilded age. Pollock represented all of the unhappy Americans at that time (figuratively speaking). He was irate with his current government and its taxes / treatment of people. So, he did something about it and went all the way to the Supreme Court. During much of America’s history, especially the Gilded age, Americans who were dissatisfied with their current situations took action. Farmers revolted, children protested, small business owners complained, and Charles Pollock changed history.
Michelle Shed = O_O
Elizabeth Che = n_n
Teresa Konopka = v_v
Margaret Scalesci = <3
The Farmers Revolt
C: Answer any two questions at the end of your topic summary.
1. Identify the economic and political grievances of the late 19th century American farmers.
During the late 19th century, American society was on the verge of moral and political ruins. Newspapers were constantly publishing yellow journalism, money and power created exploitation within Congress and the Legislatures, public opinion was silenced, men and women worked in dangerous jobs for low wages, and the urban workmen were denied the right of organization and self-protection.
In Washington Gladden’s “ The Embattled Farmers,” he states, “The farmers of the United States are up in arms. They are the bone and sinew of the nation; they produce the largest share of its wealth; but they are getting, they say, the smallest share for themselves.” American Farmers have the influential job of growing crops to feed our ever-growing nation. Yet, farmers were frequently asked to grow a huge abundance of crops. The issue was that the farmers were growing more food and creating an enormous amount of wealth. However, the farmers were receiving a small share of wealth and a small amount of the crops that they produced. Farmers were also receiving less time to grow their crops. During the 1800’s, wheat was given fifty-six hours to produce an acre and farmers were paid fifteen yields per acre. In the 1900’s, wheat was given fifteen hours to produce an acre and farmers were paid fourteen yields per acre. This created a perpetual class of wealthy and poor people.
2. Why did agricultural productivity increase between 1800 and 1900?
During the late 19th century, machinery replaced almost half the jobs of the men and women in the labor force. While men like Carnegie and Rockefeller were profiting from their industries, farmers, part of the labor force, were receiving less money. This invented an economic and social policy known as Social Darwinism. The Gospel of Wealth was also invented. The idea spreading among American society was that in life, you have to do everything to survive. Even if it means everyone else in the world has to suffer. New states were also coming into the Nation. Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Washington came into the union in 1889. As more states are annexed into the nation, the population rises. This means that agricultural production needs to increase. It’s already a struggle for farmers to grow an acre of crops in fifteen hours. Now the farmers have to grow triple the amount of crops in even less hours.
Overall, the trends and developments related to the Farmers Revolt hindered social progress in the United States. While, men like John D. Rockefeller monopolized ninety five percent of the Standard Oil industry, farmers were receiving less money than they should have. It was a social confrontation that almost led to a Marxist Revolution and could have caused even more social chaos between the poor and the wealthy.
D. Post and Summarize at least two visual sources
1.http://www.geocities.com/salika_2000/MtgFarmersAlliance.jpg
In this picture, the Farmer’s Alliance is meeting at their first house. In their house, they discuss many social, economic, and political issues. They are trying to change the number of hours they are given to produce an acre of crops. Another matter they discuss is the amount of pay they receive for each acre they produce.
2. “Breaking Raw Pasture.” Harper Week. 1998. 1999. http://thewest.harpweek.com/.
In this cartoon, titled “Breaking Raw Pasture,” cows are lined up in rows so farmers are able to herd the cattle. This is the daily job of a farmer. Besides herding the cattle, farmers also pasture the herds to create meat, milk, and other dairy products. As the nation progresses, farmers are required to herd more cattle to feed the rising population of our nation.
E. Three Study Questions on the Farmers Revolt?
1. How did the Farmers Revolt influence the social conflicts during the Gilded Age? Were any organizations created?
2. What were some struggles farmers faced during the Gilded Age? How did these conflicts lead to the Farmers Revolt?
3. Did the Gilded Age further advance farmers as a social class? Why or why not?
mhtml:file://C:\Documents%20and%20Settings\student\My%20Documents\Farmers%20Revolt%20-%20edited.mht!FarmersRevolt-edited_files/frame.htm
This is Elizabeth Che's Powerpoint on the Farm Workers
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