Response of Farmers and Industrial Workers During the Gilded Age Free Response Essay

Farmers and Industrial Workers Response to Industrialization During the Gilded Age (18651900) After the Civil War took place, major reconstruction occurred in the South. This sparked the rise of industrialization, and out of this emerged the Gilded Age. In demand for workers in the factories, more workers joined the work force and this caused urbanization. During there working days, these people faced harsh working conditions, low wages, and long hours. Farmers as well were being mistreated by the government. Farmers and industrial workers both fought to protect and conserve their rights as society around them was changing rapidly. During the late 1860’s in America, farmers created the populist movement. As most people were moving towards urbanization, the demand for farmers decreased and they were less appreciated. This turned out to be very bad for the farmers who didn’t decide to move to cities and work in factories like everyone else did. Also, the railroad companies contributed to the painful fall of the farmers. As a monopoly, these railroad companies could have set any price they wanted to the farmers when the farmers needed to export their crops and ship them throughout the country. Another main issue to the demise of the farmers was their debt owed to the banks. Since everyone was industrialized, the demand for crops decreased. In response to this decrease, the farmers thought that if they produced more crops, that more people will buy them. Unfortunately, this didn’t work out for these farmers and hurt them more. When they made no profit off this, their debt increased more and more. All of this led up to the change in farming methods. The normal subsistence farming was dying out and commercial farming was on the rise to make more money. Unfortunately, during this time, America was in an economic panic, with gold decreasing, silver increasing, which led to deflation. For farmers to get out of debt, they needed inflation, but with the population increasing, this wouldn’t happen. All of these attributes resulted in the populist movement and their political party. Their party asked for an increase in currency, government regulation on railroads, and a change in the banking system. Some of these values were met, but not all of them. Also during this Gilded Age, the industrial workers tried to change and improve their situations. During the Gilded Age, labor unions began to rise and fight for their rights as a whole instead of individual people. They wanted to protect the laborer from their employers. These unions mainly fought for better working conditions, better pay, and shorter hours. One notorious union was the Knights of Labor. Unfortunately, most of the time these labor unions and their fights failed. They mostly failed because these unions were viewed as anarchists and socialists. This bad public reputation decreased their support and power. There was one major difference between these unions; some supported skilled workers and others supported unskilled workers. Also, many of these unions wouldn’t allow women, blacks, or other ethnic groups into their groups. This decision also damaged their ability to gain public and political support. Government mainly favored big business rather than unions after the progressive movement. When strikes were used against these big businesses by the unions, they would usually hire unskilled workers to take their place at a much cheaper wage. This showed the power big business had over unions because these people needed to work for money to support their family. The big businesses didn’t need them because they could hire anyone they wanted to. Due to this battle between big businesses and unions, they were unable to meet much success during the Gilded Age. The farmers and industrial workers during the Gilded Age responded to the industrialization of America by creating movements and unions in order to protect themselves and their rights. Even though these were mostly unsuccessful, later movements and fights would prove to be successful towards the working people of America during this time. Their main lack of success and oppression was a reflection on their internal differences and lack of political power.