“The late nineteenth century must have been a great time to be alive,” declared an unemployed historian. “Business and agriculture were booming, the government stayed off your back, and there was plenty of opportunity for anyone willing to work for it.”
Assess the accuracy of this statement by describing the urban and rural conditions of late nineteenth-century America.
How did business and agriculture develop after the Civil War and how many opportunities were there for ordinary Americans?
What were working conditions like for industrial workers and farmers?
Is the historian correct? Why or why not?
If you were a working-class person living in late nineteenth-century America, the historian’s statement would not seem accurate at all.
In addition to suffering from low wages and poor working conditions, workers had almost no power to bargain with employers for higher pay or better working conditions.
The historian is correct in saying that business was booming and there was plenty of opportunity for anyone willing to work hard; however, this opportunity primarily ran along lines of race and gender.
The post-Civil War period began with near universal prosperity.
The Civil War had created an enormous amount of business for industrialists and farmers, and it brought new jobs to everyone from New York City bankers, to newly freed slaves working the cotton fields in Texas.
During this time the United States was rapidly industrializing, due in large part to the expansion of railroads throughout the country. As Americans built more tracks, they needed more workers and more trains to haul goods for export.
Agriculture was also flourishing.
New technologies, like the use of steel, plowing in place of wooden ones, and new seeds made it possible for more farmers to grow more food in less time.
Western settlers were moving further and further west each year, trying to find vacant land they could claim as their own.
The boom created by industrialization and agricultural expansion was short-lived. By the late 1870s, the country was experiencing an economic depression.
All of the change, growth, and prosperity that had characterized the previous two decades suddenly disappeared, and Americans were left with a vastly different society from what they had known in the past.
The perception at the time was that there was now more poverty than ever before, as well as poor working conditions among industrial workers.
The 1890s were an extremely difficult decade for many Americans.
Throughout this decade many industries failed, people lost their jobs, and some even lost their homes.
During this time there was a great deal of unemployment and many Americans were left without any way to provide for themselves and their families.
Between 1881 and 1890, the average working person’s salary decreased by 7 percent while prices of food, clothing, and other products increased by 50 percent.
Unemployment caused by the economic depression led to a series of uprisings.
This meant that dollars had to be printed in order for banks to continue lending money.
Unable to print money, banks collapsed and thousands of businesses closed down.
Thousands of people lost their investments and homes in these bankruptcies.
There were also riots in which many workers destroyed property, and businesses and even killed each other in an effort to get a job or an unspent paycheck, or for revenge against someone who had wronged them.
All told, the period of 1890 was one of widespread dysfunction and violence, mainly caused by unemployment and economic depression.
The farmers were hit particularly hard.
The Great Depression of the 1890s was a time when many farmers lost everything.
Many crops failed and prices plummeted. Many farms went bankrupt, as workers and farmers lost their investments in land and livestock.
When the depression ended in 1890, 10 percent of all families in the South were debtors, while 25 percent of all families west of the Mississippi River were debtors by 1892.
Overall, between 1873 and 1893 the United States lost nearly one million farms.
The stock market crash of 1929 was devastating to the economy and people’s hopes for a prosperous future.
The Great Depression was also referred to as “The Lost Generation,” because it ended whatever innocence remained after World War I.
The “boom” in the Roaring Twenties was only relative: stock prices were high and people had money, but unemployment was running around 20 percent when the market crashed in 1929.
The “Great Crash” ushered in a decade-long depression that left one-fourth of Americans jobless.
For the rest of their lives, they would be poor and spend their days on breadlines.
The bubble burst on Wall Street in October 1929, ushering in the Great Depression.
The rest of the decade was a period of economic turmoil driven by record levels of unemployment, poverty, and despair.
Yet the 1930s were also a time when government and citizens came together to end a downward spiral of grim economic numbers.
Washington provided relief, through jobs programs and food aid, while average Americans gave generously to charity.
The economist William J. Barber predicted that Americans would regret their charitable giving during the Depression and beyond.
Barber, who taught at Rutgers University, surveyed all major economic recessions from 1854 to 1954.
He concluded that private charitable giving declined in bad economic times but rose dramatically after World War II ended in 1945.
His theory was that Americans would have been better off if they had spent the money during the Depression rather than giving it to charity.
He also said that most people did not really understand what caused the Great Depression, and therefore shouldn’t blame themselves for making wrong economic decisions.
Barber’s predictions have not held true, however. People have continued to give during economic downswings as well as good times.
Though many had lost their jobs, it was not uncommon for people to give much more in an attempt to make up for their losses.
Americans gave about $4.4 billion in the 1930s, and another $9.54 billion in the 1950s.
There were a number of reasons why Americans gave so much to charity during the Depression era: generosity of spirit, sympathy toward less fortunate citizens and refugees, belief that private charity could alleviate social ills—all of these factors played a role.
Religious organizations were especially active in raising funds during the Depression. Churches, synagogues, and other religious charities raised over $2 billion in 1939 alone—more than half of all private donations.
They also provided community services that were badly needed by many Americans.
Americans also felt a strong sense of civic duty to provide relief for those who had lost their jobs or homes.
Unemployment was so high that one out of every four households experienced financial depression at some point during the 1930s.
Many people believed that private charity could alleviate social ills.
Religions group set up soup kitchens and other programs to help people who had lost their jobs or homes find shelter and food.
Private agencies also provided job training, clothing, medical care, and even entertainment (theaters, circuses, and baseball games).
Community organizations—Rotary Clubs, churches, synagogues, labor unions—raised money and put it to work through work projects that helped restore damaged roads and build bridges.
References
UNCTAD. (2020). Productive capacities for the new decade. United Nations Publications.
FOOD A. N. D. (2020). State of the world’s forests 2020 : forestry biodiversity and people. FOOD & AGRICULTURE ORG.
Uhl, X. M., & Brezina, C. (2018). A primary source investigation of the Industrial Revolution. The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.