Running Head: WORKERS IN GILEAD AGE 1

Analyze the Response of the Farmers and Industrial Workers in Gilded Age (1865-1900)

Name

Institution Affiliation
WORKERS IN GILEAD AGE 2

Analyze the Response of the Farmers and Industrial Workers in Gilded Age (1865-1900)

The Gilded Age refers to the time between 1865 and 1900, when colonies experienced a

change in the way their country operated. The world was becoming more industrialized, and

these changes impact on both the farmers and industrial workers. They found themselves in

compromising situations which resulted in the violation of law, strikes, and formation of

alliances (Cobbs et al., 2011). The era created high demands for more workers, which led to

pressure for harder work that was not substituted with higher pay. The following is an analysis of

how farmers and industrial workers responded to the industrial revolution. The industrial

workers responded to the Gilead Age by forming labor unions to tackle their oppression while

farmers changed their patterns of production.

The Gilead Age resulted in numerous technologies. Previously, farmers needed to

produce more commodities, although the small number of workers hampered the objective.

Inventors such as Henry Ford started to impact on industrial production by inventions such as

machinery (U.S History. Org, n.d). Industries were being taken over by new businesses and

philosophies such as Laissez-faire, which was advocating the business people to do what they

could but restrict their interference with the government. The spread of industrialization changed

the lives of the farmers as their jobs were being carried out by machines in the factories. The

farmers responded by looking for employment elsewhere. Migration set in. Some of the farmers

moved to urban cities in pursuit of jobs. Others ventured in technology that was being introduced

such as the iron plow and seed drills in the production of food (Cobbs et al., 2011). The overall

quality and standards of lives for the people increased. Some of the farmers shifted their

production due to the introduction of new needs for resources such as coal, oil, and steel to

support the industry of machinery.

WORKERS IN GILEAD AGE 3

The introduction of locomotives took away the productive lands for the farmers. They

became less self-sufficient and eventually settled on the production of cash crops such as corn,

wheat, and barley instead of the food crops. They developed the motives of generating profits to

support their living standards. However, the production of the crops required machinery

especially in planting and harvesting. The farmers resulted in borrowing loans from financial

institutions such as banks (Addis, n.d). The lives of the farmers were greatly impacted by the

Gilead Age, which forced them to respond appropriately. The number of workers increased due

to the growth in industries, and as a result, the overall rate of unemployment decreased. The steel

industry gained roots leading to the creation of the need for the necessary resources to build

railroads, trains, and cars.

The introduction of industrialization led to new technologies although they were

available to the people that had adequate resource endowment, who were recognized as “captains

of industry” (U.S History. Org, n.d). Industrial workers started to be substituted with machines.

The workers were facing extreme competition for their jobs especially from immigrants, leading

to low wages and poor working conditions. In response to these challenges, industrial workers

started their efforts to form labor unions. The first one was the Knights of Labor, which had an

objective of merging all workers into a big union. They were not required to have special

qualifications although the union opposed strikes. It advocated for equal wages for all, averting

all forms of discrimination including gender-based, the unionization of all workers and a

standard working time of eight hours workday (Addis, n.d). Other unions such as the American

Federation of Labor and the National Labor Union were later formed, all with a common

objective of improving the working conditions of workers to at most eight hours in a day and

increasing the wages.

WORKERS IN GILEAD AGE 4

The industrial workers responded to the Gilead Age with strikes and violence when the

grievances of their unions were not honored. In 1886, the Knight of Labor conducted a violent

strike that was named as the Haymarket Massacre after the union’s demand for a shorter working

day was ignored (Bacon, 2007). Ten people died, eight of them being officers, with at least

seventy others sustaining injuries. Another strike involved workers at the Homestead Steel and

the Amalgamated Association. The workers were being denied the right to form labor unions. It

ended in violence that was calmed by the law enforcement officers.

The unemployed or retrenched industrial workers responded to the Gilead Age by

protesting at individual levels (Cobbs et al., 2011). In 1894, Jacob Coxey, with some of his

supporters engaged the newspaper reporters at Washington. They demanded the government to

address the issue of unemployment by public work program and inflationary measures. Although

they were arrested, they initiated a platform for the government involvement in the crisis by

creating a Civil Service Commission that was tasked with examining the competitiveness of

workers during the appointments for federal jobs (Bacon, 2007). An Interstate Commerce Act

was enacted in 1887, which prohibited unfair practices, rebates, and discrimination during

employment.

Conclusion

Although the Gilead Age had positive and negative impacts on the farmers and industrial

workers, each group responded differently to these impacts. Farmers responded by borrowing

money to purchase the machinery for their productions. They changed their production from

food crops to cash crops. The industrial workers, on the other hand, responded by creating labor

unions to advocate for better working conditions, lower working hours and increase wages.
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Individual workers initiated protests to force the government into action, which led to the

development of labor acts such as the Interstate Commerce Act to address the issue of

employment.
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References

Addis, C. (n.d). History hub: 2 Gilded Age. Retrieved from

http://sites.austincc.edu/caddis/gilded-age/

Bacon, K. (2007). The dark side of the Gilded Age. The Atlantic. Retrieved from

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/06/the-dark-side-of-the-gilded-

age/306012/

Cobbs, E, Blum, J. E & Gjerde, J. (2011). Major Problems in American History, Volume I

(Major Problems in American History Series) 3rd Edition.

U.S History. Org. (n.d). U.S History online textbook: The Gilded Age. Retrieved from

http://www.ushistory.org/us/36.asp