Willie J.

Harrington
C121
Task 3

Part A
During reconstruction, many southern plantation owners found themselves in debt because of

the end of slavery. A lot of formers slaves left the plantation to seek out lost family members,

and others left because they were free. This left the former slave owners scrabbling to find help

with the everyday operation on the plantation. A system was invented in the 1870’s and 80’s

known as sharecropping. Sharecropping is when a white landowner would rent a piece of their

land to black’s and they would share the crops they produced. This help the white owner keep

their land and it gave former slaves a place to live. But for blacks sharecropping was not what

they expected, because they grew more and more in debt to the land owners. (Norton 2015)

Another changed that happen during the reconstruction was the 15th amendment. This

amendment forbid state to deny anyone to vote regardless of race and color. The amendment

became law in 1870, and a lot of African Americans rejoiced it. They helped strengthen the

southern republican party. Blacks said they only voted for republicans because that was the

party that freed them. At the 1868-1870 convention, there was a sizeable number of black

delegates from the south (265 out of 1000). (Norton 2015)

Finally, another change that happen during the reconstruction was Black codes. Even

through African Americans were free, they still had to carry a card to say they were freed, they

had a curfew to obey, and they had to live in housing provided by a landowner. If they were

caught disobeying the rules they were consequences. For example, if a black person was caught

drunk in public in Louisiana they were fined $5 and they had to do community services. These
black codes made an uproar with the people of the north. They claim these codes were

reverting to slavery. (Norton 2015)

Part B

Like the Industrialization in Europe, America’s Industrialization grew over night. Large cities

began to grow from 10 million to over 50 million, mostly from new Immigrants coming into the

country to seek a better life, and from rural areas where rising debts and bad crop prices made

farmers leave and move to bigger cities to find work. The Influx of people migrating to the large

cities made housing difficult to find, and when there was housing rent was very high, this made

a lot of families share housing so they can pay the rent. Crime also risen in large cities. The

murder rate tripled from 1881 to 1898, also living in the Large cities became very unsanitary.

Clean water was very hard to find at first and waste water was disposed into rivers. Doctors

claim microorganism causes illness. A lot of cities started to pass laws on dumping raw sewage

into rivers. Once the laws were passed cities began to filter the water and chemically treat

waste water. The other problem large cities had was trash build up, tons and tons of trash were

piling up on the streets. Engineers were hired by the cities to design a sewage disposal and

street cleaning system to help with the trash, but it was still an ongoing problem.

Another consequence that Americans faced during the Industrialization was the horrible

working conditions and the unfair labor practices. People who looked for work in factories

worked long hours and had little to no breaks. Some factory workers even said they weren’t

allow to talk during production because it would slow down the assembly lines. Many workers

in some textile factories were cramped into one room to work, making the working condition
unsafe. In 1911 A famous fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory proved that. 146 of 500 women

died because they were locked in a room when a fire broke out. Majority of the women were

burned alive and some jump out of windows and fell to their death. This was the worse factory

fire in U.S history at the time. People were angry and scared to work in those type of

conditions, and they began to organize strikes and they also form labor unions. These unions

united people to ban against the factories to give them fare wages and better working

conditions. Some of the unions Like the American Federation of Labor fought for those rights.

These unions held strikes and a famous strike in 1894 called the Pullman strike got the

government involved. Eugene Debs of the American Railway Union went on strike because

George Pullman of the Pullman company decided to cut wages but not cut rent. The Pullman

company closed it factory due the strike and the railroad owner association was getting federal

money from the government. President Glover ordered federal troops the Chicago to end the

strike and Mr. Deb was arrested and sentenced for 6 months because of the strike. (Norton

2015)

Part C1

During the late 19th century to the early 20th century the progressive era was born, and during

this era we find a lot of group forming to reform America. Evangelist preachers and socialist try

to change the way we lived. And they tried to improve our way of life. Most of the progressive

reformers got the Idea while studying abroad in Europe. The social aspect of reform was to

bridge the gap between social classes, meaning having young educated men and women live in

settlement houses and educate the poor and helping them with their needs. The religious
aspect of reform during this period was to get rid of any distracts like alcohol and sex. Preachers

believed by getting rid of these distractions would lead them to the kingdom of Heaven. Most

of the reformer were women. They played a major role in changes during the progressive era.

(Norton 2015)

Part C2

One movement that defined the progressive era was the labor reform. Between 1890 to 1916

every member of a family worked in a factory or mine, and the working conditions were very

cruel and unhealthy. A lot of people have died or suffered injuries, and working and middle

class reformer wanted the conditions of factories to improve and they demanded shorter

working hours. The reformers held states responsible of accidents and death at factories. So,

states started to enact inspection laws and require factories to compensate families for injures

and death. They also reform against little children working in these factories, they wanted

states to enforce a law requiring a certain age for a child to work. But these labor laws were not

strictly enforced and families lied about their children’s age so they could work in the factories

and earn that extra Income. (Norton 2015)

The Next reform was Progressive Education, And the leading reformer was John Dewey.

In 1870 children only attended school for a few months a year for four years. But as America

was changing, so did the education. Educators like Mr. Dewey argued that exposing children to

age-appropriate educational material this would produce better citizens and smarter workers.
Mr. Dewey’s philosophy stressed that learning should be about real life problems, and children

should learn from experience, and not by rote memorization. (Norton 2015)

Part C3

During the Progressive era, President Theodore Roosevelt called himself the Progressive

President. Many called him the trustbuster. Teddy Roosevelt was against big businesses taking

advantage of little businesses and the people. He told the U.S Justice Department to use

antitrust laws against the railroad, meatpacking and oil companies. He formed a new cabinet

called the Department of Labor and Commerce, and this department helped companies with

merging and expanding. Roosevelt wanted to make sure people were not taken advantage of,

so he passed several acts Like the Pure food and Drug act, which requires companies to list

ingredients in their product so the consumer could make better decisions in buying different

products. He also passed the Meat Inspection Act, to make sure the meatpacking companies

were handling meat properly. (Norton 2015)

Part D

During the 1870’s European powers were colonizing Africa and Asia, while America was still

recovering from the civil war and were expanding Westward. America was late in the expansion

race. Our reasoning to expand beyond our borders was for economic reasons. We wanted to

profit from foreign sales and trades. Alfred Mahan said we needed to strengthen and expand

our navy to protect our shipping, and for use to do that we need to Annexed Hawaii. In 1887,

we forced the king of Hawaii to sign a constitution to change from a monarch to a democracy.
That same year Hawaii granted the U.S the naval rights to Pearl Harbor. Hawaii became a

commercial and strategic way station to Asia and the Philippines during another conflict called

the Spanish-American war. The U.S said the Island was an essential part of America because of

the sugar exports.

The Spanish-American war was another conflict that the U.S used as an economic gain

for the country. The Cuban’s wanted independents from Spain, but Spain would not give up

without a fight. So, they burned sugarcane fields, which was a major blow in the Cuban export

and America import of sugar. US. President McKinley sent Spain an Ultimatum telling them to

back down and give Cuba its Independent. President McKinley asked congress if he could go to

war, he stated he needed to protect American life and properties in Cuba, and by Cuba not

being free would hurt the commerce trade and business of the American people. So, Congress

declared Cuba free and independent and gave the President the use of force to remove Spanish

authority. Congress wanted to Annex Cuba but President McKinley passed the teller

amendment forbidding the U.S to try to Annex Cuba. (Norton 2015)

Citations

Norton, M.B. (2015).  A people & a nation