Reconstruction Era and Rise of Big Business

Reconstruction Era (1865-1877)

• Reconstruction aimed to rebuild the South and integrate formerly enslaved people into society.
• Key legislative achievements: 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments (abolishing slavery, granting citizenship, protecting voting rights).
• Amendments laid groundwork for future civil rights movements but faced Southern resistance and lack of federal enforcement.
• Reconstruction highlighted federal government's role in protecting citizens' rights.
• Reconstruction policies shifted from lenient (Lincoln, Johnson) to more radical (Congressional control).
• Reconstruction Acts (1867) placed the South under military rule.
• Reconstruction ultimately failed to achieve its goals, ending with the Compromise of 1877 and the re-establishment of Southern control with segregation and disenfranchisement.

Rise of Big Business and Labor Unions (Late 19th Century)

• Rise of big business, driven by industrialists like Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Morgan.
• These industrialists employed vertical and horizontal integration to dominate industries.
• Rockefeller's Standard Oil and Carnegie's steel empires exemplify these strategies.
• Businesses sought to maximize profits, eliminate competition, and gain monopolistic control.
• Workers faced harsh conditions, low wages, and long hours.
• Labor unions (Knights of Labor and AFL) emerged to advocate for better working conditions, shorter hours, and higher wages.
• Labor movement faced violent repression from employers and government.
• Strikes (Great Railroad Strike of 1877, Homestead Strike of 1892, Pullman Strike of 1894) highlighted the growing conflict between labor and management.
• Labor movement struggled due to internal divisions and difficulties in achieving lasting success.

Emergence of the "New South" and Jim Crow (Post-Reconstruction)

• Southerners sought to modernize the "New South" economically (industry growth).
• New South was rooted in racial inequality.
• White Southerners maintained control using segregation and disenfranchisement.
• Systems like crop-lien and sharecropping kept many in poverty.
• Jim Crow laws (1890s) institutionalized segregation in public spaces.
• Tactics to circumvent the 15th Amendment (literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather clauses) disenfranchised African Americans.
• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) legitimized segregation with "separate but equal."
• Federal government's policies negatively impacted Native Americans, leading to land loss and assimilation policies like the Dawes Act (1887).
• Native American resistance culminated in conflicts like Battle of Little Bighorn and Wounded Knee Massacre.

The Gilded Age (1865-1900) and Political Stalemate

• Gilded Age characterized by economic and social inequality.
• Political issues centered around the money supply, particularly for struggling farmers.
• Debate over gold vs. silver currency was prominent, with farmers advocating for silver coinage.
• 1896 presidential election highlighted the tension, with Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech and McKinley's pro-gold stance.
• Political corruption (spoils system, political machines like Tammany Hall) exacerbated the issues.
• Big business influence meant lack of regulation and monopolies.
• Polarization and weak presidential leadership contributed to legislative gridlock.
• These conditions set the stage for the Progressive Era reforms.