Classwork: The Gilded Age Stations

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12 questions

Station One: The Challenges of Urbanization

“Long ago it was said that ‘one half of the world does not know how the other half lives.’ That was true then. It did not know because it did not care. The half that was on top cared little for the struggles, and less for the fate of those who were underneath, so long as it was able to hold them there and keep its own seat.”-  Jacob Riis

How does this quote relate to the Gilded Age? Your answer should include the term "tycoon," which was one of your vocabulary words!

READ! ---> Jacob Riis was a Danish-American social reformer, journalist, and photographer. He is known for using his photographic and journalistic talents to help the impoverished in New York City. While living in New York, Riis experienced severe poverty and became a reporter writing about the horrific quality of life in the slums. He attempted to alleviate the bad living conditions of the urban poor by exposing their living conditions to the middle and upper classes.

READ ----> One of the major characteristics of the Gilded Age was rapid growth of cities. This is known as "urbanization." Urbanization brought many challenges for working class Americans during this time period. 

Urbanization = The rise of cities and the ways in which cities adapt to the growing urban population. 

All of the pictures in your folder are primary source images taken from major cities during the Gilded Age. As you read the Challenges of Urbanization quotes, decide which image best reflects each component of that reading.

Draggable item		Corresponding Item
"After working-class families left the central city, immigrants often took over their old housing, sometimes with two or three families occupying a one-family residence. These multifamily urban dwellings, called tenements, were overcrowded and unsanitary."		Image 1
"As the cities grew, so did the challenge of keeping them clean. Horse manure piled up on the streets, sewage flowed through open gutters, and factories spewed foul smoke into the air."		Image 2
"During this time, as the populations of cities increased, so did the homeless population, and pickpockets and thieves flourished. Although New York City organized the first full-time, salaried police force in 1844, it and most other city law enforcement units were too small to have much impact on crime."		Image 3
"Without dependable trash collection, people dumped their garbage on the streets. Since garbage was picked up infrequently, people sometimes dumped it into the air shafts, where it attracted vermin. To keep out the stench, residents nailed windows shut."		Image 6
"As the urban population increased, working-class families in cities had two housing options. They could either buy a house on the outskirts of town, where they would face transportation problems, or rent cramped rooms in a boardinghouse in the central city. Boarding houses were poorly kept, and exteriors of the buildings were unsightly."		Image 5
"The limited water supply in many cities contributed to the spread of fires. Major fires occurred in almost every large American city during the Industrial Era. In addition to lacking water with which to combatblazes, most cities were packed with wooden dwellings, which were like kindlingwaiting to be ignited. The use of candles and kerosene heaters also posed a fire hazard."		Image 4

Station Two: The Jungle Excerpts 

In your folder are excerpts from “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair.  He described the filthy conditions of the meat packing industry in Chicago.  Sinclair’s vivid and disturbing descriptions of the industry led to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates food producers.

Not in class today? Read the excerpt here! (posted after class)

Answer before you read: Have you ever thought about where your food comes from? How do you know it's clean and safe to eat?

Answer while you read: What were some of the hazards of working in a meat-packing plant in Chicago? Provide two pieces of evidence from the text below.

Answer while you read: How was food treated in factories in Chicago? Provide two pieces of evidence from the text below.

Answer after you read: Now that you’ve read about the horrendous conditions of the meat-packing industry in Chicago, which two lines were the most shocking to your group? Type the quotes in the box below.

Does your group think problems such as these exist in food production today (factories, restaurants, shops?) Explain why or why not.

Station Three: Working Conditions: Child Labor & Sweatshops 

READ ---> Child labor, or the use of children as workers reached its height during the Gilded Age. Miserable working conditions including crowded and unclean factories, a lack of safety codes, and long hours were the norm. Children could be paid less and were less likely to organize into unions to protest unfair treatment. Working children were typically unable to attend school, creating a cycle of poverty that was difficult to break.

READ ---> Children were put to work in the Gilded Age due to the low cost of their labor, their ability to repair intricate components of machinery in factories due to their small hand size, and they were much less likely to unionize than adult workers. 

Children hired by factories worked twelve hour days, six days a week, for about a dollar a day; the younger children who were around the ages of 4-7 were not even paid for their work. 

Factory owners preferred to hire children rather than adults due to children being able to perform the same duties as adult workers for lower wages. At factories during harvest time, children would work 18 hours a day, with their day starting at 3:00 in the morning. Children also suffered injuries and disease due to unsafe working conditions in the factories.

What were three reasons factory workers preferred children over adults as workers?

At its height, children could work up to _______ hours a day.

Children working in the mines during the Gilded Age. 

READ ---> In addition to child labor, sweatshops became prominent during the Gilded Age. A sweatshop is a factory, especially in the clothing industry, where manual workers are employed at very low wages for long hours and under poor conditions, often of which are illegal. One of the most famous sweatshop incidents during the time was the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire. 

Directions: Watch the video below, and answer the corresponding questions. 

What were three inadequate conditions in the factory that allowed the fire to quickly spread, and that made it challenging for people to escape? Bullet points are acceptable.

How long did the fire last, and how many people were killed in the incident?

Putting it all together: In at least one complete sentence, finish the claim below with evidence from this formative.

Claim: Although the Gilded Age was a period of great wealth for the United States as a country, most Americans did not experience this personally. One reason working class Americans struggled during this time was ________________________________________