Sheden Abraham Period 4

Analyze the ways in which farmers and industrial workers responded to

industrialization in the gilded age 1865 1900

During the time periods of 1865 to 1900 the colonies were in an age called
the gilded age. During these times the colonies saw a change in the way the country
operated as the world become more and more industrialized. Due to these changes
workers like industrial workers and farmers responded in positive and negative
ways. Farmers adopted machines to improve output, whilst industrial workers
constantly found themselves on strike due to poor working conditions.

Both industrial workers and farmers both found themselves on the other side
of the law, constantly having altercations with the government or higher ups many
strikes and alliances occurred. Farmers for example challenged the two-party
system, a two-party system is a system where two major political parties dominate
politics within a government. One of the two parties typically holds a majority in the
legislature and is usually referred to as the majority party. Farmers tried to create a
third party or the populist party to challenge the big-business trusts, poor western
farmers united to form a powerful third party, the Peoples Party, or Populists. The
Democratic Party incorporated much of the Populist platform into its own platform
in the election of 1896, which inadvertently killed the Populists as a potent third
party. Industrial workers also faced with the problematic working conditions set
upon them by there leaders were forced to form union organizations, some of these
including the Nation Labor Union, Knights of labor, and the American Federation of
Labor. The knights of labor, was the largest and one of the most important American
labor organizations of the 1880s. The Knights promoted the social and cultural uplift
of the workingman, rejected Socialism and radicalism, demanded the eight-hour
day, and promoted the producers ethic of republicanism. Most of these unions
usually exercised there ideals in peaceful ways, those of which include boycotts and
strikes. One strike inevitably lead to the demise of the Knights of labor, this strike
later to be called the Haymarket Riot demonstrated the dangers of unions, when a
bombing in a town square was blamed upon the knights of labor, crushing the
union. Farmers also had a similar system of unions called the National Alliance
where a national organization of farmers met to address the problems of rural
America.

Farmers and Industrial workers were faced when many problems regarding
social issues during the glided age