Taking a Snapshot of American Life from the 1870s to the 1890s

Economic Reminders and What Is Happening to Workers

Traits	What Is Happening in America?
Economic Reminders General changes	1872 – Mail order – Montgomery Ward 1880 – Woolworth – “Five and Ten Cent Store” 1880s – Mail order – Sears, Roebuck, and Company
1867 – $50M in advertising 1900 – $500M
Railroads	1870s+ – Government aid (all levels) $500M + $179M acres 1883 – 4 standard time zones 1886 – South – standard gauge
Depression	1894 – ¼ railroads bankrupt 1893 – 15,000 businesses closed 1894 – 2.5M unemployed (17-19% of work force)
South’s per capita income	1860 – 60% of North’s 1900 – 40% of North’s
South’s manufacturing	From1880 to 1900, climb of 2 X In % = Climb to 10% of total US manufacturing
What’s happening to workers? Averages, national	Pre-1900	60-hr., 6 day/week 20 cents/hr. if skilled 10 cents/hr. if not
Average income – $400-$500/yr. Minimum cost of living – family of 4 = $600/yr.
	1880-1914	Real wages Ý $7/yr – that’s about a 1% Ý (for $400, .0175; for $500, .0104)
Factory, South	12 hrs/day – frequently women/children ½ pay rate of North
Tobacco $100/yr. in NC Cotton 60 hrs/week – 15 cents/day
Children, employed	1880s – Drop from 17% to 12% of children (over age 10) employed 1890s – Climb to 18%.
1900 – 1 in 10 girls employed 1900 – 1 in 5 boys employed
Women, employed	1870 – 15% over age 16 employed 1890s – Climb from 3.7M to 5M women employed 1900 – 20% of white women (5.3M); 25% of black women wage = average ½ of men

Traits

What Is Happening in America?

Economic Reminders

General changes

1872 – Mail order – Montgomery Ward

1880 – Woolworth – “Five and Ten Cent Store”

1880s – Mail order – Sears, Roebuck, and Company

1867 – $50M in advertising

1900 – $500M

Railroads

1870s+ – Government aid (all levels) $500M + $179M acres

1883 – 4 standard time zones

1886 – South – standard gauge

Depression

1894 – ¼ railroads bankrupt

1893 – 15,000 businesses closed

1894 – 2.5M unemployed (17-19% of work force)

South’s per
capita income

1860 – 60% of North’s

1900 – 40% of North’s

South’s
manufacturing

From1880 to 1900, climb of 2 X

In % = Climb to 10% of total US manufacturing

What’s happening to workers?

Averages, national

Pre-1900

60-hr., 6 day/week

20 cents/hr. if skilled

10 cents/hr. if not

Average income – $400-$500/yr.

Minimum cost of living – family of 4 = $600/yr.

1880-1914

Real wages Ý $7/yr – that’s about a 1% Ý

(for $400, .0175; for $500, .0104)

Factory,
South

12 hrs/day – frequently women/children

½ pay rate of North

Tobacco $100/yr. in NC

Cotton 60 hrs/week – 15 cents/day

Children,
employed

1880s – Drop from 17% to 12% of children (over age 10) employed

1890s – Climb to 18%.

1900 – 1 in 10 girls employed

1900 – 1 in 5 boys employed

Women,

employed

1870 – 15% over age 16 employed

1890s – Climb from 3.7M to 5M women employed

1900 – 20% of white women (5.3M); 25% of black women

wage = average ½ of men

What Is Happening to Workers (Continued) and to Farmers

Traits	What Is Happening in America?
What’s happening to workers? Cattle drovers	1867 – 1^st drive to railhead 1871 – 700,000 (peak) 1886-87 – blizzard
Trail boss $125/month – white Hands – average 8 men – ½ black or Mexican
Miners, in West	Corporate mines in the post-boom period 1870s – 1/30 disabled, 1/80 dead Anti-Chinese movement
Miners, coal in Midwest and East	14 hrs/day; 1/3 injured, 1/12 died in mines
Pre-1890 – English and Irish Post-1890 – SE Europeans
1894 – strikes in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio 1900 – 25,000 boys under 16 in mining

Traits

What Is Happening in America?

What’s happening to workers?

Cattle
drovers

1867 – 1^st drive to railhead

1871 – 700,000 (peak)

1886-87 – blizzard

Trail boss $125/month – white

Hands – average 8 men – ½ black or Mexican

Miners,
in West

Corporate mines in the post-boom period

1870s – 1/30 disabled, 1/80 dead

Anti-Chinese movement

Miners,
coal in

Midwest
and East

14 hrs/day; 1/3 injured, 1/12 died in mines

Pre-1890 – English and Irish

Post-1890 – SE Europeans

1894 – strikes in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio

1900 – 25,000 boys under 16 in mining

Traits	What Is Happening in America?
What’s happening to farming? Mid-West	1873 $1.16/bushel - wheat
	1874 $0.95/bushel
	1889 $0.70/bushel
	1874 $0.64/bushel - corn
	1875 $0.42/bushel
South	1867 – 33% farms – tenancy 1900 – 70% farms – tenancy
	tenant – tenant “owned” crop sharecropper – owner “owned” crop furnish merchant – interest to 50%
	1870 – 3.1M cotton bales 1880 – 5.7M cotton bales
	1881	$0.11/pound - cotton (10 cents/pound break even)
	1890	$0.085/pound
	1894	$0.046/pound

What Is Happening Politically and Demographically?

Traits	What Is Happening in America?
Political Reminders	1877-1887 – 8 of 10 voters voted 1890s – city reform – Examples: Chicago Civic Federation; National Municipal League
What is the urban/rural pattern?	Cities: Over 80% immigrant in Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, New York City 1869 – 9 cities 100,000+ 1890 – 28 cities 100,000+
What is the urban/rural pattern?	Central core = skyscraper + elevator + tenement + settlement house + parks - working class Suburbs = subways + streetcars - middle class
	Rural response: Populism
What migrations are occurring?	1877-1890 – 6.3 M immigrants - from N and W Europe - to NE or Midwest US cities (mainly)
What migrations are occurring?	1880-1917 – 17.9M immigrants – mainly Catholics and Jews and unskilled - 20.2% from NW Europe - 18.5% from E Europe - 27.1% from Central Europe - 24.3% from S Europe
What’s the response?	Examples: 1882 Chinese Exclusion 1887 American Protective Association formed – Clinton, La.
What’s the black situation?	1879 Exodusters 1880s Some Southern blacks to industrial cities
What’s the black situation?	1881 Tuskegee Institute – Alabama – Booker T. Washington 1883 Civil Rights Cases – not on individual actions 1895 Atlanta Exposition speech - Washington 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson 1896 National Association of Colored Women
What’s happening to prohibition?	1873 – women’s march against saloons, dealers 1874 – Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) – 1000 organizations, 26K members 1888+ - Republicans, state-level, social activists – prohibition laws 1895 – Anti-Saloon League (uniting Protestant churches)

What Is Happening to Social, Cultural, and Intellectual Life?

Traits		What Is Happening in America?
	What’s happening to family and role of women?	Birth control – 1870s – laws to restrict sale of devices/abortions Divorce – 1880 – 1/21 marriages
	What’s happening to family and role of women?	1870 – 7,000 high school graduates 1872 – 100 colleges, universities admit 1873 – Supreme Court – A degree did not guarantee right to apply to be admitted to the bar (Myra Bradwell case). 1875 – Supreme Court – Citizenship did not guarantee right to vote (Minor v. Happersett). 1890 – General Federation of Women’s Clubs 1890 – National American Woman Suffrage Association – re-merged 1890 – 4 states women’s suffrage – WY, UT, CO, ID
What’s leisure?		1883 – 3-ring circus 1876 – National League – baseball 1879-1885 – museums – St. Louis, Detroit, Cincinnati
What are people reading?		1866 – Horatio Alger – Ragged Dick: or, Street Life in New York (total 106 books) 1868-69 – Louisa May Alcott – Little Women 1876 – Mark Twain – The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 1877 – Anna Sewell – Black Beauty 1880 – Lew Wallace – Ben Hur 1883 – Ladies’ Home Journal 1885 – Good Housekeeping 1900 – Theodore Dreiser – Sister Carrie
What is happening with religion?		Social Darwinism Social Gospel
What is happening with theories of society?		1879 Progress and Poverty – Henry George – “single tax” 1880s Social Darwinism - William Graham Sumner, Andrew Carnegie 1881 A Century of Dishonor – Helen Hunt Jackson 1883 Dynamic Sociology – Lester Frank Ward 1888 Looking Backward – Edward Bellamy 1890s Social Gospel 1890s Pragmatism – William James 1893 Frederick Jackson Turner – “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” 1901 Frank Norris – The Octopus (railroad)

Sources Used for This Data

The data in the tables is from:

§ Robert A. Divine’s The American Story

§ Alan Brinkley’s The Unfinished Nation

§ Edward L. Ayers’ American Passages

§ General reference books, including the Encyclopedia of American History (edited by
Jeffery B. Morris and Richard B. Morris)

WCJC Department:	History – Dr. Bibus
Contact Information:	281.239.1577 or mailto:cjb_classes@yahoo.com
Last Updated:	2004
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