FRQ ANDERSON - Samuel Castrejon Period 5 Free Response...

Samuel Castrejon
Period 5
11/26/11
Free Response Question: Thanksgiving Assignment
The Gilded Age in American history is described by Mark Twain as “times that
looked good, yet if one scratched a bit below the surface, there were problems and
corruption”. This post-reconstruction era was defined by two key details. Firstly, it was
defined by heavy and rapid industrialization that was spurred by the transcontinental
railroad network and secondly, it was defined by a series of “forgetful” presidents that
did very little in office during this period of time. Industrialization radically transformed
the many practices of labor and it also transformed the conditions of the working class.
With these changes came a new wave of immigrants as a labor force and also cheaper
paying jobs. In response to these changes, Farmer’s and industrial workers united with
one another to forms labor unions in their efforts to achieve various reforms through
politics and legislation, however; their efforts failed but they paved the way for future
generations to achieve political and social reforms.
Farmers during the Gilded Age faced new challenges that followed
industrialization. At the end of the Civil War and Reconstruction the Southern Economy
had become worse when compared to the conditions before the Civil War. The Southern
Economy remained primarily agrarian due to the fact that Northern Industrial Companies
had become so powerful that it made it tough for Southern Companies to compete against
them. The Southern now had to deal with a diminishing economy, where as the
manufacturing North was gaining power of the South. During this time, an increasing

form of labor in farms came in the form of freed black slaves that had to result to tenant