AMH-2020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Gilded Age, Homestead Acts, Textile Industry
Document Summary
Pre civil war- only one party (dems: emphasizing state"s rights, doesn"t want fed gov to limit expansion of slavery. Redemption 1870s: when southern states became dem again. The redeemers realized that north won cw because it was more industrialized: dems wanted to industrialize south. South started textile, tobacco and mining industry. Textile industry allowed women and children to work: not the best because there were no regulations on labor at the time. Tobacco industry grew rapidly in states like va and n. carolina. Mining industry- mining natural resources (coal, phosphates: more lucrative than working on farm, but dangerous. These industries only really helped enrich the lives of those in charge of them, not so much the laborers. Redeemers allowed african americans to vote, but only if they voted dem. Post cw, african americans didn"t have many economic outlets: along comes sharecropping. African americans go into contract with a plantation owner to have some land, plant crops, use equipment.
