Primary Sources and Activities for Studying the Gilded Age in North Carolina he North Carolina Office of in-depth look at how life changed in T Archives and History offers a wealth North Carolina in the late 1800s. of resources to help teachers and students of history gain a richer understanding of These materials include primary sources life in the past. To make some of these such as documents from the State Archives; resources more accessible to teachers, artifacts and photos from the N.C. Museum representatives of the North Carolina of History; images from State Historic Sites Museum of History, and the State Archives; the Division of State newspaper articles from Historic Sites, State the State Library, and Archives, and more. Staff also wrote the Education Branch and compiled historical of the Director’s Office articles giving over- formed an Education views and background Committee. Using information. primary sources and Life changed dramatically for other information from many North Carolinians during In addition, the commit- their organizations, the Gilded Age. Thousands of tee developed activities IVES AND HISTORY committee members people left their farms to work focused on the primary developed supplemental in factories such as this one, the sources to help students materials and activities Highland Park Gingham Mills of interpret these sources about the Gilded Age Charlotte. Image from the 1899 book and learn about the past in North Carolina. Cotton Mill, Commercial Features, in more detail. in the State Library’s collection. The committee chose to focus on the In the future, the committee hopes to con- Gilded Age because it was a time of dra- tinue to provide resources on selected matic transformation in the nation and in topics or time periods in North Carolina’s North Carolina, a time when how and history and welcomes feedback about the where Americans lived and worked usefulness of this collection. Please send changed in so many ways. Although the in your comments about this collection as committee could not provide a compre- well as suggestions for future resource hensive look at the Gilded Age and had to packets by filling out the evaluation form N.C. OFFICE OF ARCH focus on selected themes, it hopes that at the end of this publication. these supplemental materials will enrich students’ understanding of the past and will help teachers give students a more (continued): Resources for Teachers Inside this issue: Inside this issue Standard Course of Study Goals 2 Timeline: North Carolina in the Gild- 23 ed Age Gilded Age Overview 2 Agriculture in the Gilded Age 3 Resources/Enrichment Activities 28 The Impact of Industrialization, as 6 Suggestions for Further Reading 29 Illustrated by the Tobacco Industry Answer Key 33 Aspects of African American Life 14 Appendix: Enlarged Copies of 37 Selected Documents and Photos Innovations and Inventions 18 Mansions and Mill Homes 20 Evaluation Form 41 North Carolina and the Gilded Age Meeting Goals from the An Age of Contradictions Standard Course of Study or many people, the term “Gilded During the Gilded Age, thousands of Age,” which refers roughly to the these factory workers joined together These materials and activities were F time between 1870 and 1900, evokes in unions to protest their working designed to help students meet a variety images of great wealth. People think of conditions. Unions used strikes as one of goals from the Standard Course of prosperous businessmen such as Andrew way to try to force businesses to make Study, including the following: Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, who changes; in 1886 alone, 700,000 became wealthy as workers went on Eighth Grade: North Carolina History their steel and oil strike. Congress Goal 5: The learner will evaluate the industries flourished even made Labor impact of political, economic, social, and who built extrava- Day a national and technological changes on life in gant mansions on holiday in 1894, a North Carolina from 1870 to 1930. Fifth Avenue in New recognition of 5.01 Identify the role played by the York City and else- labor’s importance. agriculture, textile, tobacco, and furni- where. George Wash- The Gilded Age was a complex Yet strikes sometimes ture industries in North Carolina, and ington Vanderbilt time, a time of great wealth for ended violently, with analyze their importance in the eco- even built his 250- some—as seen in this photo of G. W. state or federal nomic development of the state. room Biltmore Estate Vanderbilt’s Biltmore House—and troops fighting the 5.04 Identify technological advances, in North Carolina of economic hardship for others. strikers. An explo- and evaluate their influence on the in the early 1890s. In Photo from the November 28, 1896, sion of a bomb that quality of life in North Carolina. North Carolina, the issue of Harper’s Weekly, in the State killed a police officer 5.05 Assess the influence of the politi- Dukes, the Reynolds, Library’s collection. in Haymarket Square cal, legal, and social movements on the the Cones, the Carrs, in Chicago in 1886 political system and life in North and other prominent families grew eroded popular support for unions. Over Carolina. rich as tobacco and textile industries time, unions made little progress in the prospered. fight for shorter work weeks, higher Ninth Grade: World History pay, the elimination of child labor, and Goal 6: Patterns of Social Order: The Yet the Gilded Age was a more complex the right for collective bargaining. learner will investigate social and eco- time; it could even be described as an nomic organization in various societies age of contradictions. It was a time of During this same time, African Ameri- throughout time in order to understand great wealth for some, and of economic cans in the South began to enjoy some the shifts in power and status that have hardship for most. Immigrants from of the fruits of freedom, exercising their occurred. other countries flooded the North right to vote, starting businesses, and 6.03 Trace the changing definitions of looking for work. In the South many serving during the Spanish American citizenship and the expansion of suffrage. farmers, struggling with low crop War. But they also faced racism and Goal 7: Technology and Changing prices and the difficulties of the later endured violent opposition to Global Connections: The learner will sharecropping system, left their farms their attempts to vote and to gain eco- consider the short- and long-term to work in the new factories and mills nomic power. The end of Reconstruc- consequences of the development of that were rapidly being built in the tion in 1877, the 1896 Supreme Court new technology. growing cities. Yet in return for getting ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson that upheld 7.03 Examine the causes and effects of a dependable paycheck, factory segregation, and the white supremacy industrialization and cite its major costs employees worked for low wages and movement in North Carolina in the and benefits. for long hours (10-12 hours a day), late 1800s all posed severe challenges often for 6 days a week. In addition, to their search for equal rights. Eleventh Grade: United States History women and children worked in the Goal 5: Becoming an Industrial Society factories as well, usually for lower By necessity, this resource guide can (1877-1900): The learner will describe wages. The labor of these workers focus only on selected themes. Even innovations in technology and business made factory owners wealthy and also within those themes, it offers just a practices and assess their impact on created a huge array of consumer glimpse of some of the ways North economic, political, and social life in goods, which were aggressively Carolinians experienced change in the America. marketed across the country through realms of agriculture, industry, race innovations in advertising. relations, inventions, and lifestyles. GILDED AGE RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS Page 2 Aspects of Agriculture in the Gilded Age Sharecropping and Tenant Farming fter the Civil War, thousands of former slaves and Tenant farmers usually paid the landowner rent for A white farmers forced off their land by the bad farmland and a house. They owned the crops they economy lacked the money to purchase the farmland, planted and made their own decisions about them. After seeds, livestock, and equipment they needed to begin harvesting the crop, the tenant sold it and received income farming. Former planters were so deeply in debt that from it. From that income, he paid the landowner the they could not hire workers. They needed workers who amount of rent owed. would not have to be paid until they harvested a crop— usually one of the two labor-intensive cash crops that Sharecroppers seldom owned anything. Instead, they still promised to make money: cotton or tobacco. Many borrowed practically everything—not only the land and of these landowners divided their lands into smaller a house but also supplies, draft animals, tools, equip- plots and turned to a tenant system. ment, and seeds. The sharecropper contributed his, and his family’s, labor. Sharecroppers had no control over which crops were planted or how they were sold. After harvesting the crop, the landowner sold it and applied its income toward settling the sharecropper’s account. Most tenant farmers and sharecroppers bought every- thing they needed on credit from local merchants, hoping to make enough money at harvest time to pay their debts. Over the years, low crop yields and unstable crop prices forced more farmers into tenancy. The crop-lien system kept many in an endless cycle of debt and poverty. During the Gilded Age many African Americans and Between 1880 and 1900, the number of tenants in- whites lacked the money to buy farmland and farm creased from 53,000 to 93,000.