19th Century America

Improved Essays
Answer the following question with an essay of two typed pages (double spaced). Start with a brief introduction that presents the main points you will make. Include details and examples from the books, lectures and/or other resources to support your points in the following paragraphs. End with a one or two sentence conclusion that restates your main points. If using other sources, be sure to cite them in your essay. 1. Explore the meaning of freedom in the United States from 1815 – 1920. What forces during the 19th century encouraged the growth of freedom in America, and what forces obstructed that growth? In the 19th century America, the meaning of freedom is deeply rooted within American values and ideas such as Democracy, Capitalism and Protestant values. For Americans, freedom means social mobility and the core Protestant value of work-ahead-get-ahead mentality. Anyone should be able to get ahead in the U.S. if you work hard enough, which means there is equal opportunity for everyone. Believing in the Democratic promise that free people could survive by themselves, most Americans value Protestant individualism. There was also an expectation of to be able to freely choose where you work or who you work for. In short, freedom is very much associated with opportunity and the concept of free labor. The driving force behind this freedom was the representative government and the capitalistic economy. Americans particularly worshipped capitalism because of its promise of free enterprise, which promotes freedom and opportunity. Individuals are technically unrestrained and uncontrolled to compete for themselves in the market. Therefore, freedom equaled Democratic Capitalism in America in the 1800s. This core concept of freedom faced several challenging test of events throughout the 1800s such as the Market Revolution, Slavery, Civil War, Reconstruction, Economic panics and so forth. The biggest challenge of them all was the Industrial Revolution, which transform America and the life of Americans. It has a lasting impact on Americans economically, socially and politically. Along with this Industrial development, the corporate or big business culture evolved. It was the beginning to the rise of the wealthy and powerful magnate. The direction of the country was heavily driven by the corporate business and its counterpart – pro-business government. Government and business agenda usually align with each other, and most of the decisions made by the government advocated corporate interests. The U.S. Government active support to the corporations such as establishing property rights, providing control of labor, providing subsidies and loans, granting lands to railroad companies benefitted big businesses while restricted the freedom and opportunity of the farmers, the working class, African Americans and the immigrants. Although the influential moguls had clever and innovative methods, they relied heavily upon several harmful business practices such monopoly and price gouging using their strong political and financial power. …show more content…
These led to the worsening of working conditions of the labor, and killing the competitions – the fundamental concept of Capitalism - for farmers and small businesses. As a result, the gap between the rich and the poor grew; creating an unequal society. Not only the working class Americans but also the African Americans and the newly immigrants were the victims of the negative impacts of the Industrialization. For instance, Jim Crow laws enabled racial segregation of the African Americans in public places and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 restricted the freedom of the Chinese, one of the immigrant groups. This led to the various social reform movements – which was a respond to the effects of the Industrialization by different social hierarchies. The farmer respond – Populism, working class respond – the rise of the labor and the middle class respond – Progressivism. Although the Populists and the labors failed to achieve many of their goals, they did achieve some of their less radical goals, and paved the way for the most successful reform in respond to the impact of Industrialization – Progressivism. It was essential to the Industrialized America as it was aimed to enable fair access and equal opportunity for everyone without straying from the fundamental ideas of the Democratic Capitalism. The main idea behind this movement was to have a broader intervention and regulation of government in the

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