| The
Pictures:
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 3.
The Gilded Age was the period when big industry, including steel making,
became the dominant part of the American economy. For workers, however,
hours and work conditions were often long and dangerous.
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| Answer Key for Teachers | Fasttrack
to America's Past
Section 6: The Gilded Age Page 6 - 1 Section Title Page |
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| The
Famous Quotes:
1. "From where the sun now stands, I will..." This is a famous passage from a speech by Nez Perce Indian Chief Joseph. In 1877, the tribe was ordered to give up their land in eastern Oregon and move to a reservation in Idaho. Instead, Chief Joseph led the tribe on a 1,500 mile dash for the Canadian border, all the while being chased by the U.S. army. He finally surrendered as his exhausted and starving tribe was trapped in the mountains just short of the border. 2. "In God we trusted. In Kansas we busted." This saying expressed the frustration of many settlers who "busted" or went broke on farms in western states like Kansas and Nebraska in the decades after the Civil War. The Homestead Act gave free farm land in the West to anyone who would settle on it for five years. But when the farm land was far from water sources or roads, settlers often found it impossible to succeed. |
3. "Give
me your tired, your poor..."
These are the moving and often memorized words inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty. They are from a poem, "The New Colossus," written by Emma Lazarus in 1883 to help raise money to construct a base for the statue. (The statue itself was a gift of the people of France to America.) While immigrants at the time often found harsh living conditions and sometimes resentment from the native-born, these words express the powerful message of hope America held (and still holds) for most immigrants. 4. "So long as all the increased wealth..." This is a passage from one of the most widely read American
books in the 1880s, titled "Progress and Poverty." The author, Henry
George, was highlighting the great puzzle of the era: Why did such
great poverty exist at a time of such great progress and wealth?
The question has been at the center of much of America's political life
ever since.
Scroll down to continue
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| The
Pictures:
|
3.
The Gilded Age was the period when big industry, including steel making,
became the dominant part of the American economy. For workers, however,
hours and work conditions were often long and dangerous.
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| Reminder: Students and teachers can also find this information in the Famous Quotes section of our main Internet support site. |
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1.
An Indian of the Great Plains hunting buffalo from horseback. The
buffalo provided food and hides for the Indians. The destruction
of the vast herds by white settlers and hunters moving into the West was
one of the great tragedies of the period.
2.
Trains like this, and the spread of tracks into the West, helped make possible
the spread of farms into the Prairie states like Nebraska. Because
wood was scarce on the Prairie, many settlers built their first home from
the sod itself. It was cut with a special plow blade and stacked
to form thick walls.