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The Haymarket Disaster And The Knights Of Labor, Payton Pulkrabek

Curriculum Unit on the Gilded Age in the United States

During the Gilded Age, numerous political, social, economic, and cultural reforms were taking place all at once. One of the major reforms of the time was labor because of the problems workers and their employers had with each other. Up until the 1860s, most Americans either worked on a farm or ventured into the city to obtain an industrial position in a cut-throat factory. Life working in the factories was hard and lacked regulation. Child labor, instant job termination, low and unreliable wages, and long hours were the common job expectation. It was not until grassroots movements and labor organizations, …