Modern U.S. History & Progressive Era

This essay will be dived into two parts. In the first part I will be discussing five topics of my choosing. I will be talking about The Chinese Exclusion Act, Populist Party, Susan B. Anthony, Andrew Carnegie, and 14th Amendment. In the second part I will be describing the most significant development from this time.

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first immigration law to ban people based on their race from entering the United States. This act was not repealed till 1943.

This meant that all Chinese immigrants were not allowed to enter the United States until 1943, in exception to travelers, merchants, teachers and students. While this act was in place many Chinese people would claim to be relatives of people in the United states which would send them through intense interrogation. Through 1910 to 1940 the main point of entry was a place located in San Francisco known as the Angel Island. Immigrants would be held here weeks sometimes even years.

This act was signed in order to suppress the amount of immigrant Chinese workers. This document caused a lot of hatred to the Chinese and even began a “national racism”, in other words a sort of Anti-Chinese. This Act was originally created because of the Gold Rush of 1949. This caused a lot of Chinese citizens to participate in mining. So, in our attempt to limit the number of workers, we also created a form of hatred towards Chinese because race was brought to reasoning.

The Texas Populist Party was founded in May 1891. This party was formed to replace the Democrats as the U.S second party by helping the farmers. They wanted to help the farmers create a commodity credit system to allow them to store their crop in a federal warehouse to await favorable market prices. August 1891, the party had eventually owned their own platform.

The Texas Populist Party demanded as well as recommended many things of the country. A couple of main things they demanded for were, free and unlimited silver for coins, a law prohibiting alien ownership of land, a fair system of graduated income tax, government ownership of communication and transportation, and lastly election of a president, vice-president and U.S. senators by a vote of the people. Some things they recommended were reserved homesteads for actual settlers, free teachings of effects on the body caused by alcohol, uniform series of textbooks for public schools of Texas, eight-hour work shifts, and a different way of punishing convicts.

Susan B. Anthony was a leader in the women’s rights movement. She fought for the right of women through public speaking, and writing. She began her journey for social equality at the age of 17. At the age of 17 she had already created petitions against slavery. Susan B. Anthony was a hero. She brought attention to the equality of the United States. Her goal was to make everyone as equal as possible. She didn’t only fight for women, she fought for racial equality as well as education equality. She wanted everyone to be treated and respected the same no matter what race or what gender you were.

Andrew Carnegie was a very successful business man who lead the steel industry in the 19th century. He was one of the most successful investors in history. He made investments in railroads, railroad cars, and oil. He also made a lot of money as a bond salesman in Europe. Andrew Carnegie wrote an article called “The Gospel of Wealth”, this article talked about using the rich to help improve society. After making a bunch of money from the steel industry Andrew spent the rest of his time studying philanthropy. Philanthropy is the love for humanity.

Andrew was important to the U.S. because he brought awareness to helping the society when you are super wealthy. He helped show the rich how what they contribute can have a big outcome for society. Andrew didn’t only contribute to the community by donate but he also created many jobs when he was opening businesses in the steel industry. He was very influential and he helped many Americans achieve wealth as well as helped them decided what to do with it.

The 14th Amendment was passed on July 9th, 1868. This is amendment was passed to ensure that every American citizen’s civil rights were protected. This amendment mainly deals with states not their actions. This amendment was also made to make everyone equal to one another and hopefully eliminate segregation. However, this didn’t quite work, there were loop holes. An example of this would be Plessy v. Ferguson. In this decision the court allowed the separation of blacks and whites as long as they were. This was known as the “separate but equal” doctrine This stayed the same until 1954 when Brown v Board came around to integrate public schools.

Part 2: Of all the developments from this time, such as massive industrial growth, aggressive reformers, labor movements, movements west, the beginnings of American empire, and more, which is the most significant? Which one had the greatest impact on the nation and its people at the time? Be sure to demonstrate how this development outpaced others in terms of significance, i.e. include some comparison in your writing to develop the full essay

Aggressive reformers of the 1800s were by far the most significant development of this time. These reformers impacted many lives and its nation at this time by abolishing slavery, reforming education, reforming women’s rights and opposition of alcohol. These reformers not only changed people’s life by freeing them from slavery, ensuring their rights, and reforming education, but they also helped the nation progress in a better way. This development outpaced others because it caused the least amount of harm compared to things such as labor movements, and mass industrial growth. It also developed the nation faster by progressing to a more equal society. Labor movements caused riots which lead to violence often resulting in major injuries and sometimes even death. The massive amount of industrial growth in two fast amounts often leads to safety hazards such as unsafe working conditions and an unreasonably amount of work hours. This idea of aggressive reformers helped bring attention to things that needed it in a much more friendly way than rebelling by not going to work and causing riots.

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