Other
Encyclopedia of Arkansas: Great Southwestern Strike
Prior to the nationwide Pullman Railway Strike in 1894, railroad workers struck against rail lines controlled by Jay Gould. Read about the strike, the initial success, and eventual defeat for the workers.
ClassFlow
Class Flow: Labor Unions and Strikes
[Free Registration/Login Required] This flipchart focuses on the Haymarket Riot, the Homestead Strike, and the Pullman Strike.
Other
Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography: George Pullman
This biography of George Pullman outlines his business acumen in the development of the Pullman railroad sleeper car, which offered luxury on long train trips. Read the description of the company town he developed in Illinois to house...
Curated OER
History Matters: For the Further Benefit of Our People
After the onset of the 1893 Depression, George Pullman of the Pullman Palace Car Company found his company crumbling as employees "Appealed to the American Railway Union (ARU), which organized a nationwide strike." Read the letter he...
Other
Illinois State Museum: The American Railway Union
Excerpt from U.S. Strike Commission Report. Site also provides focus questions at the bottom.
OpenStax
Open Stax: Industrialization: Building Industrial America on the Backs of Labor
Learn about the lives of the working class in Industrial America, what led to the formation of labor unions, and why labor unions were not successful despite strike actions.
Curated OER
1896: The Homestead and Pullman Strikes
1896, A Website of Political Cartoons provides the illustrated story of both strikes with quotes from newspapers of the time and a brief characterization of Andrew Carnegie.
Shmoop University
Shmoop: Labor in the Gilded Age
The Gilded Age was a period of terrible labor violence, as industrialists and workers fought for control of the workplace. Workers organized the first large American labor unions during the Gilded Age, while employers tried to stop the...
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Eugene v. Debs and American Socialism
Read about the growth of the Socialist Party in America under the leadership of Eugene V. Debs. Find out about the strikes he led, his political activities, and his arrest for sedition in 1918. Read also about the radical union,...
Curated OER
Pullman Co., 1893
An article that describes the Utopian factory town George Pullman built for his workers, a statement of the grievances that led them to strike against the company, the Pullman Company's response, and an editorial speculating on the...
Curated OER
1896: The Homestead and Pullman Strikes
1896, A Website of Political Cartoons provides the illustrated story of both strikes with quotes from newspapers of the time and a brief characterization of Andrew Carnegie.
University of Houston
University of Houston: An American Industrial Revolution Unit: Rise of Labor
Students learn about the history of the labor movement in Industrial America, including some of the major unions that emerged and the most well-known strikes. Next, they make connections to the role of unions today. They then work in...
Northern Illinois University
Northern Illinois University: American Populism, 1876 1896
Using essays, primary source documents, images, and video this site explores the American Populist political movement in the early 1890s.
OpenStax
Open Stax: Politics in Gilded Age 1870 1900: Social and Labor Unrest in the 1890s
Learn about the factors that helped the Populist Party gain followers and what caused it to lose them after the 1896 presidential election.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Freedom: A History of Us: Yearning to Breathe Free Webisode 10
This wonderful website, Freedom, a History of US, based on the series by Joy Hakim, presents the tenth webisode, Yearning to be Breathe Free. Through text, photographs, and audio segments you can get a good picture of the state of...
Other
Emazine: The "Gilded Age" in the United States
This article from a wider history of the world focuses on presidential administrations from Benjamin Harrison in 1890 through the Wilson administration. Read about the domestic policies and foreign affairs from 1890-1920.
The Newberry Library
Newberry Library: The Struggle for Civil Rights in the Urban North
Learning resource using primary sources in which students study de facto segregation in the North following the Civil War and examine how African-Americans responded to segregation and racism compared to the South.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Us History: 1865 1898: Labor Battles in the Gilded Age
As the United States became a major industrial power, conflict between workers and factory owners intensified. Read about the Homestead Strike and the Pullman Strike, two of the most famous labor battles in American history.
Library of Congress
Loc: Rise of Industrial America: Railroads in the Late 19th Century
A compilation of primary source documents addressing building and running the railroad system in the late 19th century.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Progress, the Gilded and the Gritty: America, 1870 1912
Eighteen primary sources-historical documents, literary texts, and visual images-that explore the industrial, racial, and technological progress of the late-nineteenth century.
Harp Week
Harp Week: The Cleveland Record
Grover Cleveland's second term in office was problematic, which affected the election of 1896. Read about the economic depression of 1893, the labor unrest, Coxey's army, and controversial Supreme Court decisions that were handed down...
University of Virginia
Miller Center at Uva: u.s. Presidents: Grover Cleveland: Domestic Affairs
Grover Cleveland served as president from 1884-1888 and from 1892-1896. Read about his domestic policies in both terms of office and find out about the problems he encountered in his second term.
Country Studies US
Country Studies: The Struggles of Labor
This site discusses how for much of the latter half of the 1800s, the life of the common laborer was horrendous. Working in a unsanitary factory, for at least 10 hours a day, making far less than needed to survive, the struggles of the...