The Story of American Freedom

Over the final 30 years of the 19th century, a period which has come to be known as the “Gilded Age,” the United States underwent massive transformational changes. The country’s economy became manufacturing-based, driven by coal, iron, and steam, instead of one based on agriculture and artisanal production. The period was marked by the economic revolution and by “some of the most violent struggles between labor and employers in the history of capitalism” (116). Economic concentration, in which a few giant corporations dominate entire branches of industry, and the concentration of wealth among the industrial class “posed a sharp challenge to inherited definitions of freedom” (117). Foner argues that “the close link between freedom and equality, forged in the Revolution and reinforced during the Civil War, appeared increasingly out of date” (119). As class differences and questions about industrial labor practices replaced slavery as the nation’s primary focus, court rulings continually sided with corporations and industry giants, supporting ideas such as Social Darwinism, laissez-faire economics, and liberty of contract.

The labor movement of the Gilded Age sought various reforms including an eight-hour workday, currency reform, public employment in hard times, and even the abolition of the wage system.