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Prosperity After the Civil War

Good Essays

Kellie Bowden
Mr. Strough
APUSH
1 April 2013 During the period of the Civil War, the typical American business was a small, family owned company and it usually produced goods for a smaller, regional market. However, as the Civil War ended, big businesses began to dominate the corporate world. Many businesses, such as the Standard Oil Co. and Carnegie Steel, became monopolies and owned all parts of one particular industry. These huge firms were able to mass produce their products and sell them not only all over the country, but also internationally. Due to the huge transformation in the business world, the economy and politics were affected as well as the American people and unfortunately, these affects turned out to be more negative …show more content…

By smaller businesses not being able to compete, this just gave the already huge companies even more power. During these years after the Civil War, many Americans struggled. Although the industrial world boomed, so many people were looking for jobs that many did not have any jobs. For the ones that happened to have jobs, the working conditions were so atrocious that sometimes it might not have even been worth it to have a job. As demonstrated in the article titled What Does Labor Want? It explains the concern of many workers. The passage voices the want of a reform from the workers. They say that human beings should be treated just as well as every other person in the world. These workers worked well over 14 hours a day doing very strenuous labor. They pleaded for shorter work days and better treatment of workers. The people also were fearful of the huge up and coming businesses. They did not like the power the companies had over the government and economy. The people knew these businesses had the power to change the prices of all goods to whatever they wanted. Although there were many corrupt things about the working world, one good thing of it all was that women were now able to work. Instead of having to sit at home and be a typical housewife day after day, they were now able to work in some factories and stores. The picture from Document J shows

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