Active Viewing: 1877: The Grand Army of Starvation In this activity, you will watch a short clip from the ASHP documentary 1877: The Grand Army of Starvation to learn about the impact of railroad expansion on Americans and the nation as a whole. After watching the clip, you will complete the Technological Turning Points and their Impact worksheet in order to examine the positive and negative effects of the railroad. Essential Questions What was the impact of the railroad on the United States, including which people benefitted from it and which did not? How and why was the completion of the transcontinental railroad considered a major turning point? For what reasons did the railroad workers decide to go on strike in 1877. Instructions 1. Step 1. Please locate the 1877 Viewer s Guide we will read the 3 paragraphs of text on page 1 under What was The Great Strike of 1877? You are going to watch a clip from a documentary about the causes of this national uprising. a. Please locate the 1877 Vocabulary list.
2. Step 2. We will view the first seven minutes of the film to provide an overview of the transcontinental railroad. In groups, think about two things; a. What is the overall tone of this documentary (ie. what is the attitude of this film towards the railroad during the Gilded Age?). b. Please locate the Technological Turning Points worksheet and in your groups (after viewing the excerpt), check off any of the effects that you think apply to the railroad. We will review the Part 1 list as a class. 3. Step 3. Complete Part II of the worksheet individually. Then, with a partner, you should identify: the top 2 positive effects and top 2 negative effects who benefited the most, and who was harmed the most o Share out group responses. 4. Step 5. I am going to play the remainder of the film, with the Viewers Guide pages interspersed as follows: a. Clip 2: 7:00 to 19:50 b. Read p. 2-6 in Viewers Guide. c. Play Clip 3-19:50 to 24:30 d. Read p. 7-9 in Viewers Guide (using info from p. 4-7 in viewers guide, please complete 1877 Viewer s Guide: Close Reading Worksheet. e. Play Clip 4-24:30 to 29:00. f. P. 10-11 in Viewers Guide
1877 Viewer s Guide: Close Reading Worksheet Write down two details and describe one illustration (drawing/photo) from your reading (1877 Viewer s Guide pages 4-7) that help to answer each question. What was it like to work on the railroad? 1: 2: Illustration: How did railroads change American society? 1: 2: Illustration:
What happened during the Depression of 1873-1878? 1: 2: Illustration: How did unions try to protect workers and solve their problems? 1: 2: Illustration:
1877: The Grand Army of Starvation Vocabulary (for chapters on "The Centennial Exposition" and "The Railroad") This is a vocabulary list for chapters on "The Centennial Exposition" and "The Railroad" in the 1877: The Grand Army of Starvation documentary. amassed: accumulated anvil: a heavy metal block used by blacksmiths to hammer out other metal brakeman: railroad worker who operates, repairs, or inspects train brakes centennial exposition: celebration to mark the 100th anniversary of America s Declaration of Independence corporate: having to do with large companies or big business cylindric: shaped like a tube dividends: money paid to people who own stock in a company domination: complete control emblem: a symbol of some idea or thing flocked: gathered in a group Great Uprising: national strike by 80,000 railroad workers, also known as the Great Strike of 1877 manipulated: controlled or influenced, usually to one s own benefit militia: military force of civilians that supports regular army, especially in an emergency resilience: the ability to recover quickly from illness or misfortune sultry: hot and damp spike: large nail used to construct railroad tracks territorial expansion: adding new lands to an existing country, often by force transcontinental railroad: a railroad that crosses and connects a continent
1877: The Grand Army of Starvation Script (for chapters on "The Centennial Exposition" and "The Railroad") This is a partial script, for chapters on "The Centennial Exposition" and "The Railroad" in the documentary 1877: The Grand Army of Starvation produced by the American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning. In bold are vocabulary words defined on a vocabulary sheet linked to this script. [1876] NARRATOR: Philadelphia. One hundred years after America declared its independence its citizensflocked to the centennial exposition. Thousands gathered to mark the republic s resilience following a bitter civil war They came to admire the country's technological triumphs and its territorial expansion. At the center of this century of progress the American railway system. The railroad had promised to unite the one divided nation and benefit all citizens. Chinese and Irish immigrants as well as Civil War veterans were set to work as the country enthusiastically committed itself to railroad construction. AMERICAN WORKER #1: When me and my mates get our sturdy sledge hammers going, we make a kinda grand anvil chorus 'cross the plains. Three strokes to a spike; ten spikes to a rail. Let's see I've got it figured out 400 rails to a mile. 1800 miles to bloody San Francisco. That makes, by my reckonin', some 20 million or so times we'll swing these sledges before this great work of modern America is done. NARRATOR: In 1869 the Golden Spike was finally hammered into place. The transcontinental railroad system unified America. The poet Walt Whitman sang its praises: Thy black cylindric body, golden brass and silvery steel Type of the modern emblem of motion and power pulse of the continent The railroad connected farm lands towns cities. It moved goods, information, and people. In ten short years railroad mileage doubled. Federal and state governments sponsored railroad expansion, giving the railroads nearly 200 million acres of public land as well as millions of dollars in loans and tax breaks. Railroad owners, notably New York Central president Cornelius Vanderbilt, amassed staggering wealth. His son William inherited $100 million upon Vanderbilt's death in 1877. In that year of economic depression, a decent day's wage was a dollar fifty. Railroad owners' wealth translated into unimagined power. Tom Scott ran the Pennsylvania Railroad, the nation's largest business enterprise. From his Philadelphia headquarters, Scott controlled the lives of workers and communities
across the country. He manipulated state and federal legislatures and even presidential elections. Such domination led Charles Francis Adams, son and grandson of Presidents, to observe: C.F. ADAMS: The system of corporate life is a new power for which our language contains no name; we have no word to express government by monied corporations. NARRATOR: In June, Scott, Vanderbilt and other executives secretly met. They agreed to cut their employees' wages even as they announced substantial dividends for their stockholders. John Garrett, President of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, explained: GARRETT: The great principle upon which we joined to act was to earn more and spend less. NARRATOR: On July 15th the B & O announced a 10% wage cut. Dick Zepp, a brakeman on the B & O lines, decides this action is too much to take. On the hot, sultry afternoon of July 16th, Zepp steps down from his locomotive. He and his fellow workers stop trains in the Martinsburg, West Virginia rail yards. CROWD: We're all working men, ain't we? No train's goinna move 'til we get a living wage! We're on strike! We might as well starve without work as with it! Here comes the damn militia! You wouldn't fire on your brother? Stop that blackleg! Don't let him throw the switch! NARRATOR: This is the spark that ignites the Great Uprising.
TECHNOLOGICAL TURNINGPOINTS AND THEIR IMPACT Use the following list to evaluate the impact of a particular kind of technology (eg. the railroad, the internet). Part 1: Identify the Effects Economic Effects Creates new jobs Eliminates some jobs Creates new industries or products Makes work faster, safe, and/or easier Creates big profits for owners + investors Social + Environmental Effects Makes communication, faster, cheaper and/or easier Makes transportation faster, cheaper, and/or easier Consumes lots of natural resources (eg. land, water, energy) Pollutes or harms the natural environment Endangers workers or consumers Creates social and/or economic inequality Creates leisure time Political Effects Receives assistance from federal or local government (eg. tax breaks, loans, favorable laws) Creates big businesses that influence government policies and elected officials Allows for greater participation in democracy Builds national pride
Part I1: Analyze the Effects 1) What are the positive effects of this technology? 2) What are the negative effects of this technology? 3) Who benefits and who might be harmed?
An African-American Socialist Lends His Support to Railroad Strikers A nationwide rebellion brought the United States to a standstill in the summer of 1877. Eighty thousand railroad workers walked off the job, joined by hundreds of thousands of Americans outraged by the excesses of the railroad companies and the misery of a four-year economic depression. Peter H. Clark, an African-American school principal and member of the Workingmen's (Socialist) Party, gave the keynote address at a mass meeting in support of the railroad strikers that was held on July 22, 1877 in Cincinnati, Ohio. But when [workers] see high railroad officials receiving the salary of princes, when they hear of dividends in stock and railroad bonds, they cannot understand why there is no money for the man whose labor earns these vast sums...when they complain, they are told that they are at liberty to quit and take their services elsewhere. This is equivalent to telling them that they are at liberty to go and starve...hence they make the effort to obtain an increase in wages and to retain their places at the same time. Understanding their motive, and the dire necessity by which they are driven, I pity, but I cannot condemn them... Then too, the door of justice seems shut in their faces. They have no representation on the Board of Directors. Every state has laws punishing conspiracy, punishing riot and unlawful assemblages, but no state has laws providing for the examination and redress of the grievances of which these men complain. The whole force of the State and National Governments may be invoked by the railroad managers, but the laborer has nothing. SOURCE The Cincinnati Commerical, July 23, 1877. CREATOR Peter H. Clark ITEM TYPE Speech