On May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit in Utah, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads met and a ceremonial golden spike was driven to finish the first transcontinental line. Thousands of Chinese workers had built much of the Central Pacific through the Sierra Nevada. Thirteen years later, in 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act to keep Chinese laborers out. Growth and exclusion, side by side: that is Period 6 in one story.
This lesson covers Period 6 of AP US History, from 1865 to 1898.
The big themes
- Industrial capitalism. Technology, railroads and pro-growth policies built giant corporations.
- Labor. Workers organized, and clashed with owners over wages and conditions.
- Migration. Immigrants and internal migrants filled the cities and the West.
- Debate. Americans argued over what government owed business, workers and farmers.
Big business and its defenders
Federal land grants and loans helped railroads open national markets. Andrew Carnegie built a steel empire through vertical integration, owning each stage from ore to finished steel. John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil used horizontal integration, absorbing rivals, and became a trust in 1882. Real wages rose for many, but so did the gap between rich and poor. Defenders of the system used ideas later called Social Darwinism, while Carnegie's "Gospel of Wealth" (1889) said the rich should give their fortunes back through philanthropy.
Labor in the Gilded Age
Panics in 1873 and 1893 brought wage cuts and layoffs. The Knights of Labor organized skilled and unskilled workers alike, but lost ground after the 1886 Haymarket bombing in Chicago was blamed on radicals. Samuel Gompers's American Federation of Labor organized skilled craft workers around wages and hours. Strikes often ended in force, as at Carnegie's Homestead plant in 1892 and in the 1894 Pullman Strike, broken by a federal injunction and troops.
Immigrants and cities
From the 1880s, "new" immigrants came from southern and eastern Europe, while others came from Asia and African Americans moved within and out of the South. They crowded into ethnic city neighborhoods. Political machines such as Tammany Hall offered jobs and help in return for votes. Nativists pushed back, most sharply against the Chinese. Reformers like Jane Addams opened settlement houses, including Chicago's Hull House (1889), to help immigrants adapt.
The West and American Indian policy
Railroads, mining, ranching and farming drew migrants west, and as the bison herds were destroyed, conflict grew. The US government broke treaties, including the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie after gold was found in the Black Hills, and answered resistance with the army. Lakota and Cheyenne warriors defeated Custer at the Little Bighorn in 1876, but the army confined most nations to reservations. The Dawes Act (1887) split reservation land into individual allotments to force assimilation, and boarding schools tried to suppress Native languages and religions. Many nations still kept their cultures and identities alive.
The New South
Henry Grady and others promoted a "New South" of mills, mines and railroads, yet most Southerners stayed in sharecropping and tenant farming. Southern states passed segregation laws and stripped Black men of the vote. In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) the Supreme Court upheld state-required segregation under the doctrine known as "separate but equal." Reformers such as Ida B. Wells campaigned against lynching.
Politics and Populism
The two parties were closely matched and argued over tariffs and money. After a disappointed office seeker shot President Garfield, the Pendleton Act (1883) began a merit-based civil service. Congress created the Interstate Commerce Commission (1887) and passed the Sherman Antitrust Act (1890), though both were weak at first. Farmers squeezed by debt and railroad rates formed the Grange, the Farmers' Alliances and then the People's (Populist) Party, which called for free silver and a stronger government role in the economy. In 1896 Democrats and Populists both backed William Jennings Bryan, who lost to William McKinley.
Common mistakes students make
- Treating the Gilded Age as pure prosperity. Living standards rose for many, but so did inequality, and panics hit hard.
- Mixing up vertical and horizontal integration. Vertical controls the stages of production; horizontal buys up rivals.
- Saying the Dawes Act protected tribal land. It broke up communal land, and tribes lost most of it.
- Calling the Populists a fringe party. They won several states in 1892, and many of their ideas became law later.
Frequently asked questions
What years does APUSH Period 6 cover?
Period 6 runs from 1865 to 1898, from the end of the Civil War to the eve of the Spanish–American War. The Course and Exam Description weights it at 10–17% of the exam.
Why is it called the Gilded Age?
The name comes from an 1873 novel by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner. Gilded means thinly covered in gold: a shiny surface over poverty and corruption.
What did Plessy v. Ferguson decide?
It upheld state-required racial segregation under "separate but equal," giving legal cover to Jim Crow. Brown v. Board of Education (1954) rejected it for public schools.
Try it
Say each answer before you flip. Then link three dates: the railroad meets in 1869, Chinese exclusion follows in 1882, and the Dawes Act in 1887. Who gained, and who paid? What changed, and why then?
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