Gilded Age Plight
The Plight Of Poor Children In America
The Gilded age was an age of swift economic growth, especially in the North and the West. As American wages were much higher than they were previously, especially for skilled workers, the period saw a huge increase of immigrants and even children. The swift expansion of industrialization led to a real wage growth of 60% between 1860 and 1890, regardless of the sheer growth of workers. However, the Gilded age was also an age of wretched poverty, inequality, and plight among millions of children. The plight of children has been ever present throughout the years of America's development and history. The Gilded Age was a time of struggle and had its share of hardships for the poor and especially for the children of various backgrounds and living situations.
The plight of children during the gilded age was continually existent no matter the background, living conditions, or working conditions. Native american children were removed from their families to be stripped of everything they knew to be americanized. Urban poor children were sent to new lives in the west to escape violence and crime associated with large cities, and working children were trapped in sharecropping and company towns. Struggles still occur to this day for …show more content…
Children were taken away from their families to be assimilated into colonial society. They were given a new religion under a catholic rule, new name, and a new identity as an american citizen. This was done to “save” the children from damnation which was taught by the catholic priests. The children faced discrimination of skin color and language barriers and being forced to work through slavery. They were not immune to western diseases, and many died of diseases such as smallpox, a common disease that occurred in the
The Gilded age was an age of swift economic growth, especially in the North and the West. As American wages were much higher than they were previously, especially for skilled workers, the period saw a huge increase of immigrants and even children. The swift expansion of industrialization led to a real wage growth of 60% between 1860 and 1890, regardless of the sheer growth of workers. However, the Gilded age was also an age of wretched poverty, inequality, and plight among millions of children. The plight of children has been ever present throughout the years of America's development and history. The Gilded Age was a time of struggle and had its share of hardships for the poor and especially for the children of various backgrounds and living situations.
The plight of children during the gilded age was continually existent no matter the background, living conditions, or working conditions. Native american children were removed from their families to be stripped of everything they knew to be americanized. Urban poor children were sent to new lives in the west to escape violence and crime associated with large cities, and working children were trapped in sharecropping and company towns. Struggles still occur to this day for …show more content…
Children were taken away from their families to be assimilated into colonial society. They were given a new religion under a catholic rule, new name, and a new identity as an american citizen. This was done to “save” the children from damnation which was taught by the catholic priests. The children faced discrimination of skin color and language barriers and being forced to work through slavery. They were not immune to western diseases, and many died of diseases such as smallpox, a common disease that occurred in the