Race In The 1890s Essay

The end of the 19th century through the first thirty years of the 20th was a crucial time for the United States. This was the time when the United States grew from a relatively small nation to a significant economic and military power. There were so many shifts in the political and economic climate of the world for people to continue to emphasize race and ethnicity as heavily as we did before. Although race has always been an integral, part of not only American history, but global history the United States became less defined by racial and ethnic boundaries during this time. The 1890s can easily be defined as a decade of labor and economic reform due to the fact that a vast majority of the prevalent issue of that time revolved around out nation’s financial practices and labor standards. After decades of unsafe working conditions and abuses at the hand of large corporations, American workers were finally beginning to stand together against their oppressors. They did this by forming unions such as; The Knights of Labor or the American Federation of Labor. Admittedly some of these unions were formed along racial lines, but their agendas …show more content…
Due to the fact that America was the forerunner of many modern advancements and social reform it became quite prosperous. The economy was doing fairly well and the land was rife with opportunity. Naturally this was quite attractive to a host of European immigrants from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. Poles, Slavs, Jew, and Italians all flocked to the United States by the millions in search of opportunity. With the nations citizenry growing evermore culturally diverse everyone was sort of forced to focus less on where people came from. For decades this country had been referred to a melting pot because of the vast array of different cultures, customs, and ethnic groups; and the 1890s to 1920 is when most of that