Student Handouts
Major Strikes in the American Labor Movement
Have your class organize information about strikes in a handy chart. Pupils take notes on the Homestead Strike, the Lawrence Strike, and the Pullman Strike. Along the left side of the chart are six questions for learners to answer about...
Curated OER
History 8 Ch.19b Word Search
For this US History worksheet, students locate and identify various vocabulary terms related to a particular period in US History. There are 15 words/phrases located in the puzzle.
Other
Illinois State Museum: The American Railway Union
Excerpt from U.S. Strike Commission Report. Site also provides focus questions at the bottom.
OpenStax
Open Stax: Politics in Gilded Age 1870 1900: Social and Labor Unrest in the 1890s
Learn about the factors that helped the Populist Party gain followers and what caused it to lose them after the 1896 presidential election.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Freedom: A History of Us: Yearning to Breathe Free Webisode 10
This wonderful website, Freedom, a History of US, based on the series by Joy Hakim, presents the tenth webisode, Yearning to be Breathe Free. Through text, photographs, and audio segments you can get a good picture of the state of...
Other
Emazine: The "Gilded Age" in the United States
This article from a wider history of the world focuses on presidential administrations from Benjamin Harrison in 1890 through the Wilson administration. Read about the domestic policies and foreign affairs from 1890-1920.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Progress, the Gilded and the Gritty: America, 1870 1912
Eighteen primary sources-historical documents, literary texts, and visual images-that explore the industrial, racial, and technological progress of the late-nineteenth century.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Pullman Strike, the Gilded and the Gritty: America, 1870 1912
An article that describes the Utopian factory town George Pullman built for his workers, a statement of the grievances that led them to strike against the company, the Pullman Company's response, and an editorial speculating on the...
Library of Congress
Loc: Rise of Industrial America: Railroads in the Late 19th Century
A compilation of primary source documents addressing building and running the railroad system in the late 19th century.
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: The Iron Horse: Labor Conflicts and Unionism
This several page chapter from the site From Revolution to Reconstruction outlines the growth of the union in the railroad industry in the late 19th century. Read about the strikes, working conditions, the beginning of the American...
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: The Iron Horse: The Pullman Boycott
From a lengthy essay on the history of the railroad in the United States. This section provides a good description of the events of 1893-1894, including the reasons for the boycott of Pullman cars, the people involved, and how the...
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: The Iron Horse: Federal Intervention in Pullman
From a lengthy essay on the history of the railroad in the United States. This section describes President Grover Cleveland's role in sending federal troops to suppress the Pullman boycott, resulting in increased chaos from the...
Other
Pullman Car: George Pullman
A look at George M. Pullman's business career, beginning with his business as building-mover, and continuing with his venture into building luxury rail cars.
Harp Week
Harp Week: The Cleveland Record
Grover Cleveland's second term in office was problematic, which affected the election of 1896. Read about the economic depression of 1893, the labor unrest, Coxey's army, and controversial Supreme Court decisions that were handed down...
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Eugene v. Debs and American Socialism
Read about the growth of the Socialist Party in America under the leadership of Eugene V. Debs. Find out about the strikes he led, his political activities, and his arrest for sedition in 1918. Read also about the radical union,...
Other
Illinois Labor History Society: Gene Debs and the American Railway Union
Description of the rise and fall of the American Railway Union in the context of the Pullman Strike.
Other
Illinois Labor History Society: The Parable of Pullman
This resource gives an account of the Pullman Strike of 1894. It discusses what the strike was about, how it was resolved, and the effect its outcome had.
University of Virginia
Miller Center at Uva: u.s. Presidents: Grover Cleveland: Domestic Affairs
Grover Cleveland served as president from 1884-1888 and from 1892-1896. Read about his domestic policies in both terms of office and find out about the problems he encountered in his second term.
Other
The Pullman State Historic Site : George Mortimer Pullman
Here you can find out everything you wanted to know about George Pullman, and even things you didn't know you wanted to know. Find out about his childhood, his family, his business career, and the company town he established.
Other
Ussc the Pullman Strike: Its Causes and Events
An excerpt from U.S. Strike Commission Report on the Pullman Strike. Site presents questions at the end for study.
Shmoop University
Shmoop: Labor in the Gilded Age
The Gilded Age was a period of terrible labor violence, as industrialists and workers fought for control of the workplace. Workers organized the first large American labor unions during the Gilded Age, while employers tried to stop the...
University of Houston
University of Houston: An American Industrial Revolution Unit: Rise of Labor
Students learn about the history of the labor movement in Industrial America, including some of the major unions that emerged and the most well-known strikes. Next, they make connections to the role of unions today. They then work in...
Curated OER
Pullman Co., 1893
An article that describes the Utopian factory town George Pullman built for his workers, a statement of the grievances that led them to strike against the company, the Pullman Company's response, and an editorial speculating on the...