Progressive Era Document Based Investigation
Historical Context: During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Progressive reformers worked to improve the
social, political, and economic problems in American society.
Objective: 6.6 Read and interpret a primary source document reflecting the dynamics of the Gilded Age American
society (e.g., Sojourner Truth "Ain't I A Woman," Jane Addams' Hull House accounts, Jacob Riis photographs
and/or writings, a sweatshop worker's personal story).
Source 1a
See Page
H-31 in
your Text
Source 1b
. . . The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people
thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the
qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures. . . .
— 17th Amendment, Section 1, 1913
1. Who are the bosses of the senate according to cartoonist Joseph J. Keppler in this cartoon? What are they
wearing? Who are the other characters in the cartoon? What is the message of the cartoon?
2. How did the 17th amendment addressed the concern expressed in the cartoon?
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Source 2a
See Page
H-30 in
your Text
Photo by Jacob Riis, 1890
Source 2b
See Page H-33 in your
Text
. . . It is ten years and over, now, since that line [between rich and poor] divided New York’s population
evenly. To-day three-fourths of its people live in the tenements, and the nineteenth century drift of the
population to the cities is sending ever increasing multitudes to crowd them. The fifteen thousand
tenant houses that were the despair of the sanitarian in the past generation have swelled into thirtyseven thousand, and more than twelve hundred thousand persons call them home. The one way out
he saw—rapid transit to the suburbs—has brought no relief. We know now that there is no way out;
that the “system” that was the evil offspring of public neglect and private greed has come to stay, a
storm-centre forever of our civilization. Nothing is left but to make the best of a bad bargain. . . .
Source: Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1890
3. Based on these documents, describe six problems faced by cities in the United States in the late
1800s. What is the author’s goal in publishing these documents?
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Source 3a
See Page H-34 in your
Text
4. What is the main idea of the
article?
5. According to the New York Times, how did The Jungle and other reports influence President Theodore
Roosevelt’s actions? (Cite at least five pieces of evidence from the document in your response)
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Source 3b
See page H-32 in your text.
. . . There were the men in the pickle rooms, for instance, where old Antanas had gotten his death;
scarce a one of these that had not some spot of horror on his person. Let a man so much as scrape his
finger pushing a truck in the pickle rooms, and he might have a sore that would put him out of the world
[lead to his death]; all the joints in his fingers might be eaten by the acid, one by one. Of the butchers
and floorsmen, the beef boners and trimmers, and all those who used knives, you could scarcely find a
person who had the use of his thumb; time and time again the base of it had been slashed, till it was a
mere lump of flesh against which the man pressed the knife to hold it. The hands of these men would be
criss-crossed with cuts, until you could no longer pretend to count them or to trace them. They would
have no nails,—they had worn them off pulling hides; their knuckles were swollen so that their fingers
spread out like a fan.
There were men who worked in the cooking rooms, in the midst of steam and sickening odors, by
artificial light; in these rooms the germs of tuberculosis might live for two years, but the supply was
renewed every hour. There were the beef luggers, who carried two-hundred-pound quarters into the
refrigerator cars, a fearful kind of work, that began at four o’clock in the morning, and that wore out the
most powerful men in a few years. . . .
Source: Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, 1906
6. Based on this document, describe five effects of poor working conditions in this factory.
Source 4
See page H-28 in your textbook
. . . During the same winter three boys from a Hull-House club were injured at one machine in a neighboring
factory for lack of a guard which would have cost but a few dollars. When the injury of one of these boys resulted
in his death, we felt quite sure that the owners of the factory would share our horror and remorse, and that they
would do everything possible to prevent the recurrence of such a tragedy. To our surprise they did nothing
whatever, and I made my first acquaintance then with those pathetic documents signed by the parents of working
children, that they will make no claim for damages resulting from “carelessness.”
The visits we made in the neighborhood constantly discovered women sewing upon sweatshop work, and
often they were assisted by incredibly small children. I remember a little girl of four who pulled out basting
threads hour after hour, sitting on a stool at the feet of her Bohemian mother, a little bunch of human misery. But
even for that there was no legal redress [remedy], for the only child-labor law in Illinois, with any provision for
enforcement, had been secured [achieved] by the coal miners’ unions, and was confined to children employed in
mines. . . . There was at that time no statistical information on Chicago industrial conditions, and Mrs. Florence
Kelley, an early resident of Hull-House, suggested to the Illinois State Bureau of Labor that they investigate the
sweating system [sweatshops] in Chicago with its attendant [use of] child labor. The head of the Bureau adopted
this suggestion and engaged Mrs. Kelley to make the investigation. When the report was presented to the Illinois
Legislature, a special committee was appointed to look into the Chicago conditions. I well recall that on the
Sunday the members of this commission came to dine at Hull-House, our hopes ran high, and we believed that at
last some of the worst ills under which our neighbors were suffering would be brought to an end. . . .
Source: Jane Addams, Twenty Years at Hull-House with Autobiographical Notes, MacMillan, 1912
7. Based on this document, describe four social problems Jane Adams wanted to reform.
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Source 5a
See Page H-35 in your Text
. . . Indeed, the growth of fundamental democracy in this country is astonishing. Thirty years ago the secret ballot
was regarded as a passing craze by professional politicians. Twenty years ago it was a vital issue in nearly every
American state. To-day the secret ballot is universal in American politics. Ten years ago the direct primary was
the subject of an academic discussion in the University of Michigan by a young man named La Follette of
Wisconsin. Now it is in active operation in over two-thirds of our American states, and over half of the American
people use the direct primary as a weapon of self-government. Five years ago the recall was a piece of freak
legislation in Oregon. To-day more American citizens are living under laws giving them the power of recall than
were living under the secret ballot when [President] Garfield came to the White House, and many times more
people have the power to recall certain public officers today than had the advantages of the direct primary form of
party nominations when [President]
Theodore Roosevelt came to Washington. The referendum is only five years behind the primary.
Prophecy with these facts before one becomes something more than a rash guess. [With these facts in mind,
predicting the future becomes something more than rash guessing.] . . .
Source: William Allen White, The Old Order Changeth, Macmillan, 1910
Source 5b
Cartoonist Thomas Nast
Caption
“THAT’S WHAT’S THE
MATTER.”
Boss Tweed: “As long as I
count the votes,
what are you going to do
about it? Say?”
8. According to William Allen White, what were three reforms the Progressives supported? How did these
reforms expand democracy?
9. Who is the figure in the Thomas Nast cartoon and what is he doing? How were the progressive reforms
intended to correct the problem?
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Source 6a See page H-34 in your textbook
Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the
negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix
pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have
the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any
best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered
into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a
man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children,
and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard
me! And ain't I a woman?
Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers,
"intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't
hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure
full?
Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a
woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman!
Man had nothing to do with Him.
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these
women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to
do it, the men better let them.
Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.
Source: Sojourner Truth “Ain’t I a Woman” Speech 1851
Women's Convention, Akron, Ohio
Source 6b See page H-34 in your textbook
The Fifteenth Amendment (Amendment XV) ratified February 3, 1870
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United
States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation
10. What is the goal of Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman” speech? What arguments does she use to support
that goal?
11. How do you think Sojourner Truth reacted to the 15th amendment that only gave the right to vote to men?
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