Life in the Progressive Era

 W ith all the chaos the Progressive Era brought, many sought alcohol as a coping tool.  This at first was not too much of an issue, but as more and more people became dependent on alcohol, things got more serious. According to PBS's article titled "Roots of Prohibition": "The average American over 15 years old consumed nearly seven gallons of pure alcohol a year – three times as much as we drink today – and alcohol abuse (primarily by men) was wreaking havoc on the lives of many, particularly in an age when women had few legal rights and were utterly dependent on their husbands for sustenance and support." This quote shows how deep alcohol was affecting society during the Progressive Era because it points out that even children were becoming victim to it. Furthermore, the article points out that it was destroying families. As mentioned in a previous blog post where we discussed women's suffrage and the fight for independence, women started off as dependents...

A fter the civil war, many African Americans still struggled to find good opportunities or live like a true citizen in this country. Although as time went on, they were slowly accepted by some, but not the majority. Let's explore what life as an African-American individual looked like during the Progressive Era. As mentioned before, African-Americans still did not feel like citizens because they lacked rights, like voting. According to American Yawp Chapter 20, "In the South, electoral politics remained a parade of electoral fraud, voter intimidation, and race-baiting." Although, African-Americans could vote, their vote meant nothing because Whites manipulated the voting system in favor of themselves. These initial signs of discrimination only got worse from here. Eventually, Africans-Americans had to fulfill special requirements to be able to vote. This included poll taxes, a crime-free background, literacy tests and more.  Segregation continued to expand as cities grew....