Documenting United States History

318 ChapTEr 13 | a Gilded aGe | period Six 1865 –1898

We have no grudge against any person in particular, but we are the enemies of

bulldozers and tyrants.

If the old system should continue, death would be a relief to our suffering.

And for our rights our lives are the least we can pledge.

If the fact that we are law-abiding citizens is questioned, come out to our

houses and see the hunger and desolation we are suffering; and “this” is the result

of the deceitful and corrupt methods of “bossism” [behind-the-scene control of

a political party].

The White Caps, 1,500 Strong and Gaining Daily

Quoted in David J. Weber, ed., Foreigners in Their Native Land: Historical Roots of the

Mexican Americans (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2003), 235–236.

the Granger Collection, New York.

p raCTICINg historical Thinking

Identify: Summarize the main points of the White Caps.

Analyze: To whom are the White Caps referring when they say they are the “ene-

mies of bulldozers and tyrants”?

Evaluate: Compare this document with Document 13.8. To what extent were the

situations of African Americans and the White Caps similar in this era?

Document 13.10 JaCoB RiiS, How the Other Half Lives

1890

Photographer Jacob Riis (1849–1914) published How the Other Half Lives in 1890 to intro-

duce middle-class Americans to the living conditions of immigrant people in New York

City. These three images portray an immigrant family of cloth cutters in their home, an

immigrant family of cigar rollers, and a street in New York’s Lower East Side neighborhood.

TopIC II | discontents of the New economy 319

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