Florence Kelly

Florence Kelly

To begin with, Florence Kelly was born on September 12, in the year of 1857 and died on February 17, 1932. Kelley, herself, came from a family that was greatly involved in politics. Her father, William Darrah, was an abolitionist Quaker that both helped find the Republican Part and was a congressman for Philadelphia. Her aunt, Sarah Pugh, was also an abolitionist and was actually present at the Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women. She attended Cornell University in 1882, and didn't receive her degree till 6 years later. After that, she went to study in The University of Zurich in which she got interested in the topic of socialism. 

She is commonly known for her translation of the book "Condition of the Working Class in England" by Friedrich Engles. Also, in 1899 Kelley became the national secretary for the National Consumers League. This organization pushed for the rights of both women and children in the work force. Becaus of this, in 1905, she published a book that was called "Some Ethical Gains Through Legislation". In the same year, it is said that she worked side by side with Lillian D Wald to establish the United States Children's Bureau. 

Later on, she moved to Chicago in which she lived in the Hull-House. This was a community of mostly women in which were involved greatly in the community and were interested in the social reform. Much of the work done here was published in "Hull-House Maps and Papers" in the year 1895. She studied child labor and made a report of it to the Illinois State Bureau of Labor and was to become the first factory inspector for Illinois in the year 1893. in 1909, she pushed for woman suffrage, and by 1914, published a book called "Modern Industry in Relation to the Family, Health, Education, Morality".

The Battle of Little Big Horn

The Battle of Little Bighorn

The Battle of Little Bighorn, commonly known as "Custer's Last Stand" occurred on June 25 and June 26 of the year 1876 near the Little Big Horn River. This battle alone was fought by the U.S. Army, the 7th Cavalry Regiment, to be exact, and three native american tribes called the Lakotas, the Arapaho, and the Cheyenne. Throughout the years there has been much speculation as to who is to blame for the events that occurred. Historians have for years debated the credibility of sources for such event due to biased beliefs.

In 1868, there was a treaty called the Treaty of Laramie, in which it was rightfully stated that the Black Hills were property of the Sioux tribe, and would remain under Sioux reservation borders. Later on, In 1874, the Black Hills Gold Rush began once it was found that there could be gold in the land. New American white settlers began to settle within Sioux reservation borders, which obviously led to growing tensions between the natives and the whites. Once whites began invading, and the Natives refused to give up their land, and there began to be fighting  between the two.

The white settlers then began to viciously attack the natives. They burned their homes down, destroyed their food supply and various belongings, and even taking the lives of many of the natives themselves. In one of these raids, according to a Cheyenne Indian, General Custer took the life of their chief Black Kettle. At Little Big Horn, General Custer was confident victory would be his; however, he would come to realize that he and his 7th Cavalry would be outnumbered by the natives.

The Chinese Exclusion Act

To begin with, the Chinese were a group of people who immigrated from China in order to find work advertised in America during the 1800s. The Chinese were primarily interested in the jobs correlated with the Gold Rush in California. For the most part, they would go around looking for gold in areas where white settlers had abandoned the mining; however, they began to realize that there would be no real profit from the job. It was then that the Chinese began to resort to working for the rail road companies, a job that many Americans had left unattended. Often times they were not wanted due to the fact that they were small in height and stature and were expected not to have many work capacities. Once they began to work, many employers began to realize that they were loyal and hardworking, and were being constantly hired by employers for the railroad jobs and jobs outside of the railroad business.

It was in 1882 that the Chinese Exclusion Act came about in the Americas. The first reason that this act came into existence was the fact that the Chinese were now useless in the eyes of the American work force. The Chinese, now that the railroads were completed, had no real jobs to go by. Although they were great workers, they had served their purpose in the creation and expansion of the railroad business.  Another factor as to why the act was passed was due to the fact that there was great jealousy from white Americans and other European immigrants. The jealousy was attributed to the fact that the Chinese were taking over the jobs. In Document A, the play called "The Chinese Must Go", the Chinese are stereotyped and described as "advantageous" and "smart" for taking the jobs and knowing how to save money. In a certain way, it was stereotyping the Chinese in a negative way to the rest of America. In Document C, it was described to the people that the Chinese were becoming a threat to the rest of America. It is delineated that it was believed that the government was taking care of the number of Chinese that were coming in to the country, but now they have overflowed. It is explained that there are no jobs left that the Chinese have not taken over such as clothes making. In document D, a Chinese immigrant is explaining his experiences in America. He describes the disgust other immigrants combined with the whites have towards them. He describes that the people have mistreated them because they are merely good workers. From the timeline, we can see more discrimination from the government when they are not allowed to marry others in 1880, although they were not allowed to bring their wives to live with them.

The Exclusion Act of 1882 was passed due to the fact that the Americans believed they were beginning to become a problem to the labor force. Because the Chinese were such good workers, there was no more room for the hiring of whites or other immigrants. The white Americans felt that they were beginning to steal jobs from the Americans, and now that the rail roads were finished, there was no more real use for them.