Blackwell Reference Online

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1890 William Dean Howells, A Hazard of New Fortunes . Emily Dickinson, Poems . Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives . The population of the United States is 63 million; this represents an increase of 25 percent over the preceding decade. More than half the nation's wealth is owned by one percent of the population. The Sherman Antitrust Act is passed to counter the growing power of monopolies. There are nearly 200 lynchings of African Americans each year in the following decade. 1892 Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, A New England Nun and Other Stories . 1893 The stock market crashes; in the course of the year, over 15,000 businesses fail, including 600 banks and 74 railroads. Chicago World Columbian Exhibition. 1894 Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson . The labor unrest of preceding and succeeding years is especially intense in this year, with the Pullman workers' strike. 1895 Booker T. Washington delivers “Atlanta Compromise” speech, urging African Americans to postpone their wish for equality with whites; Washington is sharply criticized by other African Americans, including W. E. B. Du Bois. 1896 Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage; Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs . Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that the segregationist policy of “separate but equal” is legal. 1897 Henry James, What Maisie Knew . Gold rush to the Klondike. 1898 The Spanish–American ... log in or subscribe to read full text