General Slocum Maritime Disaster

On June 15, 1904, over 1,000 people, mostly German immigrant women and children, were killed when the excursion steamship General Slocum caught fire and sank, becoming the city's worst maritime disaster.

When this happened

General Slocum Maritime Disaster occurred in June 15, 1904, during the industrial period of American history.

Where this happened

General Slocum Maritime Disaster took place in New York. Explore the full history of New York and primary source records from this era.

The Industrial Era (roughly 1870–1920) transformed the United States from an agrarian economy into the world's largest industrial producer. Railroad mileage expanded from 35,000 miles in 1865 to 254,000 by 1916, integrating national markets and making possible the mass production and distribution of steel, coal, oil, and manufactured goods. Andrew Carnegie's steel empire, John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and the financial networks of J.P. Morgan concentrated unprecedented economic power in a small number of corporate trusts. Immigration surged — approximately 20 million people arrived between 1880 and 1920, primarily from southern and eastern Europe — transforming the urban labor force and giving rise to ethnic neighborhoods, labor unions, and political machines. The labor movement responded to dangerous working conditions and low wages with strikes including the Pullman Strike (1894) and the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist fire (1911), which killed 146 workers. The Progressive Era (1900–1920) produced significant regulatory legislation including antitrust enforcement, the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906), and the 16th and 17th Amendments. United States entry into World War I (1917) signaled the country's emergence as a global military and economic power.

Content adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Source: Wikipedia: Early 20th century: 1898–1945.