In Pursuit: Philadelphia and the Making of America

Episode 6 Overview: Wealth (1872-1917)

Episode 6 of In Pursuit: Philadelphia reinvents itself as the "Workshop of the World," becoming the nation's manufacturing colossus. The 1876 Centennial International Exposition celebrates 100 years of American progress with the world's largest building and the massive Corliss steam engine. On July 4, 1876, Susan B. Anthony storms the Independence Hall stage during centennial ceremonies, demanding women's rights to vote and work—only to be dismissed and arrested.

Matthias Baldwin's locomotive works epitomizes Philadelphia's industrial might, producing every part of a train in one massive complex. The Pennsylvania Railroad becomes America's largest corporation. Yet prosperity bypasses most workers. Mary Harris "Mother" Jones organizes textile workers, leading the "March of the Mill Children" to President Roosevelt's Long Island home, exposing child labor's brutality.

Sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois arrives to study Philadelphia's Seventh Ward, documenting systematic employment discrimination in his landmark work The Philadelphia Negro. Black workers face exclusion from factory jobs despite living adjacent to Center City's booming economy.

After her father dies from workplace injuries—refused hospital treatment because of his race—young Marian Anderson is supported by her church community to pursue singing lessons. When Philadelphia Music Academy rejects her with "We do not accept any Negroes," she turns to Europe, where audiences embrace her extraordinary contralto voice.

Philadelphia's transformation into an industrial powerhouse generates unprecedented wealth, but it concentrates in the hands of railroad magnates and factory owners. Workers, women, and Black Philadelphians struggle for their share of prosperity, asking if their children might yet know a fairer, more just city.