The conclusion of the eighteenth century and the dawn of the nineteenth was a time of great growth of industry in America. There were many positives of this growth, and many negatives. One positive were that everybody has more luxuries; another positive was that a lot of money came into the US. There were many severe negatives of the new growth of industry. Two of these were horrible factory conditions, and child labor. The first positive was that every American can afford more luxuries. This is because, as Andrew Carnegie in Document 1 put it, “Today the world obtains goods of excellent quality at prices which even the last generation would have thought unbelievable.” The effect of this was that poor people …show more content…
As stated in documents 4, “The men call this the death trap, said my guide, as we stood in the edge of the building; They wipe a man out of there every little while.” Or in document 8, “If a man escapes the gas, the floods the squeezes of falling rock ,the cars shooting through little tunnels, the dangerous elevators, the hundred perils, there usually comes to him an attack of miners asthma that slowly racks and shakes him into the grave. Meanwhile he gets three dollars a day.” An other negative was child labor. Millions of children were employed in dangerous conditions for very little pay. As you can see in document 5 ,little children were climbing on machinery and could have been injured. Children were hired because they could fit into smaller spaces and typically demanded less pay. The negatives of industrial growth were horrifying and would eventually be remedied by labor unions. To sum up, the era of industrial growth was a period of many highs and lows, positive and negative developments. The positives are more luxuries and a lot of money into the US. The negatives were horrible and dangerous factory conditions and child labor. The era was one of controversial growth and