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Civil war effects on society
Impact of civil war
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Civil war effects on society
Impact of civil war
Effects of the Civil War
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
There was an abundance of workers, and the items they were producing were being found in homes across the country. Industry was making a lot of money, but due to the number of able workers, these same companies believed that they did not need to treat them well. The workers were putting in ten to twelve hours a day, five and a half, or six days a week (p. 9). The working conditions
Unsafe working conditions plagued next to, if not, all factories during industrialization. Thousands of workers grew ill or suffered injuries as a consequence of their labor, and would yield their jobs, surrendering their source of income. Taken in the early 1900s, “Lewis Hine’s picture depicts two children working on a very dangerous machine” (Document 8). The matter that children were allowed to manage these machines is awful enough, ignoring just how dangerous the machines were. In addition to this, the children did not appear to be well supervised, which made it all too easy for a disastrous injury to occur.
The nineteenth century was the result of the U.S. growing urbanization and the early twentieth century marked the new industrial age. The workplace was dramatically changing bringing in women, children and immigrants, most unskilled workers. An abundance of workers were available for these jobs making them expendable in dangers conditions while wage continued to decrease. Most workers had at least a ten to twelve-hour work day, making less money than what was necessary to live a decent life. Health and safety conditions were a concern in the workplace, Federal laws offered little protection and poor workers had limited resources.
From 1875-1900, America was beginning to rise up from the increase in industrialization. However, dubbed “the gilded age” by Mark Twain, the thriving promise of a better , wealthier life in America was not as it seemed. When labor unions rose to change the harsh working conditions placed on workers, it seemed to be that they found little to no success. This was brought on by the little change that they made, the suffering and hardships they brought on themselves and others, and the little support they received from those around them. Although labor unions were able to change some conditions, most of those changes were minimal.
Factory Working Working in the 1800’s was hard and was very dangerous, by the mid 1800’s America was using machines to produce most things such as clothing, shoes, watches, , guns, and farming machines. The workers would work an average of 11.4 hours a day. The workers were very tired. The factories were very rugged and dangerous, there were fast rapidly moving parts exposed and that cuased many accidents with adults and children.
Workers were forced to work long hours in dangerous factories for little pay, and child labor was used in many factories. There were unsafe working conditions for all types of workers. Many were killed and injured in steel mills and oil refineries. Companies did not make up for the worker’s or a family’s loss when these events occurred. Workers often lived in "company towns" where rents and utilities were controlled by factory-mill owners.
Dr. Stow expresses that “as a class, they [the laborers] are dwarfed physically.” Stow clarifies his statement by explaining that these physical and psychological ailments have come as a result of the lack of fresh air and intense heat of the mills of which the laborers work in. The failure of politicians to pass legislation to improve the welfare of workers unfortunately led to several other instances of abuse similar to the kinds expressed in the report. Subsequently, laborers began to unionize in order to advocate for more humane working conditions. These unions supported things such as an 8-hour work day, child labor protections, and higher wages.
To continue, the experiences that also led workers to the Progressive Movement in Industrial America were because of the dangerous working conditions that workers faced and a big issue called child labor. For example, in Document 1, the author states that “young boys” were working “near coal mines” and “breathing in coal dust”. They were “two beaker boys of 15 years” (Document 1). One was “badly burned and the other smothered to death”, and they were just children working in dangerous conditions (Document 1). Also, in document 4, the author states that the building in which the workers were working has been reported as “unsafe in account of the insufficiency of its exits.”
During the 1900's, there was very little protection for workers and the working conditions were horrible for employees. On overage most workers worked six days per week and at least 10 hours per day (The Gale Group Inc., 2000). In addition, during this time, companies were employing young children and women at much lower pay and working them for long hours. There was a strong need for unions during the 1900's as unions were formed to protect the rights of workers. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) formed during the 1900's to strengthen workers rights to fair treatment at the workplace (History.com Staff, 2009).
Factories, where most people worked, were dangerous and uncleanly places. Work accidents were common and people were miserable due to how strict the environment was. They did not get compensated if they were sick or had an injury, either. They would just be out of a
The life in the 19th-century for labor worker was from far easy. With all the wealth being generateing during the Gilded age very little of its wealth were given to the wokers. Even the best wages for a industrial worker were low, with long hours, working in awfully poor conditions. With safety rules and regulations being unexisted, it was hard to blame employers responsible. It was worse for women and children, who worked as hard or even harder than men, often time only revcieved only but a fraction of what a man earned.
Many immigrant girls and women worked at the factory in very unsafe conditions. The owners of the factories would overpack the floor and lock the doors so the girls could not leave in order to consolidate profits (Document E). The calamity that took place the half hour that it took for the factory to burn down would forever change the safety protocols for factories in America. The economic changes that took place due to the urban growth of America’s immigrant population during the Gilded Age was significant not only in the twentieth century but remains a very important part of daily life in America
The most common approach for movements to achieve their purpose and goals would be through strikes, boycotts, sit-ins, other strategies. The NDLON carried a different approach in which the founders believed it would be best to educate laborers on the impact that the social conditions that they receive will benefit them. The article, “When Workers Take The Lead” by Nik Theodore, states “The system is sensitive to the social and political characteristics of knowledge, and through processes of collective learning, enables day laborers to increase their understanding of the social conditions that make an impact on their lives and prepares them to transform those conditions”(Theodore 3). This approach taken by the NDLON is one which is not common
The workers were often subjected to sweltering heat in the summer and frigid conditions in the winter. But, that was not it, at the time there were no laws in place that required businesses to ensure their employees' safety, and this regularly lead to many injuries and fatalities in the workplace on a daily basis. There was not a single work place that did not have injured or mutilated employees, and this was due to the unsafe working conditions of the factories, “Let a man so much as scrape his finger pushing a truck in the pickle-rooms, and he might have a sore that would put him out of the world; all the joints in his fingers might be eaten by the acid, one by one… There were men who worked in the cooking rooms… in these rooms the germs of tuberculosis might live for two years, but the supply was renewed every hour.” (109).
During the progressive era the factories had no safety regulations. This caused many severe injuries to occur in factories because of horrific working conditions that included terrible air quality, dangerous machines, extreme hours, and extensive labor. In the United States we are lucky that we no longer have sweatshops but in in countries like China, they still exist. A report in two-thousand nine said “approximately one million workers were injured at work and about 20,000 suffered from diseases due to their occupation”(WarOnWant). The American Government has disposed of these severe