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Factory conditions in the 19th century
Working conditions in the 1850s
19th century factory workers conditions
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Workers rights were very minimal and their was uproar among the workers. Many lower class impoverished workers forced to terrible conditions and
The machinery was very dangerous and caused many deaths (Document 1). Moreover, the workers went through physical suffering and moral degradation. They lacked basic resources and were weakened because of the harsh conditions (Document 2). Fortunately, the conditions were improved thanks to an act called The Hours of Labor in Factories Act that was passed in 1844. Work hours had been reduced to ten hours, the wages had been increased, and safety was now a priority (Document 3).
There were many circumstances that motivated workers who went to strike at the Homestead Factory and Pullman Railcar Factory in the early 1890s. For instance, the workers had poor working conditions. Conditions in Carnegie’s factory were harsh. Men often worked seven days a week, twelve hours a day, which was more than double of today’s standard forty-hours of work in a week (Khan 10). A previous steelworker remembered that he lost forty pounds when he worked for the first three months of his job and described the work as a “dog’s life” (Khan 10).
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 workers were abused and exploit until accidents happened to them or they could not bear, therefore, quit but quitting jobs were rare because many competitions
Firstly, most villages underwent vast changes and were transformed into large factories. This was largely made possible by all of the new technologies that were starting to get implemented, which increased the efficiency of production (Wilde). The most devastating part of this transformation is the actual working conditions in these factories. Workers were required to abide by strict rules, and they were punished harshly for even small mishaps (LeCouteur and Burreson 73). What is more disturbing is the fact that the living conditions were just as bad as the workload itself.
During the industrial revolution factories flourished and for many people improved their financial status. Factories and machines that could process food faster and in larger quantities caused some jobs to be obsolete. The umemployed migrated from their rural homes along with others immigrateing from other countries in droves flooding urban areas. Most were seeking employment and the ability to provide a better life for their families,.
Some of the conditions were low pays, no safe at all to work in, over crowed in factories, working days were long. Some people work 10 to 12 hours a day. There was no job security, no workman’s companion , no retirement fund.
On top of that Chemicals were used in just about every part of the process ,and the worker did not wear protective gear nor glove. The factories would get really hot, which meant the place reeked of bad meat and sweating workers because the factories had no ventilation. Workers were required to clock in for six days a week, ten hours per day. Most of workers only received a few cents per hour for their work. If you were to convert it to today’s amount it would be about 1.50 $.
Imagine the agonizing task of cutting innumerable acres of tall, strong grass with only a single, giant knife. Envision the back-breaking pain of bending over in the scorching sun for hours and hours to accomplish what is now a simple task. In the past, farm work was extensively different and much more intense than it is today. In the early 1800s, a farmer had to use a scythe to cut the fields. It was terribly tiresome work and took very lengthy amounts of time.
In the late 1800’s through the early 1900’s the U.S economy underwent an enormous increase in its industrial and production growth of its services. Copious resources and an expanding labor force from immigrant labor, government policy, and entrepreneurs facilitated a large shift in production of manufactured goods and services. The First industrial revolution shifted production from artisans to factories, and the second revolution gave way to the expansion in the organization, coordination, which helped push the large scale of the new industry. One of the first major factors was the immigration and the technological and transportation evolution across the U.S. As stated, “...more than 25 million immigrants came to the United States between
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).
There were repetitive and dangerous assembly lines. People could easily break their backs in any of the jobs. They didn’t even get breaks. People couldn’t advance their careers, and they worked in foul and filthy spaces. They worked ten hours a day, with six days a week.
Life in the time of late 1800’s was marked by rapid change, due to the effect of factors such as urbanization, the flourishing of America’s big businesses, the enormous advances made in technology, as well as other things. Due to the numerous advancements made in technology, such as developments in heating, the invention of elevators, as well as innovations in transportation, urban growth was immense in the late 1800’s. Due to these factors, people from all around America, as well as immigrants from other countries, were drawn to city life in the United States. A major challenge that people faced in their day to day lives in America during the late 1800’s were undesirable conditions in the workplace.
Workers were not able to covered their everyday needs. For example, “In 1875, a Massachusetts study found that the average worker’s wages only covered 67% of the family’s cost. The rest had to be made up in some other way” (Lecture 5-1). This then ends up with the creation of tenements. Tenements allow people to live tight together at a cheaper price with up to 16 people per room.
