Industrial Revolution Dbq Essay

The American industrial revolution took place from the late 1800s into the 1900s. An industrial revolution is a boom in industry and manufacturing. It requires a workforce, leaders, and most importantly natural resources like coal, steel, gold, silver and lumber. Coal was a valuable resource needed to power factories and transportation like the transcontinental railroad that spanned across the US. After the transcontinental railroad was built in 1869, more coal was found in the west that could be mined and then transported to the factories in the east. This led to the increase in material production and made manufacturing easier and cheaper. However, when coal is burned it gives off pollution so an increase in coal usage also impacted the environment.

The workers had bad conditions in the factories. According to document 1 workers in factories had to work from 5AM to 9PM with a 40 minute lunch break and some of them started at young ages. Some entire families had to work to buy food which meant kids also had to work. Kids had less than 8 hours break which meant they didn’t get enough sleep even if they fell asleep right as they get home from work. Even worse, they spent the 16 hours every day in dangerous conditions. As seen in document 4 people in the factories had to work near machines that were not covered so people could get caught in them and die or get cut and die from infection. The problem is that they can’t even get food without working so these terrible conditions are still better than not working. With these unfair conditions the workers can try to resist. The image in document 6 shows a group of people picketing for an 8 hour workday. Even if the bosses don’t listen they can get public support to boycott the product until better conditions. However, the factory owners had ways to keep workers in bad conditions. They forced them to sign yellow dog contracts which prevented them from joining unions and

The industrial revolution increased steel production which allowed the US to make a profit from trading and use the steel to improve transportation, farming and buildings. Industrial cities had many factories that burned coal which caused air pollution and increased steel production led to increased coal usage. Workers in the factories had dangerous, long work hours that they couldn’t protest. The industrial revolution had a large impact on working conditions at the time. Workers had to sign a yellow dog contract which prevented them from protesting unfair treatment and limited their freedom of speech. They workers would also be replaced by other workers who would work for less money and not protest like the Chinese. This relates to the 2017 issue of free speech in work. During the pledge of allegiance players in the NFL sit to support black lives matter and protest the unfair treatment or racism against black people. This is similar because they can be kicked off the team for protesting unfair treatment. If they get kicked off they can be replaced by other people who do not protest the anthem which is similar to how the workers could get replaced for protesting. If the factory owners changed and gave the workers better conditions it would cost them money. If the NFL lets them protest then people will boycott the NFL and stop watching them and the NFL loses money. of sitting the players are a representation of the nfl so