Worker’s PlightAmerican History 11th Grade

Industrialization Affected various aspects of

workers lives- where they worked -where they lived-the size of the workforce-nature of the workWorkers were forced to make

the transition from skilled to semi or unskilled labor.

It took little training to tend a machine

Problems Work became monotonousUnfair Conditions of Employment- long workdays 10-14 hours -average income inadequateHealth and Safety Hazards-miners breathed coal dust Factory workers breathed sawdust, stone dust,

cotton dust, or toxic fumesVery high injury rateChild Labor Job insecurity

Company townsBuilt and run by the

companies Usual practice was for

companies to deduct money from the workers’ pay for rent and advances to the company store as well as medical and fuel fees

Some companies paid workers a “SCRIP” or company money that could only be redeemed at the company store

Workers remained in constant debt

Labor UnionsHard to organizeMobility and diversity of American labor forceDifferences in language, religion and customs among

immigrants made it hard to unite them Different union leaders had different goalsStrong opposition from employers Blacklists (records of troublemakers) hard to get a job

elsewhere if blacklistedLockout- factory was shut down or union members firedScabs- replacement workers Collective bargaining- negotiation between an employer

and a labor union

Railroad Strike of 1877Following the depression of 1873, 5, 000 businesses closed,

causing widespread unemployment and homelessness3 million workers were unemployed- no unemployment

benefits or relief from state or fed. Gov’t B&O workers held a work stoppage as a result of wage cuts.

Troops went to Martinsburg WVA to bring order to the town many more clashes between workers and employers followed- Pittsburgh, Buffalo, San Francisco etc.

Workers killed in Phila. and Reading In the end 76,000 miles of track stopped running, 100

people were dead, 1,000 jailed and 100,000 workers had gone on strike

ImmigrationOld immigration- German Jews

seeking religious freedom, Germans leaving crop failures, Irish escaping potato famine, Chinese came for gold during gold rush

New Immigration- people coming from Southern and Eastern Europe- Italians escaping unemployment and economic misfortune, Eastern European Jews escaping religious persecution. Slavs Eastern Europe left Russia and Poland to escape economic woes and looking for political freedom

City LifeUrbanization- more and more people moved

into citiesLack of Social Services- shortage of police

and firefighters, City water was impure and sewers were often clogged. Garbage collection was sporadic and there were no attempts at city planning. Rivers and harbors were polluted by sewage and factory wastes.

Increase in crime

Cultural LifeEducation improved- lengthened school year,

grade schools developed, free secondary education in 1900 the average child received only 5 years of schooling.

Mark Twain, Penny Newspapers, Dime novelsSports and Entertainment

Farmers struggledPlague of grasshoppers took over the Great

Plains region-ate everything in sight. Also the threat of prairie fires, dust storms

and drought Railroads would take advantage of their

hauling monopoly and charge high prices for short trips.

Reform MovementsTemperance Movement –favored prohibition

and pushed for it politicallyWoman Suffrage-Susan B. Anthony- by 1900

four states-CO, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho had granted women the right to vote

Women and Union- not uncommon for women to work in sweatshops for very little money

Experiments in SocialismSomething seemed wrong with a society that

had the idle rich, who lived in mansions and the unemployed poor who lived in slums.

Socialists communities developed didn’t want to change policies politically (New Harmony 1820’s)

Karl Marx and socialists in the late nineteenth century were dedicated to changing the entire social and political system.