The 1800’s was quite an interesting and unusual period of time. First of all, the USA was made up of 26 states compared to the regular 50 states that we have today. However, the goods back then were very cheap. Milk went for as low as $0.10! Majority of the population lived in rural areas, an area where there is a lot of grass and farmland. The kids would wake up in the morning and help out their parents around the farm and the house. The boys would their fathers by hauling water to their house from the wells and by working in the fields, while the girls would help their mothers out by cleaning the house and cooking food for the men. However, life was very harsh for people in the 1840’s. Peculiarly, there was no electricity at night, which …show more content…
To start off with, the majority of the schools in the 1840’s had an attendance as little as 132 days per school year. Similarly, only 59% of the population of kids in the 1840’s attended school. However, 1 teacher taught all the students of all ages. The youngest students would sit in the front practicing their ABC’s, while the oldest students would sit in the back learning about Math, English (reading and writing), and History (geography). In fact, the older kids would sometimes help the teacher teach the younger kids. Instead of using mechanical pencils and white boards, students would use slates and chalk to write on the chalkboard. Surprisingly, school ended for kids after 8th grade, which meant that they would graduate after 8th grade. In order to graduate, students need to pass a final exam that goes over everything you learned over your lifetime. In addition, another interesting fact is that teachers lived with their students’ families sometimes because they had nowhere else to live. Nevertheless, teachers had to follow rules that were set by the leader or the president at that time. The teachers had to attend church and were not allowed to dance during special
Rarely has the world seen such a unique decade in time as the Roaring Twenties. It was an age of prosperity and change. The United States experienced a recession that was followed by a period of unlimited prosperity. Although the United States encountered both positive and negative experiences, it proved to be very influential in the future. The 1920's were definitely "Roaring" in more ways than one. There were major changes in American Society during the 1920's that took place. Many new industries emerged during this decade that influenced society and the American way of life. Even the federal government had different feelings about the business industry. The characteristics of this decade made the 1920's
Wages were very low for the amount of work people were expected to do. People would only make anywhere from $1.25-$1.50 for the entire 10-12 hour workday. Not only were these wages extremely low, but employees often lived in expensive company housing which left barely any money for the other necessities of life. Nobody was satisfied with the wages during this time period but another struggle was the long hours. People worked 60-80 hour work weeks in the hot overcrowded factories, only doing one monotonous job. Lastly, the boss was very distant from the work crowd and there was little to no contact between the two groups. Also, the workers were very controlled by the foreman. The doors were locked on all floors to prevent theft during the day and bathroom breaks would be monitored by a floor manager. Overall, during the late 1800’s everyone was overworked and underpaid and this led to many troubles as years went on.
During the 1950's, the United States experienced great change with the end of World War II, making it difficult to label the busy decade. America was the most powerful nation in the world and it was a time of complacency. The United States accepted two new states, Hawaii and Alaska (www.fifties.com). The science world boomed with new inventions; televisions broadcast nationally; rock n' roll was popular; commercial hotel and fast food chains became common; the car industry exploded; vaccinations for measles and polio were discovered; and birth control pills were introduced (Layman VII). Another event in the 1950’s was the ratification of the 21st Amendment, which limited presidents to two terms in office. The 1950's "baby
Throughout the 1800’s in the U.S , a lot of people were aware of big problems that we still have an issue with today . As people would walk down the street and when you would listen to conversations between other people, you would see that the children’s poverty was a main subject to speak of. For many more reasons children had began to fall into situation to be in poverty. The children were helpless, freezing during climate change, starvation, and lonely . And the adults wanted this issue to change for the better sake of children.
Schools on the homestead started in the late eighteenth century, each consisting of only one room. The setup of the schoolhouses was rather unadorned in construction and often unembellished. As a result of more school houses being in rural and secluded most did not have water or sanitation. Due to this, wells were converted to toilets and snow from winter was melted into water. When these were not options, teachers often relied on nearby homesteads to provide water. During this time, teachers had often lived in the schoolhouse in a separate section or lived with a family in one of the homesteads. The typical school day for a child in the eighteenth century totaled a seven-hour time period. Starting from nine in the morning to four in the afternoon, students were required to be in the school building as mandated by the law. A multitude of the parents refused to permit their children to attend school. Preferring them to continue working on the land given to the family, even if it went against the law.
The half century between 1810 and 1860 may seem like a brief period of time, but these fifty years were packed full of changes and innovations. Some of these drastic modifications include but are not limited to; professions becoming an expanding market (chapter 8 notes), the focus on becoming self-sustaining, as evidenced by the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 and the American System, developed by Henry Clay (chapter 9 notes). The clashing of politics and morality also came into the news (chapter 10 notes), as well as the desire for westward expansion (chapter 11 notes). With individuals spreading out across the continental United States, a Second Great Awakening occurred in order to revitalize the church (chapter 12 notes), as new territories were
In the mid-1800s lots of things were being made by machine. For example: clothing, shoes, watches, guns, and farming machines were made. In 1840 the workday was 11 ½ hours. The workers were very tired and they most likely would have accidents. Workers and even children were hurt a lot by the machines. In the summer they were hot and in the winter they were cold, because there was not air conditioning or a heater in the factories. There were no laws to help the working conditions, and even to protect them. The owners didn't care about the workers, they cared about the money. Children would work six days a week and 12 hours or more a day. In the factories it was really hard and dangerous. Children would work the machines
Everyday life in colonial America was made up of large cities, rural settlements, and frontier regions. Life in colonial America was nothing short of difficult. The large cities were made up of many classes of people ranging from wealthy to slaves. There were some that had very specific skills as well as communication skills and others who had nothing. The wealthy people dreamed of what they were going to do in the future, however the middle class people dreamed but did not plan. They were better off than the average poor person, but still worked very hard sunrise to sunset. In this paper I will provide information on what life was like for various aspects and people groups in colonial America.
The 1860s to 1920s was known as the gilded age in the United States of America. Immigrants moved to the U.S. to have a better life but when they arrived, they an unexpected situation. In the gilded age, Robber barons or business owners made a tremendous amount of money. Most of them accomplished this by using monopolies and trusts which led them to gain power and money. While money was flowing in the United States, the lower class population lived in tenements, where diseases would spread fast and comfort was not available. Workers had to work more than twelve hours a day and they could lose parts of their bodies in the machines and therefore get fired. Children worked as much as their parents did. They were in a position of
During this era the population of the United States, which was growing at rapid pace, enumerated to be only approximately sixty to seventy million people. Also during this era the new invention of the motorized car was just beginning to replace horse drawn carriages as the main form of transportation. Along with cars the game of basketball, invented by James Naismith, was just created and becoming more well known across America, which would later have a great impact on the American culture. However the culture during President Cleveland’s presidency varied greatly from that of the present day. During the late nineteenth century most people were caucasian, women had a lot less rights then men, and slaves were less common among households causing farmers to go into debt. The late 1800’s was a unique time for our
disappointment. It was a decade classified as the "roaring twenties." Men returning from World War I had to deal with unemployment, wheat farmers and oil companies were striking it rich, new modern conveniences were being thought up, and fashion was a major issue among the rich.
Businesses, laborers, and farmers faced major challenges between 1877 and 1920. This was a time period that included both the Gilded Age and World War 1, and the challenges that these three parts of society faced were very different between each group and throughout each period. Businesses had to deal with things called “trusts” with other businesses. Many businesses desired to hold the monopoly of an entire industry, and competition was intense and cutthroat. Laborers, of course, faced the challenges of not having the previously mentioned working conditions, as well as pay cuts and unemployment during the depressions in the 1870s and the 1890s. Farmers had to deal with major drops in the prices for their crops due to the second Industrial Revolution and the development of new technology, as well as the already-difficult farming of the West. Many southern farmers were sharecroppers, as well, and as the prices for their goods fell, so did their standard of living.
As America became more industrial more people left their farms and small towns to work in the city so they could pay their expenses, whatever they may be. This led to the minimal pay of workers while the owners became wealthy leading to a functional economy. Most would receive little money while the rest lived a life of luxury. Since more factories were opening children, women, and immigrants could now find jobs, which led to more production which gave more money to the owners of the factories. Americans feared that industrialists were changing freemen into “wage slaves.” “By 1920, nearly 20 percent of all manufacturing workers were women, and 13 percent of all textile workers were younger than 16 years old. In 1900, it was estimated that
The early 1900s was a time of many movements, from the cities to the rural farms; people were uniting for various causes. One of the most widespread was the labor movement, which affected people far and wide. Conditions in the nation’s workplaces were notoriously poor, but New York City fostered the worst. Factories had started out in the city’s tenements, which were extremely cramped, poorly ventilated, and thoroughly unsanitary. With the advent of skyscrapers, factories were moved out of the tenements and into slightly larger buildings, which still had terrible conditions. Workers were forced to work long hours (around 12 hours long) six hours a day, often for extremely low pay. The pay was also extremely lower for women, who made up a
Life in the 1800s has taken on an almost idealistic quality in the minds of many Americans. The images linked to this era of our history are, on the surface, pleasurable to recall: one room school houses; severe self-reliance; steam-powered railroads and individual freedom.