Factory Workers In The Late 1800s

In society, many make a living by working for others to get the necessities they need. Workers face many struggles such as wage cuts, horrendous work conditions, an increase in hours, due to these conditions they are labeled ‘wage slaves.’ These individuals have no choice but to work in these conditions. The growth of industry in the United States made corruption easier and made employers richer while the poor stayed poor. The employers justify their actions by arguing that the employees have a choice to go and work for someone else. However, workers do not have the choice to work for others since most employers were using the same method to make a profit. Workers are treated unfairly, but they use many effective techniques such as strikes

Throughout history, children have always worked, either as apprentices or servants. However, child labor reached a whole new scale during the time period of the Industrial Revolution. Throughout the time frame of late 1800s-early 1900s, children worked long hours in dangerous factory conditions for very little wages. They were considered useful as laborers because their small stature allowed them to be cramped into smaller spaces, and they could be paid less for their services. Many worked to help support their families, and by doing so, they forwent their education. Numerous nineteenth century reformers and labor groups sought to restrict child labor and to improve working conditions.

Conditions of factories were not safe for anyone, let alone a small child. Due to these conditions many children died before their prime. Many children “began work at age 5, and generally died before they were 25” (www.victorianweb.org), America was beginning to lose an entire generation due to these working conditions that so many had to endure. Children were hired at an alarming rate. “In 1870, the first time census reported child workers, there were 750,000 workers in the United States age 15 and under, not including those who worked on family farms or in other family businesses” (“Child Labor in America”), these numbers were not something that was looked over, it astonished many. “A cotton manufactory of 5 or 6000 spindles will employ those 200 children” (Bremner 232). The workforce would continuously grow, hiring more and more children each day. Factories were good for using children as a means of their productivity. “Textile factories, for the most part […] were in the forefront of this industrial revolution, and children formed an essential component of the new industrial workforce” (Bremner 232). Many times without these children working some of these factories would not have survived through the revolution.

The upper class were the rich and with the advancement of new technology, became richer. Goods could be created and sold for a cheaper price in their factories. With the working class looking for work, were employed by the factory owners. The advantaged social class that had enjoyed wealth and success, had now achieved a new level of luxury.

The years following the Civil War and Reconstruction era was a time period that was somewhat gilded. The Second Industrial Revolution came bearing new inventions, and revolutionized how factories and jobs were worked. In this time period, factory workers were faced with unpleasant working conditions, abuse, pay cuts and the reality of having little to no power. The mass immigration also did them no favor as they were found easy to replace. In order to fight against these unjust acts, laborers would join labor unions in order to protest; however during the time of 1875 and 1900, the labor unions were not that effective. Although they had their efforts, many did utilize the advantages in which were available to them. There were many reasons for the movements initial downfall; they suffered failed strikes resulting from rash violence, unbalanced power between employers and employees, and the absence of government.

During this period a lot of child were working to support their families at a young age. The modern teacher at the time thought that it was a “youth’s requirements for normal mental and muscular development” These educators acted as though industrial work did not harm children. While working child only spent a short amount in school, which is important. This shows that state laws on child labor were inadequate. A social reformer spoke about the crippling effects of child labor.(Doc C)

by the 1800 the average workday was 11.4 hours worker became very tired and more likely to get hurt on the job or work accidents mine factory machines had rapidly and there was kids working in there and they were not fit to do that and they would often get hurt. or they would get hurt all the time because of lack of sleep. they would be dozing off and fall and get hurt.

The first downside to working in a factory in the 1800’s is the outrageous hours that men, women, and children have to work. They can work up to fifteen hours in a day, and many workers fought for a full day of work to be considered ten hours at most. This problem in the industry affected every worker physically, because if a worker got very few hours of sleep, then the next day his work ethic would not be at his full potential. That could then cause their boss to fire them, and hire another man who is stronger and more willing to work. An incident like that happened to Jurgis. He worked so hard to keep his family fed, then he had to take time off of work due to an injury. (Sinclair 116) When he tried to come back to work, they replaced him

A bunch of research has shed light on how early some children during this time period started working in the Victorian Era.  Some children started working as early as a mere eight and a half years old to twelve years old, working in factories, repairing machine equipment that was tedious or required small hands to fix, cleaning factory floors or chimneys or working in mines (Humphries 1).  The machines that children were working on were dangerous and often resulted in injury due to no safety features on them.  The kids working on them had to be careful or they could very well lose a finger or hand, which would lead to them losing their job (Cunnington).

In the late 19th century the relationship of the workers and owners were kind of terrible. Reasons being that they had to work a very long and hard day, that resulted in a low amount of pay. They couldn’t afford to stay in a steady apartment or a home and after their rent, there were very few dollars left to buy other necessities.

However, with the rapid rise of Industrial Revolution, a class between the peasants and the nobles emerged. Industrial Revolution, according to Eagleton and Manolopoulou (2008), “saw the creation of a middle class that enjoyed the benefits of the new prosperity” (p. 3). These new social classes included the upper class, the middle class, and the working class. Collingwood (1993) found out that the social consequences of Industrial Revolution were far reaching and varied across both class and regions.

The Factory Act, 1833 was an attempt to set up a normal working day in

During the industrialization it created three classes. The upper class was made up factory owners. Many of them spent their money on big homes, with many rooms. They also arranged marriages for their families’ members. The working middle class were for the most part people from farms that moved to the city to

One class that was growing each day was the Middle Class. These citizens lived in suitable conditions and many own smaller but vast businesses like tailor shops. The multiple of businesses lead to the increase of job opportunities. These opportunities to jobs is what helped the middle class grow during this period.

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were full of evolving social and economic ideas. These views of the social structure of urban society came about through the development of ideas taken from the past revolutions. As the Industrial Revolution progressed through out the world, so did the gap between the class structures. The development of a capitalist society was a very favorable goal for the upper class. By using advanced methods of production introduced by the Industrial Revolution, they were able to earn a substantial surplus by ruling the middle class. Thus, maintaining their present class of life, while the middle class was exploited and degraded. At this time in history, social