Industrialization And Capitalism During 19th Century America

During the late 1800s, many Americans worked at jobs that required little or no real skill. These jobs were tedious and boring because they did the same task every day for however long they worked. Their work day included long hours and was often six to seven days each week. These workers were not only working for low wages and long hours, they were working at jobs that involved extremely unsafe working conditions. Workers were becoming angry at their employers and the competition for the available jobs was increasing with the consistent growth of the areas surrounding the factories and the steady stream of immigrants made filling these unskilled jobs, at ridiculously low wages, and in extremely unsafe conditions relatively simple for the rising

By the ending of the 19th Century, the qualities of industrialization of the United States were visually obvious. It had become a wealthy, powerful, and important nation, an inspiration among the other countries of the world. But there was a large price to pay for this growth which involved human suffering, and it was only beginning to be realized at that point. The Working conditions during this time were often inhumane; immigrant families engaged in cigar manufacturing, and they lived and worked in overcrowded, foul-smelling tenements. Factories and mines were designed with very minimal concern for worker’s health and safety. Workers worked extremely hard for hours at the bare minimum of wages, and they lacked practically any compensation

In 1850 a new economic system rose in America, Industrial Capitalism. The rise of Industrial Capitalism brought many Changes to America. Cities and transportation, such as automobiles and railroads, become popular during this time. The three social classes became distinct during this time. The benefits of Industrial Capitalism were increase in production, because the creation of the assembly line. More jobs were created and high salaries for workers. This all created a more controlled economy. Despite the Benefits, there were many problems that came with Industrial Capitalism. The biggest problems were social class inequality and that people were unhappy. There were many groups in the next 100 years that would try to solve these problems; Progressives

In the first half of the 19th Century the working class in the newly industrializing American society suffered many forms of exploitation. The working class of the mid-nineteenth century, with constant oppression by the capitalist and by the division between class, race, and ethnicity, made it difficult to form solidarity. After years of oppression and exploitation by the ruling class, the working class struck back and briefly paralyzed American commerce. The strike, which only lasted a few weeks, was the spark needed to ignite a national revolt by the working class with the most violent labor upheavals of the century.

Being an industrial worker in the late 19th-century in America was not a simple life. Even at the best times the pay was small and the time spent at work was long in dangerous conditions. Most of the money derived in America went to the actual workforce. Women and children suffered the most however, making up the majority of the workers and only receiving a small percentage of what a man could make. Different periods of economic crises tokk the nation by storm, also breaking down the amount of wages from industrial work and increasing the total population of the unemployed.

Between the years 1870-1900, Americans began to respond to the effects fostered by these corporations. From urban factory workers to rural farmers, Americans began to organize against these big businesses. With mass industrialization, more job’s were made available to women, these jobs were often in factories with terrible conditions, sweatshops. There was a sameness about working in mass production factories. Thus, working in these modern mass production factories created a homogenous environment that diminished individualism and the need for skilled workers. (Doc. C) Strikers were common during this era, workers participated in strikes and joined labor unions, such as The American Federation of Labor and the Knights of Labor, due to the terrible working conditions. The American Federation of Labor, headed by Samuel Gompers, was specifically for skilled workers and argued for better wages and a reduction in working hours. (Doc. G) Although urban workers were greatly impacted by the growth of these corporations, they were not the ones. Farmers, suffered

The late 1800’s were a time in American history where the country saw tremendous economic growth. Big businesses ran the country and even held power over the government. According to Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, the government took bribes from business leaders. These bribes allowed the big businesses to take advantage of workers. Laborers at the time we faced with extremely long work hours and very little pay. In hopes of reversing their luck, many workers took to strikes and riots to get what they wanted. However, the big business friendly government put an end to many of these occurrences. Due to the fact that America was run by a government bribed by big business, workers received low wages as well as unhealthy

The 19th century was a time of huge industrial growth. Industrial giants like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller used monopoly expansion practices called vertical and horizontal integration to take over the business world. Both of these practices involved taking control of supplies and other companies. This included buying family-run farms, businesses, and other traditional income sources, which meant many americans couldn’t support their families anymore. This caused unemployment, and then an increase in dangerous and underpaid factory jobs, which led to the inventions of processes like the Bessemer steel process or the assembly line, made to speed up production and increase revenue. Factories, sweatshops, and other labor jobs were flooded with men, women, and children, all trying to support their families. As the majority of americans worked night and day, moving paycheck to paycheck, the Carnegies and Rockefellers

Because there were many immigrants coming to America during the Gilded Age, there was an abundant amount of labor. There were so many people in America at the time that there were more workers than there were jobs. Since there were more people than jobs, many companies would pay workers lower wages. The wages that were given were so low many people could barely survive or live comfortably. Because it was a struggle for families to survive from parent’s income alone, many children had to work. Depending on the company, some children were paid little to no money for their services. In addition to low wages, companies made people work longer days which could range from ten to twelve hours a day with minimum to no off days. The significant increase of people coming to America led business owners to abuse the labor they had for their companies.

There are five important things that every American citizen needs to know about the time period from 1877 to 1917:

The United States of America is vastly known to be the land of opportunity, but it is difficult to convey how accurate this proved to be in the case for all minorities in the 1880’s and especially the early 1900’s. The Industrialization era (1880’s - 1900’s) brought about many “improvements” for society at the time. These improvements took various forms from influencing the American populace to work harder, to more technological advances such as: assembly lines, steel, urbanization, monopolies, and even exploitation, although it is morally inappropriate. With all of the “improvements” listed, Industrialization also brought about many drawbacks and discriminants, which mainly affected the lower half of the social pyramid or the proletariat class.

The rapid industrialization during the late nineteenth century imposed a greater need for countries to expand their economy via global commerce. Moreover, in the United States, the harsh economic realities of the Panic of 1893 encouraged Americans to look for new conduits to stabilize the economy beyond its borders. Consequently, leaders and thinkers in a country rich with isolationist traditions of avoiding permanent or entangling alliance embraced sympathetic views toward engagement in global commerce. For example, McKnight Nichols presented a diverse group of isolationist figures, Senators, Henry Cabot Lodge and William Borah, a noted philosopher and psychologist, William James, a progressive writer,

In the 17th Century there was a high level of competition for land and power between the European countries because the more land a country colonized the more money it could make off of that land. Britain colonized America in order to provide themselves with raw materials and in effect made agriculture dominant in America’s economy rather than industry. Without industry, the colonists were forced to import the majority of their goods from Britain instead of from domestic production (Reef 1). After the American Revolution, America was independent from Britain both politically and economically and Americans began to feel the pressure to industrialize in order to keep up with the demands of Americans and to compete with Britain (Peskin 1;

During the industrialization era there were 3 people who stood out among the rest of the depression stricken America. 1 of these 3 exceptional individuals was the creative mastermind behind the steel enterprise that became one of the most successful companies in American History, Andrew Carnegie. Another was the caring Jane Addams who helped thousands of people get through difficult times in her famous Hull House. The last was considered to be the wealthiest American of all time by virtually every source, the leader of the booming oil business, John D. Rockefeller. These 3 helped shape America into what it is today by the way that they responded to economic and social problems created by industrialization during the Nineteenth century.

America has been expanding and growing since its birth out of Great Britain. The Industrial Revolution has been an influence in the American life since it first in the 1700s. “Most families did not have enough to sell at the market- they had just enough for their own needs.” Up until the factories started booming and employment rates skyrocketed, people really couldn’t become wealthy and live a decent life. As the ways of farming grew the English at the time began to use up more and more land efficiently. “Unusable swamplands could be drained and used for crops.” That’s absolutely amazing that in this era they could turn swamps into areas to raise more crops so they can naturally make more money at the markets and become a bit wealthier. Farming is one of the most important lively hoods of mankind; no matter what argument anyone tries to make. If we didn’t have farming and agricultural production we wouldn’t have all the different sorts of food products we do, nor would they be as abundant. Life would be like it was before the Industrial Revolution came about and most of us would still be growing our own food and barely scraping by in life. With all this agricultural expansion of the time population in England start expanding drastically as well. Thanks to population growth people started to worry more about new inventions and producing stuff for us to make our day to day lives easier than we could have ever before. With all the technological advancements leading up to