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Sweatshops In US History

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Theodore Roosevelt took over as U.S. President at a time when the United States was in need of change. The issues I found most interesting in the videos are racism, rich industrialist rule of the country, construction of the Panama Canal, and the coal miners’ strike. I found it interesting that the videos portrayed Roosevelt as a progressive; I had always thought of him being a bit radical. I also did not know that many of his enemies thought him to be a bigot. According to the video, he justified his opinion of Afro Americans by saying that they were useful, important people; blacks were not as high on the social scale as whites. I found his invitation to Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House a contradiction to his being a bigot. …show more content…

History books and it is sad to think that they are part of our history. In the readings, it is sadder to learn that sweatshops are still in existence in places like New York and Los Angeles. One cannot help but compare the immigrant worker of the industrial era to the undocumented worker today. Both have a desperate need for jobs and have no recourse but to endure the conditions. I have always thought that the owners managed their own sweatshops; I did not know the managers were given a set amount of money to operate, hire, and pay the workers. This method of operation gave the managers too much opportunity for abuse. The managers ran the operation on a very small budget and kept the rest of the money for themselves. Although it was quite gruesome, the description of the workers trying to escape the fire was the most interesting part of the reading. I could not help but compare the victims jumping out the windows of the factories to the victims of the twin towers on 9/11 also jumping out of windows to escape the flames. The newspaper article in The Chicago Sunday Tribune is so descriptive, one can visualize a pile of bodies on the ground and the man pushing the women one by one out the window, thinking there were nets below to catch them. One can also visualize the workers trying to open the door to the stairwell that would have allowed them to escape the fire, the door that was locked by management to keep anyone from stealing. The descriptions of the law students helping the workers escape and the employee found alive on top of the dead bodies are so vivid. I viewed all the photos; they show the crowded, dark conditions in the factories. There were more men employed in these factories than what I expected. I found the editorial cartoons to be very good; they each made a strong point, such as who would be held accountable for the deaths of the victims. I found the entire assignment, readings, photos, and cartoons, very

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