FREE ESSAY ON AMERICA IN THE 19TH CENTURY

AMERICA IN THE 19TH CENTURY

In colonial America, most manufacturing was done by hand in the home. Some was done in
workshops attached to the home. As towns grew into cities, the demand for manufactured
goods increased. Some workshop owners began hiring helpers to increase production.
Relations between the employer and helper were generally harmonious. They worked side by
side, had the same interests and similar political views.
The factory system that began around 1800 brought great changes. The employer no longer
worked beside his employees. He became an executive and a merchant who rarely saw his
workers. He was concerned less with their welfare than with the cost of their labor. Many
workers were angry about the changes brought by the factory system. In the past, they had
taken great pride in their handicraft skills; now machines did practically all the work,
and they were reduced to the status of common laborers. In bad times they could lose
their jobs. Then workers who would accept lower wages might replace them. To skilled
craft workers, the Industrial Revolution meant degradation rather than progress.
The Industrial Revolution was dawning in the United States. At Lowell, Massachusetts, the
construction of many mills and factories began in the early 1800's. Factory owners were
in desperate need of workers, and as most jobs in these factories required neither great
strength nor special skills. In turn the owners thought women could do the work as well
as or better than men. In addition, they were more compliant. The New England region was
home to many young, single farm girls who might be recruited. The only thing that
hindered many from working was the belief that sooner or later factory workers would be
exploited and would sink into hopeless poverty. Economic "laws" would force them to work
harder and harder for less and less pay. 
Factory workers were able to persuade the women to work by building decent houses for
them to live and "adult supervision" to look after them. They were encouraged to go to
church, to read, to write and to attend lectures. They saved part of their earnings to
help their families at home or to use when thy got married.
Faced with growing competition, factory owners began to decrease wages in order to lower
the cost-and the price-of finished products. They increased the number of machines that
each girl had to operate. In addition, they began to overcrowd the houses in which the
girls lived. All of this to save as much money as they could. This caused many to leave
and others to hold protests or strikes.
As the factory system grew, many workers began to form labor unions to protect their
interests. Labor's tactics in those early times were simple. Members of a union would
agree on the wages they thought were fair. They pledged to stop working for employers who
would not pay that amount. They also sought to compel employers to hire only union
members. 
In the next few decades, unions campaigned for a 10-hour long working day and against
child labor. Meanwhile trade unions were joining together in cities to form federations.
A number of skilled trades organized national unions to try to improve their wages and
working conditions. The efforts brought about many strikes and protests.
It was a fact; things were changing in America. Some people liked it and others felt they
were going to be "thrown out" and de-skilled. Unions and protests proved to be successful
in many cases but nothing could change the fact that this nation was involving to "one
large factory."