American History Chapter 6: The Expansion of American Industry III. Industrialization and Workers

Bellringer Students, write down the words and phrases that you associate with the idea of work. Then circle all the positive words and phrases on their list What do you know about child labor in the US in the late 1800s? Are children permitted to work in this country today? Do other countries in the world permit child labor? Quote page 243

A) The Growing Work Force Most of the new work force is immigrants Farmers moved to the cities

B) Factory Work 10 -12 hour work day – 6 days a week piecework: those who worked the fastest and produced the most pieces earned the most money Sweatshops – place where employees worked long hours at low wages with poor working conditions Frederick Winslow Taylor studied workers to improve efficiency – meant more work less pay and layoffs because it did work

a) The Division of Labor Division of labor – workers performed only one small task, over and over – efficient but boring

b) The Work Environment Discipline was strict – fined for being late – talking – or refusing to do a task Not safe – fatigue, bad equipment, careless training – no shortage of labor though Jacob Riis – wrote Children of the Poor, gave a very accurate and critical look of children workers – helped stop this practice

C) Working Families Children helped feed the family Left school at 12 Mothers left children with family Illness or accident meant 6 year olds had to work Unemployment insurance did not exist Social Darwinist believed that poverty resulted from personal weakness – unemployment money would encourage idleness.

Review What factors led to a growing American work force between 1860 and 1900? What was factory work like at the turn of the century? Why was it necessary for entire families to work?