II. Life in the North A. Factory Conditions Become Worse 1. The emphasis on mass production changed the way workers felt about their jobs. a) Before the growth of factories, skilled workers, or artisans, were proud of the goods they made. b) Factory owners were more interested in quantity than quality. c) Workers could not be creative. d) Factory workers were unlikely to rise to a management position. 2. As the need for workers increased, entire families labored in factories.

II. Life in the North B. Workers Join Together a) A family might agree to a one year contract to work in a factory, and if one member would break it the entire family could be fired. 3. The factory whistle would sound at 4AM, the whole family headed off to work including children, and would work until 7:30PM. 4. Factory workers faced discomforts and dangers. a) Most factories had no windows and poor heating systems. b) Machines did not have safety devices and accidents were common. B. Workers Join Together

II. Life in the North 1. In the 1820s and 1830s, artisans in each trade united to form trade unions. a) The unions called for a shorter workday, higher wages, and better working conditions. b) Sometimes unions went on strike, an organized work stoppage, to gain their demands. 2. At the time, strikes were illegal and workers sometimes were fined or sent to jail. a) Strike leaders were often fired. 3. In 1840, President Van Buren declared a 10 workday for government employees.

II. Life in the North a) In 1842, a MA court declared that workers had the right to strike. 4. Artisans slowly received better pay because factory owners needed their skills. a) Unskilled workers did not fare as well since they could be replaced easily. 5. Women textile workers in New England also organized. a) Women faced special problems like unequal pay compared to men, women were not welcome in unions, and union leaders believed wives should be at home. b) Several strikes were held in Lowell, MA, where Sarah Bagley organized the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association.

II. Life in the North C. A New Wave of Immigrants 1. In the 1840s, a disease destroyed the potato crop in Ireland, which was the main food of the poor people. a) At the time, Ireland was under British rule and all of the wheat and oats farmed in Ireland were still shipped to Britain. b) Ireland experienced a famine, or a severe food shortage. c) Between 1845 and 1860, over 1.5 million Irish decided to emigrate to the United States. 2. Many Germans decided to emigrate to the United States.

II. Life in the North a) Harsh weather conditions in Germany led to food shortages. b) Failed revolutions in Germany also made people flee to the United States. c) By 1860, over 1 million Germans had emigrated to the United States. 3. Immigrants supplied much of the labor that helped the nation’s economy grow. a) Irish settled in big cities working as low paid factory workers, while others worked on canals, railroads, or as housemaids. b) Germans often had the money to move out west and buy good farmland. c) Some Germans worked as artisans in Midwestern cities.

II. Life in the North 4. A small segment of German immigrants were Jewish. a) By the early 1860s, there were about 150 communities in the United States with large Jewish populations. 5. Not everyone welcomed the flood of immigrants. a) One group called nativists, wanted to preserve the country for native-born, white citizens. b) They called for laws to limit immigration. c) They also wanted to limit immigrants from voting. 6. Some nativists protested that immigrants stole jobs away from Americans because they worked for lower wages.

II. Life in the North a) Nativists complained that immigrants helped factory owners break up strikes. b) Nativists also didn’t like Irish because they were Catholic. 7. By the 1850s, hostilities to immigrants was so strong that nativists formed a new political party. a) Members of the party were anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant. b) The party was called the Know-Nothing Party because members answered, “I know nothing,” when asked about the party. c) After 1856, the party soon died out, but that didn’t stop the country blaming immigrants for its problems.

II. Life in the North D. African Americans in the North 1. Free African Americans in the North faced discrimination, or a policy or attitude that denies certain rights to a particular group of people. 2. Even skilled African Americans had trouble finding good jobs. 3. Some African Americans achieved notable success in business. a) William Whipper = lumberyard in PA b) Henry Boyd = furniture company in Cincinatti.

II. Life in the North 4. African Americans made strides in other areas as well. a) Henry Blair = corn planter and a cottonseed planter. b) In 1845, Macon Allen became the first African American in the United States to practice law. c) Bowdoin College (ME) Graduate, John Rossworm, became one of the editors of Freedom’s Journal, the first African American newspaper.