Seamstresses were familiar figures in early 19th-century American cities, filling the needs of an expanding garment industry. Working at home, they stitched bundles of pre-cut fabric into clothing worn by Southern slaves, Western miners, and New England gentlemen. Dressmakers were responsible for producing an entire garment and could earn a decent wage. Seamstresses, however, were poorly compensated for work that was both physically demanding and unpredictable. Paid by the piece, seamstresses worked 16 hours a day during the busiest seasons, but their income was barely enough to survive off of. Making matters worse, shop owners were notorious for finding fault with the finished garments and withholding payment. Seamstresses often relied on charity for their own and their families' survival.

In many cities, recent immigrants converted small apartments into contract shops that doubled as living quarters. Fierce competition among contractors for work coupled with immigrants desperate need for employment kept wages low and working hours high. As miserable as this work was, it provided many new immigrants a transition into American society and a more prosperous future for themselves and their families. Some immigrants began working in small shops, eventually owning large clothing firms. Others succumbed to disease, malnutrition, and exhaustion, and never found the path from tenement sweatshop to a better life.

Sweatshop production came out of hibernation in the late 1960s. A combination of forces at home and abroad contributed to their reappearance: changes in the retail industry a growing global economy increased reliance on contracting a large pool of immigrant labor in the U.S. The focus of public, government, and media concern remains centered on problems in the apparel industry, although, as in the past, sweatshops continue to be found in a variety of industries.

In the United States, sweatshops produce garments for the domestic market, primarily items that require short delivery times. These clothes are often indistinguishable from garments produced in legal shops and can be found in stores ranging from discount houses to fashionable boutiques. Foreign sweatshops are harder to define. Widely varying standards of pay and workers' rights make it difficult to compare practices in the United States with other countries. Demand for reform has lead to many initiatives from government, unions, public interest groups and the industry itself.