1. Factory Life
Dangerous
Machinery
Monotony
Dirty
Cramped spaces

2. Factory Work Piecework Most piecework was performed in a sweatshop
Workers received a fixed amount for each finished piece
Most piecework was performed in a sweatshop
—a shop where employees worked long hours at low wages and under poor working conditions.
Increased worker productivity and changed the relationship between the worker and the product created.

3. Factory Work-Assembly Line
Factory workers performed one small part of production repeatedly and often never saw the finished product.
This division of labor into separate tasks was more efficient but took the pride and joy out of work.
The Division of Labor
Some owners viewed workers as parts of the machinery.
Unlike smaller and older businesses, most owners never interacted with workers.

4. Work Environment Workers worked by the clock.
Could be fired for being late, talking, or refusing to do a task.
Workplaces were not always safe.
Children often performed unsafe work and worked in dangerously unhealthy conditions.

5. Child Labor Young children Long hours Poor treatment
Dangerous conditions

6. Working families
Children made up more than 5% of the industrial labor force.
Children often left school at the age of 12 or 13 to work.
Girls sometimes took factory jobs so that their brothers could stay in school.
If an adult became too ill to work, children as young as 6 or 7 had to work.

7. Working Families
Rarely did the government provide public assistance, and unemployment insurance didn’t exist.
The theory of Social Darwinism held that poverty resulted from personal weakness.
Many thought that offering relief to the unemployed would encourage idleness.

8. Young women in the textile mills of Massachusetts died at an average age of 26, constantly inhaling cotton dust, working long hours in unventilated rooms lit by oil lamps

9. Life in Factory Towns Rapid Population Growth Cramped Tenements
Poor Sanitation
Pollution

10. Housing
Tenement = a substandard, multi-family dwelling, usually old and occupied by the poor
Built cheaply
Multiple stories
No running water
No toilet
Sewer down the middle of street
Trash thrown out into street
Crowded (5+ people living in one room)
Breeding grounds for diseases
Pollution from factory smoke

11. Large Gaps between Rich & Poor
The “HAVE-NOTS”
The Poor, The Over-Worked,
and the Destitute
The “HAVES”
Bourgeois Life Thrived on the Luxuries of the Industrial Revolution

12. Gaps between Rich & Poor
In 1890, the richest 9% of Americans had nearly 75 % of the national wealth.
The average worker earned only a few hundred dollars a year.
Many workers resented the extravagant lifestyles of many factory owners.
Some workers became politically active. A few were drawn to the idea of socialism—an economic and political philosophy that favors public instead of private control of property and income.
Socialists believe that society at large, not just private individuals, should control a nation’s wealth.
That wealth, they say, should be distributed equally to everyone.

13. Factories and Factory Towns
Where employees worked
Major change from cottage industry
Had to leave home to work (travel to cities)
Working in a factory
No safety codes = dangerous work for all
Poor factory conditions (e.g., no heat or a/c, dirty, smelly, cramped)
Long workdays (12-14 hours)
Little pay (men compete with women and children for wages)
Child labor = kept costs of production low and profits high
Mind-numbing monotony (doing the same thing all day every day)
Owners of mines and factories exercised control over lives of laborers
Life in factory towns
Towns grew up around factories and coal mines
Pollution, poor sanitation, no health codes = sickness
Rapid population growth
Poor lived in crowded tiny rooms in tenements (multistory buildings divided into apartments)

14. Rise of Labor Unions
Encouraged worker-organized strikes to demand increased wages and improved working conditions
Lobbied for laws to improve the lives of workers, including women and children
Wanted workers’ rights and collective bargaining between labor and management

15. Reaction of Employers
Many employers disliked and feared unions. Some took steps to stop unions, such as:
forbidding union meetings
firing union organizers
forcing new employees to sign “yellow dog” contracts, making them promise never to join a union or participate in a strike
refusing to bargain collectively when strikes did occur
refusing to recognize unions as their workers’ legitimate representatives

16. Positive Effects Increased world productivity Growth of railroads
More money = more technology/inventions
New inventions improved quality of life for many
Labor eventually organized (unions) to improve working conditions
Laws were enacted to enforce health and safety codes in cities and factories
New opportunities for women
Rise of the middle class – size, power, and wealth expanded
Social structure becomes more flexible

17. Negative Effects Child labor used in factories & mines
Miserable (dirty, cramped) and dangerous (fingers, limbs, & lives lost) working conditions
Monotonous work with heavy, noisy, repetitive machinery
Long working hours – six days a week, with little pay
Diseases such as pneumonia & tuberculosis spread through factories
Labor unrest leads to demonstrations (sometimes violent)
Strikes take place
Women were paid less than men (were actually preferred)
Tenement housing was poorly constructed, crowded, and cold
Human and industrial waste contaminated water supplies – typhoid and cholera spread

18. Not Necessarily Good or Bad
The location of work places changed as more goods were produced away from the home environment (towns/factories)
Educational systems emphasized more science, technology, and business
A global economy began to emerge (trade)

19. Children of the Industrial Revolution
Video:
(Documentary 9:58)

20. Effects of the Industrial Revolution Writing Prompt Reflection
Select two effects of the Industrial Revolution that you believe were the most significant
ONE positive effect and ONE negative effect)
Write 3-4 paragraphs
Explain the impact of each effect on the following concepts, economy, immigrant, society as a whole