When the industrial revolution came to America there was a rush of rural Americans to the cities with hopes of a better life and the all mighty dollar. Instead, what greeted them were long work hours with low wages, malnourishment, starvation and poor living conditions. These self transplanted American men were tough, to survive these conditions and raise their families only to end up having to put their wives and children to work. Through the pain, suffering and anxiety of mind and body was born a country that leads the world in industry.
Rumors of a better life and more money in the cities drifted through rural America causing many men to pack up their families and move them, in order to capitalize on these so called opportunities. Men worked hard dangerous work in factories, textile mills, railroads, building bridges and canals. Not only the men worked, women were forced to work as well.
English: Watt's steam engine at the lobby of the H...
Created by the previous uploader using a popular O...
United StatesThey became chamber maids, cooks, and caretakers of children. Some families were even forced to enter their children into the labor force, taking away their childhood forcing them to adulthood well before their time.
Today people complain because they may have to work a couple of hours of overtime, or work with out some office supplies like tape or a stapler. The laborers of the industrialization period of our country suffered such terrible conditions in steel mills as extreme heat and long hours without overtime pay. Textile mills were proverbial sweat shops with female workers sometimes literally being chained to their work stations until quotas had been met. Coal mines were nothing more than death and disease traps that killed many men as well as children. Safety equipment at all work sites was practically non existent, items like respirators, safety glasses and hard hats had not...