Industrial Revolution In America And How It Affected Its Jobs

The Beginnings of the Industrial Revolution

The industrial revolution is where instead of making things by hand. People made factories to pay people to make items faster than they would have if they did it by hand. The industrial revolution first happened in Britain around 1760. That’s how they became such big global powers. But over time the revolution would spread throughout Europe in the 18th century.

The Industrial Revolution in America

So in America, it started in 1790 and the factories were based on models. Samuel Salter was the first man to open a factory in America. The factories were located in the north and around the cities. Where the people would hire women and children because they were cheap labor. The father of the women who worked would be nervous that men would try to get with their daughters. So the factory owners made buildings for them to sleep, eat and socialize with other people. The women would be supervised all the time and when they would have ten-minute breaks every 4 to 6 hours. But the factory owners have started to see that there are more immigrants in America from different countries. There were the Irish who came because they had a potato famine in Ireland and then the Germans but they aren’t really called Germans because Germany would not have been created yet. But they came because other countries would fight their battles in that territory. But they saw that the immigrants needed a job and they didn’t know the job wages in America. So they could be paid less than women and children.

The working and living conditions

When all of these people started to move toward the city there were some issues. Like over-crowned which made the cities unsanitary and polluted. There were feces all over the streets and it stunk up the whole city. Also, some families would have to live in one small room which is unsafe. But also in the factory the workers never got time off for vacations and also the big machines that the workers used were difficult to use and some of the workers had no experience with those machines. So they would lose fingers and arms while using the machines. But the building itself was unsafe too it didn’t have good lighting so they couldn’t see and if a little spark could cause the building to catch fire or there could be an explosion. But when the children would work it was super unsafe because they were used to fit in small dangerous places. Some of the children were killed and got sick from the nasty areas around the factories. Then the factories didn’t have heating in the winter it was freezing and in the summer it was super hot.