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Immigration in America in the 20th century
Immigration in America in the 20th century
Abstract apa essay immigration in america early 20th century
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How the Triangle Fire Changed America
In the early twentieth century, it wasn’t uncommon for new immigrants to work in factories scattered amongst the upper east coast. Many of these immigrants were young women from overseas in hopes of obtaining any job they could get, to provide for their families back in Europe and surrounding areas. As hard as it was to merely travel and gain entrance into the country, young immigrant women had the added hardship of locating a relatively safe home and a stable job, which would provide for them as well as their families. A job at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory might have originally seemed like a fulfilled wish, but the actions of careless employers continually neglecting safety regulations and workers’
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In order to maintain a high profit, however, the workers would have to be paid heinously low wages. Factories comprised mostly of the female gender, usually seated the women lower on the pay scale than their male counterparts. In order to keep their jobs, these ladies were forced to work inconvenient and long hours in facilities that were overcrowded, even though the pay was completely unfair. Though many of these workers were oblivious to the atrocious exploitation they were going through (language gaps being one factor), a few groups of workers realized how unfairly they were being treated, especially as women workers. Leaders, like Clara Lemlich, headed female workers coalitions against the big companies they worked for. Groups such as the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) formed to push back against the oppressive bosses. The Triangle factory’s bosses, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris were notorious for unfairly recording the true hours in which the employees work. The book states, “[Workers] were constantly shortchanged on their pay and mocked when they complained; the owners shaved minutes off each end of the lunch hour and even “fixed” the time clocks to stretch the workday,” (7) to give an example of how
In the late nineteenth century, many European immigrants traveled to the United States in search of a better life and good fortune. The unskilled industries of the Eastern United States eagerly employed these men who were willing to work long hours for low wages just to earn their food and board. Among the most heavily recruiting industries were the railroads and the steel mills of Western Pennsylvania. Particularly in the steel mills, the working conditions for these immigrants were very dangerous. Many men lost their lives to these giant steel-making machines. The immigrants suffered the most and also worked the most hours for the least amount of money. Living conditions were also poor, and often these immigrants would barely have enough money and time to do anything but work, eat, and sleep. There was also a continuous struggle between the workers and the owners of the mills, the capitalists. The capitalists were a very small, elite group of rich men who held most of the wealth in their industries. Strikes broke out often, some ending in violence and death. Many workers had no political freedom or even a voice in the company that employed them. However, through all of these hardships, the immigrants continued their struggle for a better life.
Often, children were forced to work due to money-related issues, and the conditions they worked in were terrible. Children worked in coal mining, such as at Woodward Coal Mining in Kingston, Pennsylvania (Doc. 7). Children were used to make the process of producing products cheaper, and they were paid low wages; the capitalists hired children just to keep the process of making products going and to make profit. One cause of child labor in harsh conditions was the unfateful fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City in 1911. Teenaged immigrant girls that were employed there worked under sweatshop-like conditions. The building they worked in was inadequately equipped in case of a fire, for the doors were locked, leaving no exit for the girls, and the single fire escape collapsed with the rescue effort; as a result, when the fire started, they were unable to escape. 145 workers were killed, but the company owners were not penalized harshly for this tragedy. This further demonstrates that capitalists were able to get away with the harsh conditions that they put their laborers, especially child laborers, through for their own benefit, which is making more money and using any means to get it, even if those means are low wages and harsh working
The articles by Meika Loe and Charlie LeDuff both exhibit how working conditions for women and minorities post-Industrial Revolution United States has not changed. Though some of what was happening at Bazooms was not the same as the slaughterhouse, both had do deal with verbal abuse, considered to be the lowest common denominator in the workplace, and fearing for your job. In today’s society, such affairs still happen within the workplace. People are viewed based on their gender or race and not their actual work ethic. Those who are illegal aliens get exploited for their status and get scrutinized for the wages being lowered since, they have little to no power cannot challenge authority. The women at Bazooms are degraded not only with the managers, but also the customers; however they can challenge authority.
Two of the major parts in the history of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire were the owners of the factory, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris. Like many other factory owners, both of the men immigrated to the U.S. during the great wave of Jewish emigration. They ran shops in which they barely knew their employees (as the turnover rate was high). During the trial the two owners even noted that they had no idea how many women were working in their shops as “day to day, new faces always arriving, old faces gone without ever catching their attention” (p. 273). They were solely concerned with production and were staunchly against laborer rebellion and negotiation. Blank and Harris hired strikebreakers and men to assault strikers and bribed police (p. 4). As a response to union action, the men eventually formed their own in-house union; the workers, of course, were dissatisfied with this establishment as unions run by factory owners are logically working against the interest of the workers (not to mention the leaders of the union were relatives of either owner) (p.
The social and economic developments of the last quarter of the nineteenth century drastically changed the United States. The business world changed once industrialization was introduced to the world. Opportunities grew as people heard about the boundless American opportunities. Immigrants from all races flooded the cities which doubled in population from 1860-1900 (Barnes and Bowles, 2014, p. 34). However, as industries grew, owners prospered off the hard work of others. People started to feel they were not being treated fairly. People had to work harder and longer for their money. Barnes and Bowles (2014) noted “In the era of industrialization, millions of workers fought to simply have the right to work in safe conditions, and earn a fair wage” (p. 45). Many Americans feared that giant corporations would one day seek to restrict the ability of common people to get ahead and curtail individual freedoms. These fears were particularly strong among farmers, laborers, an...
...rked as unskilled laborers in the new factories. Most were poor, disgruntled, and found that America was not what they had expected when they left their native countries. The city bosses provided aid to these immigrants and then gained their political support. They unfairly took advantages of the immigrants to gain power, which helped them to gain the money they were seeking. The immigrants had a difficult life because most of them were crowded into ghettos and slums. They received low wages and faced dangerous and unhealthy working conditions daily. Concentration increased and living quarter size proportionately decreased. The immigrants experienced poor sanitation and contagious diseases and most did not have any plumbing or ventilation. They had a difficult and sad life, and many were more happy in their oppressive homelands than industrialized America.
The early 1900s was a time of many movements, from the cities to the rural farms; people were uniting for various causes. One of the most widespread was the labor movement, which affected people far and wide. Conditions in the nation’s workplaces were notoriously poor, but New York City fostered the worst. Factories had started out in the city’s tenements, which were extremely cramped, poorly ventilated, and thoroughly unsanitary. With the advent of skyscrapers, factories were moved out of the tenements and into slightly larger buildings, which still had terrible conditions. Workers were forced to work long hours (around 12 hours long) six hours a day, often for extremely low pay. The pay was also extremely lower for women, who made up a large portion of the shirtwaist industry. If a worker were to openly contest an employer’s rule, they would be promptly fired and replaced immediately. Also, strength in numbers did not always work. Managers often hired brutal strikebreakers to shut movements down. The local police and justice were often of no help to the workers, even when women were being beaten. At the time, the workers needs were not taken seriously and profit was placed ahead of human life. This was not just a struggle for workers’ rights; it was also a movement for the working class’ freedom.
The Industrial Era enabled wealth, prosperity, and advancement in American society. But behind the wealth of a few, the new skyscrapers lining big cities, and the influx of new people, the Industrial Era possessed many dark underbellies, such as labor. Factory owners and industry giants treated their employees poorly, and subjected them to long hours, crowded workspace, and dangerous conditions. This is best exemplified in the New York City’s Triangle factory fire. Often times the middle class reformers, the Progressives, are remembered for their work to ameliorate the working class. These supporters worked hard to cause change, but often the efforts of the factory workers themselves are forgotten. Political and economic change occurred because the poor gave the wealthy and educated people a cause and purpose to fight for. Without the original efforts of the rebellious
During this time, women had limited options as far as work was concerned. As time went on, more and more women were forced to work, because they had no husband and no other means of building up a dowry for a husband. By 1910 the wage labor force was made up of about 20% of women as young as fourteen. The wages these women earned were unbelievably low, and at times as much as 80% lower than the wages men earned. Possible job opportunities for the women included options such as a textile factory, which consisted of clothing and fabric production. In these factories, the women ran high risks to their health. More wealthy people would hire these women for domestic services such as nannies, or house servants. These jobs sometimes required the woman to live at that residence, and the women ran the constant risk of being molested by a higher-class ranking individual. Department stores were also willing to hire women. However, the set-back to this type of work was that the women were sometimes expected to purchase expensive dress up clothing that most of the time they couldn’t afford. The women were advised to “round out their meager salaries by finding a ‘”gentleman friend”’ to purchase clothing and pleasures”(Peiss, 79).
Turbulent times of a newly freed democracy bred a longing for civil liberties and birthed what would become equality for all. The United States of America, known for independence, has not always been balanced in its freedom. The labor movement in America was a significant step in developing equal opportunity. In the nation’s infancy, working conditions were abominable. Workers were underpaid, overworked, and abused. Women and children in the workforce were ubiquitous in certain industries, often earning far less than a man would. Countless laborers were injured or killed on the job, and there was no health insurance. If a worker was wounded while working, he or she would simply be replaced. As a result of the deplorable labor environment, unions
It is the worker’s condition that he truly focuses on. Many of the problems that people faced during this time include: tenement housing, poor working conditions, child labor, monopolies of business, social and political inequality, and most importantly people putting profits over lives. It is around the same time that a terrible fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. The unsafe working conditions made the employees escape nearly impossible.
Her early life and her experiences as a dress maker for the well-to-do might have ignited Mary Jones’ interest in the labor rights movement (Women). In her autobiography, Mary Jones states “I would look out of the plate glass windows and see the poor, shivering wretches, jobless and hungry, walking along the frozen lake front. The contrast of their condition with that of the tropical comfort of the people for whom I sewed was painful to me. My employers seemed neither to notice nor to care. (Jones)”
Young girls were not allowed to open the windows and had to breathe in the dust, deal with the nerve-racking noises of the machines all day, and were expected to continue work even if they 're suffering from a violent headache or toothache (Doc 2). The author of this report is in favor of employing young women since he claimed they seemed happy and they loved their machines so they polished them and tied ribbons on them, but he didn 't consider that they were implemented to make their awful situations more bearable. A woman who worked in both factory and field also stated she preferred working in the field rather than the factory because it was hard work but it never hurt her health (Doc 1), showing how dangerous it was to work in a factory with poor living conditions. Poor living conditions were common for nearly all workers, and similar to what the journalist saw, may have been overlooked due to everyone seeming
“The ‘Triangle’ company, “With blood this name will be written in the history of the American workers’ movement, and with feeling will this history recall the names of the strikers of this shop- of the crusaders” (Von Drehle 86). Even before it happen, the Forward predicted the terrible disaster of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory that occurred one year, one month, and seventeen days later (86). Triangle: The Fire that Changed America, by David Von Drehle tells the story of the horrible fire.
The findings of Maria Patricia Fernandez-Kelly’s study looking into the lives of female workers employed in ‘maquiladoras’ assembly plants on the Mexican-US border provides valuable insight into the social, economic and political tensions which arose between the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s during an unprecedented period of demographic expansion (P19). She presents an interesting illustration of unemployment, economic exploitation and social upheaval and explores how female workers survive and adapt in an extreme and perilous environment. By combining a thorough literature review with extensive field-research and private interviews, Fernandez-Kelly has been able to experience first-hand what she ultimately discusses and debates in the text.