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people who work for wages in factories, mills, mines, and other businesses, usually performing manual labor.
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| the practice of using children as manual labor. Many business owners employed children because they would work for less money, they were too young to understand what fair work was, and they were small enough to fit between large machines if they needed to adjust something. They had to endure long working hours, dangerous and unsanitary working conditions, very little wages and many died from disease and accidents (esp. in factories and mines) |
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| During the time after the Civil War and before WW1, the US underwent exponential industrial growth. With the increase in coal and steal production, new opportunities arose including transportation (railways and steam boats), factories populated much of the north east and powered machines made production much more efficient. Cities attacted people from all over the nation, people in rural areas were keen to experience the busy city life and the opportunities it provided for them. Industrialization played a key role in the growth of the economy and allowed for much more international trading. |
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| American Federation of Labor (AFL) |
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| working class people started to come together to form labor unions (group of workers organized to protect the interests of its members with 3 primary goals in mind: higher wages, shorter hours, and better working conditions.) The AFL was one of the labor unions that was founded in 1886 and became the only major national labor organization in the 1890s. It protected only skilled workers (so not working on farms and plantations but more likely in industrial places like factories) and the union focused on higher wages and shorter workdays. |
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| Took place in 1886 in Chicago; laborers were rioting against the scabs (people who are brought in to replace workers on strike) because they took the jobs of the union workers who had gone on strike. A group of anarchists (people against the government) called for a meeting in the square- more than 1,000 people showed up including the mayor. 180 Chicago police broke up the riot, somebody threw a bomb into the police and the police began to open fire against the crowed killing people. The Haymerket Affair divided and confused the labor movement |
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| (1892) This stike involved steel workers and took place in Homestead, PA. Andrew Carnagie was in charge and he hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to protect the steel plant. When Pinkerton arrived the strikers were armed and ready- PA governor called the local malitia and strikers fled.This resulted in the union being shut out of the plant for four decades. |
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| in 1894 at Pullman Place Car Company, railways workers went on strike after Pullman cut wages. This made the members shut down the plant and President Cleveland sent in federal troops to break up the strike because it interfered with federal laws. This incident weaked the labor movement. |
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