Wednesday, October 31, 2007
In the early to mid 1800s, America expanded immensely. This was due to the improvements in industrialization and transportation. The US had a huge boom in factories in the 1820s and 30s. America started producing its own goods using mass-production methods with machines and workers, including women and children. Most of these factories were in the East, and the West was in an agricultural boom. This was caused by a major improvement in Americas transportation system. The US spent millions of dollars to build interstate highways, canals, and other ways of transit in the early 1800s. Factories in the East would produce algricultural machinery and other goods, and it would be sent West most likely via steamboat in canals and rivers. The farmers in the West would send their crops and livestock East. This helped the economies of both area greatly, and advanced America's economy as a whole. From this point on, towns and cities started popping up everywhere in America and becoming more populous. This is a sign that America was changing and people's lives were becoming more interconnected. Do you think more industrializtion caused better transportation, or the other way around?
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Wage Workers and the Labor Movement
The Industrial Revolution changed the nature of work by giving employees minor control over their working conditions. Wageworkers such as carpenters, stonecutters, and cabinentmakers had specialized skills and worried about their increasing length of their workday. Their employers demanded even longer days during the summer and in result 600 carpenters went on strike in Boston. Although this strike failed, carpenters in Philadelphia won a similar strike and founded the Working Men's Party, which wanted the abolition of banks, equal taxation, and universal public education.
Artisans such as shoesmakers, printers, furniture makers, and weavers, were in danger of unemployment due to industrialization in factories. The new industrial system divided the artisan class into self-employed craftsmen and wage-earning workers. Wage earners merged together to form unions to protest for better working conditions and higher pay. Union leaders proposed a labor theory of value which stated that the price of a good should reflect the labor required to make it and most of the money should go to the producer. Women were equally as active in protesting better wages. By the 1850's, machines produced more and more goods, and the need for employees decreased prompting employers to lay off workers.
Artisans such as shoesmakers, printers, furniture makers, and weavers, were in danger of unemployment due to industrialization in factories. The new industrial system divided the artisan class into self-employed craftsmen and wage-earning workers. Wage earners merged together to form unions to protest for better working conditions and higher pay. Union leaders proposed a labor theory of value which stated that the price of a good should reflect the labor required to make it and most of the money should go to the producer. Women were equally as active in protesting better wages. By the 1850's, machines produced more and more goods, and the need for employees decreased prompting employers to lay off workers.
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