Sunday, November 17, 2013

Chapter 18

The transformation from working in a workshop to a factory was really hard for some to adjust to. Before the time of factories products were created by artisans who spent all their time on just one shoe and it was a form of art to them. With the change to factories products were created by anyone and now jobs were separated between multiple workers who each made a different part of the product. As time progressed factories filled with more and more unskilled workers such as women and children because they were okay with being paid less than other skilled workers. Working conditions in factories were also horrible. In the railroad industry 2,000 were killed during this time and 20,000 were injured. In the coal mining industry, workers often became infected with the black lung disease. Immigrants did not mind to work in these conditions because they were more desperate for work than others.
In these factories management was very manipulative. Many factories supplied housing for workers so that if they stopped working they would be evicted and homeless, so they thought this was a way of keeping them from leaving. Your color of skin determined where in Europe you were from and how you should be treated.

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