Life in Industrial America
By: Ashrith , Josh , Chloe Moino, Kyle, Conner, and Vik
Food and Nutrition
Meat and Fruit
Solid food during the 1800s would not be fit for human consumption today.
In order to transport meat, cows would travel on trains and sometime would become so weary that they were prodded with poles to stay standing.
The bad cuts of the meat went to the poorer people and were often decayed.
- Fruit was outlawed by the NY City council after the cholera epidemic of 1832.
Milk and Butter
The “suspicious looking fluid bearing the name of milk” was often diluted and filled with things such as molasses, chalk, or plaster to give it the white color.
The cows were usually fed either garbage or leftover distillery mash which led to the production of Swill Milk which sometimes made infants tipsy.
A pound of butter normally cost 19 cents a pound but the butter was often rancid and was “either a mixture of casein and water or of calcium, gypsum, gelatin fat and mashed potatoes.”
- Sometimes, bleach was mixed into the butter to give it a real butter appearance
Nutrition for Children
The children usually ate rotten and discarded food from groceries and restaurants.
- Children got so used to eating the decaying food from the garbage that would refuse to eat good quality food when offered.
Eating Habits
The normal way of eating during this time period was to eat as quickly as possible so that they could not actually taste the food itself.
Restaurant waiters would bring all of the food to the table at once and the customer would eat very quickly so their next course would not get cold.
Drinking
Alcoholism grew as “the per capita consumption of alcohol [rose] from 8 gallon in 1878 to 17 gallons in 1898, reaching… the staggering total of 1.25 billion gallons.”
Alcohol was often prefered over water because it was normally cleaner.
It was not uncommon for children to become alcoholic because “liquor and beer was sold to anyone tall enough to hook his chin over the counter.”
- Saloons would offer free lunches and made the food extremely salty to sell more alcohol.
Housing
Urbana, Illinois boasted more hogs in the city than people, Oink oink!
Cellar Dwellers: “slums of the period were 25-35% higher than the apartments in fashionable uptown New York.
Some churches even had ownership in parts of the slums
“Victorians seldom bathed”
Nearly 40 percent of Americans lived in urbanized areas by 1900, as opposed to 20 percent in 1860.
Immigrants moved to tenant buildings. These new city dwellers lived in tenement buildings where the entire family would live together in tiny one-room apartments and sharing a single bathroom with other families on the floor. Tenements generally were filthy, poorly ventilated, and poorly lit, making them a hospitable environment for rats and disease.
- Reformers: Hull House and Jane Addams, a college-educated woman who founded the house in one of Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods. The Hull House provided counseling, day-care services, and adult education classes to help local immigrants.
Work
Conditions
Accompanied by constant danger
Destroyed immune systems--exposure to infernal heat and poisonous gas, along with gruelling work/hours
Usually extremely hot working rooms, 117 degrees F
Maximum of $1.25 a day
- In railroad industry: 1 out of every 306 killed, 1 out of every 30 injured (yearly total of 2,451 deaths, 41,142 injured)
Child Labor
Widespread practice encouraged by the industry, agreed to by parents, generally ignored by the government
Made about $1.50 to $2.50 a week
12-14 hour long days
Same conditions as adult workers, for the most part
- 1870 census: 700,000 child workers
Sweatshops
The ‘Garment Industry’
Mainly worked by newly arrived immigrants
Center of the industry located in New York’s Lower East Side
Jobs include seaming, pressing and delivering new garments to a wholesaler
Common to find whole families working through the night--one man could not support a family on his income alone working in a sweatshop
- Bread and tea were the diet of these workers--“who has time to eat?”
Strikes
Workers were angry about bad working conditions, hungry families, and wage reductions
Between 1881 and 1900, 2,378 different strikes occurred involving six million workers
For the most part, strikes were calamitous to worker’s cause
Great Railroad Strike of 1877; ten percent cut in all wages
The Pullman Strike; Pullman introduced five reductions in wages in six months, caused anger in the employees
- The Homestead Steel Strike of 1892; generated by Henry Clay Frick: more than twenty died in the uprising
Health
Disease
Doctors
Mentally ill
Families were so ashamed of their mentally ill siblings they hid them from society
They were not given heat or cold in asylums because “they don't need any heat, they have no feelings”
Their cells were 8 feet by 10 feet, a size that generally required them to stay on fours all day
Restraints were put on many of them to keep the costs of maintaining them down
- The mentally ill sat in cells all day with no form of entertainment, for their entire lives.
Work
Strikes
Between 1881 and 1900, 2378 labor strikes were organized with more than 6 million workers; however these strikes were harmful to the workers.
The Pullman Strike was a result of 5 wage cuts with almost 30% of the wages lost, the strike failed.
Authorities despised strikes and disliked the workers who caused it .
These strikes did nothing but increase protection of the factories and added more police.
Conditions and Accidents
Workers were paid a maximum of $1.25 an hour and had 7 day workweeks.
They were in constant danger and had their health destroyed throughout the years.
Dangers included sawdust from factories and stone dust from quarries and the toxic emanations in chemical plant along with the coal dust from the mines.
In the railroad industry in the 1890’s 1 of every 306 was killed and 1 out of 30 was injured.
This resulted in 2451 deaths along with 41,142 injured.
Men were not compensated for their injuries and wages were reduced.
Children and Sweatshops
Children were a bargain at $1.50-$2.50 a week and were treated horrendously enduring long hours and sleepless nights.
Many parents were sending their children to work to ease their burden and some children suprisingly wanted to work and assist their parents.
Sweatshops were of the most dangerous industries.
A newcomer is payed $5 and then sucked in to a cycle where he must work long hours to even feed himself. Soon his family must work to support themselves.
Girls worked at a rate of $3 to $5 which amounted to barely a loaf of bread and tea.
Technology
Machines took over the jobs of shoemakers and handworkers of metal.
Many workers were afraid of machines taking over their jobs and leaving them on the street.
However these machines in the end provided more work and opened up more industries.Crime
Crime Rates
At the end of the 18th century it was just not crime that was increasing , but poverty as well
Middle class people became alarmed at the increase in theft and rioting
Public disturbance occured quite often throughout the country
Riots and Disorder
The early and mid 19th century was a time of great social unrest. There were several movements for change that led to civil distubance, covering many areas of the county.
- Chartist movement was made . Who wanted Equal Electorial Districts . Who wanted Abolition of the property qualifications for M.P.s (allowing working class men as well as the rich to stand for parliament)Universal Manhood Suffrage (votes for all men over 21)Annual Parliaments Vote by Ballot (a secret vote would stop bribed buying votes)The payment of M.P.s (making it easier for working class men as well as the rich to stand for parliament)
Prison
There were also many juvenile criminals that “learn no art but to steal.”
Kids were also placed in jails where there were all other older criminals. “upwards of 10,000 young persons were arrested, clubbed, handcuffed, and jostled around… without having committed any crime.
- Offences went up from 5,000 per year in 1800 to about 20,000 in 1840 .