1. Labor and Labor Organizations
By Prateek Patel & Duncan Trosan

2. Effects of the Industrial Revolution on
the labor force
• Because of the influx of factories less skill was required
to perform jobs the were once done by master
craftsmen.
• Because less skill was required workers were less
valuable and easily replaced.
• Factory owners could treat his employees badly and if
it led to a strike could hire new ones.
• Very little rights for common workers.
• Jobs also required less strength so children and women
also worked more.
• DT

3. Child Labor
Most children worked in factories or
mines. (DT)
Many children worked 12- 18 hours a
day and 6 days a week. They were hired
because they were a cheap work force,
not have to support family (low wages)
(DT)
In the 1st textile mill, created by the
mechanical skills of Samuel Slater, 7
boys and 2 girls were employed that
were under the age of 12.(PP)
Many teenage girls at the age of 15,16,
and 17 were employed to work in textile
mills or Lowell mills, they sewed cloth
in the factor mainly, because this was
called “women's work”. They worked
for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week and
earned an income of $2 a week. Once
married they went back home and most
stopped working. (PP)

4. Strikes and Unions
• (1806) Commonwealth vs. • (1842)Commonwealth v
Pullis Supreme Court case Hunt ruled that labor
strikers found guilty
unions were legal and had
• (1825) Boston Ship Carpenters the right to organize and
organize strike in Boston
strike.
against the 10 hour work day
•Nonunionized workers in
• (1835) In the Paterson Textile
Boston achieve an 8 hour
Mills, the child workers go on
work day.
strike in New Jersey for the 11
hour day, 6 days a week
DT

5. Women in the Labor Force Force
• Women were mostly employed as school teachers, nurses, or
assistants in the early 1800s, especially teachers. (DT)
• In the mid 1800s, many women started working in the textile
industry for half the money of their male counter parts. (DT)
• Until the mid 1800s, there were no labor laws for women.
(DT)
• In the mid 1800’s labor laws were passed to restrict women
labor such as limiting women to a maximum of 8 hours a day
and could not work between the hours of 6 A.M. and 8 P.M.
(DT) Women were mostly employed as Textile workers
because making clothes was still viewed as women’s work.
DT

6. Cheap Paying Immigrants
• A large wave of Irish and German
immigrants came into the United States,
due to the potato famine in Ireland, and
no united government in Germany.
• These Irish wanted to get settled into
the US and lived in the slums therefore
asked for less wages.
• Due to these asking for cheaper wages
they took over the work force and
caused there to be less labor for the
Americans because they asked for a
higher paying salary.
• The Irish held many jobs in the police
department & were seated by many
political machines and despite being
hated by Americans for their race and
culture, they created much labor for
themselves.
• This financially made many companies
grow, due to them spending less on
wages and much labor fell in the palms
of the Irish.
• The Germans financially helped create
many public schools which intact led to
many new jobs as teachers.
PP

7. Samuel Slater
• In England, they reached their
Industrial Revolution in 1750, and
they wanted to keep their secrets of
their mechanization to themselves.
• In the US, many bounties were
placed for any British workers, who
can tell them the secrets to the
British industrialization
• Slater was a 21 year old skilled
mechanic, who worked for England
was brought into America.
• He helped build the 1st textile mill
in the US and became known as
“The Father of the Factory System”
• This textile mill, was the
foundation to more labor in
factories to the north
PP

8. Cotton Gin Increasing Slave
Labor
• Eli Whitney invents this machine, for the southern
plantation owners in America, after seeing slaves
handpicking cotton fibers.
• This machine was used to pull fibers out of cotton
so they may be used.
• This increased slave labor so cotton can be grown
faster, as a result of the cotton gin.
• Cotton became the largest export crop along the
cotton belt, which was from South Carolina to
Texas.
PP

9. Interchangeable Parts
• Before this invention, everything was made by a skilled
craftsmith
• New machines now were made of standardized parts
and one just has to put the machine together.
• This was invented by Eli Whitney also like the cotton
gin.
• All assemblyline production comes from
interchangeable parts.
• This meant no more skilled craftsman use and now one
could pay less for wages and increase one companies
capitol, so more money can be saved.
• 1 individual= less valuable; any man can do the work
PP

10. Importance of Capitol
• To build a factory one needs capitols and workers
• One needs capitol to pay for the workers and to
purchase the machines needed to used in a
factory.
• In the south, who were concentrated in cotton
plantations, needed a high use of slave labor so
they lost all its capitol in slaves and due to this
they did not move into the factory business
unlike the northeast.
PP

11. Works Cited
• http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_oTMPOHf2qs/TlrnrNJ-
l4I/AAAAAAAADsk/TvV44LXD558/s1600/garment_workers_strike.jpg
• http://usw12003.com/printable/node/277
• http://www.lutins.org/labor.html
• A History of Women in America, Chapter 8
• http://frysingerreunion.org/uk/wales2062.jpg
• http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/ellis-island/cartoon-2.jpg
• http://www.friendsbalt.org/studentshowcase/middle/LearnAboutBaltimore/jonestown-
mw/Industrial%20Revolution%20Child%20Labor.jpg
• http://www.xtimeline.com/__UserPic_Large/86879/evt101207121101059.jpg
• The World Book Encyclopedia, 1988
• The American Pageant 13th Edition
• http://www.scfl.org/images/boilermakers.jpg