7 – Appalling Working Conditions
Many of us have worked for an overbearing and unpleasant manager in a crappy job with irritating colleagues. Yet even this combination is nothing compared to what the average 19th-century worker had to contend with. No matter how much you hate your job, it’s likely the risk of mutilation or death is fairly low. Alas, this was not the case back then, especially as industrial America grew.
In the United States, working conditions in factories were much worse than in Europe. The American System of Manufactures was developed, and this method of mass production involved the use of a semi-skilled labor force using gigantic, poorly maintained machines. Companies were allowed to get away with it because of a lack of regulation; health and safety wasn’t a big thing in industrial age America. Moreover, if a company could prove any kind of employee negligence in an accident, they got away scot free.
To be fair, several groups of workers were not prepared to take it lying down. A famous strike was organized by the Lowell Mill Girls, a group of women who worked in a textiles factory in Lowell, Massachusetts. They demanded better working conditions and went on strike in 1834 and 1836. While they gained concessions the second time, conditions worsened the following year.
Before the Industrial Revolution, work was often seasonal and limited to daylight hours. When factory owners realized they could keep their companies running for longer, they forced staff to work crazy long hours. In the 19th century, it was normal for a factory worker to spend up to 16 hours a day at their machine, 6 days a week. When working so many hours, tiredness is normal, but one mistake could have been fatal. It was not unusual for an employee at a factory to get his clothing caught on machinery and get mangled to death.