Industrial Age

African Americans in the Industrial Age

For most of the Industrial Age, slavery was a large foundation for capital. During the Industrial Age, many white Americans were reluctant to free enslaved people due to the amount of income they got from their forced, unpaid labor. In the southern United States, enslaved people(s) that worked in American cotton fields provided about 60 percent of the world's cotton and about 70 percent of the cotton used by British textile companies. The money earned from American cotton farms was one of the foundations of the American Industrial Revolution. 

Review Sources:

1. Differences Between Wealthy, Middle Class and Poor in the Industrial Revolution.

2. Slavery, coerced labour, and the development of industrial capitalism in Britain.

3. Slavery and the British Industrial Revolution

4. Historical Context: Was Slavery the Engine of American Economic Growth?.

5. Atlantic Worlds: Enslavement and Resistance

Books: African Americans and the Industrial Revolution, by Joe William Trotter, Jr. 

Review Questions:

1. What were the working conditions like for enslaved people?
2. Why were people reluctant to free their slaves?
3. Where did the cotton collected go?
4. What was slavery’s role in the Industrial Revolution?
5. Why were economies so reliant on enslaved people?

Women in the Industrial Age

The Industrial Age was a time period where the rich grew richer while the poor worked long hours in horrible conditions for very little income. The rich were looking for ways to pay workers even less and decided women were a great option because they were seen as being compliant and unlikely to strike. Women began moving from their country life to the city where they would work in places like New England's Lowell Mills. Here, they would work for around $3.00 a week, which attracted many country women who couldn’t make that kind of money on their family farms. When the company began to require 10 hours a day for the same wage, women started to go on strike. When their demands weren’t met many women moved back to their family farms, got married, moved west in search of better work, or used their new experiences to start their own business. 

Review Sources:

1. Industrial Revolution: Women

2. The Role of Women in the Industrial Revolution

3. Women and Children during the Industrial Revolution

4. Women in the Workforce

5. Accidents and Negligence

6. The history of women’s work and wages and how it has created success for us all

7. Women and the Early Industrial Revolution in the United States

Books: Changing Roles Changing lives, by Ben Hubbard

Review Questions:

1. Why did the Lowell Mills girls go on strike?
2. What were the reasons companies began wanting to hire women?
3. Were there risks to factory life? If so, what?
4. How many hours did Lowell Mills girls work a week? How much money did they get paid?
5. Why did many women quit factory life?