1. Chapter 14 section2 notes
How were conditions in factories in the 1840s worse than those in the 1820s?
• Steam-powered factories of the 1840s and 1850s were larger than the mills of the early 1800s. The new
factories changed the way work was done and the way workers lived and worked.
• Mass production changed the way workers felt about their jobs. In the past, artisans, or skilled workers,
were proud of what they made. With mass production, factory owners were interested in how much the
factory produced, not how well it was done. Workers could not be creative.
• Artisans often owned and managed their own businesses. Factory workers were unlikely to rise to
manage a business.
• Often, entire families labored in factories, including children. They worked long hours—from 4 A.M.
until 7:30 P.M.
• Factory workers faced discomfort and danger. Few factories had windows or heating systems. Factory
machines had no safety devices. There were no laws regulating factory conditions.
What did factory workers hope to accomplish by joining together?
• Poor working conditions and low wages led workers to organize. In the 1820s and 1830s, artisans in
each trade formed trade unions.
• The unions called for a shorter workday, higher wages, and better working conditions.
• Sometimes, unions went on strike, that is, they refused to work until their demands were met.
Slowly, workers made progress.
• In 1840, President Van Buren approved a ten-hour workday for government employees.
• Artisans won better pay, but unskilled workers made little progress.
• Women Workers organized, too.
New England textile workers protested wage cuts and unfair work rules.
• Women workers staged strikes at Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1830s.
• The Lowell Female Labor Reform Association petitioned the state legislature for a ten-hour workday
Who were the new immigrants in the mid-1800s?
• By the late 1800s, many factory workers were new immigrants.
• Many immigrants came from Great Britain seeking to earn higher wages.
• Between 1845 and 1860, over 1.5 million Irish immigrated to the United States. A disease had destroyed
Ireland’s potato crop, leading to a famine, or severe food shortage. Thousands died of starvation and
disease. Others fled to the United States.
• Between 1848 and 1860, nearly a million Germans arrived in the United States. Revolutions had broken
out in many parts of Germany. People left Germany to avoid the violence.
How were free African Americans treated in the North?