Finding Jobs, Finding Problems
Migrants and Immigrants
in the Auto Industry, 1900-1935
Part I: Finding Jobs
An Urbanization Story
• Henry Ford was only
sixteen when he emigrated
from his family’s farm in
Dearborn, Michigan to
Detroit, in 1879.
• There he worked as an
apprentice machinist for 3
years.
• For the next 9 years, he
repaired farm implements,
worked on his family’s farm,
and occasionally worked in
Detroit factories.
First Official Ford Motor Company Portrait of
Henry Ford, 1904
From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
ID#THF36449
An Urbanization Story
• Henry Ford migrated to the
city permanently in 1891.
• He went on to provide jobs
in Detroit factories for
millions of people, many of
whom, like him, grew up on
farms.
Crowd of Applicants outside Highland
Park Plant after Five Dollar Day
Announcement, January 1914
From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
ID#THF4402
Define:
Migration
Emigration
Urbanization
Another Urbanization Story
• Read Byron Moore’s
urbanization story.
Byron Moore, Head of Ford Rouge Plant
Aircraft Engine Inspection and Repair,
1943
From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
ID#THF68290.
Farm Life at the Turn of the
20th Century
• Farm work was hard
labor and lasted from
sunup to sundown.
• The tasks farmers had
to complete were
different from day to
day, and season to
season.
• Most people working on
family farms owned the
operation and were
their own bosses.
Some were extra
workers hired if the
family could afford it.
Hay Wagon Coming up from a Meadow,
Flushing, NY, circa 1900
From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
ID#THF38312
Farm Life is Changing…
Pushes From the Farm
• Mechanization and
technology save labor
on the farm BUT…
• Now there is less
work in rural areas.
• There are not jobs in
rural areas when
children grow up.
Fordson Tractor, 1917, Used by Luther
Burbank
From the Collections of The Henry
Ford. ID# THF72058
Factories are Changing…
Pulls to the City
• Luckily for them,
mechanization and
technology has also
created new jobs in
the city in factories
and industries.
• If these people come
work in factories, they
have jobs and
Gas-Steam Engine, 1916, Used to Generate
manufacturers have
Electricity at Highland Park Plant
employees.
From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
ID# THF52667
From South to North
• The southern United
States, being primarily
agricultural,
experienced this pull
from the more
industrialized North’s
cities.
• Both African Americans
and whites migrated
from the rural South to
the urban North.
Mattox House in Greenfield Village. Built
about 1880 in Bryan County, Georgia.
From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
ID# THF70905
Immigration
• Prior to the Civil War, most immigrants to
America were from Western Europe.
• In the decades after the Civil War and into the
twentieth century, more immigrants were from
Southern and Eastern Europe.
Define:
Immigration
More Workers
• Immigrants were pushed by mechanization of
agriculture and pulled by manufacturing jobs.
• Travel across the Atlantic in the steerage
section of large passenger ships was made
possible and cheaper by the technology of
steam power.
• Through letters home, immigrants encouraged
family and friends to come join them.
More Workers
• Workers coming from
places within the United
States still weren’t
enough labor to produce
the number of
automobiles Ford’s
customers demanded .
• Learn where Ford Motor
Company workers came
from in the document
“Language and
Citizenship of Ford Motor
Company Employees,
According to Nationality,
as of January 12th,
1917.”
From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
ID#THF68283
Part II: Finding Problems
Nature of Work
• When you work on a group project, do you prefer doing
one small part of the project or helping plan and work on
the project from beginning to end?
• Do you watch the clock while you’re in school, waiting for
the day to end? Do you think you would do the same
thing if you were working instead of learning?
• Do you do better work when you are allowed to complete
it independently or when you are closely supervised?
For example, think about in-class work time versus
homework or think about chores at home.
Influence of workers’ prior experiences:
Changing Nature of Work
with Industrialization
Farm
• Involved in almost all
aspects of farm work
• Task focused
• Most workers are
independent
Crops at Firestone Farm in Greenfield Village.
From the Collections of The Henry Ford. ID# THF53081
Influence of workers’ prior experiences:
Changing Nature of Work
with Industrialization
Factory
• Completes small step
in a long process
• Time focused
• Supervised by a
foreman
Time Clock, made 1916-1925, and Used
by the Shelby Division of Copperweld
From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
ID# THF72059
Nature of Work
• Letter from wife of a Ford
factory worker
Letter to Henry Ford from the Wife of an Assembly
Line Worker, 1914
From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
ID#THF32100
Influence of workers’ language
Language Barriers
• For student-workers: What was it like to not be
able to communicate while you worked? Was
it hard to learn your task? Did you feel you
were doing as well as you would have had
you been able to communicate?
• For supervisor: What was it like to not be able
to communicate with your workers?
• For observers: How did you notice the
language barrier affecting the assembly of the
planes?
Immigration Restrictions
• Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 – banned Chinese
immigration to U.S.
• Basic Naturalization Act (1906) - made speaking
English a requirement for citizenship.
• Emergency Quota Act of 1921 – set quotas per
country for immigrants to US, favoring those from
northern and western Europe, limiting those from
southern and eastern Europe, and altogether banning
those from Asia. Movement to and from Mexico, and
Central and South America was quite free.
Permanent quota system finalized in 1924.
Influence of workers’ race:
The Great Migration
• In addition to being
pushed from the rural
South by a lack of jobs,
African Americans were
also pushed by racism
and a lack of education
opportunities for their
children.
• The movement of African
Americans from the
South to the Northeast,
Midwest, and West is
known as the Great
Migration.
Mattox House in Greenfield Village. Built
about 1880 in Bryan County, Georgia.
From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
ID# THF70905
Why Families Left Home
Source: Forrester B. Washington.
The Negro in Detroit. 1920
Opportunities for AfricanAmerican Workers at Ford
Motor Company
•Ford Motor Company
was largest employer in
Detroit of African
Americans
•In 1919, Ford Motor
Company employed 1700
African-American
workers, 3% of its total
workforce
Workers in Ford Rouge Plant Cyanide
Foundry, 1931
Source: Forrester B. Washington.
The Negro in Detroit. 1920
From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
ID#THF68318
Life for African-American
Workers
•Foundries had some of the
largest percentages of AfricanAmerican employees in Detroit.
•Some businesses limited AfricanAmericans to janitorial and the
most unskilled jobs.
•Some companies segregated
their facilities.
•Blacks not allowed to join social
organizations within many
workplaces
Workers at the Ford Motor Company
Rouge Plant Foundry, 1935
From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
ID#THF68318
Other Problems for
African-American Migrants
•
•
•
•
Rent profiteering
Terrible housing conditions
Overcrowding
Tension between native-Detroiter and
native-Southern African Americans
Immigrant and Migrant
Worker Problems Summary
Problems Faced by
Migrants from Rural US
Problems Faced by
African American
Migrants
Problems Faced by
Immigrants
Immigrant and Migrant
Worker Problems Summary
Problems Faced by
Migrants from Rural US
Changed Nature of
Work
New language
Discrimination
New culture
Problems Faced by
African American Migrants
Problems Faced by
Immigrants