U.S. History
Fort Burrows
14.2 -- Life in the North
Read Pgs 413 – 417
Main Idea:
Industry in the North changed with the arrival of new immigrants and the
efforts of factory workers to improve their working conditions.
Vocabulary:
artisans - skilled worker
trade unions - association of trade workers formed to gain higher wages and
better working conditions
strike - refusal by workers to do their jobs until their demands are met
famine - severe food shortage
nativist - person who wanted to limit immigration and preserve the US for
native-born, white citizens
Know-Nothing Party - political party of the1850s that was anti-Catholic
and anti-immigrant
discrimination - policy or attitude that denies equal rights to certain groups of
people
Setting the Scene:
Alzina Parsons never forgot her thirteenth birthday. The day began as usual,
with work in the local spinning mill. Suddenly, Alzina cried out. She had caught her
hand in the spinning machine, badly mangling her fingers. The foreman summoned
the factory doctor. He cut off one of the injured fingers and sent the girl back to work.
Twenty years earlier, such an incident probably would not have occurred.
Factory work was hard, but mill owners treated workers like human beings. By the
1840’s, however, there was an oversupply of workers. Many factory owners treated
workers like machines.
Factory Conditions Become Worse
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§
Factories were very different from mills
Factories were larger, employees worked longer hours and were paid less
Employees usually lived very close to the factories
A Change in Values
 Mass production verses artisans
 Quantity verses Quality
 Artisans could own their own business
 Factory workers rarely rose to management positions
§ Families in Factories
 Entire families worked in the factory; Mom, Dad, and ALL the kids
 Work would begin as early as 4:00am and not end until as late as 7:30pm
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U.S. History
Fort Burrows
§ Hazards at Work
 Few windows – no fresh air to circulate
 No heating systems; extreme cold winters
 No air conditioning; not yet invented
 No laws regulating factory conditions; many accidents and injuries
Workers Join Together
§ Trade Unions and Strikes
 1st workers to organize in a union were the artisans
 1820s artisans united to form trade unions
 Demanding shorter work days, more $$ money, better working conditions
(more chicken in their lunch soup)
 If the company refused, they would strike
 Some strikes were considered illegal by law
 Employers could just fire the striking employees and hire new workers
§ Progress for Artisans
 1840, President Van Buren approved a 10-hour work day for gov’t employees
 1842, Massachusetts courts declared their strike LEGAL
 Artisans received higher wages due to their skills
 Common, unskilled workers were easily replaced
§ Women Workers Organize
 Women workers in New England textiles protested wages and unfair work
rules
 Women earned less $$ than men workers
 They were not welcome in the unions
 1840, Lowell’s Girls form a female union
 Sarah Bagley organized the Lowell Female Labor Reform
A New Wave of Immigrants
 1840 to 1850, 4 million immigrants came to the United States
 Many, ironically, came from Great Britain; their skills as machinist, as carpenters
and as miners allowed them to earn higher wages in the US compared to GB
§ From Ireland and Germany
 1840, a disease destroyed the POTATO crop in Ireland
 Potatoes were the main food source of the poor people
 Ireland was under British rule; most Irish crops ( wheat and oats ) were
exported to England
 This caused a famine; thousands died from starvation
 1845 to 1860, 1.5 million Irish fled to the United States
 Harsh weather in Germany between 1829 and 1830 resulted in a severe food
shortage
 By 1832, 10,000 Germans came to the US
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Fort Burrows
 1848, Germany was in a revolution; the revolt failed
 Between 1848 and 1860 about 1 million Germans immigrated to the US
§ Enriching the Nation
 Immigrants supplied much needed labor in the US; this helped the US
economy GROW!!!
 Many Irish settled in the Northern cities; they worked in low-paying
factories, built new canals and railroads
 German immigrants came to US with money and bought farmland in the
West
 Towns like St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Cincinnati had German grocers,
butchers, and bakers
 German Jews began immigrating to US in 1820s
 By 1860, there were about 150 communities with large Jewish populations
¿¿ What social and economical contributions did Irish and German immigrants make
to the United States ?
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§ A Reaction Against Immigrants
 Nativists wanted to preserve the US, natural-born, white Protestant people
 Their motto, “Americans must rule America”
 Limit immigration, increase the pre-set time you must live in US from 5 years
to 21 years before you could gain voting rights
 ‘Newcomers stole our jobs’ and They’re Catholic!!!!
 As they grew in numbers, nativists formed a political party,
Know-Nothing Party
(when ask any question the members would reply, ‘I know nothing’)
 In 1856 Presidential election, their candidate won 21% of the popular vote
 Soon after, the Know Nothing Party died away
 Many Americans blamed the countries problems on immigrants
African Americans in the North
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During the early years, slavery was legal in the North
By the early 1800s, all Northern states declared slavery illegal
As a results of this, many free African Americans lived in the North
The first known Africans to arrive in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, landed in
1645 at a wharf near what in now Prescott Park. For the next 350 years, African
Americans, both enslaved and free, would be part of this seacoast town
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Fort Burrows
§ Denied Equal Rights
 Being ‘free’ does not equal ‘rights’
 Blacks could not – vote, serve on juries, be elected to office, etc.
 White workers seemed very prejudice against even skilled black workers;
they would not work in the same shops with freedmen
 Immigrants created competition for the ‘bottom’, low-pay jobs
§ Some Success
 William Whipper was the exception; he was a wealthy lumber-yard owner in
Pennsylvania
 Whipper devoted much time and money toward ending slavery
 Henry Boyd was a successful furniture store owner in Cincinnati
 Henry Blair invented a corn planter and a cottonseed planter
 1845, Macon Allen became the 1st black licensed lawyer in the US
 John Russwurm became the editor of the 1st African American newspaper
¿¿ What was life like for African Americans in the North ?
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1. Between 1840 and1860, the number of European immigrants entering the United
States…
A.
B.
C.
D.
steadily increased
steadily declined
dramatically increased and then returned to previous levels
remained about the same
2. How were conditions in the 1840s worse than those in the 1820s ?
1__________________________________
2._________________________________
3._________________________________
3. What did factory workers hope to accomplish by joining together ?
1__________________________________
2._________________________________
3._________________________________
4. Who were the new immigrants in the mid-1800s ?
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5. How were free African Americans treated in the North ?
1__________________________________
2._________________________________
3._________________________________
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